Custom Subwoofer Enclosure and Amp Installed
 

Subwoofer selected:

Pioneer TS-SW2541D 10" shallow mount which only requires 0.35 ~ 0.7 cu ft. of air space! This enclosure is about 0.45 cu ft so its within spec.

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/St...urearticle.jpg

Amplifier selected:

MTX TC-3001. This amp was just the right size to fit in the equipment compartment. It also has speaker level inputs, smart engage and a remote bass level controller.

http://www.futureshop.ca/multimedia/...r/10076184.gif

About fabricating the enclosure:

A cardboard 3D template was created and adjusted it to make the best use of the area available. Once the shape was determined, fabricating the actual enclosure was fairly easy. 3/4" MDF was used, glued and screwed.


http://s181.photobucket.com/albums/x...C01300_1-1.jpg

Testing the enclosure outside the X5 at loud volumes: There was no buzzing or rattling. Solid, like a rock! When mounted in the compartment, there is very minimal buzzing of the surrounding vehicle assemblies. The shape of the enclosure allows you take advantage of the OEM mounting points with simple brackets.

Specific wiring instructions: Read How to add a sub amp to your factory audio.

Nice!!

how do you calculate the volume of odd shaped enclosures? I'm emulating the JL audio stealthbox in shape and size. I planned to use the same speaker that they do. The only differences would be the thickness of my enclosure..... in some places its 3/8th inch mdf and in some places its about 1/4th inch reinforced fiberglass.....

I used some simple calculations to get the approximate cu. ft.

looks good...
 

What was the total cost?
Total install time?
How does it sound?

Tom

Cost / Time
 

MTX Amp about $150 w/ shipping
Pioneer shallow sub about $110 w/ shipping
2 sheets (2x4 ft) 3/4" MDF at Home Depot about $15
Quality wire for amp power, ground and speaker about $25
Glue, screw, brackets, zip ties etc less than $15

Total Cost: $315 :D

do you have any pics of the enclosure out of the vehicle?

Not too pretty! ...but vibration free, air tight and mounts at the OEM positions.
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...DSC01295_1.jpghttp://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...DSC01298_1.jpg

Nice job :thumbup:

Alpac you are the MASTER! Thanks to you I could easily pull this install off.

:confused:

i am looking for a box like you made, what is the dimentions of the box? how much to make me one :)

That is gorgeous!

Yes please make some plans and post article. I think this could be modified with a fiberglass back to save weight and give more internal volume. What size driver are you using?

10"

Hi

I love your car hope mines looks like yours one day. Had one question on the amp install. Do you have any ground loop issues? Where did you ground everything? I just put in an amp . I am tring to get rid of my engine noise problems. Any advice would be great.

thanks.

If I remember correcly, I grounded it near the green terminal block (behind the back seat and next to the spare tire). I have no engine noise issues.

ZeroChief,

How deep is the upper part of the box (where the sub would go)? I am looking at the JL Audio 8w0, which has a mounting depth of ~4". I noticed that the Pioneer you used is just under 3", and was curious how much clearance you had.

4-5" :thumbup:

Ya, that's what I did for mine. Taped off the area, and used the actual hole as the mold for the fiberglass enclosure. fits nice and tight and i estimate it to be about .6 cubic feet or so.

i made the entire thing fiberglass, with matting on the back and bottom, and fleece on the front. mdf and dowel speaker supports. I would post pictures, but I can't seem to track them down.

Thanks for the info, I'll let you all know how it comes out.

Any progress yet?

Sub box...
 

Wow that is a Nice box you made....:thumbup:... any chance you could post the dimensions so the we could try to make on ..... I really like that box... looks like OEM....

I would like to know the dimensions of the box too :D

Since no one said please yet. Zerochief can you please provide the dimensions of your box?

OK I can post dimensions however the X is in the shop for a while - check back later for detailed measurements :thumbup:

any idea if a 12" sub will fit in this enclosure?

Not in my enclosure! :rolleyes:

lol ;) sorry I just meant in the space. great job on the custom box.

I doubt you can fit a 12" in that space without modification :confused:

any news about the dimensions of the box? :D

sub......
 

Any updates yet regarding the dim. of your custom box........ Please...thanks:thumbup:

Sorry guys..... my X has been in the shop for a while: SES light, coolant leak and infamous selflevel sus inact. Hopefully I can get her back soon and get those dimensions posted.

Hi ZeroChief, any luck with those dimensions yet?

12" sub
 

It is possible to put a 12" sub in that space but you need to modify the floor of the trunk because the sub-woofer box will stick out about 2 inches into the trunk space . In my case, I had to make a new floor to accommodate the 1.2 cubic foot sub-woofer box for the 12" W6 JL Audio sub-woofer (looks very similar to Janix's sub but not as nice since it was a DIY project ;) ) .

Justin.

Do you have a pic? Thanks :thumbup:

12" sub
 

Anybody know how reduce the size of the pictures for posting? Thx.

Justin.

justintmn I upload my pics on photobucket and copy the IMG code to the posting. In photobucket you can resize the image for threads etc:http://photobucket.com/
http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...592AGAIN01.jpg

12" sub
 

Thanks, ZeroChief. Here ya go. Hey, I used to live in Bay Area too (Used to work for Genetech before). I am missing SF a lot :).

