2011 Base Stereo Upgrade

[steve_setzer]

I've been working on gathering info and parts for my stereo upgrade project for quite some time. I now have all of the parts gathered and am going to get to work on the install. I'm going to do what I can to present everything here that I'm working on step-by-step along with questions to hopefully come up with a fairly substantial thread on upgrading the base system since there seems to be much more info around on upgrading the HiFi and L7 systems.

A big thanks upfront to VP Electricity for all of his help getting the parts. The first shipment had a damaged speaker due to things shifting around, he took care of it immediately and got a replacement sent for Saturday delivery. Truly amazing customer support and great pricing. I highly recommend talking to him for your component needs - avoid eBay and the risk and go straight to a real professional.

System Components

• Zapco DC 650.6
• Morel Hybrid Ovation II 4" components
• Morel woofers for under front seats
• Rear speakers will be disconnected

The Plan
Mostly I'm looking to do a simple speaker swap inside the car and keep things looking totally stock. I plan on avoiding any modifications that would make it impossible to put the car back to stock when I sell it. I have a surprise in the works for the amp rack in the trunk, more on that later.

[steve_setzer]

So far I've taken out all of the trunk lining, the rear seat, and drivers side rear quarter panel, the rear seat side bolsters, and the driver's side door sills.

More info on how to remove all this can be found here.

A couple additional notes that may be useful:

• I found removing the door sills easiest by starting at the front edge and working back. The back end was much tighter.
• Removing the rear seat site bolsters was a bit tricky. I needed to pull up and then out. There's a hook that seats beside the bolt holding the seat backs in place that needs to be lifted out to release.

I found these boxes (see pictures) in the passenger side of the trunk - any ideas what they are? Sorry about the bad pictures, couldn't get it to focus on the text.

I also found this very well put together example of how to remove the front door panels and tweeter pods.

[steve_setzer]

Tonight I started on the speakers in the front doors. I had already taken the door panels off so it was just a matter of unbolting the stock speakers and bolting up the Morels.

The Morels had come premounted in steel adapter rings that were a great fit on the door, but once I had one bolted on I realized that the speaker could twist and perhaps rattle just a little.

I got some weather strip from Home Depot for about $3. It's 3/8" wide and 3/16" thick. I ran it around the inside ring of the adapter plate and rolled it over the edges. When I put the speaker back in place it was solid - no turning, no room to squeeze side to side any. Not the most elegant of solutions, but it seems to do the trick well.

[steve_setzer]

Reserved for the install in the trunk.

[steve_setzer]

Some questions I still have and haven't seen answers:

• Where is the best place to tie into the existing wires for the balanced line input for the Zapco amp? I need R / L speaker inputs and a 12V power input. I'd like to avoid splicing the wires.
• If I take the passenger seat out and the airbag light turns on will other airbags still work? Also, how can the airbag light be turned back off? I need to drive the car and don't know if I can get the install done in one swoop.
• How important do you think adding sound deadening is do different areas, especially the door panels?
• More to come...

[Dackelone]

Originally Posted by steve_setzer

....I found these boxes (see pictures) in the passenger side of the trunk - any ideas what they are? Sorry about the bad pictures, couldn't get it to focus on the text.

In the first pic the box has a CE & FCC compliance stamps. SO they are some kind of radio transmitter(s).

In the 2nd photo it says: "Passive GO Steuergerate" = "Passive GO control unit or ECU" So it too is some sort of transmitter or reciever too.

Q.) DO you have CA (Comfort Access) option on your car? That would be my best guess.

[steve_setzer]

Originally Posted by Dackelone

Q.) DO you have CA (Comfort Access) option on your car? That would be my best guess.

I do have CA. Good call. There's also another slot in the foam box that these sit in that is probably for something similar that I don't have.

[vp fiberglass]

For the most part, traditional sound deadening (read:dynamat) in that car would be a waste of time, money, and added weight. EXCEPT FOR the door panels. Because the midrange is mounted to the panel itself, it's acting as the baffle. Adding mass to the plastic panel will lower it's resonance. Also might eliminate or prevent some "factory installed" rattles.

[steve_setzer]

Made some more progress tonight. I went ahead and added sound deadening to the door around the speaker. Just got the 2-speaker dynamat extreme kit. Found it online for under $12.

I found a couple more posts that have been helpful seeing how to get things wired up, taken apart, etc.

• 1fastbmw's install
• A giant DIY manual for the underseat woofers
• Info on removing a lot of the trim pieces that need to come off.
• Here's mineo77's install that Ken fixed after some other installer messed it all up with tons of pictures.
• Finally, removing some of the dash pieces.

I found that to get to the hole inside the car that the wires come through I had to first remove the dash trim up under the glovebox (or the steering wheel on the other side) then pull out the plastic kickpanel cover. There are two snaps on the back so it took some force.

To get to the inside of the door where the wires come through I pulled the foam back and cut the sticky black "glue" around the inner portion of the door. I would just pull a little and cut a half inch or so at a time. Once I was done I laid the foam back and pressed and the goo reformed and held things together almost as if I was never there.

[steve_setzer]

Well it appears that the engineers at BMW have been hard at work. My woofers under the front seats are glued into the enclosure. My car was built in 07/2010; if you're considering replacing your speakers under there you may want to have a look and see if your speakers are screwed or glued into place.

[steve_setzer]

Originally Posted by steve_setzer

Well it appears that the engineers at BMW have been hard at work. My woofers under the front seats are glued into the enclosure. My car was built in 07/2010; if you're considering replacing your speakers under there you may want to have a look and see if your speakers are screwed or glued into place.

