Aftermarket sub for Touring

[rexapollo]

Has anyone installed an aftermarket subwoofer in their touring yet? I was thinking of taking on the task this weekend and was wondering if anyone else has done it and learned anything useful. I have a rockford fosgate 12" with sub and it has a high gain input. I was thinking I would just disconnect the back dash sub and use its feed for my sub. I already bought the metra speaker clips. My main concern is finding a place to pull the power wire through the firewall. I have only seen one potential place to pull a wire through and its on the driver's side where there is a taped seal with a bunch of wires already pulled through. There does not seem to be any other spot and it is very hard to tell due to the insulation they have put up against the firewall. I am not really interested in drilling a hole through the firewall of my new car. Anyone's thoughts and suggestions would be very welcome.

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[dohmez]

My biggest concern would be dealing with a factory EQ curve that filters out all the low frequencies you're after at all of the speaker outputs. Ideally for us, everything would be crossed over at the speakers themselves, but unfortunately, I suspect that the signals are all filtered at source unit/amp outputs.

 

[rexapollo]

They may be filtered but the high input wires I'm using are the wires powering the back dash subwoofer. So, I would hope they would not have low frequencies cut off.

 

[FKD6MTLX]

I'm also in the process of installing a subwoofer in my LX, and what I've found is a 1" rubber plug on the driver's side just below the harness that goes to the door. I drilled a 1/4" hole in it and wrapped about an 8" section of the power cable in duct tape just so it would blend in better instead of a fat red cable showing. Then I fed the cable in between the metal and the plastic shield that seals off the fender. When enough cable is fed you can just reach down into the space under the hood hinge and grab it to pull it through.

 

[rexapollo]

I'm also in the process of installing a subwoofer in my LX, and what I've found is a 1" rubber plug on the driver's side just below the harness that goes to the door. I drilled a 1/4" hole in it and wrapped about an 8" section of the power cable in duct tape just so it would blend in better instead of a fat red cable showing. Then I fed the cable in between the metal and the plastic shield that seals off the fender. When enough cable is fed you can just reach down into the space under the hood hinge and grab it to pull it through.

I installed mine today as well. I used the spot on the driver's side where the hood release cable goes. I pulled out the rubber plug and fed the power wire through the plug with the hood release and pushed in the plug again. I fished the wire out with a coat hanger and pulled it through the hood and underneath the foam insulation where the hood release cable runs. It ended up being a rather simple installation plus I didn't have to do any drilling at all. The subwoofer wires in the back dash worked great and give a clean signal to my amp. I like it better because I didn't have to find a place to run RCA cables. I had this sub in my last car and it sounds just as good in my civic as it did in it and it was hooked up with RCA in the last car. Hope this helps anyone else thinking of doing this. Also, as a side bonus, unhooking the battery for a couple of hours stopped the CVT from surging on the highway... at least for now.

 

[2016TouringSLC]

Thanks for your photos and ideas on routing the amp power cable. Worked great for me and got my amp and sub installed in the trunk. Very happy with the results. Lots of slam but no rattles. In my opinion, adding a separate sub really ups the audio quality of the system and eliminates a major annoyance.

I don't think the person who picked the sub for the Touring ever actually listened to it.

 

[rexapollo]

I agree it's much fuller sounding now and it was not that much work. I like the original stereo, it just needed some bass.

 

[JohnG307]

Can I ask a stupid question? Hooking the sub amp directly to the battery-- how does the sub know when the car is off and not to draw power? I've used home theater subs that auto shut off after a time of no signal, do car subs work the same way? Do we just trust that the auto-off feature will work 100% of the time or else end up with a dead battery?

 

[dohmez]

Can I ask a stupid question? Hooking the sub amp directly to the battery-- how does the sub know when the car is off and not to draw power? I've used home theater subs that auto shut off after a time of no signal, do car subs work the same way? Do we just trust that the auto-off feature will work 100% of the time or else end up with a dead battery?

There's a couple of ways to hook up an aftermarket automotive audio amplifier for "turning it on". One way is to hook it up to a switched 12V source that only comes on when the car's accessory mode is on (first and second key positions on Hondas), the other way is hook it up to the car's speaker lines - in these setups the amplifier turns on when it "senses" that the car stereo is on and playing sound. In both configurations, the amplifier is still connected directly to the battery for it's main power source, but is only "on" when directed by one of the two ways mentioned earlier.

 

[2016TouringSLC]

Can I ask a stupid question? Hooking the sub amp directly to the battery-- how does the sub know when the car is off and not to draw power?

As mentioned, some sub amps sense when receiving an audio signal and power on. Then, like a home theater sub, the amp shuts off after a few minutes of no signal. You need to verify that your amp has this feature.

Other amps turn on and off using a second 12v wire that runs from the amp to a circuit in the fuse box that only has power when the car is on (like the radio circuit). Here is a link to supplement Rexapollo's photos posted above on how to run power cable. Scroll towards the middle, and this link shows how to install a remote on/off wire for an Accord, but the concept is the same http://www.driveaccord.net/forums/3...ket-amp-subwoofer-using-factory-headunit.html

Get a fuse tap and some 18-gauge wire (industry standard is blue), connect it to the fuse box on a circuit that turns on and off with the car, and run the wire to your amp.

 

[Mgo]

I just ordered a Rockford Fosgate P300-10. It's a powered sub and I'll be installing it on Friday. I was wondering which speakers you tapped into for your audio source? Just the current Sub wires? Also did you leave the current Sub connected or did you disconnect it completely.

 

[2016TouringSLC]

I just ordered a Rockford Fosgate P300-10. It's a powered sub and I'll be installing it on Friday. I was wondering which speakers you tapped into for your audio source? Just the current Sub wires? Also did you leave the current Sub connected or did you disconnect it completely.

I unplugged the stock subwoofer speaker wires and used this connector to route the wires to the high-level inputs on my amp http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002BEPJY?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00. I went this route so that when I need my full trunk space, I can remove my sub & amp and simply plug the speaker wires back into the stock sub (rattle and all). You can see the speaker connector in the top of the attached photo (I've since cleaned up the routing of the wires).

The high-level input works well and outputs plenty of bass with my setup, but I've just ordered an AudioControl LC2I to convert the high level to line level inputs. This device has a bass restorer that I hope will allow me to better EQ the sub.

 

[JohnG307]

I unplugged the stock subwoofer speaker wires and used this connector to route the wires to the high-level inputs on my amp http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002BEPJY?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00.

Amazon says this harness is not compatible with my 2016 Civic. Does this mean Amazon is a lying liar that lies?

 

[classmarcher]

Amazon says this harness is not compatible with my 2016 Civic. Does this mean Amazon is a lying liar that lies?

Nah...Probably they just simply dont know if the product would fit... but I used the same harness to install my RF P300-12, so yeah it would fit for subs or stock speakers.

I just ordered a Rockford Fosgate P300-10. It's a powered sub and I'll be installing it on Friday. I was wondering which speakers you tapped into for your audio source? Just the current Sub wires? Also did you leave the current Sub connected or did you disconnect it completely.

Hmmm, you'll love that sub! and your car after you put it in... just be mindful of the gain or volume, too much and the rear deck would rattle...

 

[2016TouringSLC]

Amazon says this harness is not compatible with my 2016 Civic. Does this mean Amazon is a lying liar that lies?

It is a perfect fit. Like classmarcher said, the Civic is so new, they're not sure it fits so they don't want to make that affirmative representation. When in doubt, they hedge.

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