speaker size in 2004 X5

[TheRipster]

i can't get a solid answer as to what the speaker size for the front/rear doors of my 2004 X5 are.... 5.25" or 6.5"????


i want to put 6.5s in, but i don't know if they will fit. i'd really appreciate it if someone who has tried can let me know before i order speakers, only to have to find out they won't fit then send them back!

[TerminatorX5]

the lower speaker on E53 (part # 65138380581) does NOT crossreference to any other speakers in BMW line-up... it only means, that E39 and E53 speakers are not the same parts... could be same size - i have no idea... besides, the e39 was a whole assembly for the speaker, like a box or whatnot...

[TheRipster]

what i was going for when referencing the e39, is that the lower speaker accepts up to a 6.5" speaker, but it was too big for that application. so if that was the case for the X5 as well, i'd rather go with the 5.25"

did you ever beef up your electrical system? i was going to put a fatter wire on the ground terminal of the battery. i'd also like to get bigger wires for the alternator, but i'm not sure how big of a job that would be.

i just don't know if i'll need a capacitor for a system pushing about 1000w RMS

[TheRipster]

also, i was talking to a guy who has been working with car stereo for 20+ years, and he says that using the stock wires is fine because BMW uses twisted speaker wires (which block out interference).

is that true, or should i spend the time/money completely re-wiring everything?

[TerminatorX5]

the biggest alternator that i have seen for the X was at 150A, and the biggest single fuse for the battery is rated at 200A (there are other fuses, like 80A and 50A).

12 V * 150A = 1800 W... so, the car's electrical system is about 1800- 2400 Watts... if you add another 1000W...

regardless of the wires that you will put to the battery and/or alternator, you need to keep in mind the capacity of the battery and the alternator - they can't produce consistently more than what they are rated for... have you considered a separate battery?

[TerminatorX5]

the twisted wire will filter out minor interference - the BMW engineers can use the twisted wires as they carefully calculate the path of every wire, factory and authorised retrofits... when you introduce your own wiring, you face a chance of picking up alternator whine - that whine can't be compensated by the low number of twists in the speaker wires, you need to further isolate the wires from picking up external noise... to do so, you need shielded wiring, with grounded shield - the power to amps needs to be cleaned up, as some amps can't clean it up internally to satisfactory level... as a matter of fact, you can't go wrong with shielded wires, as in coax wires in video applications...

use 1-pair (2-conductor) shielded cable for the power supply...

[TheRipster]

good stuff here, terminator... thank you

i didn't think about a second battery simply because i'm not sure where i'd put it.... would like to have ONLY the subwoofer enclosure out in the cargo area, with everything else hidden.

1) how can i find out how many amps my alternator puts out?

2) would upgrading my main battery do the trick?

[TheRipster]

maybe i could fit a little monster like this right next to my main battery in the spare tire compartment....

https://www.woofersetc.com/p-4575-hc...ower-cell.aspx

then if i had that plus an upgraded main battery, would i need to do anything else to reduce strain on the electrical system?

[TerminatorX5]

800 Amps of current??? at 12V nominal??? it is about 10 kW of power!!! that is some serious power in a very small package...

if i were doing your audio setup with these kind of power requirements, i would definetely look into this particular battery as a second onboard battery. You will also need to consider the charging requirements for this battery, as the onboard alternator from V8 might not be able to put out enough juice to charge both batteries - even the watercooled alternator did not put out enough amperage... Also, I would keep the two power sources independent from each other - you might be looking into a separate charging facility for the little guy...

Ripster, this whole setup is getting on a different level of the engineering design - before going anywhere further, lets see what other members have to say about your setup...

it could be that somebody has done what you are doing long time ago with much less considerations and complications - in my line of work, we do outfit some of our vehicles with a second battery as some of our onboard equipment can pull a lot of juice, and a lot of our work must be redundant, to avoid malfunctions in critical situations - but our critical situations involve matters of life and death... in your case, this is just an Amp... that is why i think that my suggestions might be an overkill in your situation...

Let's see what other folks have to say - i am sure many people are just reading the thread without saying anything...

[TerminatorX5]

as a matter of fact, the manufacturer recommends the KHC1400 model battery for your type of install (Kinetik High Current Power Cells)... they also sell the chargers for their own batteries... the 600 model outputs about 600 Watts and the 1400 model supports 1400 Watts of power - i think their claim of 800 Amps is "burst", not "sustained"... at 1400 Watts, you are still looking at over 100 Amps, so, the battery is really powerful...

it might be worth it looking into this setup, in addition to the car's standard battery, that you should NOT be replacing.