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subwoofer upgrade Fender Audio

chid

Ready to race!
Location
Canada
aaaaa... I think it's easier to just digg a hole through the center of the Earth ;)

Anybody knows what connector is this one? (Fender subwoofer, female side)
I want to keep the factory male connector.
 

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DV52

Drag Racing Champion
Location
Australia
^^ Chid: I suspect that your female connector is a special VW unit that you won't be able to find except at a car wreckers!

I'm not sure what size the pins are on your connector but they look like plain, ordinary, "spade terminals" (albeit, they look a bit longer). It might be possible to make-up an alternative connector as part of the wiring loom for the new audio bits using 4 x individual spade terminals of the type in the pic below (with heat-shrink tubing around the entire male-new female fitting if needed).

When I use these terminals, I remove the blue insulation and I solder the wire into the receptacle instead of crimping. I find this makes a better electrical connection (especially where the terminal needs to carry high-current). I then re-insulate the back of the terminal with two pieces of heat shrink tubing on top of each other.

Of course it would better to get the right female connector, but if this is not possible, "spade terminals" might be a good second solution
 

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chid

Ready to race!
Location
Canada
Thanks DV52, I was looking at original vw parts and I found the following:

The housing is exactly what is written on the connector:
HOUSING
Part Number: 8E0-972-714
the wires are a little bit strange ( the housing doesn't come with wires or terminals)
WIRES
Part Number: 000-979-226-EA
by wires they mean 1 wire with 2 terminals crimped, length about 20 in.
so for 4 I need to buy 2 and cut them and solder new wires with the length I want.

for a clean solution, I need to buy the housing 6.72$+ 2x7.87$ the wires
I found them at vwpartsnation.com
but like that I don't cut any wire and I keep the original connectors.
And I can remove the subwoofer if I need it by just unplugging the connector.

I just need a connector to be able to unplug the main power cable that comes from the battery and the ground. Any good solution?
 

chid

Ready to race!
Location
Canada
I finally ordered the "stuff"
Pioneer TS-SW3002S4 sub
JBL MS-A5001 amp
LC2i to connect to the Fender subwoofer connector
I have made my design for the box, 0.8 cu ft sealed volume, 3/4in MDF.
It will be firing down the spare tire.

I hope I will still have the subwoofer control from the main unit.
I'll be busy in the next 2 weeks or so ;)
 

chid

Ready to race!
Location
Canada
How can I bring a power cable from the battery to the trunk?
I guess on the left side is the signal, so I have to go on the right side...!?
 

chid

Ready to race!
Location
Canada
Nobody? :(
Is there a point on the right side where I can pass the wire from engine compartment inside the car?
 

DV52

Drag Racing Champion
Location
Australia
Nobody? :(
Is there a point on the right side where I can pass the wire from engine compartment inside the car?

Chid: I've not done it before and you guys keep putting the steering wheel on the wrong side of the car, but I would have thought that a good place to try is near the grommet where the cables go through the firewall on the LHS (you might need to make a hole in the grommet with a screw driver). Then route the wire along the cable track under the doors. See pic below
 
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erick.s1

Passed Driver's Ed
Location
USA
Chid: I've not done it before and you guys keep putting the steering wheel on the wrong side of the car, but I would have thought that a good place to try is near the grommet where the cables go through the firewall on the LHS (you might need to make a hole in the grommet with a screw driver). Then route the wire along the cable track under the doors. See pic below

I don't have a MKVII yet, but this is exactly how I've done it in my past VWs. If the MKVII is like all the older VWs I've had, you just take the battery and battery box out and you'll see a large grommet going through the firewall. Then I tape the power cable I'm running to a wire coat hanger so I have something fairly rigid to push with and shove it through the grommet. Takes all of ten minutes.
 

chid

Ready to race!
Location
Canada
Thanks for the answer.

This is on the left side of the car (left side steering wheel)
On the left side is also the signal wire, coming from under the driver seat and going back to the subwoofer (Fender now, but changing)
If I run the power wire on the same side as the signal, I heard that might create noise.
I was looking for a way to pass it on the right side of the car.
Or I pass it through the same location but then go on the right side under the dashboard.?
 

DV52

Drag Racing Champion
Location
Australia
If I run the power wire on the same side as the signal, I heard that might create noise.
I was looking for a way to pass it on the right side of the car.
Or I pass it through the same location but then go on the right side under the dashboard.?

Chid: increasing the signal-to-noise ratio on audio cables is always a problem when running new wires in a car ( unless of course you use FOC). Sure, it's better to physically separate power and signal cables but a project like yours will be full of compromise decisions. Good quality signal cables and additional filtering components (only if needed) are really all you can do in this case!

PS: Hope you are taking lots of pics as you proceed
 

chid

Ready to race!
Location
Canada
I'm trying to limit the "problems"..
I hope the LC2i will work wonders ;)
is there any way to bring the power cable on the right side of the car?

I will take a lot of photos when I'll do my small project, for now I'm waiting for the components to arrive and pick them up, build my box, prepare the cable..
I'm trying to get as many info as possible before starting...
 

chid

Ready to race!
Location
Canada
Hi DV52,

How do I connect the wires from the R211 connector? what are the 2 pairs to connect to LC2i?
brown/white-white and yellow/white- yellow/brown?
does it matter which one is left/right?
 

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DV52

Drag Racing Champion
Location
Australia
Hi DV52,

How do I connect the wires from the R211 connector? what are the 2 pairs to connect to LC2i?
brown/white-white and yellow/white- yellow/brown?
does it matter which one is left/right?

chid: Hi again.
OK, I'm really not sure how you intend to put together the components that you mentioned earlier, but my understanding is that the LC2i needs active speaker grade signals as an input. This being the case, I assume that you would get these signals from a pair of speaker wires either from the J525, or the rear speaker units themselves. I had not considered that you would use the four sub-woofer wires as I don't think that these signals would have the correct bandwidth (or voltage) as input for the LC2i -but I'm only guessing about this, you could check with the manufacturer.

There are lots of ways of hooking-up the LC2i unit but the basic circuit diagram is shown below.
 

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DV52

Drag Racing Champion
Location
Australia
chid: here's a copy of the two sets of circuit diagrams for the J525 and the four speakers (i.e. Left & Right) for the front and rear of the car. I have included the pin outs and the wire colours in the pictures. Or, you can look at the pin-out of the J525 module that I posted previously (see my post #4).

The IC2i diagram that I posted above depicts the inputs as coming from the rear speakers, but this is probably because most folk fit the IC2i in the rear of the car. If it's more convenient to splice into the front speakers, I wouldn't think that it makes any difference.

The big decision is whether to splice into the treble, or the bass speaker wires (i.e. the treble speaker will have a high pass filter in circuit and the bass will have a low pass filter). I'm really not sure what the answer is to this question. If the manufacturer can't help you, then I would make this the last job and try both to see which gives the best result. The IC2i allows you to wind-back the bass level if there is too much reverberation in the input signal (which might happen if you use the bass speaker pairs)
 
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chid

Ready to race!
Location
Canada
Thanks!

I asked the manufacturer of LC2i and he said I should be OK to take the signal from the subwoofer connection. That's what I'm looking right now.
If this is not working, I'll go for something else...:(

Here is the answer from AudioControl:

Thank you for contacting AudioControl. You should be able to take all four wires and connect them to the LC2i, which is a 2 channel converter. I am assuming the factory sub is dual voicecoil.
 
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