PROPER stealth subwoofer upgrade - '01 Roady

[Blacklane]

BMW uses a white wire as the turn-on sense for the amp. It goes to the head unit and the main amp. If you have an modern aftermarket head unit, it gets tied to the white wire with a blue stripe. The best place to get power for the amp(s) is the battery in the trunk.

I think you're a little misguided on the door speakers. Those are actually the most important ones since they're the closest to your head. Ideally, you want full frequency coverage there, but there just isn't room. Luckily, Dr. Bose discovered that lower frequency sounds do not need to be line-of-sight, so we have a lot more flexibility in placement of lower-frequency speakers with acceptable results. That's why modern systems come with single subwoofers instead of two full-frequency speakers.

Your door speakers have probably broken and fallen into the door, which is why you can't hear them. However you need to replace them with good ones. Modern component speaker come with good tweeters, so you only need to put one each in the doors, not two that came with the car.

You need to get a good set of component speakers. The mid-range will go in the kick-panels and the tweeters will go in the doors. Just glue the tweeters in. You can fit 6.5-inch mid-range speakers in the kick panels if you don't mind cutting metal. There is plenty of depth. Otherwise, 5.25-inch speakers fit right in with no cutting. You might have to cut-out the plastic ring on the inside of the grill covers of the kick-panels. There are several threads here with pictures of that.

You can use all of the BMW speaker wires. There are lots of wire color-code descriptions for the Z3 here and all over the internet. In general, the muted color is the negative side, so if you find blue and gray stripes, gray is the negative. The crossovers for the component speakers will go where the current amp is (so you can re-use the wires) and the new amp will go elsewhere, probably on the front wall of the trunk.

You really only need a 3-channel amp: about 80W each for the front component speakers and about 240W for the subwoofer. Since you already have an amp for the subwoofer, you need a two-channel amp for the front component speakers. I see little need for the speakers behind the seats, but if you do, that would be two more channels.

The problem with the speakers behind the seats are (a) there is very little room for decent speakers and (b) they are blocked by the seats. I have seen quite a few surface-mounted aftermarket speakers but in my opinion, they look cheap and they use up valuable leg room by blocking the seats.

I have really good set of front components and an Integral Audio subwoofer and the system sounds just amazing to me. I can't imagine it being improved by two more small speakers back there.

Be sure to look over this thread for more ideas: http://www.bimmerforums.com/forum/sh...o-installation

[SeaGriff Deca]

Hi Blacklane,

Thank you for getting back to my post, which went through a few iterations as I went along. I have an after market head unit...I didn't see this message until after I took a stab at figuring out the on/off wire.

For the next person trying this:
The white on/off wire (stock) on my sub amplifier harness (stock) did not seem to turn on the new amp (the bundle of wires along the driver's side of the trunk). However, when I patched into the white wire on the main sub harness (the bundle of wires running across the back upper trunk), it worked.

I grabbed power from the red and white wire (stock) coming off the stock sub amp harness. I grabbed ground from the brown wire (stock) coming off the stock sub amp harness. This seems to be working, I'm keeping an eye on it; I think it was just a loose wire, but the power line dropped off for a while until I adjusted it.

I think powering the Kicker properly really helped the interior sound, even with the rest being more or less stock. I'm not a bass nut, so I think that this subwoofer satisfies me, though I had to milk it with various settings.
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I wouldn't be surprised about being misguided given that I'm somewhat clueless about all of this, I appreciate the guidance. I just finished reviewing the discussion you suggested.

I talked with crutchfield and they suggested:
JL Audio JX400/4D 4-channel car amplifier - 70 watts RMS x 4
(Blacklane, you suggested a D class, rather than an A/B. I get now that they are more efficient and run less hot.)

Infinity Kappa 62.11I 150W 6.5-Inch (earlier versions, according to others, have made it in without modification to the kick panel...I figured I could walk it back to the 5.25, if that were the case). It includes a tweeter.

Kicker 41KSC44 4" for behind the seats.

After reading the thread you suggested, I'm now considering the:

IC100 - Focal Integration 4" for behind the seats.

Regarding your suggestion about getting component speakers, I asked them about that and they suggested:
Kicker 41KSS54.

In their opinion, the 'regular' speakers would be comparable to the component speakers.

One of my high door speakers (tweeters?) was broken...which I discovered when I replaced it with the BSW speaker a few weeks ago. The extra tiny upper door speakers seem useless to me. One of my low door speakers was broken too, but I replaced that months ago. So, I know what the thing should sound like when it works.