Justin.

Wow! Looks great :thumbup:

Thanks. It was Janix's stereo system design that motivated me :).

Zerochief,

Nice job, by the way I finally got the X pipe put on and WOW. I Picked up noticed a increase in HP and Torque! Thanks for the suggestion.

BF

PS. Still want to get together the next time I'm in the Bay Area, would love to check out the new mods to the sound system!

OK great BF! :thumbup: I want to check out that 4.6is Dinan S3 you have :zoom: Let me know next time your down around the bay area :cool:

Zerochief, any luck with the dimensions of this beauty? I have a mod bug and this is next on my list - especially now it is warm enough to have the windows down in the northeast. Thanks.

Guys, I have a question... What if I installed the sub on the external cover without making the enclosure? Would it sound bad?

Good Question :iagree:

Have U gotten UR X5 back from the shop yet ????
any luck sharing the dimensions of UR custom sub box with fellow members we R all waiting ?

Make sure you spec a sub that does NOT require back pressure like this one:

http://www.pioneernz.co.nz/Site/Pron...s/TSSW841D.jpg
TSSW841D PIONEER 20CM SHALLOW
SUB 500W WATTS MAX
20cm (8") diameter shallow subwoofer for enclosure of "free-air" use
Power handling of 500 watts ensures great bass from very little space
Unique "Air-Suspension" design uses two cones to reduce overall depth
to only 75mm without compromising performance
http://www.pioneernz.co.nz/Site/Pron...s/TSSW841D.PDF

OK members I finally have my X back but have not had time to pull the box out.

OK members I finally have my X back but have not had time to pull the box out.[/quote]


Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...... :cheer:we can't wait......

This is what I did with my second attempt at adding a sub (current setup), however I used a regular sub, not like what ZC recommended. I Dynamatted the entire "cavity" behind the door. Sounded good for a little while but now it is starting to rattle - not sure if it is the sub or that I have finally worked things loose.

what type of dvd player is that in there - factory? or did you add that?

Any chance you can get us the dimensions for the box?

Bump, Any chance of the dimensions? Cheers

By now its clear that the chance of sharing the dim. for the sub. box is highly unlikely, otherwise the other members who have built the custom box would of posted the dim. a while ago......:damn:

OK I finally pulled the enclosure out and measured it:

Wow, all those angles are crazy! Must be a nice close fit in the occupied space back there. Nice work!

Man, It's about time!!! (And), just in time, too!! I'm doing the final revisions on my box - hopefully will be installing it in 2 to 3 days......(it's still below zero windchill outside).

Thanx again for posting the dimensions!!! ;)

Know anyone in the market for a nice X5 OEM subwoofer enclosure.....excellent resale value appeal! :)

hey G. build me one while you at it.;)

now people can see why it was not so easy to simply measure the thing and post the dimensions.

If you cannot take the measurements I do not think you will be building this box :p:

....ha-ha-ha this box couldn't begin to touch the quality of the systems that your X has! (but) you can here how it sounds when I'm down there in my old stomping grounds, (Pennsylvania and Fort). :thumbup:

What's the best choice for upgrading the OEM speakers (not the subwoofer), Stage 1?

no actually we don't see why its so difficult to simply measure the "thing" and post the dimensions, unless you don't own a measuring tape :yawn: or just don't want to share that type of info. with fellow members...... I think its the latter,from past exp. :confused:

Hey sleepless have you constructed an enclosure yet? I don't see how its so difficult to measure the compartment and come up with your own design. I did. Also FYI: I could care less about keeping this enclosure dimensions a secret... after I installed the box there it sat until I pulled it out the other day. Thats just the way it is - no conspiracy :rofl:

Yup.... Thanks to Essam & Dib's dimensions I have built the sub box........ as far as the conspiracy .... I never mentioned anything remote to a conspiracy ( just a dimensions like others have ) but if you feel like you have conspired then that's all up to you ....

I like very much the design of the sub-box but i have a little question regarding the installation in the car: How do you fix the box in the trunk? I drive on very bumpy roads and i need a good method to hold the box in it's place.
www.autoimprove.ro

The shape of the enclosure allows you take advantage of the OEM mounting points with simple "L" brackets. It won't budge.

Sorry to sound needy, but I don't suppose you have pics from before it was painted? These measurements are awesome, but it'd be nice to see where the seams are for the measurement and proper screwing points for each panel.

I don't have any pics before painting, sorry. :dunno: However I did contemplate different joints while I was making it. I can tell you that I made the sides first, then wrapped them with the front and back pieces. PM me with your email address and I will send you large size, hi res pics of the different angles that should give you and idea about the seams. I made my design "on the fly" with a Mag 77 skill saw one day so perhaps you could come up with a better joint system. Probably should of used my table saw :confused: ... maybe next time. If you just copy this enclosure I can tell you that it is rock solid just the way it is. :cool:

-ZC

Ironically I found these pics AFTER I started having a friend make an enclosure for me. When I had 1st gotten this SAV, I looked in there and figured there wouldn't be much room for anything at all. I remembered BSW, so I took a look at their website. When I saw their little enclosure (what was VISIBLY exposed), I thought it was only something small like under a square foot total. I thought I was all cool after we measured the left compartment (non-DSP, Navi, etc) and we were able to find like .03 more cubic ft. I had my friend make one box, but he accidentally made it exactly backwards :wow: So he starts re-measuring, makes one correctly for the left side, and we're all good. I was going to put the amp into the little pocket on the right side of the cargo area. So today I just happened to start looking on YouTube and watched the actual videos of the BSW installation...then I realized how much more room was in the right side once you removed that panel!! I had no idea that that little panel was hollow underneath it! Now I see how much more airspace I can get by swapping the box to the right side, so you're writeup w/ pics and measurements is a blessing :thumbup: At this point were so deep into the week, i'm probably just going to wait till I get home and fabricate the box myself. I'm still going to have him help me cut and cover the panel hole for the subwoofer to fire through since he's already made the trim ring that will mount on the panel face.

