New Install Nightmares
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Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 90
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From: Northern VA
New Install Nightmares
I thought I had everything planned out...
Everything seemed perfect...
...UP UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE
Started the install... ripped panels off... I tore my car apart aside from removing the the carpet. I was lazy and didn't label anything. After removing the door panels and trying to place my Infinity Kappa Perfect 6.1's in the woofers spot I found that they were way too long.
I should have taken a picture but I didn't as it would remind me the frustrations of my first install and I feared I would never return to the relm of self installation.
The KP's were nearly twice the size of the stock speakers. No way did they fit in the basket the stock speakers were. They didn't even fit without the basket... they hit the knob at the bottom of the window. Despite the realization of problems that I would soon be facing I was in awe.
Just looking at the difference in the speaker I was replacing with what I had purchased and knowing that I was the one physically making the transition made my nipples hard. 
I decided we would come back to that problem as the doors would need to be wired first anyway.
Attempted the wiring.... and reattempted. I sucked man... it was pittiful. I've worked with electronics my whole life. I've wired countless cameras hundreds of feet through conduit around corners, inside and out... and I couldn't get this damn 14 gauge wire through a 1 inch hole and pass it 6 inches??????? OMG you don't understand the frustration.... I thought I could be cool until all the sudden I didn't feel like working on the car anymore, since my girlfriend had come over, even though my garage time was limited as I was using a buddies garage and I only had it for 3 days (supposedly). That basically was a day wasted on an attempt to wire the doors.
Next day I brought the wiring harness to work and wired it. My soldering skills aren't too shabby on a bench and we have plenty of those here. I run into a poblem. I had bought an SWI-ALP (steering wheel interface for Alpine head units) but to this day I still can't figure out which wire the signal wire is coming from the dash radio controls (it's only been since yesterday but I'm trying to emphasize for dramatic effect.)
-SKIPPING A FEW THINGS AS THIS STORY CAN BE A LOT LONGER IF NOT.-
I tried to put the head unit and everything in the HU slot... No Sir! Not gonna fit. The 9855 and all the wires along with the SWI-ALP will not fit in the beast and this is something I will be taking care of today.
Decided to buy some MDF and get my buddy to build me a box... still no box. Tried to get the woofers set off from the door with the MDF. Buddy started a fire trying to use the router to thin it out as the MDF was too thick around the corners.
Cutting the stock basket's ass off and using the metal ring supplied by infinity nearly perfectly puts your speaker in the door. I say nearly because the white plug closest to the speaker will not stay in (both on the driver and passenger sides) they go in but won't stay.
Back to wiring. Went to my buddies brother and asked him if he had any liquid hand soap. I know how much lube can help sometimes but I never thought I needed it for such a short distance with a descent sized hole. He says they have a jug of it but it can't be found anywhere. All of the dispensers in their bathroom have soap but they were nice glass or porcelane (however you spell that word and no I don't believe in spell check) so I didn't want to use them. He points at a bottle on the floor "Scentless lotion!"
My god man. I tried this stuff and it almost works too good. I could barely hold the wires when I was trying to feed them. I think I might buy some stock in that stuff. 2 doors done within 5 minutes. Pissed and happy I was.
The car alarm... o man. Disconnecting the battery to but on new terminals and connecting them at 3 in the morning = Somebody was probably going to pound our faces in the cement floor of the garage. We tried desperately to find a solution to our frantic car alarm. We went at intervals between 10 and 30 seconds of trying to start the vehicle or use the remote or have the car realize somehow that it was the owner trying to steal the car not a thief. Went online and searched around and thought we had the solution... we somewhat did as we were advised to look in our alarm manual since the car wouldn't start. Did what the manual asked us to do and after about 10 attempts and 1 1/2 hours we successfully dodged getting spanked by bubba next door.
Did the initial component speaker test. They sounded awesome but the head unit kept pulling the wiring harness too hard and the connector kept coming out. Tried to hook the iPod up to my KC-420i (I think that's the model number or its damn close) It didn't recognize the ipod. took it off and now the iPod won't work. I'm worried right now. I bought most of this setup because of an iPod that isn't working at the moment.
My buddy goes to sleep as it's after 4:30 in the morning. It's time to piece the Suzuka engineering masterpiece back together.
Luckily I learned how to piece the car back together. I did break one of those white plastic plugs and I did break a small piece of the underside of one of my panels when I SLAMMED it into place. I took the approach of 'Fitting a square peg in a round hole, all you need is a sledge hammer.' It worked for the most part.
