What started as simply wanting steering wheel controls and a radio that could display track info from my iPod, turned into a year-long project trying to https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/fit-...stem-36hz.html The overarching strategy was to select and install equipment that allows the rear seats to still fold down, keeps the whole back space available for storage, and maintains the spare tire. It transpired as four phases, each building upon the next as detailed below. So far, I’m very happy with the results. Any suggestions to improve the setup would be greatly appreciated!

Phase 1: iPod control from steering wheel
OEM steering wheel controls and harness from japanparts.com (p/n 242-132-001 & 242-132-003)
Receiver (Pioneer DEH-P8400BH)
Factory Integration Kit (Metra 99-7872C)
Honda Radio Harness (Metra 70-1722)
Honda Antenna Adapter (Metra 40-HD10)
Steering wheel control interface (Metra Axxess ASWC)
Clock/Thermometer/Voltmeter (model EC30)

For the steering wheel controls, I followed most of the advice on the thread https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/fit-...ing-wheel.html I hooked up the three wires (gnd + 2 signals) to a Metra Axxess ASWC steering wheel control interface to connect to the Pioneer DEH-P8400BH. The response of the buttons is good. My only complaint is that the Axxess ASWC forces programming the volume controls. Since my headunit beeps whenever I press the volume buttons, I find myself using the turndial on the headunit instead. I could have used the volume buttons for something else like Preset +/- if I would have gotten the PAC SWI-RC. The clock on the Pioneer radio isn’t that good, so I added a cheap $15 clock/temp/voltage device from ebay to fill in the extra DIN space. For the temperature probe, I routed it to the passenger doorjam where the rubber gasket is, bypassed the gasket (probably not the best), and sent it up to be in front of the radiator.



Phase 2: Upgrade Front Speakers
Speakers (Polk Audio DB6501)
Honda Speaker Adapters (Metra 72-7800)

I routed the woofer and tweeter wires through the rubber grommet connecting the door to the body. I positioned the passive crossovers on the inside of the car. When replacing the tweeters, I had to enlarge the existing holes to fit the Polk tweeters. The tweeters sounded crisp and I actually have them attenuated -3db on the crossover. The bass performance of the speakers was not impressive, as others have noted. I think most of the reason is the Pioneer headunit was only giving them 14Wrms.



Phase 3: Amplify Front Speakers
Amp (Rockford Fosgate PBR-300x2 -- 100Wrms x 2)
Amp Kit (KnuKonceptz KOL-AK4 OFC)
RCA Cable (KnuKonceptz Krystal Kable 4m)
Power wire (KnuKonceptz KRD10BL 10ga OFC)
Mini-ANL Distribution Block (Xscorpion DAGU3224G)

Luckily, the Rockford Fosgate PBR-300 series of amp fits perfectly underneath with the seats folded down; I see why they are popular with the motorcycle community! I ran the 4ga power wire up the driver’s side. I ran the speakers up the center on either side of the console and the RCA cables up the passenger side. I grounded the amp to the vertical chassis right behind the floor clip where the metal support of the seat engages the floor. I don’t have any noise issues so I guess I ran all the wires correctly! When I turn up Bass Boost on the headunit, the bass response is much better, but still not where it should be. The tweeters of course are coming through nice and bright, but the bass seems to be getting muddled. I’m sure sound deadening would help keep the bass where it should be.





Phase 4: Subwoofer
Amp (Rockford Fosgate PBR-300x2 Amp -- 300Wrms x 1 bridged)
Subwoofer (Alpine SWR-8D2 350Wrms and KTE-8G grill)
Capacitor (Power Acoustik PC1.5F)
Remote (Rockford Fosgate PEQ)
Connector (Neutrik Speakon NL4FX & NL4MP-ST)
Speaker wire (KnuKonceptz KRD10BL 10ga OFC)
Subwoofer box (3/4" 2’x4’ MDF)
Circuit Breaker (Rockford Fosgate RFCB100)