Since the 8" subwoofer Technical Specifications - RE AUDIO is in the mail, i've been using the MTX amp MTX JackHammer Amplifiers in the meantime to test it by powering a homemade box w/ a Sony Xplode 12" that I usually use in my work truck.

I have seen like three different variations of subwoofer boxes now, but my biggest concern is total airspace so I can attempt to make the enclosure ported. Has anyone actually taken measurements of all three boxes and determined which is larger volume wise? I'd love to hear which would the largest. I could probably figure it out, but i'd slowly lose more of my hair trying to figure it out :yawn:.

So after talking to my box building friend (went to school and everything for it) he says that since these X5 boxes in general are so small and don't have lots of large flat areas, that we're fine using 1/2" instead of 3/4" in order to get the most internal airspace. I personally am going to see if we can get the required .35-.5 cu/ft of airspace so I can port my 8" sub Technical Specifications - RE AUDIO and really get more sound from it. To answer my own question, all airspace measurements below are internally and using 1/2" MDF to calculate airspace. I've listed them from in order from easiest to hardest to make.

Essam's comes out to .035 cu/ft. Essam estimated .05, we came up w/ .53...but that is externally...we need to worry about internally.

Dib's comes out to .36 or .32 based on whichever design you chose to use. (per his measurements, so we didn't recalculate because they sounded pretty accurate)

Zerochief - as you know, you're box optimized spacing the most since you've got soo many cuts so it goes into every nook and cranny. After LOTS of clicks on the mouse and subbox building software, it came out to .41 cu/ft.

Unfortunately I still won't be able to port it because the port would just have to be too long (2" round x 9" long), it'd be too close the the internal walls, and it'd give lost of port noise:( Sealed is the still the way to go still. When we first started this project we made the simple .3 box that would go into the left hand compartment. He's currently making me a .413 box just to prove a point that while Zero's box is the best and most utilized, my builder claims that I probably won't notice the difference between the two since this box is so small as is. Ported would make the biggest difference, but it just can't happen while trying to keep it stealthy behind the panel.

Either way, kudos to those who took the big step and created these...I wish I would have done more research before hand, but at least i'm still only into this project for like $160 completed.

:( Hit the damn back button halfway through, so i'm re-writing ALL of this again. Anyways....

So I spoke w/ Michelle, and it appears I need to be a Premier member in order to post on the For Sale forums since they've had issues in the past w/ fraudulant users/spammers posting in there. I'm selling this stuff for cost, and the membership is half the price of the stuff itself, so Mods, please don't delete this post.

I'll basically tell the story of how this all came about to what got me here, and where I am now. When I first looked in the back of the X, I noticed initially that the left side compartment (I have no navi, etc) was larger than the right side. My friend and I measured each area and concluded that we could make a simple square enclosure for the left side that would be slightly larger than the left side. I thought we were so cool figuring this out. The 1st box he made, he made exactly backwards, so now i've got two boxes, one for the left and a matching one for the right. I'd like to sell both if possible, so PM me if you'd like to see pics of these boxes. Once they're painted and I see the mods haven't deleted my post, i'll photobucket the photos and attach them to this post.

Well as he was making the (correct :) ) left side box, I was browsing around here and Google to try and find out how to wire this thing. I came across the BSW videos and noticed the actual size of the enclosure....dee dee dee on my part! Now, as noted above, we measured and calculated everyones boxes, and Zerochief's came out to be the closest in size to the stock, BSW or JL boxes. Like I said, my installer made me a quick box to test his idea that basically w/ the boxes all being this small, I wouldn't notice the difference between my two .3 cu/ft boxes and the .41 box that Zerochief has made. He was right, but at this point, if I go w/ Zero's design, I can upgrade to a 10" and get all that much more bass from my amp setup.

The dual voice coil 8" that I posted links for above can handle 175watts RMS, but my monoblock amp can easily put out 300watts RMS. Now I know that even going to a 10" w/ a larger enclosure isn't going to get me to what I have in the 7, but it'll be closer. So i'd like to see if anyone is interested in purchasing either box, sub, or both. I paid about $35 per box, so is anyone interested in having a sub and box for say, $50 shipped?

Just let me know if you have navi or anything in the left side compartment before hand so I can make sure to ship the correct box based on whichever side you're going to install the enclosure. As for the amp, i'd honestly buy the same one from the link I posted above. It's a great little amp, monoblock is best if you wanna run a dual voicecoil speaker, and it rocks for being only around $80 w/ that much power. If you need help installing, wiring, etc, I'm always willing to help. I'm a newbie here, but i've been all over Bimmerforums, Bimmfest, DTMPower, 5Driver, Roadfly, etc etc for years, so I like helping and using the forums for what they're designed for imho...to help others save money and DIY'selfers.

