[Subw00er]

Thought I'd move this info from another thread so it wasnt buried and people could search on it.

Some install notes for DIY'ers..
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Holy crap it was such a pita to pull the kickplate sills. You have to pull the weather strip off completely around the plate, and all surrounding plastic bits (seatbelt jam area and front kickpanels too) and then get a flathead driver in there to push and release the tab. After the first one they seem to come easier – still pulling very hard upwards. Its a really weird locking tab. Its not like a normal round plastic clip nipple thing, its more like a flat bar with a large ledge on it that slips into a slit. There are chanels unused under the sill that work great. After you get the sills off its a very easy car audio install.

The rest of the car is really easy to work on, especially wiring the power wire. There is a LARGE grommet that’s easy to get to on the passenger side. I couldn’t find a decent place to get through on the driver’s (battery) side – too cluttered. The doors have good room for large diameter drivers, I’d call it average depth-wise. I had to use a ¾” ring for the dynaudios. The doors definitely need dynamat, they are made with thin metal and “ting.” I installed dyna rubber pads behind the driver and dynamat as far in the outer door metal as I could... and of course on the interior side of the metal door (Under the plastic sheet).

Door wiring... The grommets are tight - you need to pierce the rubber at the top to enter the channel. The grommet at the body has clips so you can remove the plastic bit that the rubber is holding onto. Its just a white plastic ring - note that its keyed with the grommet - I couldnt figure out why it wouldnt go back on! I used a coat hanger to feed the wire down. Its tight, but it fits. TIP: coat the wire generously with rubbing alcohol or windex and it will slide down the grommet MUCH MUCH easier.

I mounted the crossovers in the door with velcro, just on top of the white seemingly useless box that is that is attached to the door panel. There is ample room there for the large dynaudio crossovers.

Tweeter location - please read - I played with a few locations, but the best location was just in front of the door pocket (where you can put a soda bottle) on that little flat ledge (its about 3" wide or so). It points almost PERFECTLY at the driver's ears - both the passenger and driver's side. Its an INCREDIBLE place to put tweeters and are generally out of the way of passenger's legs. Bravo to Subaru for leaving that area flat. Imaging is MUCH better than expected, even before tweaking. I just hooked it up and hit play and experienced a soundstage, awesome.

Routing to the trunk area is really easy. I took entire rear seat off - makes it much easier. I was able to pass my power and signal wires serperately through two different areas. There are 1” channels occupied by...nothing to get under the rear seat backs. Schwiing! Really good.

You could fit an elephant behind the deck, lots of room behind and below, and you can almost reach your arm down to the passenger footwell to route wires. You can literally see from the din opening to the glove box so routing the ipod there was really easy.

If you take out the foam in the trunk, next to the spare, there is enough room for a mid-sized amp either side. I grounded at the spare tire attachment point bump, but I'm getting intermittent engine noise (yes I sanded off the paint), I had engine noise at first, then it seemed to go away today. I'm going to wait a day to see if it totallly goes away - really weird. never experienced this before. I'm going to try a grounding point closer to the rails of the car if the noise persists, I'm sure that will be a good ground spot. The spare tire mouint was just easy, so I thought I'd try it first.

Overall build quality on the car is crap, I expect many rattles later on.

No other surprises really. Its an easy car to work on. I'll post pics at some point if anyone is interested.

[Szumita]

nice writeup... have a question, maybee you know.


i got the speaker mounting brackets from crutchfield... they dont fit 100% on my 2006. anyone know who sells brackets that fir the sti F and R doors?

[hef]

thanks for the info. i will be doing a sub and speakers soon. if you could, i would appreciate a close pic of the stock speaker so i can see the screw hole configuration. did your speakers with the spacer screw into the factory holes, or did you have to drill? what size spacer did you use? i am hoping to not have to drill.

