How-To: Wire a Sub to stock MAZDASPEED6

[Koenig]

The following install was done by myself without any help from friends, if you do this alone..... on average it should take between 30 minutes to 60 minutes for install, provided you don't run into any problems:

*PLEASE KEEP IN MIND THIS SETUP IS ON A SPEED6, IT WILL WORK WITH A MAZDA6 AS I HAVE PERFORMED THE SAME SETUP ON MY GIRL'S MAZDA6s HATCH, HOWEVER THE COLORS OF THE WIRES ON THE FACTORY BOSE ARE DIFFERENT COLORED FOR SOME OF THE YEARS, MY GF'S 2005 HATCH HAD THE SAME COLORS AS I DID IN THE SPEED*
and yes I know I need to clean up the cables in the back... just haven't had much time/been lazy, lol. It works, and that's all I care about. Oh and I've been running this setup since I got the car in April 2007, haven't had a single hiccup with it, and neither has my GF in her car.


Amp 12volt cable connected to the battery terminal

I decided to just zip-tie the 12volt fuse to a cable, instead of drilling it to a surface, this allows me to just easily unscrew it should the fuse inside pop for whatever reason, makes replacing it easier.

I didn't want to drill a hole in my firewall like some people do, so I fed the cable through the grommet, it helps if you use a lead string to feed it through, this took me a good 4 or 5 minutes to make sure i got it through

view of 12volt fed through grommet from inside of car, it is in fact, easier to push the 12volt power cable through the inside of the car than going through the outside, unless you remove your battery.... if you push it through here and you're doing the install alone, you may need a wire coat hanger to pull the cable UP to you a bit, since it tends to go downwards from the grommet

ran it behind the fuse box to keep it out of the way....

Popped out the door lined plastic paneling to put the cable under, all along the driverside door.

fed it up and under through my seat to go through the back...

fed it up through the back and attached it to the amp

Removed the little plastic pop cap (red square area) that holds the liner to the car and inserted a bolt from behind and used this to "ground" the amp, I also used an M6 (6mm metric) bolt and nut to make sure the ground was nice and tight against the car, this is one of the best places to ground the amp because of it's unpainted surface.

The remote ACC amp turn on wire.... i connected it to a fuse loop cable... before tapping into the BOSE amp turn on, this will save your electrical system in the event of a surge from either your car or the aftermarket amp, the fuse will pop and disconnect between the 2, I picked this one up at ACE hardware for less than 2 dollars. If the fuse does pop you can put another one in, and if that pops too then that saves your system and tells you that you have a spike going on somewhere.

wired the fuse loop cable to the BLUE W/RED STRIP factory ACC (this is used for the aftermarket amp's ACC remote turnon cable... to turn the amp on when your stereo is on.)

ok here's where the tricky part comes in, and I'll show some better pictures on how it should look when you do it....

you basically need a small 1 male to 2 female RCA cable (learn how to make one here) (the clear plastic one in the pic with the other end appearing cut off)... this is what allows you to plug in the RCA cable from your aftermarket amplifier from your RIGHT IN and your LEFT IN(doesn't matter which you plug into which)

you have to cut off the male end on the RCA and then strip the rubber insulation.... you then have to seperate the silver shielding from the copper core, this is what gives you the negative and positive (copper core will be positive) you take the copper core from both cables and twist them together, and the silver shielding from both cables you twist together

you will then need to get 2 seperate pieces of audio cable.... i used white and black to tell the difference between the positive (white) and the negative/ground (black),

you splice the copper cables you twisted into the white positive audio cable, and the silver shielding to the baclk ground cable.




then you take the positive white audio cable, strip the tip to expose it's copper core and you have to splice into the BOSE audio signal cable (BLACK WITH RED STRIPE), you only need to splice the POSITIVE speaker wire into the audio signal cable, the black with red stripe. The NEGATIVE speaker wire does not need to be spliced into anything, and can sit there freely. it only needs one end spliced into your RCA splitter, the other end does not need to spliced into the factory wires, it is a negative and doesn't retain a signal from any of the wires on your BOSE sub.

after that you're prettu much done... and yes I know i need to clean up the cables a little, I ended up buying a 10 foot twisted pair RCA cable for the amp and it was longer than I thought I would need.