Finished up at 6:20. Went back to my house and went to sleep at about 7 this morning. Woke up for work and went to work at 9:30. (I'm supposed to be at work at 8:30 but I said o hell no).
If anyone has any solutions to my unresolved problems feel free to let me know what you think. (Oh yeah and the day I didn't feel like working was the day we called the fire department because of an odor that was filling the house. The day after is when we started the fire in the garage with the router.)
I'll let you guys know what comes of this install. Today should be the last day (5 days not 3). I'll post pics if you want.
Everything seemed perfect...
...UP UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE
Started the install... ripped panels off... I tore my car apart aside from removing the the carpet. I was lazy and didn't label anything. After removing the door panels and trying to place my Infinity Kappa Perfect 6.1's in the woofers spot I found that they were way too long.
I should have taken a picture but I didn't as it would remind me the frustrations of my first install and I feared I would never return to the relm of self installation. The KP's were nearly twice the size of the stock speakers. No way did they fit in the basket the stock speakers were. They didn't even fit without the basket... they hit the knob at the bottom of the window. Despite the realization of problems that I would soon be facing I was in awe.
Just looking at the difference in the speaker I was replacing with what I had purchased and knowing that I was the one physically making the transition made my nipples hard. I decided we would come back to that problem as the doors would need to be wired first anyway.Attempted the wiring.... and reattempted. I sucked man... it was pittiful. I've worked with electronics my whole life. I've wired countless cameras hundreds of feet through conduit around corners, inside and out... and I couldn't get this damn 14 gauge wire through a 1 inch hole and pass it 6 inches??????? OMG you don't understand the frustration....
I thought I could be cool until all the sudden I didn't feel like working on the car anymore, since my girlfriend had come over, even though my garage time was limited as I was using a buddies garage and I only had it for 3 days (supposedly). That basically was a day wasted on an attempt to wire the doors. Next day I brought the wiring harness to work and wired it. My soldering skills aren't too shabby on a bench and we have plenty of those here. I run into a poblem. I had bought an SWI-ALP (steering wheel interface for Alpine head units) but to this day I still can't figure out which wire the signal wire is coming from the dash radio controls (it's only been since yesterday but I'm trying to emphasize for dramatic effect.)
-SKIPPING A FEW THINGS AS THIS STORY CAN BE A LOT LONGER IF NOT.-
I tried to put the head unit and everything in the HU slot... No Sir! Not gonna fit. The 9855 and all the wires along with the SWI-ALP will not fit in the beast and this is something I will be taking care of today.
Decided to buy some MDF and get my buddy to build me a box... still no box. Tried to get the woofers set off from the door with the MDF. Buddy started a fire trying to use the router to thin it out as the MDF was too thick around the corners.
Cutting the stock basket's ass off and using the metal ring supplied by infinity nearly perfectly puts your speaker in the door. I say nearly because the white plug closest to the speaker will not stay in (both on the driver and passenger sides) they go in but won't stay. Back to wiring. Went to my buddies brother and asked him if he had any liquid hand soap. I know how much lube can help sometimes but I never thought I needed it for such a short distance with a descent sized hole. He says they have a jug of it but it can't be found anywhere. All of the dispensers in their bathroom have soap but they were nice glass or porcelane (however you spell that word and no I don't believe in spell check) so I didn't want to use them. He points at a bottle on the floor "Scentless lotion!"
My god man. I tried this stuff and it almost works too good. I could barely hold the wires when I was trying to feed them. I think I might buy some stock in that stuff. 2 doors done within 5 minutes. Pissed and happy I was.The car alarm... o man. Disconnecting the battery to but on new terminals and connecting them at 3 in the morning = Somebody was probably going to pound our faces in the cement floor of the garage. We tried desperately to find a solution to our frantic car alarm. We went at intervals between 10 and 30 seconds of trying to start the vehicle or use the remote or have the car realize somehow that it was the owner trying to steal the car not a thief. Went online and searched around and thought we had the solution... we somewhat did as we were advised to look in our alarm manual since the car wouldn't start. Did what the manual asked us to do and after about 10 attempts and 1 1/2 hours we successfully dodged getting spanked by bubba next door.