Apparently this has already been covered. Just needed to pry the speaker out with a flathead screwdriver. Wasn't too hard, but this does make it impossible to simply bolt back the OEM parts to go to stock.

[Sivik30]

So y'all actually got the glue to let loose from these subs? Also, are you using the non-hi-fi? I read somewhere that said there is not a amp running these subs.

[steve_setzer]

Originally Posted by Sivik30

So y'all actually got the glue to let loose from these subs? Also, are you using the non-hi-fi? I read somewhere that said there is not a amp running these subs.

I'm not sure if you'd call it letting loose. More like I pried the sub out of the enclosure, but the sub's frame is fairly bent although the speaker appears to be ok. I doubt it would sound right if I attempted to re-install it.

I'm upgrading from the base stereo, no amp and everything is run directly from the headunit. No tweeters (6 speakers total).

[Sivik30]

Hey Steve,

Where did you find the wires for the two rear speakers to connect the PAC SNI-35 inline converter along with the remote power on for the amp? I am going to be putting my amp in the trunk next the battery and just trying to use the factor sub holes. If you have msn or yahoo where I could directly talk to you, PM me with your contact info.

[steve_setzer]

Originally Posted by Sivik30

Where did you find the wires for the two rear speakers to connect the PAC SNI-35 inline converter along with the remote power on for the amp?

I was actually planning on using a Technic harness from the back of my HU to then splice the Zapco BTL-F into. I figure the less distance between the signal and where I convert it to the balanced input the better to avoid chances for noise to get into the signal. When I get that set up I'll post some pictures.

[VP Electricity]

You should have the SLDIN.BTL speaker-level adapter in the kit. Let's talk tomorrow.

Don't anybody use an SNI35.

[Sivik30]

The SNI-35 is even what CarToys was going to use if I would have let them install it. What specifically is this SLDIN>TL speaker-level adapter ? Do you have any pictures of this? Also, where specifically do I get the remote power on for the amp unless its included in the sldin.tbl speaker-level adapter.

[steve_setzer]

Tonight I got one of the woofers installed into the underseat enclosures.

Parts used this step:

• 3/4" mounting ring provided in kit from MusicarNW
• 4x #10 x 1" screws to mount wood ring to enclosure
• 4x #6 x 3/4" screws to mount woofer to wood ring
• ~18" of 16x4 shielded wiring, using 2 strands each for + / -
• A couple pieces of shrink wrapping
• Some more of the weather strip foam I used before.

I put a strip of the foam under the wood ring between it and the enclosure and another piece between the speaker frame and the ring. This was just enough to lift the speaker off the bottom of the enclosure. Definitely have to be careful not to tighten the screws too much or they'll crack something.

I ran the wire through the hole provided in the ring and soldered it to the speaker, then covered the ends with the heat shrink tubing. Some lessons learned:

• I used the second speaker ring to set the speaker on upside down. I'll use the same ring for the second speaker and then put the wire through the ring after it's connected.
• Taping the wires to the magnet held them in place so there was one less thing to hold.

Once it was all put together I set the grill on top. It looked like the outside part (as it would sit in the car) may rub as the speaker's foam ring moved (I'm not sure how much extension these speakers have, there was a bit of room, but not much). Simple enough to take the dremmel out and grind off some of the underside of the grill.

I got a small soldering iron from home depot, worth the $20 over my big old gun. Also got an automatic wire stripper from radio shack - makes stripping the wires so much easier.

[Sivik30]

I am still unable to get my sub out of the enclosure. I would love to know how specifically you did it. I have tried plying with a large flat screwdriver to no result.

[steve_setzer]

Originally Posted by Sivik30

I am still unable to get my sub out of the enclosure. I would love to know how specifically you did it. I have tried plying with a large flat screwdriver to no result.

Pry harder lol. The screwdriver I used actually wasn't that big, more mid-sized. The smaller head may actually help a little. I basically worked around in circles like you would the lugs on a wheel. Pryed a little until it popped a little, then on the the next spot and repeat. It takes a good bit of force, I was confident it would happen after hearing it could be done so wasn't too concerned about breaking the enclosures.

I'll post more about getting the inputs from headunit to the amp in the next couple days when I have time to get to it (and figure out how to take the headunit out).

[steve_setzer]

Here's a hopefully useful and straightforward step-by-step for removing the headunit. My car has iDrive, this may vary a bit for cars without.

• Starting at the passenger door, remove the piece of dash trim. This is pretty easy to just pull off. See my previous post in this thread for a link to another thread on removing trim.
• Remove the climate control unit. It has two clips, one on either side. A medium sized flathead screwdriver worked pretty well for me to unclip them. Two wire harnesses are connected on the back, unhook and set the control unit aside.
• Remove the trim around the headunit. I found that with both hands along the seam on the bottom that it unsnapped easily. Don't pull from one corner or you may put a crease in it. Once the bottom is unhooked I just slid the screwdriver up the sides until I found a point where it was tighter and a little wedging and it unclipped easily. Set the trim aside.
• There are 4 philips head screws holding the headunit in place, remove.
• Pull the headunit out. I think I'll be able to do the wiring work I need to without actually unhooking it all (mostly the optical / antennae that I don't want to unhook). I just released the main wiring harness.

Once I had this all set out I figured out how the Technic harness plugs in. Next up, splicing in the Zapco high-level to Symbilink converter.

[Sivik30]

Hey,

Prying harder actually worked with getting the subs out. I have installed them and ran the wires. Just trying to figure out where the remote power on is for the standard audio system. Someone said in the middle console close to the cig lighter and aux port. Not sure which wire it could be.