my Inifinity Basslink sub came today and instead of taking it to a shop and paying tons of money, i wanna wire it myself. i know almost nothing about this but hey, everybody had to start somehwere right? does any kind soul want to post a how-to on wiring it to the stock head unit? i understand i'll need a power cable, ground, and what else? thanks for any kind of feedback...

-alex

 

you'll need what you said, and a remote wire.
tap the power from the red wire behind the radion, then ground to somewhere metal, then remote wire goes to the blue wire on the radio.

 

I don't know how much power the Basslink draws, but I wouldn't hook it up to the radio power.

I would use something like 8 gauge cable direct to the negative battery terminal. Ok - there's your power.

Then, you need to hook up the ground. Keep this as short as possible. Use the same thickness of wire as you used for the power, and attach this ground to metal. There are several bolts around the hatch/trunk area of most cars (including the Pro's) that will work - find the closes one, and make sure it is a metal bolt that attaches TO metal. remove the bolt, sand the paint from the area under it, and then re-tighten it with the wire underneath. You can use an "O" ring connector on the wire inf you want, but it's not necessary. Just make sure it's clamped down well.

For the remote wire - I'm not sure what works behind the stock deck. Derrick says the blue wire - but I can't confirm that. Basically, the remote wire is what will turn the unit on and off, so it has to be a wire that only has power when the car is ON (or better yet, only when the radio is on). If the blue wire works, go for it. If not, you can tap the lead for the cigarette lighter, since the lighter goes on and off with the car.

For the signal, I would use the rear speakers. You'll need to tap into the + and - of the speakers, anywhere along the path of that wire. If you can get it from near the rear speaker (sedan), fine. If not, grab it from behind the deck. Connect the rear speaker leads to the inputs on the Basslink, and you should be all set. You can simply splice in a new wire to the existing - so that the factory wire now "splits" into two wire sets (+ and -); one set to go to the speakers, and another set to go to the Basslink.

I say to use the rear speakers because it gives you better control over your sound. For more bass, you can use the deck's fader to reduce the fronts and boost the rears, also boosting the bass. And vice-versa. If yo use the front speakers, and try to fade out the bass a bit, you will also fade out the fronts, and all you really are doing is lowering the overall volume. The other way gives you better control.

Hope this helps!

~HH

 

thanks for all the replies guys...i gave it a shot today. about the only thing i got accomplished was removing the headunit (after hours of effort) and taking off a door panel. here's what i coudln't do:

The remote turn on, no idea what to connect that wire to or how to run it back to the hatch.

the power cable: couldn't find a hole in the firewall big enough to get the bulky cable through.

the signal from the rear speakers: the wire for those goes through the black corrugated tube thing in the door jam, all the wires in the door do. lets say i splice the speaker wire inside the door and run the subwoofer signal wire into the tube. what do i do next? how do i get to that wire?

and so i gave up. takin it to the local shop tommorrow and letting some professionals do it.

-alex

 

Hey capn (that sounds great don't it?)

First off, getting the deck out the first time on the first day ain't so bad. Search around on removing it and you'll see what I mean.

For power wire through the firewall, you will have to cut a small hole in one of the rubber grommets. The one I used is where the cluth rod goes through to the master cylinder. It is high up on the driver side of the firewall, and is a really big grommet (about 1.5 inches in diameter), so there is plenty of room. Plus it is fairly straight from there to the battery POSITIVE terminal for the power lead (I don't know what HiHo was smokin' up there ). Just use a good exacto knife or a hole punch to pop a little hole in the grommet. If you cut the hole so you still have to push on the wire to get it thorugh, you will have a good seal still.

For the remote lead, find ANY wire that turns on with ignition and tap into it (use a self tapping connector, or a blade fuse adapter thingy (not sure what they are called), or some such thing. There is no amp remote turn on wire from the deck. I used the ignition lead going to the deck for mine as I added an amp as well as a powered sub. Just search on woox if you want to find my comments. Also, Dave Cameron suggested a current sensing relay (again search on the term), which is probably the ultimate solution for a turn on lead with the factory deck.

For speaker level hookup, since you have the deck out, it may be easiest to tap into the wiring there (again using a snap on self tapping connector or something) and run the wiring back. For running the wiring back from the dash area to the hatch, you could either go under the console and carpet, or snap off the door sills and run the wiring through there (there is a factory trough there already). going past the back seat will be a bit finicky, but every project needs a swearing phase!

These suggestions certainly aren't the only way to do things, but they will work. Search around the forums a bit and you will certainly find lots of other good suggestions for wiring and stuff.

Good luck!!

 

I think that would be fiberglass fumes, Dale .

Sorry cap'n - didn't mean to steer you the wrong way! All engines, full reverse, steer hard starboard! Hehe.

~HH

 

thanks to anyone who responded with tips (especially those long-winded ones, thanks for going into great detail). i went ahead and had the local shop charge me an arm and a leg for the installation (90 bucks, and i supplied the wires ). I'll definetly used the info for the next time i need to do something like this.

the guy at the shop doing the work was telling me how much the basslinks suck and how i need an aftermarket headunit so i could use the line level inputs to make it sound decent. he was particularly fond of pioneer decks...coincidentally the brand they sold . he also told me not to trust ebay and that the sub i bought could easily have been used even though it came in original packaging and my car still smells like brand new subwoofer. last time i take my car to those guys.

i'm pretyt happy with the sound. it definetly doesn't pound like the big bandpass boxes but thats not what i'm looking for.

next upgrade: Blaupunkt San Jose Headunit (good choice?) followed by new speakers.

-alex