So, i've got a left and right side fitted box, $35 plus shipping for each if sold individually. Then all you'd need is a $16 wiring kit from WalMart and the $80 amp listed above, or something else if you don't like that one.

EDIT : We've also already made a trim ring that can be covered in carpet and mounted on the face of either left or right side panel should you decide that you wanna cut the face of the panel open. Please let me know if you plan on doing this or not though, otherwise i'll sell it w/ the other enclosure. Also, to whoever buys just the blank enclosure, I'll throw in a free 8" DVC sub that my buddy yanked from his old home theater enclosure. He gave it to me as a tested until my RE sub came in the mail. It's not nearly as good as the RE sub, but for someone who has absolutely NO BASS right now, everything is an improvement...and free is affordable :thumbup:

These pics are w/ the boxes unfinished. I'm going to paint them tomorrow w/ a rubberized coating so it won't rattle while sitting inside either compartment. I'll redo these pics, but I wanted to put these up in the meantime. Sorry for the size btw, I use Avant Browser and it lets me enlarge or reduce any pics on websites like this one.

Hey Zero, what did you do about the gas door lock mechanism that is behind the right side panel? Honestly i doubt i'd ever need it, so I wonder if you could increase the airspace even more by just deleting that whole mechanism and bending that bracket back and forth till the spot welds break off. That little area is like 2" deep, 6" long and 4" high.

Also, can you still send those high res pics to [email protected]. Thanks.

Looks really good!

Thanks, it'll look better this evening. Surprisingly, still no bites though. Trust me, this little guy sounds good, so for the price, i'd have thought they'd be snapped up sooner. Maybe after the newer and cleaner looking pics...

So one box is coated and ready to go. The other one I will also do if the buyer wants it coated the same way. It's just a simple rattle can type of rubberrized coating.

Ironically, the no name sub sounds good also :D I imagine it can't handle nearly as much power as the RE sub, but for $35 plus shipping, it's a hell of a start. The other one is still $85 plus shipping. They've both been filled w/ about 4-5 ounces of polyfill to help the sub "feel" like it's in a larger enclosure. These pics were taken moments ago.

So 20 minutes and $10 later, i've coated both inner compartments w/ spray on sound deadener. I coated the left side for using either sub I have now till it/they sell, then the right side for the Zero box that i'll be making once the smaller boxes sell.

james,

you are doing it the right way :thumbup:
but how comes you do not have "anything" in the left compartment?!

Thanks Essam. All i've got over there is the amp, which is tucked down parallel to the sparetire. I did have to slightly trim a bracket that is part of the bracket the holds the amp so I could slide the sub inside the opening, but it took 10 seconds w/ my Dremel. If you look at the pics of the sub enclosure installed, you can see where the fresh metal cut it between the box and the amp.

My X didn't come w/ navi or a cd changer, so i've got all that room over there. Once I build the larger enclosure for the right side, i'm going to use the left side for loose items so they don't have to be moving around in the cargo area. That's part of my issue when selling either of these boxes is that some people don't have an open cargo area on the left if their X came equipped w/ more features than mine.

So, in my relentless pursuit of perfection, i'm still on the fence as to which would be the subwoofer of choice. I've since returned the RE 8", but since then have been all over the highway as to which would be the best sub to use. I really wish I could hear Zerochief's or a similar setup before I rule out the shallow woofer, but at this point it seems to be the one that people on this thread are happy with.

http://forum.soundillusions.net/30-c...91327&posted=1

I just spent an hour of work time reading all the post of the other website... Very educational :D

So, if you didn't have this credit issue with the company you purchased the 1st sub from which sub would you go with?

Thanks
E

After talking to the guys over on SI and my buddy suggestion, I decided to stay w/ the L5 8". Depending on if I do the Zerochief box (.45 cu/ft) or my slightly larger addition added to the face (.70 roughly), more that one person suggested that I'd be better off using the 8" (which only requires between .33 and .75). The general consensus is that it's better to use the 8" and give it more room to breathe instead of say using the 10" (which requires .65 to 1.0) and having it sitting at almost the bare minimum of it's requirements. Trust me, for bragging rights alone I wanted to get the 10", but I'm going to listen to these guys suggestion that these subs will perform better in more airspace as opposed to a tighter box.

The newer L5's (black face, not the silver) can be found all over ebay for $75 shipped w/o a warranty. Unfortunately I had to pay $95 for mine to use up the credit, but I only had to pay the $42 difference and I get a 1yr warranty, which I could really care less about.

did you look at the MTX TT6510-02 Thunder Thin 10" 2 Ohm Subwoofer
http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/...500_AA240_.jpg

I think i can get a deal on these from a local stereo wearhouse... maybe $300 for amp & sub....
The amp i was looking at was a Hifonics Zeus ZXI 1010
2 x 250 W @ 4 Ω
2 x 500 W @ 2 Ω
1 x 1000 W @ 4 Ω
http://www.hifonicsusa.com/images/amps/ZXI1010.jpg

Thanks for the input

My MTX JH300 Car Audio Amplifiers - JackHammer JH300 | MTX Audio(paid $89, guy happened to be selling it locally when I was visiting family in Seattle) amp is only 2ohm stable and the Kicker L5 8" (paid $99 for mine, but Ive seen the 08+ version for as low as $75) I got is a 4ohm dual voicecoil sub, so they're both a perfect match being 300RMS/600Peak when pulled down to 2ohms.