Did the initial component speaker test. They sounded awesome but the head unit kept pulling the wiring harness too hard and the connector kept coming out. Tried to hook the iPod up to my KC-420i (I think that's the model number or its damn close) It didn't recognize the ipod. took it off and now the iPod won't work. I'm worried right now. I bought most of this setup because of an iPod that isn't working at the moment.
My buddy goes to sleep as it's after 4:30 in the morning. It's time to piece the Suzuka engineering masterpiece back together.
Luckily I learned how to piece the car back together. I did break one of those white plastic plugs and I did break a small piece of the underside of one of my panels when I SLAMMED it into place. I took the approach of 'Fitting a square peg in a round hole, all you need is a sledge hammer.' It worked for the most part.
Finished up at 6:20. Went back to my house and went to sleep at about 7 this morning. Woke up for work and went to work at 9:30. (I'm supposed to be at work at 8:30 but I said o hell no).
If anyone has any solutions to my unresolved problems feel free to let me know what you think. (Oh yeah and the day I didn't feel like working was the day we called the fire department because of an odor that was filling the house. The day after is when we started the fire in the garage with the router.)
I'll let you guys know what comes of this install. Today should be the last day (5 days not 3). I'll post pics if you want.
Joined: Mar 2003
Posts: 79,195
Likes: 18
From: Home
That's quite the rant.
Here is what I got:
Aftermarket speakers don't mount right up in the stock locations.
It is extrememly tight behind the HU. Especially with an aftermarket harness.
iPods are fragile
Wiring through the doors is a ROYAL pain in the ass.
Installing yourself for the first time takes longer than you think it ever could.
Forcing things, tends to break them.
So thinking over all these things, I have to say: "Yep, I knew that already" to all of them.
Darknight wrote up a nice thread on making your own door-speaker adapters out of MDF, but you seem to have already done this.
It has been suggested many times to use lube to get the wiring through the door grommits.
Go to your local Honda dealership to buy replacement clips. They are more expensive than they should be, but not expensive in the grand scheme of things.
Always get the extended warrenty on iPods. If you did this, you should be able to take it back and get a new one.
What else do you need help answering?
Joined: Jun 2001
Posts: 11,288
Likes: 0
From: Hopedale, MA
Wow... sounds like you had a heck of a time... I've highly debated posting my number here for people to call me if they need some help. I don't know everything but I can help.
The only problem with this is once in a while we get a jerk that will hang out in this forum and I don't want the crazy people that stop by here to have it. But if you PM me I'll give you my cell #
Oh and you know what though... you did it yourself
so regardless of how long it took you... you still did it yourself and learned something about your car that you didn't know before. So either way, good job 
The only problem with this is once in a while we get a jerk that will hang out in this forum and I don't want the crazy people that stop by here to have it. But if you PM me I'll give you my cell #
Oh and you know what though... you did it yourself
so regardless of how long it took you... you still did it yourself and learned something about your car that you didn't know before. So either way, good job
Former Moderator
Joined: Jun 2003
Posts: 18,852
Likes: 1
From: New York
Jeez, I wish you would have posted before tackling the job all by yourself.
I would have been glad to give you my cell# and walk you through the entire thing in less than 1 hour.
First of all....
The Kappa 6.1s fit in the doors with no problems, and any s2000.
Second, you should have bought the DCi and not the Alpine adapter.
Third, the speaker wire is EASY if you do it the right way....how did you do it?
PLease dont take offence, and I am NOT bagging on you.
If you still want some help, PM me, and Ill give you my #.
*edit*
Just noticed John offered his # also. He is legit, and knows his stuff.
If John is busy, call me.
I would have been glad to give you my cell# and walk you through the entire thing in less than 1 hour.
First of all....
The Kappa 6.1s fit in the doors with no problems, and any s2000.
Second, you should have bought the DCi and not the Alpine adapter.
Third, the speaker wire is EASY if you do it the right way....how did you do it?
PLease dont take offence, and I am NOT bagging on you.
If you still want some help, PM me, and Ill give you my #.
*edit*
Just noticed John offered his # also. He is legit, and knows his stuff.
If John is busy, call me.
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Registered User
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 1,004
Likes: 0
From: Tampa
My alpine interface occassionally locks up my ipod. The only solution i've found is to let my ipod battery completely discharge. If you're lucky it locked up while the ipod was playing. If this is the case, the battery will usually discharge overnight and you can use it tomorrow. If the ipod was not playing, it can take several days to discharge and reset.
