I'll start off with my situation.
I am looking to get some better lower frequencies in my daily driver AU series 1 XR8.
I have a SONY WX-GT90BT headunit with stock (for now) ffont speakers and SONY XS-GT6938F 6*9s in the back (NOT easy to install)
I absolutely need all 5 seats and all available boot space as I use it often.

Is there any way to get better oomph out of my existing speakers without some stupidly huge 10" sub + box taking up half my boot?

i know just what ya mean! .. i'm same with a wagooon ...


so i'm just 'taggin' meself here, so i hear some ideas

do AUs have the 10" sub cut out on the parcel shelf like the Eseries?

If so, get a 10" shallow sub, like Pioneer had a while ago. Mount it on the parcel shelf and build a slimline enclosure under the parcel shelf.

EDIT: How are your 6x9s mounted?

Look for a Ghia and see if it it has an Air Sub mounted and the Amp. Probably not as good as a properly box sub but better than nothing and takes up almost no room.

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/FORD-1999-NU ... SwBahVQxWB

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/FORD-AU-FAIR ... Swo0JWJsCA

Out of BA but may be useful

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Ford-BA-BF-F ... SwLnlWnuyP

Hmm, it does. Maybe I was thinking of my old AU2, it didn't have it. Thanks, I'll look into it.

As to my 6*9's, I used a 2 inch carpeted spacer, only problem is I had to make my own holes and screwing it up is impossible without a slim ratchet + phillips #2 bit adaptor.

I'd like to come back to this topic.

I've bought a Fusion class d monoblock amp (model 4001-D, if I recall correctly) and a Kenwood (JVC) 8" single voice coil 4ohm shallow sub (never took notice of the model number)

To start with, I removed everything from the parcel shelf and installed the subwoofer using some insulating foam and 25mm, 5mm thread bolts which fit perfectly in the factory screw holes.
I'm wondering if four bolts are strong enough, or if I should drill out the parcel shelf to make use of the other four holes in the sub, totaling eight bolts.
For now, I think four will hold.

To go with the amp, I bought a wiring kit which included almost 30ft (9M) of shielded 8 gauge wire plus an additional 2ft of earthing wire (same gauge)
There was also a blue cable for auxillary power fed from the head uniy (for auto-on) and shielded RCA cables. An 80amp fuse block was included as well.

Where would be a suitable position to mount the amp + a fan?
I've looked all over the car and cannot find a suitable spot.
The amp cannot be mounted upside down due to degrading the effectiveness of the heatsinks.
Mounting at a side on position should be fine.

Using this, I decided the best place might be inside the rear right quarterpanel - opposite the fuel inlet.
The problem with this, is I'd need to face the bottom vents toward the carpet/plastic lining for mounting reasons. I also need to make a bracket, as the gap is too large to house the short amp unit.
The area is enclosed as well, so is it better to direct cold air in, or hot air out, of the enclosed space?

My second choice, was the underside of the parcel shelf. I'd need to create some u-brackets to hold it the right way up, but this is a far simpler approach.
The obvious problem here, is vibration due to close proximity to the woofer/directly attached to the same mount.

I think I'll end up using option two due to ease of access to the amp fidelity controls.

Wiring.

I do not know what kind of wire to use from the amp, to the sub. There is no mention of speaker wire in any of the manuals.
Based solely on the terminal size off the amp, I believe, 3-4mm wire should suffice.

Finally, this will come AFTER everything else is done, but I may end up making a ported box for the underside of the sub.
This all depends on how it sounds.

Any tips, ideas, suggestions, alternatives?

P.S.
Found a pic of everything I took with my phone the other day.

Sorry forgot to reply to your last post. Been rather busy!

With amp location, either location will do, and if you plan on putting in an extraction fan, blowing cold air over the amp would be more effective, assuming there is a vent hole on the other side for hot air to be blown out. I personally would mount the amp under the parcel shelf as you mentioned.