I looked at a lot of thin subwoofers, but after doing vague searches on opinions using Google, they just seem to not quite hit the same deep notes a normal woofer can, which makes sense since they have limited excursion. If staying w/ the size of the box that ZeroChief created, a thin isn't the only option. Essam's box doesn't have the complex cuts and depth, so a 10" thin woofer might be the only option unless someone goes down to an 8".

Well I gonna try out the the set up mentined before with the Zero box.
Unless I can find another sub at the stereo wearhouse tomorrow...

I'll buy equipment & install electronics tomorrow.
Build box & install sub friday...

I'll let you know how it goes... :D

:thumbup: Honestly, they all probably sound fine. As long as I can feel it, i'm happy.

My sub won't arrive till Tuesday, but I should probably start building the box in the meantime...maybe this weekend.

Kicker L7 sub in factory sub box
 

I was going to build a wood box, but thought I could never maximize the airspace that the factory plastic box has.

I measured the volume and I believe it was around .53~.55 cu ft so it was a perfect fit for an 8" woofer.

Cut the face of the box off, fit a piece of MDF to it, fiberglass'd it on, and bolted in the subwoofer.

Just did a quick and dirty job cause no one will ever see it.

I was so tempted to stuff a 10" woofer in there.. but it would have been choked.

Sounds great... hits harder than I ever thought an 8" would.

I highly recommend it! :thumbup:

You're lucky to have the stock sub enclosure to build from. I looked at the L7, but the L5's power rating matched my amp better, along w/ the L7 requiring more minimum airspace, so I couldn't really justify the $40 difference. I'm glad your happy w/ it, I'm hoping I'll be just as happy w/ mine. Have you played w/ polyfill at all in the past? I'm curious if I should even attempt it since I'm not exactly a stereo tuner, so I wouldn't know what it should or shouldn't sound like even if I did it.

Is it Friday yet? :stickpoke :D

Yea, I have polyfill in there.... makes the speaker think the box is bigger.

Plus it being plastic, it will help it from being tinny or vibrate alot.

I always use polyfill in my boxes. If I'm close to the proper volume, just a bit, if it's undersized, then alot more :D

Here's some good info: Ultimate Polyfill Subwoofer Enclosure Resource [audiojunkies]

Great link. So did you actually recalculate his dimension down to the size of our boxes to determine how much should be put in there? Looks like a certain amount helps out greatly, but if someone goes overboard, it actually makes things worse.

So you didn't actually make an enclosure, but instead you just mounted the woofer onto the removeable panel and let it kinda of be a freeair setup? Do you have pics of this? I think it's an interesting idea as long as you mildly seal up air leaks that go into the spare tirewell, etc.

Infinite baffle setup then X5Dawg?

KidSquid, you're definately luck to have that stock enclosure. After looking at how well it uses all the little gaps, I wish I had one to use.

Today I spent about 5hrs total today working on the open space where the enclosure is going to go, cutting metal edges to give me more room, trimming stock plastic pieces, rewiring the amp to the other side, and making a cardboard version of the Zero's box for the hell of it - jesus there is a lot of room being wasted w/ that box!!! I spent about 2-3 of those hrs starting from scratch, making my own templates and fine tuning all the cardboard, making sure the box could be removed. The sub is supposed to arrive tomorrow, then I've still got to take my cardboard templets and convert them to the wood. I was half tempted to do 1/2" MDF all around as to not waste internal volume, but then I decided to use 3/4" on just the sides, then wrapping the side pieces w/ 1/2" on all the fronts, tops, bottoms, etc. so I've at least got a thicker materials to screw into.

sub enclosure and amp for sale
 

it is with great sadness that i am trading my x5 hopefully to get another! anyway, i have the pioneer sub, alpine amp and enclosure for sale. its built to the specs in essams threads and is awesome. if you search this thread you can see the pics i posted. I will take $300 for the whole deal shipped to US or maybe Canada. please email me if interested. [email protected]. please dont send a pm as i dont check this often.

Bump for Bimmernoob and X5dawg

Depending on the price after shipping, I might be able to get my hands on a factory subwoofer enclosure and do the same thing you have done. I finally relocated and rewired my amp this evening, but I have yet to finish the templates of the custom MDF enclosure I was going to make. I made a cardboard version of Zero's box, but it left a lot of room around side. I'm hoping that if I can get my hands on the factory enclosure, I'd do the same fiberglass/MDF combo you've done, along w/ enlarging the left, upper rear corner since I removed my gas door lock, so I'd fiberglass a bumpout for that extra bit of airspace.

How much, if any, polyfill did you stuff in there? I got the L5 instead of the L7, so I know it'll fit for sure after you posted up your initial pics :)

Not that much... as a guess I'd say loosely filled bottom 2/3 of the way and the top about 1/3ish. I just wanted to slow down the waves to quiet down any noise from the enclosure being plastic.

Sorry it took so long to get back to you...