The sealed subwoofer box fits underneath the rear-driver seat so it’s out of the way and doesn’t take away from the trunk area. I chose the driver-side because that cavity is slightly larger than the passenger-side. Because the height underneath the seat is limited to about 9.5”, an 8” subwoofer is the biggest that would fit. I don’t have crazy sub needs shown on https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/2nd-...stall-log.html, so an Alpine sub (350Wrms) in a sealed box is plenty for me! The internal volume of the box is about 0.32 cuft and the sub desplaces 0.05 cuft, so it’s a little smaller than the 0.30 cuft that Alpine recommends for this sub. I got the PBR300x2 for the sub since it can provide 300Wrms @ 4ohm in bridge mode, whereas the PBR300x1 requires a 1ohm sub to get the full 300W. Having the PBR300x2 on the sub also allows me to connect rear speakers in tri-mode if I ever want to upgrade the rears.



The cable harness that goes to the amp can be disconnected from the box so the subwoofer can be removed and the seats can fold down. The Neutrik Speakon NL4FX connector is nice since it plugs in, twists, then locks in place; plus it’s really easy to install wires into it. Because I will be disconnecting the subwoofer, I wired the remote signal into the sub box, jumpered it inside, then wired it back out to the sub amp. Since disconnecting the harness will break the remote signal circuit, the sub amp is disabled when the box isn’t there.



I installed the capacitor underneath the drivers seat, since the power line was running on the driver’s side. It is about 3.5 feet away on the power wire from the amp, but with 4ga wire I’m not concerned about the added resistance. For fear of screwing into the gas tank, I simply looped large twist-ties underneath the carpet to secure the capacitor. The rear, driver’s-side floormat wants to be on the floor where the capacitor is underneath the seat, so allowing the floormat to go up the side of the capacitor provides a bit of protection and conceals it. I grounded the capacitor on the chassis next to the driver's torso airbag.



Having a capacitor installed presents challenges when disconnecting/reconnecting the battery for any reason. Discharging/charging the capacitor requires a resistor and an allen wrench on-hand to remove the fuse from the fuseholder. Since I don’t like piece-parts hanging out in the glove box I replaced the fuseholder with a circuitbreaker and taped the charging resistor to the circuit breaker. I also added short pigtails on both sides of the breaker so whenever I need to charge the capacitor I connect the pigtails to the resistor, then when it’s charged up I close the breaker and unplug the resistor. Really easy and I don’t need any tools.



I’m not an audio professional, so I can’t comment objectively on how good the sound is. I can say that I am very happy with the response of all the speakers to produce the sound that I should be hearing. The subwoofer definitely delivers, and with it right behind the driver’s seat I can feel the punch it in my back! With 100Wrms going to 92db sensitive speakers in the front, I haven’t heard distortion, even above normal listening range. Overall, it’s a very clean, out-of-the-way installation.

 

Looks good! Do the seats still collapse forward without hitting the amps? I'm sure you can just move the sub up and out of the way no problem.

 

Thanks! Yes, with the sub moved out of the way, the seats collapse to the floor without interference from the amps. I was inspired the https://www.fitfreak.net/forums/2nd-...ggestions.html thread. There is sufficient space for the amps when the seats are collapsed, plus the part of the seat that touches the amps when they are collapsed is the back of the seat cushion, so there aren't any worries with scratching or banging up the amps. Because there won't be any air gap for cooling, I wouldn't run the amps too hard or long with the seats down.

It is important that the top of the amp be secured as close to the chassis as possible so the seat can clear it when collapsing down. I had a brief moment of panic testing this part out; when the amps were vertical, they interfered with the seats folding down. I got around this by mounting the amps using the top two mounting slots in the amp to keep the top as close to the chassis as possible. Because that top part of the chassis is offset towards the rear of the vehicle a bit, it does cause the amps to not be completely vertical but be slightly angled where the bottom sticks out further than the top. But this angle actually matches the contour of the seat cushions quite nicely.

Actually, I haven't had to collapse the seats for storage space yet, but since the rear seat is a 60/40 config I have some options. Since the sub is on the driver's side I can fold the rear, passenger side down (40%) while still having the sub installed. If I had to fold down the 60% seat, I left enough wire on the sub connection coiled up so I could move it to be behind the passenger seat. Or as you say, I can disconnect the sub and put it in the front passenger seat or find a spot in the rear storage area.