MartinT's BRZ

[BRZ-123 174]

My BRZ had its 40,000 mile service today and passed its first MOT.  Much more relaxed about the supercharger and 1st decat getting through the emissions testing now.

Nice one Martin. Did you go to Bulldog or Abbey? Did it need warming up etc or did it pass in 1 attempt?

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[MartinT 514]

Abbey Motorsport.  It passed first time, but they know to really warm up the 2nd cat before testing.

[MartinT 514]

This is the wheel tracking data from Abbey.  Nice job, and it does feel even more precise to drive.

[vanko25 70]

On 3/18/2020 at 11:09 PM, MartinT said:

Abbey Motorsport.  It passed first time, but they know to really warm up the 2nd cat before testing.

Hey Martin,

Was that with the OEM 2nd CAT or a hi flow one? 

 

Thanks! 

[MartinT 514]

 

 

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 Advanced issue found

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4 minutes ago, vanko25 said:

Was that with the OEM 2nd CAT or a hi flow one?

OEM 2nd cat.  I can't take chances with failing the MOT.

[vanko25 70]

Thanks. 

Good think that I kept my OEM second cat for MOT times. 

[MartinT 514]

On 3/5/2020 at 8:07 PM, MartinT said:

I've just got these installed today, in place of the Focal tweeters.  The mounting points are there (once you realise that they are a L/R pair - duh) and all you need are some plastic pop rivets of the kind that we all have a spare baggy of different sizes.  The grill makes them fit snugly against the top foam surrounding the drivers, too.

There was some soldering required as the connectors for them don't seem to exist - at least on UK BRZs.  They may have been a Toyota-only option?  I removed the connectors from the tweeters, cut the wires leading to the strange block connectors under the drivers and soldered the plugs onto the wires.  Ground (black) appears to be the smaller spade terminals.

The result is a much happier balance with fuller midrange and less tizz.  In fact, together with the Focal door drivers, they make remarkably good music.  I'm pretty happy with it.

Now to fully charge my almost dead battery

 

 

[MartinT 514]

Why does the forum do the above?  I can't seem to fix it.

[MartinT 514]

Sorted it in TapaTalk.

[BRZ-123 174]

On 4/8/2020 at 5:47 PM, MartinT said:

I've just got these installed today, in place of the Focal tweeters.  The mounting points are there (once you realise that they are a L/R pair - duh) and all you need are some plastic pop rivets of the kind that we all have a spare baggy of different sizes.  The grill makes them fit snugly against the top foam surrounding the drivers, too.

There was some soldering required as the connectors for them don't seem to exist - at least on UK BRZs.  They may have been a Toyota-only option?  I removed the connectors from the tweeters, cut the wires leading to the strange block connectors under the drivers and soldered the plugs onto the wires.  Ground (black) appears to be the smaller spade terminals.

The result is a much happier balance with fuller midrange and less tizz.  In fact, together with the Focal door drivers, they make remarkably good music.  I'm pretty happy with it.

Now to fully charge my almost dead battery

 

 

Interesting. Curious Martin, as to what made you attempt this - On reading it i assume the tweeters were powerful and driving more treble through which you could not balance out using the head unit equalizers and had to change speakers to reduce it?

[MartinT 514]

The Focal is a good kit, but without the top-dash midrange drivers you get a boom/tizz presentation without essential vocal clarity.  It's far better than the stock speakers but still not communicative enough.  Bass and treble fill out the frequency range but without good midrange you have a hole-in-the-middle effect.  I know from my 'big rig' at home that midrange clarity is the most essential component for communicating music.

Substituting the 3.5" midrange drivers in the top-dash position allows me to revert to an almost flat curve on the equaliser settings.  They also do treble pretty well so the balance is ideal.  For comparison, my big hi-fi system is totally flat - there are no equalisers or tone controls at all.  Reproduction has amazing clarity and power.

There is a mantra in hi-fi circles: without good midrange, any other attributes of a system are wasted as you will never have great music reproduction.

[BRZ-123 174]

The Focal is a good kit, but without the top-dash midrange drivers you get a boom/tizz presentation without essential vocal clarity.  It's far better than the stock speakers but still not communicative enough.  Bass and treble fill out the frequency range but without good midrange you have a hole-in-the-middle effect.  I know from my 'big rig' at home that midrange clarity is the most essential component for communicating music.
Substituting the 3.5" midrange drivers in the top-dash position allows me to revert to an almost flat curve on the equaliser settings.  They also do treble pretty well so the balance is ideal.  For comparison, my big hi-fi system is totally flat - there are no equalisers or tone controls at all.  Reproduction has amazing clarity and power.
There is a mantra in hi-fi circles: without good midrange, any other attributes of a system are wasted as you will never have great music reproduction.

Makes total sense. So did you add the mid range in addition to the tweeters in the same space on top of the dash or got rid of the tweeters altogether, as I understand. Ideal situation will be to have all 3 , door speakers for bass, tweeters and mid range speakers on top of dash for mid and high range. If that is possible, I am also interested and wanted to know the equivalent size and if wiring exists.

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[MartinT 514]

I could have kept the tweeters as there is physical space but I would have had to rig a Y cable and didn't have the connectors unless I soldered everything in place. It's do-able but tricky.