It's funny, I actually get alot of PM's about this... maybe I should start a new thread with my info heh... :D

It's all good, I'm still waiting for a guy to reply to me about buying his factory enclosure. Did you reinforce it at al? I just wondered if there would be any benefit in placing some bracing inside and maybe even scuffing the exterior and putting a layer or two of fiberglass on it.

X5 Subwoofer Box
 

Hi All,
Just started reading through the thread and I'm just wondering if anyone has thought of using the driver side compartment where the factory amp/cd setup is. I've already got rid of the factory cd changer in favor of an ipod 2point5 kit see this link: BMWE53V2IPKG. I've got a Jl 10w6v2 and I'm considering using mdf to replace the factory cover for the compartment. I figure I can relocate the factory amp and use the entire compartment which is definetly larger than the one on the passanger side (no fuse box, no fuel latch). Also, I figure I can remove the plastic block used to hold the spare tire compartment cover in favor of more box space. If I carpet it to match the interior it should be pretty good. Also, there are a couple of factory screw holes for mounting near the top of the compartment (to the left and right of where the factory compartment cover's latch is).

any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, I'll post pics as the project unfolds...

BTW. I've got the factory non-dsp non nav system. I'm in the process of doing a complete gut saving only the factory head unit (love the factory look and my steering wheel controls).

Here's the list of gear I currently have:

Front speakers: DLS iridium 6.3 3 way seperates
Rear Speakers: DLS iridium 6.2 2 way seperates
LOC (to convert high level signal from factory amp): Rockford 3sixty.1
Subwoofer: JL Audio 10w6v2 DVC
Amp 1 (Front/Rear): Old School PPI Art Series 404x (4x100)
Amp 2 (Sub): Jl Audio 500/1

Total Gear cost: About $2500 (The PPI is really old and I've had it for a long time, I forget what I paid but for those in the know, there is no substitute)

Using the passenger side compartment is easier and has the same amount of space w/o the need to relocate the amp. I hope you're not making the same initial mistake I did which is not realizing that there is also room under the floor. Search for some of the other subwoofer enclosure threads on here and you'll see what I mean. I don't see any benefit of relocating everything from the drivers side to the passengers side when both compartments are identical to each other. The fuse box takes up minimal space above the enclosure, and I removed my fuel door latch and the welded bracket (just wiggled back and forth till it came off) to make a hair more room for my total internal volume.

RE:
 

thanks James,
I wasn't anticipating using the space under the floor as extra enclosure space so much as a good place to use the factory screw posts as added support for the enclosure. Also, I plan on using mdf to re-create the factory hatch, have you tried this? if so how did you secure the bottom of the hatch (i.e. my thinking using the factory posts underneath the plastic piece on the side. I figure I can put some felt or something underneath it so it won't rattle. As far as using the driver's side, I'm eliminating the factory amp and housings anyway so it's no big deal using this side. I'm still not sure If the AM/FM tuner located in the tire well is directly connected to the head or if it runs off of the factory amp, haven't taken it apart yet to see. Also, I plan on using the Passanger side to mount my amps as they are too big to fit on the factory rack on the drivers side and I don't think they'll fit in the tire well. Side note: Have you experienced any problems with the electrical system in the car. I've heard that the computers in these things are a little touchy and adding a 70-100 amp draw sounds scary....Any suggestions...deep cycle battery/gel cell?

I haven't gutted the trunk area of my X for a few months, but if we're talking about the same thing and making an enclosure similar to the size of BSW's, then you could make your own enclosure and put it on either side since you're ditching the factory setup. I removed the factory amp and rewired all 14 speakers locations in my 740iL...it was hell, but I got it.

You mentioned that you're planning on keeping the factory deck so you can use the steering wheel stereo controls, so I don't know how you plan on being able to do that, unless I missed something. I'm not sure how the tuner works, if it's independant or intergrated into the stock deck since I'm bone stock in the X and completely custom in the 7.

The electrical system in BMW's have and always will be hell, but I haven't had any problems in my 7. I run a 1500watt monoblock MTX 81000D amp running a single DVC RE Audio 12" in a huge box, no cap, and it runs w/o a problem. It's convenient that the battery is located in the back, so your amp will love the short current path of power. I'd just make sure to use screen 7 (I think) on the OBC and monitor the battery voltage if you suspect your system is giving you gremlins after you get it up and running. I still run the factory BMW battery in the X, but the 7 had a Duralast (Autozone) 69D (I think) battery...similar CCA and size, longer warranty and only cost like $90.

thanks again,
I'm using something from rockford fosgate called the 3sixty.1 here's the link: http://www.rockfordfosgate.com/products/product_details.asp?cat_id=1&series_id=49&family_i d=50&item_id=106185&locale=en_US&p_status=[/URL]

It will let me take the signal from the head unit sum up all of the cut frequency's and process them via a laptop add on program so that I can send a clean pre-amp out signal to my aftermarket amps. The cool thing about this thing is I can adjust the levels of each individual speaker via a laptop....pretty cool....

