wrx install pics. BONUS: custom sub box project!

i've been working on installing my empeg and new door speaks, sub, amp etc...

here are a few pics of the sub box that i built to fit on the left side of the trunk of my wrx. the interior volume is about 1.7 cubic feet. and its made out of 3/4" mdf with a ton of screws and glue. the plan is to carpet it to match. the extended side 'wing' on the box is to give room to mount the amps, one next to the sub and one on the back of the box. as you can see, my trunk is a total mess, no wonder i've got some noise issues...











here are a few of the empeg...





i couldn't get it to fit exactly, oh well. close enough for highway work...


fitting the sled in the bezel is a pain.



any questions??

Looks good. Can't wait to see/hear it in person at the Boston meet.

PS: I pick up my new car tomorrow. It's gonna be a mad-dash to get the Empeg in before the meet.

I can't wait to read how your install goes in the Saab, Rob. Let me know because I am anxious!

Oh yeah, when and where is the Boston meet? I must have missed the final decision...

Boston meet will be May 11th at 2PM at T.G.I.Fridays. There is much more detail here:
http://www.davecosta.com/empeg

I will take pics of the install ASAP.

I just noticed the Audrey in your last pic. I have one of those also. I planned on installing it in my bathroom for "enhanced productivity."

Matt, way to go on the install! I couldn't get that "pocket" to fit for the life of me andit is sitting in my garage right now...

You should sell those sub enclosures! Reminds me of the Subbiesounds one.

Very very nice!

I couldn't get that "pocket" to fit for the life of me

if you look really close you can see that i cut away the bottom lip of the pocket (a bit too much actually) to make it fit right.

thanks for the compliments, though I don't think they will go into production. I don't have the facilities to make them at my fingertips all the time. Nor do I have any spare time whatsoever...

Speaking of which, I just found out that I have to work on Saturday, what a load of crap. I hope that I can get out early and speed up to meet the group in Woburn.

BTW, that Friday's in Woburn is not the most obvious to find, even though you can see it clear as day from the highway, it is a bit tough to see when you get off the highway, you have to drive down the road a bit...

BTW, that Friday's in Woburn is not the most obvious to find,

And make sure the out-of-towners know to say "Woo-bun" if they have to ask for directions!

Nice work on the install + sub!

Here's some pics of my Scooby install.

Nice! I dig the Euro HVAC controller! I'm surprised the electical outlet is the same (figured it'd be on the opposite site for RHD cars).

I'm jealous that you guys got your Subaru pocket to fit!

So we have 4 WRX's now?

You too can have the wonderous pocket. All you have to do is cut the bottom lip off of it and it fits like a glove. Trust me...

p.s. all my noise issues are gone! Whoopie! I guess grounding that second amp to plastic (oops) was the issue. and the sub sounds great. Too bad this car rattles so much, time to dynamat (or rammat) the heck out of it.

Out of curiousity - could you tell me exactly where you routed your RCA's? Namely, in the dash? I've got noise, and cant figure out where from...

Did you keep the ground on the mounting bracket?

Did you have to dremel the bracket to give it "play" like I did?

The HVAC is semi-automatic, I just leave it on auto and adjust the temp, works quite well. I guess it doesn't really matter which side the fag lighter is on but it's the first car stereo I've had that has the volume knob on the right (correct) side for us

The pocket is just one I picked up from the local auto spares shop (Halfords but don't tell anyone) and I attacked it with the Dremel

Do any other WRX owners have whine noise like I do?

I routed the RCA cables from the empeg behind the dash, across to the driver's side up underneath the stearing wheel, down the side to the door sill. I guess basically following all of the wires for speakers etc. that the factory stereo came with. Does that make any sense? The power cable is on the passenger side. And I did not have to dremmel the brackets at all, I just bent the crap out of them and shoved the empeg sled in as hard as I could. (with extreme care of course)

I also made sure to ground the amps very well. At first one of my amps was not very well grounded and I had some whine, then I grounded it to one of the seatbelt bolts and the whine noise is gonzo. Oh yeah, and I kept the ground wire from the factory stereo on the brackets.



super

Thank Matt.

I have my power cable running through the center cousel (along the transmision hump) and my RCA's along the passanger side. I'm wondering if my RCA's are picking up some noise from a component under the glove box or something.

I've grounded my amp and sub to a bolt under the rear seat. I've eliminated the amps as the source of noise by doing a few troubleshooting techniques. It is either coming from the RCAs or the empeg itself...

I'm wondering if my RCA's are picking up some noise from a component under the glove box or something.

I've removed the glove box several times lately (making a replacement) and I can't see what there is back there that would specifically generate a stereo ground loop (but who knows?)

My setup is as follows: A 4G wire from battery + to a 4-position AGU fuse block (from Parts Express) tucked right in front of the battery on that little flat spot. An 8G wire runs from that fuse block, along driver's side of engine bay, through that one grommet, then right back to driver's side kick panel then under the driver's side door trim. I bored a hole in the styrofoam (it's a wagon) behind the rear seat to pass the positive cable to the amp; the amp's short 8G ground cable goes back through that hole to a nice bolt under the rear seat.

I pulled the RCAs, speaker return wires and blue amp trigger wire under the passenger side of the console, then under the rear carpet. I kept them as far away as possible from power cables as they cross the rear seat, but they do meet briefly when they come through that hole. I can introduce some hum by moving these around, but I don't have any now; I may still bore a separate hole near the midline of the car to pass the speaker/RCAs separately. Not sure what's under there in the sedan, but the wagon has a nice lateral storage pocket (just right for flares and warning triangle) that makes an easy place to bore through.

That one-and only grommet is getting purty crowded. A few weekends ago we added two 12G and a 14G (for Ham, rally computer, and driving light relay) to the 8G amp wire and I think that's about all she'll do. We couldn't see any other place to pull anything.

Do any other WRX owners have whine noise like I do?

No... most of the WRX owners seem pretty happy with their cars and don't whine about them very much at all.



tanstaafl.

I see you have a Garmin bracket installed in one of the vents. Mind going into a little detail on how you did that? I just got (arrived at noon today :P) a StreetPilot III and it's just mounted on the dash and plugged into the cigarette lighter in my Jetta. Looks messy. I'd like to get it out of the way a little more, with a cleaner install.

First off I removed the piece of dash that holds the 2 vents. I then made a L shaped bracket from aluminium sheet and bolted the stripped down Garmin mount to this. The bracket was then pushed in between the bottom of the vent and the dash. I drilled a small hole through the dash, bracket and vent and fitted a screw to stop the bracket sliding back out. The vent is blocked off with a piece of foam and the power cable goes through the vent and comes out of a hole inside. The holes and screw are effectively hidden once the dash is reinstalled.

Ahh, thanks for the explanation. I figured you'd block off the vent some how, it didn't seem like a good idea to leave it open for hot air to go right into the GPS like that. I ordered the Garmin Power/Data cable with bare wires and I'm going to try and see if I can make something like that work. If not, I might go with something from RAM.

here are some updated pics of my sub intstall and remote gain control for the sub that I fit into a blank switch plate by the e-brake.

remote gain contol for the blaupunkt amp that you cant see in the other pics.

remote gain contol for the blaupunkt amp...

Oh my god, the way you mounted that is too cool! Congratulations on finishing the install. It has come a long way since we saw it in Boston.