[Subw00er]

Originally Posted by hef

thanks for the info. i will be doing a sub and speakers soon. if you could, i would appreciate a close pic of the stock speaker so i can see the screw hole configuration. did your speakers with the spacer screw into the factory holes, or did you have to drill? i am hoping to not have to drill.

I re-used 3/4" HDF (High Density Fiberboard - Lowes) rings that I made for my last car to fit my speakers.. They are easy to make, all you need is a jig saw, drill and some MDF (or HDF if you can get it). Screw the two pieces together so you can make the left and right at the same time.

I dont know about crutchfields rings. I did take some pics of the speakers and stuff while I removed them so I will post that later. four screws hold the speaker on. I doubt you'llget lucky and expect to use the stock mounting screws and stand off plastic piece, but you never know. The ring that the screws goes into is very thin. If your speaker directly fits to it, go buy a lottery ticket.

I removed the plastic clips that get inserted into the door to mount the stock speakers so I had a flat surface to work from. I also layed down a 1' square piece of Dynamat under the ring to dampen vibration and make a good seal (not that a good seal really matters, now that I think about it).

It just worked out that two of the holes were the same as my last car, so I used a 1" long bolt with rubberized washer, lock washer and nut. I used some blue locktite also - didnt want that sucker coming loose in a year. I did have to drill the door for the other two bolts at the top. Its really not a big deal, just 1/4" holes, but MAKE SURE THE WINDOW is rolled up before drilling.

[Szumita]

nice... i wish you were here to help me. LOL

[hef]

Originally Posted by Szumita

nice... i wish you were here to help me. LOL

ditto that.

[Subw00er]

I am here! Feel free to AOLIM me.

[Subw00er]

Here are some pics..

Inside of door, passenger's:


Inside of door, driver's


Crossover location:


Driver's side door:


Stock speaker:




Speaker removed - three mounting screws (I removed those plastic square inserts):


Dynamat and 3/4" trim ring installed:




You can just see the rubber dynaflex pad behind the woofer, glued to the inner door, also some Dynamat inside the door. I still get a vibration at really high levels, but this is from the plastic, and I really dont want to take it off. I hardly ever play it at max loudness anyway.!


Dynaudio 160GT depth (its average):


Best tweeter location is center of that flat area above the tweeter (I'm having aluminum pods made, they are just stuck on with 3m VHB tape for now):

[Szumita]

nice.

[Subw00er]

Head unit pics..
PAC and Alpine Harness is ready.. Note yellow ground spade connector to connect to OEM ground lead - this is unusual, usually ground is part of the harness. BTW, the Metra harness pictures has really tiny wires. Use another one if you can. It was also missing a couple wires like illumination and remote for the steering wheel controls. I had to pull the connector apart and take wires from the speaker outputs (I use amps so they are useless), and put them in the correct locations.


I dont have homelink, so I made my own by connecting this switch to the garage door remote and wired it to 12V switched. It works awesome! I get like 2x the range I used to. I placed the opener on top of the radio, so the metal in the radio's cage may act as a antenna of sorts?! The LED lights when activated, neat!




Blank plate you'll see later. I got it from subarujapanparts:


And Japan surround:


Low end alpine mp3 unit - note there is a small gap around the blank plate but not NEARLY as bad as it appears in this picture - must be my flash:




Wires at passenger kick plate.


Large grommet for power wire to enter cabin - black loom at the top is my power wire:


Fuse at battery - used VHB tape again, that stuff is awesome:




10" prefab JL strapped in with a cargo net:




Amp location under trunk mat - this is not a great grounding point, I get a little engine whine. I've also tried two other spots. Can anyone suggest one for me?:

[hef]

nice. thanks for the pics.

[bklynpanman]

tweeter location is horrible.. are you kidding? and that switch? asthetics weren't in mind i see.. Did you route your patch cable down the same side as the power? no no for noise.. bigger the ground cable the better..

[Subw00er]

Wow. This isn't my first time, dude, relax! Although, judging by one of your other posts where you ask what the illumination wire is for, you are new. So, let me key you in.