As far as the enclosure goes, I've made up my mind to go with MDF, I'm actually creating a template for the front cover while I'm writing this. The spot I am referring to is the plastic piece located under the floor cover that is held in by 2 plastic 10mm nuts. I plan on making a flange on the bottom of the front face of the enclosure and drilling a couple of hole to utilize the bolt posts that come out of the chassis. I'm guessing these along with the two bolts at the top (the ones that hold the fuse box on the pass side) should be enough to secure the box. I'll let you know how the mock-up I'm currently making works out. Will send pics if it works , when its done....:doh:

Damn bro, that thing looks like it could be fun or a headache. Keep us posted for sure. My box is basically a custom made version of Zero's custom box, just made larger to fit super tight and to use up the space from where the fuel door locking mechanism was.

Sub Upgrade to 10" using factory amp?
 

Does anyone know the facotory amplifier's power output (watts) to the subwoofer? My '05 has upgraded sound with DSP, sounds good, except the bass from the factory 2x 6.5" subwoofers is a little light, I was thinking of modifying the factory sub enclosure to house a relatively low power dvc 10" subwoofer, driven by the factory sub amplifier ouput. If that works, great, but if the oem amp can't power the sub properly, I can always upgrade to an after market amp at a later date.

Any thoughts?

Don't know the power rating on that but I'm sure a decent aftermarket will provide much better output, especially since the factory is only pushing 2-6" drivers. The 10" will need significantly more muscle to move it properly.

Getting back to the enclosure I was making.........MDF is simply not an option if you want to maximize the space in the rear cargo holds and use a normal sized subwoofer . It doesn't make any sense to me to go through all of the trouble to create a sub enclosure for a slim mount if the net gain isn't all that much. Therefore, I've succumbed to making a fiberglass enclosure (first one) but it's gonna have to wait until the temps warm up a bit.

Some have just taken the stock enclosure, cut the face off and fiberglasses a piece of MDF on in order to mount a 8"-10" sub. Many people keep asking about going up to a 12", but a good 8"-10" in the right airspace will always sound better than a 12" in too little airspace. If you're going to go through all the trouble, just pick up a nice 300 something watt monoblock amp like I did for $80.

I've only completed half of my enclosure using think cardboard to make a template, but it's definately going to be creative trying to make it as large as possible and routering the edges so I can still slide it in and out. I've considered using a plastic bag and expanding foam to give me something to mold fiberglass too, but I haven't decided if I wanna try that yet.

Actually James,
I've already got all of my gear. I've got a jl 500/1 to power a jl 10w6v2D4. Xtant A4004 (Bridged) to power my front's DLS iridium 6.3's, PPI (old School A404.2) Bridged to power the rear's. I'm keeping the factory head and using the Rockford 3sixty.2 as my LOC. I've also removed the CD changer in favor of a spec.dock 2point5 (ipod in the ashtray). I've got to get this damn sub done first.......Cool thing is I've found that I can use the factory mounting brackets so the glass box won't rattle. Unfortunately, I'm looking for a heated garage I can use for a couple of days to do the glass work. none of my friends want me stinking up their spaces:(. As I said I will post pics when we get started. BTW do you know if removing the stock amp all together will screw up the AM/FM tuner and antenna? Non DSP/non NAV

James, don't use the foam!!!!!!! I tried an experiment last week and what a disaster.... The foam needs to be in contact with the air to harden. Therefore, the outside of the foam hardened and the part against the car did not harden after 3 days...... I used plastic bags and duct tape and it was still a major mess. BTW make sure u use gloves with that stuff....it doesn't come off once it dries.

To be honest, since I removed my amp and deck completely, I'm not sure how it will work out for you. You using that Rockford LOC thing is a cool idea, but completely new to me...guess you'll be our beta tester ;)

I figured it would be a complete mess to be honest. I think Weasel suggested it, and while I've used it before, I figured it would cause quit the headache since it's going to basically go into places I didn't even want it to. I've got emails to like 3 people in regards to their old factory sub enclosures, and while I don't think it's the most solid enclosure being thin plastic, I'm too lazy :yawn: to finish what I started w/ my enclosure. If I never end up getting my hands on a factory enclosure, I'll finish my MDF enclosure once it's not 30* in my garage anymore :stickpoke<---mother nature.

So I got a (free, minus $20 shipping) stock enclosure in the mail today, figured out how BMW wired the DVC subs by battery testing the signals, and hooked it up into the X using my current amp....WHAT A JOKE!!! My current dinky little generic 8 that was given to me sounds better than this thing! I'll give BMW credit for using DVC subs, but dual 6.5's...c'mon. So anyways, I felt around the box, and I can't believe how much wasted space there is around the enclosure. The back of the box got cracked in a corner during shipping, along w/ me needing to fiberglass the MDF face on anyways, but I'm thinking that I'm also gonna fiberglass these indentations and make them bigger as well. It's already got foam type stuffing in there...should I remove it and use real polyfill?

The L5 8" wants like .33-.75 airspace, and even though you said it measures out to like .5, but bigger the better, right? For those who don't have this enclosure, the 1st pic is where the airvent is for closing the hatch/door so you're ears dont pop. There is still plenty of room behind it if I unrecessed that and made it flush w/ the rest of the enclosure. The 2nd pic is for the fuel door locking mechanism, which I removed long ago when I was still fabricating a box from MDF and trying to find as much space as possible. The 3rd pic, I have no idea what that's for and it's not touching anything. The 4th pic is so you don't have to remove the enclosure to get access to the taillight bulbs. I'd rather go for the greater good and get airspace that I can use daily over function that I use once every couple of years. I know it'll be more work, but I still wanted your .02 before I started fiberglassing this week.