I'm also going to make an enclosure, where i remove the back paneling and expose the X cross/brace bars, and building an enclosure to support the sub woofers between those, so they will fill up that area and cover it back up, but my subs will appear "flush" with the back of the car, and it will also give me back my trunk space. and I'll have mounted/drilled the amp to the roof of the trunk, to completely get all the wires out of the way.

and incase anyone is wondering.... I'm running a kenwood 1800w amp with 2 kenwood 1000w 12" subs. for those of you who haven't installed their subs, or screwed them into a box, I would recommend getting a perfect square box, why? More airspace per cubic foot inside the box for the subwoofer.

 

[Shagate]

Great write up! Thanks!

 

[Koenig]

it's not finished yet, tomorrow I'm doing a write up on how to "jerry rig" (rofl) your own line converter for your amp.

 

[wannabe]

 

[Koenig]

*UPDATE*

will post the wiring walk through with pics tomorrow.... I'm not home right now, at a buddy's house, had to run out and do a few things....



[this space reserved for write up]

 

[Koenig]

HOW TO MAKE YOUR OWN LINE OUT CONVERTER


For the following you will need:
A pair of wire strippers/crimper
2 short (about 3 inches) pieces of speaker wire (I chose different colored to better tell the difference between positive and negative)
a 5 amp blade fuse
a heavy duty blade fuse holder
A double end wire connector(i forgot what it's called, the blue thing)
and a small 1 male to 2 female RCA cable.

What the heavy duty blade fuse holder looks like:
*Note I went to HOME DEPOT and LOWE's, neither stock, for whatever apparent reason, if you have an ACE Hardware or similar small hardware store, they should have this... it will be where the blade fuses are sold*

5 AMP blade fuse inserted into the fuse holder..... Why 5 amp? Same reason your cars fuse box has some of them, it doesn't take much to pop a 5 AMP fuse, so in the event this pops it saves your factory system from frying, etc. It's simple and clean to just insert a new fuse, if that pops too then you have a short or a spike somewhere in the electrical system.

Insert one end of the fuse holder into the double-end wire connector (make sure your fuse holder's wires are stripped before doing this, the copper core MUST be exposed)

Be sure to crimp it as tight as you can to ensure it doesn't pull out easily

I like to "double crimp" my wires, always.... once over the metal so it pins down on the core of the wire, and once more so that the plastic pins down on the insulation of the wire.

Take your 1male to 2female RCA cable and cut off the male part (OUCH!!!)

Separate the wire a little bit and strip boths sides as evenly as you can, after that seperate the silver wire "shielding" from the smaller inner core wires

Be sure to twist the silver core shielding so not to get it mixed with your inner cores... now strip the inner core wires to expose THEIR cores

Twist those inner cores you just exposed together....

now twist the 2 silver shielding cores together, your end product should look like this *NOTE: the thicker of the twisted pair the silver shielding is your "Negative" the very small inner core wires you twisted together are your "Positive" keep this in mind

Take your POSITIVE labeled speaker wire, strip a small end out of it, but don't stripe the edge, I tend to use my pocket knife for this *Note: if you're not using different colored wire, use something, such as blue electical tape to wrap around the middle so you know it's your positive wire

After stripping use the tip if your knife or a toothpick if need be, to insert in the center and separate to create a hole in the middle....insert the smaller twisted pair (remember this is your positive, and is what gives the amp your audio signal) into this hole, twist it around if you have enough length, then twist the speaker wire a bit back to "close" the hole

Tape it down as nice and as tight as you can... and then you're ready to repeat the process with the "negative" speaker cable

IF YOU KNOW HOW TO SOLDER, EVEN SOMEWHAT DECENT, OR YOU KNOW SOMEONE WHO DOES, I WOULD RECOMMEND HAVING THESE WIRES ELECTRICAL SOLDERED IF YOU CAN


you're pretty much finished and ready to go.... the remote turn on wire for the amp (usually blue) will go into the other end of the blue doulbe-end wire connector, and crimp that, then you just need to splice the other end to the BLUE WITH RED STRIPE cable on the BOSE subwoofer

FINAL NOTE: I didn't entire cut through my blue with red stripe or black with red stripe wires on the BOSE sub woofer...... instead I took my pocket knife and cut around in a full 360 on one side of the wire, and across from that did the same, then I stripped it so that I was just exposing the wire without cutting through it completely. This allows you to retain the stock speakers and sub, should you get rid of the car to sell it, etc. You can revert it back to stock.

