353 replies to this topic

[Liberty]

btw red bushes are usually Nolathane brand.

 

I always thought that those red bushes were Pedders...

[duncanm]

I always thought that those red bushes were Pedders...

oh - I guess them, too (but I expect they source them from elsewhere).

[applegeek897]

Great stuff mate. How does it drive now? I'd imagine it to be a hell of a difference with all the new bits and pieces before the arm shat itself.

 

I don't know if anyone has mentioned it before but you've got a very nice part of the car park; column on one side and a wall on the other. Happy days with little risk for people that like flinging their doors open.

 

Thanks man, I didn't get a chance to drive it straight away as it was low on transmission oil, more on that below. The car space is good, I'm actually renting it from the guy in the Silver car as he has two. Only person in the entire block that didn't use both. It took awhile but man it's good. Plus is is super nice letting me work on my shit haha. Driving it to Heasman was great, although I took it extremely easy. I really wanted them to do their thing before i get to the thrashing again.

 

wow - that munted control arm is a worry - I wonder if the PO damaged it when removing the stock bushes (eg: hacksawed through the arm a bit when cutting out the bush), or it was rust or previous accident damage (eg: ran a wheel into a kerb and bent the arm).

btw red bushes are usually Nolathane brand.

EDIT - looks like maybe rust along the welds -- I wonder if poly bushes have a habit of trapping water in them where the OEM rubber wouldn't

 

Yeah I'm not sure. It's certainly possible. Very happy to have all new stuff in there that's for sure.

 

August 2017: Before I take the car for it's first drive since doing the suspension I though it a good idea to quickly to an oil change on the transmission, something that I actually haven't done at all on the car. According to the book, I believe it's been over 50,000km so well overdue, for me anyway. I decided to go with Penrite Pro Gear 75W-90.

 

 

 

After a bit of quick reading it seemed that I needed to get a Torx T70 to get the main drain plug off, this was so difficult to find, no one stocked them surprisingly but finally Sydney Tools had a set, which I really didn't want as I actually have any other size anyway, so yeah 90 bucks later I got this.

 

 

 

Car off the ground.

 

 

 

Torx ready to go and that's when I saw, it wasn't

 

 

 

So yeah turns out it's actually a 21mm, oh well, could be worse. Once it was off, the oil came out nice and easy and happily the drain plug looked pretty clean.

 

 

 

Next up was this 14mm which basically instantly melted and rounded off, really felt like it was made of jelly, so yeah that's another thing to deal with, but for another time. I feel like I got most of the oil out but before my trip in October I'll do it again and address that issue.

 

 

 

The 6MT's dipstick seems really poorly placed there is just no room. So some of the intake had to come off.

 

 

Once that was done and filled I took it for a drive and instantly noticed smoother shifts, so much nicer.

 

 

Then the car was off to Heasman to get the alignment done and a small height and coilover adjustment.

 

[Liberty]

Ah right! That's nice of him. Gotta be sponsored by that place by now, surely.

 

What time do they shut?

[duncanm]

I found that Penrite to make a significant improvement on my 5MT over the standard dino-stuff. Well worth it.

[applegeek897]

I found that Penrite to make a significant improvement on my 5MT over the standard dino-stuff. Well worth it.

 

Yeah it really feels much nicer now. Especially when it's cold.

 

Ah right! That's nice of him. Gotta be sponsored by that place by now, surely.

 

What time do they shut?

 

Pretty late, close to 7.00pm I think.

 

August 2017: Once again, Heasman worked their magic on the alignment and the car is driving amazing, certainly better then ever before. They did mention that that even once fully tightened they could still move the body of the drivers side coilover. They have put this in writing for me which should help in hopefully getting it replaced, cause quite honestly, it's pathetic for an expensive and vertically brand new product.

 

Anyway, finally I can get something, that thanks to the control arm fiasco, I was meant to get started on weeks ago. This car has been crying for a proper stereo since the day I got it, finally it's getting one. Be prepared there is going to be ALOT of pictures and info.

 

Time to go through everything. Starting with the least interesting, for me anyway.

 

Despite knowing that they would basically be useless, I grabbed a set of universal 6.5" 16mm thick MDF spacers. They were $8.00 and made it easier to do a nice circle, but otherwise, no help getting the speaker actually secured to the door.

 

 

 

I knew that I would need a somewhat half decent roller for the sound deadening. There were plenty going for well over $40.00 which I refused to pay for something like that. I ended up settling for this Roadkill unit. It's utter crap and the one screw on it kept falling off. Oh well.

 

 

 

While the roller didn't feel like quality, this wiring kit does. This is a Rockford 4GA amplifier Wiring Kit.