The "patch" (wtf) is routed similarly. I've done this tens of times with no noise. I keep them 6" apart at all times and they do not cross. The red wire you see at the kickpanel is my RCA, not power. Power is run under the carpet, not near the sill. the only time the power and RCA's are near eachother are at the amp, which I cannot help. I also use quality shielded cables. My noise floor is great in this install.

So, tell me how this is a bad tweeter location? Are you familiar with Dynaudio tweeters? Have you done several days of experimenting with tweeter position in the 08 STI? Do you even own a Subaru? Don’t tell me, you think the tweeter should be up in the stock location, right? We wouldn’t have any phase or delay issues there, now would we? Good luck getting it to image. That flat bit of plastic just happens to be the IDEAL place to put a tweeter, especially a Dyn which likes being just slightly off axis. When my aluminum pods are done and I can mount them to that area, it will be perfect.

A bigger ground doesn't automatically make it "better." Don’t fall into the hype, pick up an EE book and start reading. I keep it the same as the power and I used 8 gauge for this install; more than enough, especially for a 2' run. I admit, I am having a ground problem in this car, but after trying three different locations (all of which, based on my experience, should have been perfect), I still have a ground loop problem. I am beginning to think this is an issue with the Subaru. I haven't heard of anyone else installing an amp in the trunk in an '08 yet, so I don’t know where a noiseless spot is. If anyone has any input, please let me know.

BTW, the button looks and works great. But I guess that’s my opinion (In this case, the only one that matters). What would you have put there? Send me the link.

Before you flame, learn the facts. I know what I'm doing because I have installed many high end stereos with high end equipment over the last 18 years.


I also want to add... you may want to check out nasioc. We are nice here, no flamers allowed.

[AMTEXX]

Looks awesome! Nice install Sub!

[Grocery Getter]

Originally Posted by Subw00er

Wow. This isn't my first time, dude, relax! Although, judging by one of your other posts where you ask what the illumination wire is for, you are new. So, let me key you in.

The "patch" (wtf) is routed similarly. I've done this tens of times with no noise. I keep them 6" apart at all times and they do not cross. The red wire you see at the kickpanel is my RCA, not power. Power is run under the carpet, not near the sill. the only time the power and RCA's are near eachother are at the amp, which I cannot help. I also use quality shielded cables. My noise floor is great in this install.

So, tell me how this is a bad tweeter location? Are you familiar with Dynaudio tweeters? Have you done several days of experimenting with tweeter position in the 08 STI? Do you even own a Subaru? Don’t tell me, you think the tweeter should be up in the stock location, right? We wouldn’t have any phase or delay issues there, now would we? Good luck getting it to image. That flat bit of plastic just happens to be the IDEAL place to put a tweeter, especially a Dyn which likes being just slightly off axis. When my aluminum pods are done and I can mount them to that area, it will be perfect.

A bigger ground does automatically make it "better." Don’t fall into the hype, pick up an EE book and start reading. I keep it the same as the power and I used 8 gauge for this install; more than enough, especially for a 2' run. I admit, I am having a ground problem in this car, but after trying three different locations (all of which, based on my experience, should have been perfect), I still have a ground loop problem. I am beginning to think this is an issue with the Subaru. I haven't heard of anyone else installing an amp in the trunk in an '08 yet, so I don’t know where a noiseless spot is. If anyone has any input, please let me know.

BTW, the button looks and works great. But I guess that’s my opinion (In this case, the only one that matters). What would you have put there? Send me the link.

Before you flame, learn the facts. I know what I'm doing because I have installed many high end stereos with high end equipment over the last 18 years.


I also want to add... you may want to check out nasioc. We are nice here, no flamers allowed.

Regarding your ground loop issue. Do you have your amp mounted directly to bare metal? That may be what's causing the problem. Not very likely with the technology in amps these days but it's a possibility.