I would not recommend soldering these connections, but rather just tape them off.



This how the wires on the BOSE should look if you strip them the way I do:

 

[Koenig]

If anyone has any questions, or needs to know something, or feels I missed something

Feel free to PM me or ask me here.

 

[wannabe]

nice job

 

[Koenig]

Thanks, I know the pics weren't the best, but my digital camera couldn't adjust for that close, LOL

 

[macknati]

GREAT JOB (dance) I have been waiting patiently for this and now I think I got it. (cool)

 

[Koenig]

That's good to know man (2thumbs), any problems or questions, just ask.

 

[bova80]

just did this and sounds awesome now. i disconnected my stock sub though because it seemed to interfere with the better sounding bass coming from my 12" pioneer.

 

[baseballd2]

nice write up. I never knew you could make your own line in converter nice!

 

[nolongerinu]

Good tip, but there is one problem. The photo shown of the wiring at the grommet.... Do not go AROUND the grommet as shown. You will be pinching the wire against metal, this can cause it to cut through the shielding and ground out to the body.

If you look under the dash on the driver side you can see an oval shaped "cutout" in the foam. Remove it with your fingers. Behind it is a perfect spot to drill a hole. The cover behind it is even made of PLASTIC. So you can even cut through it with a razor knife. This is much safer for you and the car.

If you chose to go use the location shown, go THROUGH the grommet, NOT around it.

Nice job on using the low level signal though, I've done something similar 100's of times on Ford stock JBL/Alpine systems, and it works great.

P.s. Use split loom on the wiring under the hood. It will help save it from Heat/water and prolong the life of the wire.

A final comment, I laughed when I saw the Rockford fosgate product and the install edge product. Did you buy your amp-kit at Best Buy? (I work there currently as the install lead)

 

[b00stnSIX]

maybe im a noob on wiring, but if you don't plug the negative side (silver inner wire) into anything, then why do you need to do all that splicing and attaching a wire to just sit there? can't you just avoid that if you don't need that wire? i'm totally lost on that part. i think its an extra step

 

[Koenig]

maybe im a noob on wiring, but if you don't plug the negative side (silver inner wire) into anything, then why do you need to do all that splicing and attaching a wire to just sit there? can't you just avoid that if you don't need that wire? i'm totally lost on that part. i think its an extra step

It's the same reason there is a "negative" cable on a speaker... think of it as a ground, the black cable is grounding the wire.

This is simply how I've been taught about wiring as I've worked for an install shop before.

If you want to give it a shot and be the "guinea pig" and see what happens if you don't do that part, then go for it and let us know if it is or isn't needed.

I don't want to take that chance on my car so....If you do decide to attempt it, I'll assume zero responsibility if you short out the electrical and need it replaced. (drinks)

 

[b00stnSIX]

i understand how electricity works. but i mean, you're having the two silver outside coating wires from inside the RCA cable spliced into a wire that just sits there... its not connecting to anything at all, is it?

 

[b00stnSIX]

the amp is grounded to the car chassis. and i don't think a 4" piece of wire is going to ground the two spliced together wires from the RCA splitter unless its connected to anything. i may of misread your post but you say to not connect it to anything and just let it sit there. wouldnt that be the same thing as letting the two negative (silver outer wire) from the RCA alone?

 

[Koenig]

the amp is grounded to the car chassis. and i don't think a 4" piece of wire is going to ground the two spliced together wires from the RCA splitter unless its connected to anything. i may of misread your post but you say to not connect it to anything and just let it sit there. wouldnt that be the same thing as letting the two negative (silver outer wire) from the RCA alone?

you could expose that if you want, to be honest I haven't tried that, if you DO do that, make sure you tape it off with electrical tape, at least, so it doesn't touch anything and possibly cause a short.

Let me know how it works out for you... if everything is fine and dandy let me know so I can edit the original post. I just did all that to play it safe, ya know? "better safe than sorry"

[edit]
oh i forgot to say, the negative for the amp to "ground" it is a little different than a negative wire on a speaker... if that were the case manufacturers wouldn't need to include a negative wire on subwoofers since the amp is grounded or door speakers, since the head unit is grounded. the speaker wire carries a "signal" and, eh it's hard for me to explain it, I just know how it looks from a diagram in my head.

But like I said, try it and let me know.

 

[b00stnSIX]

how on earth did you get the power cable through that gromet? i've been trying for a half hour. please help