 

 

 

9.1 meters of super beefy 16 gauge speaker wire, there is heaps here but I can already see myself running out.

 

 

 

Nice set of RCA cables.

 

 

 

4 gauge power wire with a nice fuse holder.

 

 

 

4 gauge ground wire, nice and short. I'll likely throw this on the passenger seat mount as this has worked well for me in the past.

 

 

 

Also comes with a REM wire and a few other goodies.

 

 

 

I needed three sets total of RCA cables as I'll be using a five-channel amp. So I grabbed two sets of Stinger 3 meter RCA's.

 

 

 

Due to the fact that the Sony XAV-AX100 has a single RCA for the subwoofer I needed to grab a two into one, again another Stinger unit.

 

 

 

For sound deadening I decided to go for some DS18, hey it ain't Dynamat but it also isn't the price of Dynamat so it'll be fine. I grabbed two bulk packs so I'll have plenty and don't have to worry about being frugal with it, plus any left overs can go in the daily.

 

 

 

Now onto the good stuff. Starting with the amp, I was not in the slightest interested in the idea of running two amplifiers. So that meant running a five-channel. Plus the car was designed to have one amp under the passenger seat anyway. I ended up with a JL Audio HD900/5 900W five-channel amplifier. It's such a nice looking unit but surprisedly compact, although super dense, this was a heavy bastard.

 

 

 

Nice to see all of the tuning controls are actually hidden behind a panel so there is no chance of screwing them up.

 

 

 

The amp uses these fancy quick disconnect things for easy removal.

 

 

 

Plenty of I/O ready for tunes.

 

 

 

Next up was the rear, I didn't need anything super special but I wanted something decent for some fill, plus the rears were blown anyway. There is only one space in the door for a single 6" as the original was a two-way. I ended up with a pair of Morel Tempo Ultra 602 Integra's. These are super reasonably priced and should do well in the back. I'll see what they're like, might be a great option for the daily.

 

 

 

Nice.

 

 

 

Lastly what I hope will be somewhat of the piece to resistance. A nice set of two-way 6.5" Morel Hybrid 602's. I was going to go with the three-way versions but they couldn't get them in stock and I'm kinda glad about that because it means the install is going to be way easier because of it. These things are like mini subs.

 

 

 

They even feel quality.

 

 

 

Tweeters.

 

 

 

Bug-looking crossover.

 

 

 

So that's basically all the parts. As for a subwoofer, the car already has a 8" low profile kicker unit in the factory location that even at this point I have to have on -5 because the rattle is so bad. So for now I'll leave that in and see what it's like running off the amp and after some sound deadening.

 

Time to get onto the install.

 

Door card off.

 

 

 

Speakers ripped out and vapour shield off.

 

 

 

I decided to start with sound deadening before anything else, at least on the inside. Due to the fact that I had so much of it I decided to do both the inner and outside skin of the door.

 

 

 

I used three main big chunks and then filled some gaps with some off cuts.

 

 

 

Now onto the inner but before that I gave it a good clean to make sure I had good adhesion.

 

 

 

Slowly but surely it all came on.

 

 

 

While I might be approaching diminishing return I had it, so may as well use it.

 

 

 

With that basically finished I needed to get the new speaker wire through the door grommet.

 

 

 

With some whiteline 'high performance' lube I managed to negotiate this high tech tubing up the grommet.

 

 

 

With the cable through to connect the crossover to the amp I needed to sort the wiring for the speakers and tweeter. Time to get the crimps out.

 

 

 

Tweeter and speaker wire sorted.

 

 

 

Once that was done all the old wiring could be deleted.

 

 

 

Once that was sorted I could now find a place to mount the crossover. This seemed like the best place.

 

 

 

I was recommended to actually use the DS18 to mount it, strangely though it actually started to somewhat sag and fall down so I had to re think it.

 

 

 

Some 3M Dual Lock seemed to be the perfect way to mount it, doesn't look like it's going anyway.

 

 

 

Before I continue on that I need to make an adapter to mount to the speaker to the door. I'm happy to see that there isn't much of size or height difference between the two which should make, making mounts a bit easier.

 

 

 

I had a butt tone of 16mm MDF laying around which was certainly convenient. Quick trip to Bunnings and a jigsaw was purchased.

 

 

 

Using the original mount I measured out onto the MDF.

 

 

 

Started with a rough cutout and then using the cheap universal spacers a what mostly looks like a perfect circle was cut out.

 

 

 

Mounting holes were then cut and on the speaker went.

 

 

 

Size ended up almost prefect.

 

 

 

With the issue of mounting the woofer I needed a way to mount the single tweeter.

 

 

 

3M Dual Lock to the rescue again.

 

 

 

Perfect.

 

 

 

That's not going anyway.

