Fitting subwoofer - quoted £250!!??!

[dreamers]

I asked an audio specialist near me how much to fit a sub and amp I already will have purchased to an aftermarket head unit (already installed).

He said 3- 5 hrs work to fit that at £40/hr. Sounds very expensive!!!

IS this normal price?!?!? I only wanted a sub (already in enclosure box) with amp installed?!?!

[dwarfslapper]

That depends if it includes all the cables as well as the fitting?:guinness

[chrisJDM]

you dont fancy having a go at it urself then!  I do all my audio stuff myself, now ive relocated my battery to the boot makes it alot easier.

[dreamers]

Was going to. But if it takes a genuine professional that long to fit, it would take me a newbie an age to fit.

By the way that cost did include wiring and fitting. Maybe it is reasonable then.

[chrisJDM]

all depends on the quality and thickness of the cable they use, could cost £20 or £100 for all the bits they need

[elford_tim]

Good quality wiring is not cheap, plus you\'ll have to remove part of the interior to do a proper job running the cables - oddly enough that tends to be my least favourite part of the job.

It\'s actually not that hard to fit, a lot of the work is in disassemly/reassembly and I doubt that you\'ll take much longer than a pro to fit it. At the end of the day it\'s normally:

- Work out where to fit the amp, fit it
- Fit the sub box where you\'d want it to
- Run the cables, being careful to keep power and signal cables separate.

Most of the work comes from having to remove seats and carpet (at least enough to lift up the carpet) and you\'ll probably take more care doing this yourself than a pro. If you want to have a go yourself and none of the London members are willing to help, you\'re welcome to come down and I\'ll give you a hand. But I won\'t install it for you, I\'ve got three cars to do already :rolleyes:  (No, I\'m not a pro installer in case you\'re wondering).

[trotter]

exactly....as el tim says...assuming that you know one end of a cable from another, the main (time) problem is dis/assembly. DO NOT PAY garage labour prices to fit a sub...it is not that difficult, search for GaseJo\'s thread (called "just started ice install" i think 4 details

T

[dreamers]

Thanks. I have decided I will give it a try myself. Hope it goes well!!!

cheers 4 ur help all

[elford_tim]

Good luck, let us know if you get stuck. The offer still stands - if you want to come down here I\'m happy to lend a hand.

[dreamers]

Thanks Tim. If you have an email I would be grateful just incase I run into troubles. Its the removing of the trim etc. which worries me (Even the seats). Never took on a project like this, but this was one of the reasons I bought a rx7. To start doing things myself and stop paying people to doit.

Tons of different wiring kits on ebay. Would £15-20 be adequate? Esp. given my sub and amp were £65 off a MRC member

Not after massive bass just a bit .

[elford_tim]

Well, the wire gauge very much depends on the current draw of your amp, plus it\'s always better to err on the side of caution as fireworks in the car aren\'t really recommended .

The important criterion in this case is the wire gauge - I\'ll be putting in 4AWG for two amps that draw about 25A each, which is overkill but gives me some additional headroom. So, check the fuse on the amp - if it\'s up to ~45A, I\'d get an 8AWG kit, otherwise 4AWG is probably not a bad idea. As I said, I\'ve got a 4AWG kit for 24.99 off http://www.caraudiodirect.co.uk/ which oddly enough is labelled \'1000W\' whereas similar ebay kits for the same price are often labelled \'3000W\'. Draw your own conclusions .

My email is timo bsdninjas.co.uk if you get stuck; keep in mind I haven\'t taken apart an FD yet so I won\'t be able to answer the question where certain bolts are...

[dreamers]

Thanks again Tim. Will order now.

FINAL q. before I disappear!!.....

Just realised I have no idea what (if required) the security code is (stereo came with car) on my kenwood stereo is. I am not sure its needed but if I remove the power, it\'ll reset, does anyone know if I will lose my stereo ?

[elford_tim]

If it\'s one of those modern face-off jobbies then they don\'t usually have a code. Well, none of my Pioneers or Alpines have. Japanese market radios don\'t seem to have one either IME...

So I guess the short answer is "I don\'t know" .

[Jono FD3]

When I fitted my install, I bought a wireing kit from motorworld... not the best quality but not bad!! 4 gauge wire with RCA leeds Positive & negative wireing all the connections needed to hook up an amp: £25 & took me about 2 hours to fit it all up & have it running......... personaly I think they are taking the P at £250!!! have a go yourself, it\'s an easy job...

1) pull out H/Unit
2) Fit the RCA leeds to the H/unit & run them to the boot
3) fit a wire to the elec arial output as a switch for the amp
4( Run this to the boot (you can put a switch in line to turn the amp on & off when you want to)
5) refit stereo
6) run power cable from the battery to the boot (remove fuse from fuse carryer)
7) Find a suitable earth point in the boot & hook the neg wire to it
fit sub box to the boot
9) hook up the power, earth, switched live to the amp
10) fit the RCA leeds to the amp

AMP WIRED UP

11) turn all the input levels on the amp right down
12) turn on the stereo up to a comfortable level with all Bass & trebble settings set to 0
13) Turn on the amp
14) increase the input level so the bass is clear (but not loud!!) about 2/3 would do it OK
15) Now increase the Bass dial so the bass is clear & thumping, but not distortin!!

JOB DONE!!

HTH
Jono

[dreamers]

I tried....and...failed....

Took 4 hours trying to get power cable from engine bay through to interior. The thing wouldn\'t come through!!

I will try again this weekend but I have a feeling maybe cause car is so tuned with defi guages and commander wires etc., they may be making it harder to get power cable through firewall (or I am being stupid and looking for wire in the wrong place when in interior).

I will try again this weekend with a bit of help.....

If anyone could tell me where I should expect power cable to come out after feeding through passenger/drivers firewall it would be appreciated.

Otherwise everything else is a doddle (I think)