Thanks for the discussion of the wiring. It doesn't hurt to have it on this thread, given this one is of particular note.

Thanks for the suggestion about 2/3 channel amps. So far, everyone that has come before me has been accurate about this sort of thing, but I think this interior needs as much help as it can get, so I'm probably going to get a 4 channel and power the back speakers as described above. I don't think that they will project all that far into the interior. I will review their depths, however. I'm probably the kind of person that convinced BMW/HK that consumers would respond to having too many speakers in this car.

However, I'd argue that they might be useful if powered more; I can hear the stock speakers when the subwoofer is off in a stock setup.

I'm going to try out the new setup for a bit before I buy more stuff, in case someone (including you) wants to suggest alternate speakers/amps.

[SeaGriff Deca]

I installed the "Kicker 41KSC44 4" seats. They drop into the existing holes easily.

The only difficulty was that the built in tweeter bumps into the circular piece of plastic that supports the screen that goes over the speaker normally. All I had to do was snip it out at the 'rays' that it used to attach to the front plastic piece and the existing cover went over the speaker without impeding it. Of course, I haven't blasted it, so there is the off chance it will hit the screen, but, I believe that is unlikely based on the clearance and the design. So, putting this speaker ends up looking relatively stock.

Aside: when you're wiring into these speakers in the trunk and you look at the chart you'll find floating around the forums, the lines you are looking for are the ones that say something like "right 4" and "left 4".

There are some others that say "right back in" and "left back in." Those are not for these speakers. I spliced into them and caused a miswiring. Annoying.

The easiest way to mount the amplifier, in my opinion, is to bolt a chunk of plastic (plexiglass, etc) on to the existing main amp mount and then mount the new amplifier on that. However, this will lead to little clearance between the new amplifier and the carpet of the trunk. It will also leave open the question of where to mount any crossovers. Other folks have covered this elsewhere, but I'll update with what I ended up doing.

[Quincy1897]

Sorry to resurrect a 6 year old thread, but hoping to get some information. I performed this very stealth sub install when I still owned my '98 Z3 back in the late 2000's/early 2010's. I just bought my father's '99 Z3 and am looking to upgrade the stereo system again. Does anyone know what the part number is for the single subwoofer box is or where I could find one? I haven't been able to find one on ebay so far the past several days that I've looked. I'm also open to other options and suggestions.

Thanks in advance for any help y'all can offer. I'm looking forward to being an active member here again!

[z3forlife]

I’d search salvage yard sites or build you own top firing 6-8” box using the stock lid as a template.

[wcampbelliv]

Sorry to resurrect a 6 year old thread, but hoping to get some information. I performed this very stealth sub install when I still owned my '98 Z3 back in the late 2000's/early 2010's. I just bought my father's '99 Z3 and am looking to upgrade the stereo system again. Does anyone know what the part number is for the single subwoofer box is or where I could find one? I haven't been able to find one on ebay so far the past several days that I've looked. I'm also open to other options and suggestions.

Thanks in advance for any help y'all can offer. I'm looking forward to being an active member here again!

I'm in Rockville MD - Let me looks in my parts bin when I get home - I think I have one of the single ones squirreled away somewhere.

[Quincy1897]

I'm in Rockville MD - Let me looks in my parts bin when I get home - I think I have one of the single ones squirreled away somewhere.

That would be great! Thank you. I’m just outside of Baltimore, maybe we can organize a meet up before the weather gets too cold.


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[kbollox]

I know I have a single speaker sub box - follow up with me if wcampbelliv comes up empty handed.

[wcampbelliv]

Sorry man, the one I have is a double box




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[Quincy1897]

I know I have a single speaker sub box - follow up with me if wcampbelliv comes up empty handed.

kbollox, could you PM with details about how you wanna handle the sub box?

Cooper, thanks for checking for me. I greatly appreciate it.

This is why I love this forum!

[kbollox]

Let me find the box it's in and I'll update asap.

EDIT! - I'll PM you - I have the HK speaker repair kit too fyi.

Found

[kbollox]

kbollox, could you PM with details about how you wanna handle the sub box?

Cooper, thanks for checking for me. I greatly appreciate it.

This is why I love this forum!

me know if the PM gets to you - I can never tell on this forum.

[wcampbelliv]

At least someone else has one they can part with! Best forum on the interwebs.