 

 

 

Woofer in.

 

 

 

Then onto a touch of cable management.

 

 

 

Much better.

 

 

 

So basically that's everything that needs doing on the one door. I'll fill the last whole in the door when everything is tested. Now it was time to remove the passenger seat to get to the old amp.

 

 

 

Looks like the previous owner had the amp purely for the sub and even more strangely it had two pissy wires for the power and ground each. Happy to see this out.

 

 

 

The amp will be a perfect addition for the daily once I get a better set of speakers for it. That's it for the day. Hopefully I can get a few hours in during the week and fingers crossed have everything in by the end of next weekend.

[Adictions]

Nice work, you clearly love a lot of photos. looks like it should sound great, the power wire to that amp are from the original Macintosh unit, fine for the little kicker amp, not for the new one haha.

I recommend you make you face the amp controls to the back so they can be adjusted with the seat in, if your like me you'll be adjusting it for a while haha.

[bobbyjimmy]

Did you coat the MDF spacers in anything (paint/primer/anything)?

They'll soak up any water and turn to mush.

 

FWIW, I use plastic chopping boards - get them in random sizes/thickness from the cheap shops and hack into them.

[applegeek897]

August 2017: Let the install continue. After a recommendation, I thought I would paint the spacer to reduce the chance of it disintegrating due to moisture.

 

 

 

A quick trip to Bunnings and a cheap can of matte black was acquired.

 

 

 

It'll do the job for a quickie.

 

 

 

Anyway, back to the car. This mess needed to be sorted asap.

 

 

 

Ah, much better.

 

 

 

Next some of the trim and rear seats needed to come off so I could free the carpet.

 

 

 

So nice of Subaru to leave plenty of space to route more wires.

 

 

Now it was time to remove anything that would no longer be needed from the old system.

 

 

Started with removing all the speaker wire as it won't be needed anymore. I remember the previous owner saying that rerouted the wires to go directly to headunit so it would bypass the amp.

 

 

 

While it was nice to finally clean the wiring back there two things that have taken up some room, which I never really looked into. First was this 'Response AA3074' which after a quick google turned out to be a device that apparently helps reduce noise through the system that can be caused by power to the headunit, rather then screw with it, I'm going to leave it there, everything works so rather then possibly brake something and then not get it working again it'll stay.

 

 

Then I found this, looks like this was the way the pervious owner had hooked up the steering wheel controls to work with the aftermarket headunit. This stopped working a couple months after I bought the car, which I imagine must have just been from a reset headunit. It'll also stay and I'll see if I can make it work with the new headunit.

 

 

With all the old speaker wire out I could get onto the RCA's

 

 

Man they were long, especially the Rockford one. I get it though, they must do it for people wanting to do a boot install, so cable management will certainly need to be done.

 

 

Then they needed to be run through the carpet.

 

 

 

Before the headunit went back I needed to add the single RCA converter for the sub.

 

 

 

Next was to route the power wire through the firewall.

 

 

 

Once again Subaru was nice enough to leave a grommet in the perfect place.

 

 

 

Once I mocked it up everything came together.

 

 

 

Once again heaps longer then it needs to be but I'll cut that in the morning. That's it for today, more tomorrow.

[duncanm]

That's going to sound pretty awesome.

 

I did a very cheap install with some deadening in the doors and morel maximo's - their cheapest offering: splits up front, coax in back.

 

I'm amazed how good it sounds.

 

  duncan

[Niko]

Wow. I don't even listen to the radio in my car. 

 

Looks like a lot of music stuff.

[RX25SE]

I hope the main cables fuse is close to the battery.

[applegeek897]

That's going to sound pretty awesome.

 

I did a very cheap install with some deadening in the doors and morel maximo's - their cheapest offering: splits up front, coax in back.

 

I'm amazed how good it sounds.

 

  duncan

 

I hope so man, already with just the fronts in with no tuning it sounds awesome, Morel seems like such a good product.

 

Wow. I don't even listen to the radio in my car. 

 

Looks like a lot of music stuff.

 

I used to always avoid it because the sound was so bad so should be much better now.

 

I hope the main cables fuse is close to the battery.

 

Certainly is, very close to that, see below.

 

September 2017: The work continues. Before continuing on the wiring I thought it best to move onto the drivers side door.

 

 

 

After a clean it was good to go.

 

 

 

Old connectors also cut off.

 

 

 

Inside and out done.

 

 

 

Speaker wire routed through.

 

 

 

I was hoping I wouldn't have to bother but the drivers seat had to also come out. And another good cleaning.

 

 

 

Once that was done it was time to make another adapter/spacer.

 

 

 

Having the old one made it a much quicker process.

 

 

 

Splash of paint and done.

