I have been waiting for the XM RDS adapter to become available before installing the empeg in my new (to me) Element. It has been delayed time after time, so I decided to take a crack at the install without XM today. It was a cake walk.


Boxy is beautiful


The ugly wiring harness I had to make. This is a Scosche wiring harness adapter. It's obviously made for a wide range of Hondas due to it having two different connectors. I put orange electrical tape around the unused connector.

The EX trim-level Elements have an amp built in. I want to use it because the install will be much cleaner. I had to hack RCA cables on to the wiring harness adapter.


It works!


The EX Elements also have a built-in sub woofer. To utilize this, I used tap-ins (the blue things) so I wouldn't have to cut-off the factory sub connector (in case I sell the car with the OEM stereo). I used some orange wire from an old wiring harness from another install. This orange wire was used to extend the leads of the mono RCA cable that connects to the empeg.

Since the empeg doesn't have a dedicated sub output, I used a Y splitter on the front left and right channels and feed both the front and back speakers. I hooked the sub up to the rear output. I can regulate the sub level by fading front and rear on the empeg.


The finished product. The dash trim kit is a piece of shit. It's also designed to fit every Honda under the sun. I had to do a lot of tab removing to get the proper fit. This was a US Industries kit. I believe both Metra and Scosche make Element-specific kits, but they're not stocked anywhere other than online. Once this one is installed, it looks fine though...


A closer view.

Larger images available here.

Nice work, Rob. It's good to see cars with drop-in DIN spaces in the dash, still.

Agreed! Very nice installation!!!

Thanks guys. I was expecting the stock amp to suck with a non-OEM head unit, but it actually sounds perfectly fine. Now all I need is some new speakers and that damn XM RDS adapter to be released.

I take back saying that this set up only sounds "perfectly fine." I just played with the empeg's EQ and the sound is now about a million times better than the stock head unit! The difference is like night an day.

Nice install! Boxy IS beautiful. Double DIN for life. Is that really a manual transmission?

Smart idea bridging the front and rear and putting the sub on the real rear output. Good work.

Yeah, that's a manual. It really takes no time to get used to the stick being mounted on the dash. The position is pretty natural.

I got a great deal on the car because it's a manual. I don't know if the dealer was pulling my leg, but he said two buyers came in to see the car not realizing it's a manual. They left once they saw it. I know it was sitting on the lot for at least 2 months. I imagine that's a long time for a Honda dealer to store a used car.

What a deal. We love 'em, they hate 'em. I got the same deal on my manual Volvo. Must have been the dealership beater for 50k miles until they decided to dump it because they were under construction. It was discounted on top of discounted.

Too bad you don't seem to be able to get the Element in Europe... At least not via official channels.

Cool, the YouTube TopGear segments are back. They seemed to be pulled before.

If I had a few extra thou in the bank I'd be seriously looking for an Element.
I didn't know they came with a standard trans!

Nice install!

I like Ra.

Nice work.