As it stands, there is plenty of treble from both the mid-range drivers and the Focals and the balance is to my liking.

I see you can get the mid-range drivers on eBay still. Make sure you get a L/R pair and be prepared for soldering whether or not you keep the tweeters.

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[willclarke 50]

I could have kept the tweeters as there is physical space but I would have had to rig a Y cable and didn't have the connectors unless I soldered everything in place. It's do-able but tricky.

As it stands, there is plenty of treble from both the mid-range drivers and the Focals and the balance is to my liking.

I see you can get the mid-range drivers on eBay still. Make sure you get a L/R pair and be prepared for soldering whether or not you keep the tweeters.

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Could you link to those?

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[MartinT 514]

1 hour ago, willclarke said:

Could you link to those?

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Here's a pair for sale, exactly like mine.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2019-SUBARU-BRZ-FRS-86-OEM-REAR-SPEAKERS-SPEAKER-SET-RH-LH-1K/113843899467?hash=item1a81a00c4b:g:dUcAAOSwpOpdSDFl

They're titled rear speakers but they're a dash pair - in fact, the same drivers are used for dash and rears except the latter are on extended brackets.

 

Another pair...

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2013-Subaru-Brz-Left-Right-Dashboard-Dash-Speaker-Tweeter-Pair-Factory-Oem-950/143398772104?epid=16035934049&hash=item21633b9d88:g:VIkAAOSwRl9dg6M~

[JohnM 25]

BRZ-123- The wiring doesnt exist for the dash speakers on a UK car but it is easy to wire a set in. Took about 30 minutes to route the wires behind the dash and down the centre console.

If you have an after market stereo then you can just run the wires behind the dash and wire them directly to the H/U as they normally have enough connections to do this. If like me you are keeping the OEM stereo then it wont be powerful enough to run those as well as the tweeters and 6.5" doors speakers, so its best to fact in an amp. Just adding that midrange makes a massive difference and you find that you dont need to have the volume up so high to hear the music.

 

[willclarke 50]

Here's a pair for sale, exactly like mine.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2019-SUBARU-BRZ-FRS-86-OEM-REAR-SPEAKERS-SPEAKER-SET-RH-LH-1K/113843899467?hash=item1a81a00c4b:g:dUcAAOSwpOpdSDFl
They're titled rear speakers but they're a dash pair - in fact, the same drivers are used for dash and rears except the latter are on extended brackets.
 
Another pair...
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2013-Subaru-Brz-Left-Right-Dashboard-Dash-Speaker-Tweeter-Pair-Factory-Oem-950/143398772104?epid=16035934049&hash=item21633b9d88:g:VIkAAOSwRl9dg6M~

Cheers for those, looks like they're both US. Do you know of any UK distributors?

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[MartinT 514]

Cheers for those, looks like they're both US. Do you know of any UK distributors?

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No, every search comes up on eBay US. It never bothers me where they come from, I just order and wait

It could be that no UK model of BRZ/86 ever had them.

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[MartinT 514]

Lack of use has taken its toll on my puny stock battery (48Ah Panasonic). It wouldn't crank the engine the other day so I charged it up and it started fine. However, a voltage check shows it to be just over 12V so it's knackered and there's no fully restoring it. I can't trust it for when I really need it.

I'm ordering a Yuasa 3000 60Ah replacement.

[Neil-h 29]

You might want to consider a charger/conditioner rather than a new battery. Mine refused to start the other day and when I stuck a meter on it I found the battery voltage wasn’t actually that though (11.5v) so it would appear the ECU kills the starter signal before th battery is low enough to cause other problems.

[MartinT 514]

I've had my eye on the battery for a while now.  A couple of times it's stuttered, on the edge of failing.  A healthy battery should read over 13V when not under load.  If yours reads 11.5V then it's knackered, too.

[Mike 458]

My reasonably new battery has never read over 13v with the car off... think the highest has been 12.7v and that's classed as fully charged etc

[BRZ-123 174]

The prices are using an online search but these are your options based on all the forum posts 

Yuasa YBX3014, 60Ah, 500A, 14.9Kg, dimensions 23.2*17.5*22.5 (£56.99)

Yuasa YBX7014 65Ah, 620A, 17.5Kg, dimensions 23.2*17.3*22.5 EFB Start Stop (£121.99)

Varta 70Ah,  630A, E24DIN570 413 063 , dimension 26.1 cm * 17.5 * 22  (£65.89)

069HankookMF57024, 70Ah, 540A,  17Kg, Dimension 26.6*17.2*22 , (£52.50)

Halfords Yuasa HSB072, silver 5000, 75Ah, 640A , 18.1 Kg, dimensions 26.9*17.4*22.5 (£129)

 Note when battery is facing us, Red terminal (+) to left is what you need to be careful about as most battery terminals are the other way round.

[MartinT 514]

Thanks. YBX3014 on its way to me. Should be an easy swap.

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[Neil-h 29]

6 hours ago, MartinT said:

I've had my eye on the battery for a while now.  A couple of times it's stuttered, on the edge of failing.  A healthy battery should read over 13V when not under load.  If yours reads 11.5V then it's knackered, too.

Nah, 11.5v should comfortably be recoverable. The charger I ordered turned up today, so fingers crossed. You really need to test the electrolyte to see what state the battery is in (either that or an open circuit test using a voltmeter).