 

 

 

Tweeter was also done.

 

 

 

Back to wiring, driver side speaker wire routed through the tunnel area.

 

 

 

Cable management was next on the list, starting with removing most of the old original speaker wire, although at least for now I will actually be keeping the rears as despite having a shit tonne I've already run out, oh well should be fine for the rears.

 

 

 

Crimps and crossover also went on for the drivers side.

 

 

 

Power and ground next, there was a perfect place for the ground on the handbrake cable mount.

 

 

 

Then power.

 

 

 

These quick disconnects are awesome.

 

 

 

Ground and REM next.

 

 

 

Followed by sub and front speakers.

 

 

 

In she goes.

 

 

 

RCA were also somewhat organised and plugged in, man these were so long, one well more then the length of the car.

 

 

 

Fuse could then go in for amp power.

 

 

 

After hours of adjusting things like the cross over and wiring in the door I could finally get the door cards back on after testing the sound.

 

 

 

Then some of the trim could finally go back on.

 

 

 

So the front is pretty much complete. Likely some fine tuning to do but we'll see. Even not at all being tuned it sounds freaking amazing. Tomorrow I'll attack the sub area, it needs sound deadening BAD!

[Liberty]

Good stuff mate. So much work done.

[motoboy76]

Nice, always good to have a fresh sound install....

 

I have just put some nice Focal splits in my RS.....

[applegeek897]

Good stuff mate. So much work done.

 

Cheers Gaz!

 

Nice, always good to have a fresh sound install....

 

I have just put some nice Focal splits in my RS.....

 

Yeah man, made it feel like a new car, and I'm not even done yet, still... I've heard good things about Focal, they were my original choice.

 

September 2017: So while I would love to be spending time on getting the stereo finished, of which it almost is, I was surprised with this.

 

 

While this was something I really wasn't feeling like oh well, off to Pick n Payless.

 

 

After raiding that sedan for it's cat-back and an old GC8 for it's mounting hardware, I have a nice stock cat-back to hopefully get me under noise limit.

 

 

 

Straight home to install, car up in the air.

 

 

 

Parts out and WD at the ready.

 

 

 

Goodbye for now.

 

 

 

The hangers were stubborn but WD like always did the trick.

 

 

 

Off they came.

 

 

 

It was at this point I moved onto the centre section which to my extreme frustration it wasn't close to going to fit. Everything lined up but the flange was about 45 degrees off. I'd just have to hope it's fine, so the rear mufflers on their own went on. Yuck.

 

 

 

Later that afternoon I dropped by a place that does testing and, it failed. Just. 89 on the acceleration and 97 on the deceleration, all because of the rasp from the hotdog muffler in the X-Force Mid section. The rasp was BAD, the system overall was much quieter. Man it was strange driving the car. Anyway, so now off the Best Mufflers so Chris can work his magic and get it perfect.

 

Chris got straight into cutting the flange off so he could rotate it. Some modification was needed to make it fit perfectly to the custom mid section, and off the xforce centre came.

 

 

 

On it went.

 

 

Then we noticed this, yeah, thanks to my new lows and the coilovers dropping the car got to the point where this happened. Blew both gaskets from the headers to cat pipe.

 

 

Looks like it was in bad shape anyway, these were the supplied ones. New ones were much better.

 

 

Fixed and we're done.

 

 

 

With all the leaks done, everything was sounding much better, or worse depending on how one looks at it. It's soooooo quiet but also no rasp, I can't believe how much of a difference that centre muffler makes. So we will have to see in the next couple of weeks if it's fine, it really should be. Luckily he also has a entire front section with all three cats if they give me shit for the high flow cats, again. Hopefully not.

 

 

In better news, Show Me Your Tints came round to do my mothers new car and I had him tint the sunroof, how didn't I do this before.

 

 

Before

 

 

50/50

 

 

And done, so good.

 

[Niko]

Shaz used to say not to tint sunroofs because the tint expands and contracts and can explode your sunroof... But ahwell.

[Liberty]

I was gonna say that too.

 

Doesn't happen to every car but definitely increases the risk... It's the main reason why there is a sunroof cover on the inside. Try not to park out in the open without some sort of cover on scorching days.

[applegeek897]

Shaz used to say not to tint sunroofs because the tint expands and contracts and can explode your sunroof... But ahwell.

 

I was gonna say that too.

 

Doesn't happen to every car but definitely increases the risk... It's the main reason why there is a sunroof cover on the inside. Try not to park out in the open without some sort of cover on scorching days.

 

Yes I have also heard this but I have a few mates with gen 4 wagons who have done the same quite some years ago with no issues, plus my car lives most of it's life in the garage anyway.

[Liberty]

Yeah fair point then.