To reduce vibrations, use foam pieces similar to the insulating foam for your sub at joins that touch metal and/or nylon spacers with the bolt/screws. Use MDF to build the base to hold the amp, that will dampen vibrations

Regarding subwoofer wires, use 14 or 12 gauge wire...16 gauge might be fine for the power output, however I'd recommend 14 or 12 gauge just in case you want to upgrade later.

I had a look at the product specifications for both amp and sub, your amp can push 250W RMS @ 4 Ohm or 400W RMS @ 2 Ohm while your sub has a 150W RMS @ 4 Ohm, so definitely enough juice from the amp to power the subwoofer. You have room to upgrade later on without upgrading the amplifier.

I suggest you tune the amp to suit the sub before you run it at full blast, this is to protect the subwoofer from blowing and the sound from clipping. You can follow the guide here if you need help.

My suggestion is to set your GAIN on the amp to the lowest setting with your head unit to max and slowly increase the gain until you hear clipping/distortion from the sub. This might be hard to do especially if your speakers are run from the head unit, so you will need to disable the speakers before you do that. If not, you can always set it to half gain which is roughly 125W RMS.

Hope that helps

Thanks for getting back to me.
I noticed you mentioned 14 gauge wire. I thought that would be huge, so I looked up a gauge to mm conversion and I had it backwards.
8 gauge is almost 9mm, 4 gauge is almost 22mm.
This brings up a new question. The amp recommends "at least 4 gauge", but the terminals are only 12mm. Should I worry and get 4 gauge, or would the 8 gauge be sufficient?

Thanka.

Where did you get that 4AWG wire is 22mm? Battery cable isn't that big.

http://www.66pacific.com/calculators/wire_calc.aspx

http://www.reuk.co.uk/AWG-to-Square-mm- ... verter.htm

Core dia for 4AWG wire is usually approx 5.2mm.
8AWG is approx 3.3mm core.
14AWG is approx 1.7mm core.

Alright, thanks.

Just for reference, I got that information from here: http://www.rapidtables.com/calc/wire/awg-to-mm.htm

Maybe I was reading it wrong.

You read it wrong.

You quoted the cross sectional area, the wire dia is 5.1894mm which is the first line after the calculate button..

Screw this. The amp, tiny though it is, won't fit anywhere so stuff it. I don't care. I've had enough. I'm just gonna jam the thing under my seat, I seriously don't care anymore.

f**k Ford and their 'lets make everything round'


E: I've calmed down now. Slightly.

The only place remotely big enough is directly in between the sub and rear left speaker.
Would this affect anything because of magnets and whatnot.



That's the factory speaker BTW, I haven't actually installed the rear left yet because of the huge hassle involved in getting 6*9's to fit in a 5*7 space. The spacers raise them so close to the rear window that you can barely screw them up.

Edit 2:

After much selective words and threats to just throw a hammer at things, I think on TOP of the parcel shelf is the only viable option.

In the EF/EL Sedans, the Amp is mounted in the right hand panel behind the rear wheel arch. Not sur about the AU but you could check out a Fairmont Ghia/Fairlane to see if they are mounted there.

I believe that is where the factory amp goes, but I dislike that position for several reasons. Mainly because of heat being difficult to extract from there and if I want to adjust settings, it is very difficult to get at.

I've settled down a lot since my last rage burst.

I'm going with my original under the parcel shelf plan. I'm in need of some tubing though, so I'm heading to Bunnings/Masters to get everything I need.
I'll post pictures of the completed install once done.

Are you sure the amp does not recommend 4 gauge for power/earth cables? As that would be the most suitable size for that size of amp. Speaker/sub cables are usually between 12-16 gauge. Although I have seen 10 gauge wires being used for some subwoofers putting out a lot of power @ RMS value.

You should still be able to mount your amp under the parcel shelf if you install a hanging shelf under it. This will allow you easy access to adjustments and some what hidden. On top of parcel shelf is asking for trouble if someone wants to smash and grab your gear.