Thought i'd post some pics of my stereo install so far. Here's the equipment list with Diagram (Yeah, i was really bored).

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b251/Poowill/M3%20Stereo%20Intall/StereoInstallcopy.jpg

Alpine 9835
MB Quart QSD 210
Seas ER15RLY 5" Woofers for Kicks
JL Audio 300/4 (Channel 1 going to Q's, and Channel 2 going active to the Seas)
JL Audio 13w6v2
JL Audio e1800d
Monster 6 channel all in one Line Cable (This works really well so that you only have one cable to run vs. 3 preouts to the trunk).
*Optima Yellow Top
*Fat Mat

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b251/Poowill/M3%20Stereo%20Intall/1110071335.jpg

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b251/Poowill/M3%20Stereo%20Intall/1110071336.jpg

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b251/Poowill/M3%20Stereo%20Intall/1019071437.jpg

9835 Matches really well with the stock amber gauges (Sorry some are crappy cell phone pics)

First off, the challenge of getting 4" speakers into the door using the factory grilles and mounting hardware. The credit here goes to my dad, he fabbed up some wooden spacers that not only brought the speaker back for mounting, but used the factory "Grille Screw" mounting. He is the man!

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b251/Poowill/M3%20Stereo%20Intall/M3stereoaudioinstall011.jpg

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b251/Poowill/M3%20Stereo%20Intall/M3stereoaudioinstall012.jpg

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b251/Poowill/M3%20Stereo%20Intall/M3stereoaudioinstall016.jpg

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b251/Poowill/M3%20Stereo%20Intall/M3stereoaudioinstall016.jpg

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b251/Poowill/M3%20Stereo%20Intall/M3stereoaudioinstall013.jpg

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b251/Poowill/M3%20Stereo%20Intall/M3stereoaudioinstall019.jpg

Now comes the challenge of the battery. We had to rab up some mounts in order to mount the optima because it didn't fit the way the OEM battery did. The Battery has slots on each side, so it just slides over these and is mounted that way, then tied down. Sorry don't have pic of optima in the mount yet.

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b251/Poowill/M3%20Stereo%20Intall/M3stereoaudioinstall007.jpg

Preouts out from the back of the deck..
http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b251/Poowill/M3%20Stereo%20Intall/M3stereoaudioinstall004.jpg

Sound deadened the inside and around the kick panel


http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b251/Poowill/M3%20Stereo%20Intall/M3stereoaudioinstall003.jpg

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b251/Poowill/M3%20Stereo%20Intall/StereoInstall001.jpg

Didn't want to deal with pulling wires through the door, so i tapped the stock speaker harness (HK stock system) for the mid doors and tweeters.

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b251/Poowill/M3%20Stereo%20Intall/M3stereoaudioinstall026.jpg
(Ignore the Solid Black, Yellow, and Red wires.)

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b251/Poowill/M3%20Stereo%20Intall/StereoInstall005.jpg

Amp Setup (for now). Gonna have to figure out how i'm going to mount the amps up. Right now its just on a board laying flat. So i'm still thinking..any ideas? Ideally, i want something i can easily take in and out as one piece for autoX and track events. Any Ideas?

Still have to use the rest of the sound deadener on the trunk and doors, ans mount the amps up. Maybe finish those thanksgiving break :). Let me know what you think, Me and my dad did this all in 2 days, and thanks to him we were able to get most of it done... :redspot

head unit looks very clean :buttrock

head unit looks very clean :buttrock

+1

lets hope there's no noise

+1

lets hope there's no noise

Actually its silent, i was very surprised. Good ground and RCA cables seemed to work wonders for any engine noise!

Actually its silent, i was very surprised. Good ground and RCA cables seemed to work wonders for any engine noise!

did you reground the HU? where did you ground the amps and on which side did you run the RCA's?

did you reground the HU? where did you ground the amps and on which side did you run the RCA's?

No reground on the head unit. And the RCA cable was ran down the drivers side of the car. The amps are each grounded with 4awg to the trunk bottom in which i sanded down the connection spot so it wouldn't ground through paint.

No reground on the head unit. And the RCA cable was ran down the drivers side of the car. The amps are each grounded with 4awg to the trunk bottom in which i sanded down the connection spot so it wouldn't ground through paint.

I ran mine down the passenger side. Is there a power cable that's run down that side that I'm unaware of?

Not that i know of, but i did not take apart the passenger side to investigate what wires are run. With the space i had on the drivers side, i couldn't imagine there being any wires running close to where you would've run them..

Not that i know of, but i did not take apart the passenger side to investigate what wires are run. With the space i had on the drivers side, i couldn't imagine there being any wires running close to where you would've run them..

Thought i'd post some pics of my stereo install so far. Here's the equipment list with Diagram (Yeah, i was really bored).

Didn't want to deal with pulling wires through the door, so i tapped the stock speaker harness (HK stock system) for the mid doors and tweeters.

http://i21.photobucket.com/albums/b251/Poowill/M3%20Stereo%20Intall/M3stereoaudioinstall026.jpg
(Ignore the Solid Black, Yellow, and Red wires.)


Amp Setup (for now). Gonna have to figure out how i'm going to mount the amps up. Right now its just on a board laying flat. So i'm still thinking..any ideas? Ideally, i want something i can easily take in and out as one piece for autoX and track events. Any Ideas?

Still have to use the rest of the sound deadener on the trunk and doors, ans mount the amps up. Maybe finish those thanksgiving break :). Let me know what you think, Me and my dad did this all in 2 days, and thanks to him we were able to get most of it done... :redspot
I want to do this on a non HK system. How do I figure out which wires go to my tweeters? Thank you.

I ran mine down the passenger side. Is there a power cable that's run down that side that I'm unaware of?

yep, actually the battery cable from the trunk runs the length of the passenger side into the engine compartment to the distribution/jump block and on the the electronics.

i'm surprised you're not exhibiting a major amount of audible feedback in your setup.

op, good job. the only thing i really have to say is you could have saved some dough buy using some knuconceptz signal wire opposed to the monster cables.

as for your dilemma with removal for track use. the only thing would have been to use one amp for everything and mount it securely to the underside of the rear deck. this way you really only need to yank the sub for track use which is a lot easier than pulling out all of your hardware. although, if you can manage to fab an enclosure above your battery location you'd be golden.

I want to do this on a non HK system. How do I figure out which wires go to my tweeters? Thank you.

???????

yep, actually the battery cable from the trunk runs the length of the passenger side into the engine compartment to the distribution/jump block and on the the electronics.

i'm surprised you're not exhibiting a major amount of audible feedback in your setup.

Ah, that's right, I do remember seeing that now. You'd definitely run into some troubles there..

op, good job. the only thing i really have to say is you could have saved some dough buy using some knuconceptz signal wire opposed to the monster cables. The monster cable was only 50$, I liked having it all in one as well. At 15$ a piece for the stinger wires i was gonna use, it seemed worth it. It did work great, i get NO amp noise, very quiet. The speaker wire was something i could only get at my local walmart at the time :) ha.

as for your dilemma with removal for track use. the only thing would have been to use one amp for everything and mount it securely to the underside of the rear deck. this way you really only need to yank the sub for track use which is a lot easier than pulling out all of your hardware. although, if you can manage to fab an enclosure above your battery location you'd be golden.
I think i have something somewhat figured out. What i ended up doing was building a rack to stack the two amps. I should have some pictures posted soon of the progress. But then i could take out the whole rack as one...

???????

I'll have to look, i forget the color combo's. There are wiring diagrams floating around i'm sure you could find out...

ok thanks.