Very nice. I'm looking forward to seeing how your enclosure mod turns out. I am planning the same mod when it warms up.

IMO all the speakers in the e53 need to be replaced. Mine is an '05 with premium and dsp, I recently faded the audio to each corner of the vehicle with bass turned up, treble down, and found that 3 of 4 6-1/2"s are blown. So I just purchased 2 6-1/2" MB Quart component sets (MB Quart Premium PVI216, $119 each set on Amazon).

I took apart my right rear door panel (followed BSW online video instructions which were very helpful), removed both the 2-1/2" and 6-1/2" mid to take measurements...getting the new speakers in the stock locations will certainly not be easy; will require modifying the speaker mounting assy's. The 6-1/2"s especially will be difficult to work with, the factory cowling is basically part of the speaker, notice the speaker leads are built into the outer plastic tube. Looks like I will have to destroy the factory speakers just to get them out of the plastic cowling. The 2-1/2"s are going to be replaced with tweeters in the rear doors. I will have to look more closely when the new speakers arrive, but I suspect this install won't be too bad.

I included a pic of the two rear door speakers. They appear to be good quality drivers, but I imagine the upgrades will be night and day. Also included a pic of my Nakamichi amp standing by ready to install if the factory amp can't power the new speakers.

Why not make a negative 2 piece mold of this , fill in the area you want to expand, then lay it up with fiberglass, 100% with a 1/4 baffle

Isn't that 2.5" speaker a mid, not a tweeter? In my 7, there are tweeters in the rear door, and seeing that I sit so far back (6'4"), those tweeters are like right in in my ear, completely ruining the front stage.

2-1/2"s possibly a full range type, intended for all freq range between that of the 6-1/2"s and the tweeters mounted in the front A-pillars. However, BMW may have them crossed above bass frequency, with no ceiling, in which case they would be serving both mid and treble duties, with the tweeters in front contributing to the highs. Same speaker in the dash as the rear doors. Tweeters are soft dome type.

When I replace all speakers, I will not be using the dash 2-1/2"s, just mids and tweeters (A-pillars) in the front, same story for rear doors. Highs in rear adjusted to not interfere with staging.

I've never laid fiberglass, so I think it's going to enough work for me just to cutoff the face to mount the MDF piece, along w/ the areas I wanna expand...I'm just trying to make sure I make the cuts in the right places, then lay the fiberglass just right so that it lays over the new shapes the way I'd like it to.

I place the jL stealth box in my 4.8 ans it pounds I love it but the cover rattles like crazy does anyone have any suggestions to mod this cover to avoid rattles?

The cover to the compartment access? I assume the sub is hitting the plastic on the back of that cover. I think in the BSW sub install instructions it indicates to trim some of the plastic of the back of it.

Ya I trimmed all the rivits and fins and shoved two sided foam tape on all the edges to try and make it a tight fit but to no luck..........Was just curioius what others have done..sureley I am not the only one

Sending you in circles to your own thread :) http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...d-rattles.html

Thanks bro

Does anyone know what degrees the table saw was set at for the angled cuts?

If you are referring to the box in the back of my X I used a plastic angle guide I bought at Home depot for like $5 to get the angle. I figure everyone's truck is a little different so this should make it foolproof

I'm actually referring to zerochief's design. His enclosure isn't exactly the conventional square design. There's an area in the front and back that requires some angled cuts for the wood to attach perfectly. I was wondering if anyone remembered what angles they were.

I've never made enclosures before but willing to give this an attempt...

Another question, does zerochief's dimensions already take in account for the 3/4" thickness of the MDF? or should I subtract them when cutting the pieces

Since Zero's pictures show measurements on the outside of the box, one would assume that's the total measurement. The only thing you need to be aware of is that the size pieces are 1.5 smaller than the measurements since the all the front, top, bottom, back pieces are all screwed into the sides. I made a duplicate of Zero's box in cardboard, and while it's a great design, it's similar to the stock enclosure in that it doesn't use every drop of possible space. I'm guessing this is so it can be installed and removed easily.

I started completely from scratch using cardboard to make my own enclosure and Zero's box could fit inside of my own design. I never finished making the top portion 100%, and my dimensions would have probably been a feet in itself to make the cuts and still have it fit, but I was going for as much total interval volume as possible. I may finish the MDF version, but in the meantime you can see that from my post #113 that I'm going to take a stock enclosure and enlarge it in certain areas and see how it sounds. If the modified stock enclosure isn't enough, then I'll go back to the MDF enclosure and take measurements for those who want more airspace like I do.

thanks for the reply. Hopefully I'll have everything measured and cut correctly when I start the project this weekend.

Yea I saw the project you've been working on.

I was thinking about filling the bottom 8" portion of zerochiefs design with polyfill to makeup for the small volume.

Other than the 10" pioneer shallow sub will the Kicker L5 8" fit?

I think so. If I remember correctly, Zero said he has like 5"-6" of depth, so a shallow isn't really necessary. Google has opinions all over the place, but it seems the general consensus is that a shallow just won't hit the deep bass notes that a normal sub would, and considering the small space that we're using while trying to accomplish big bass sound, a shallow sub wasn't an option for me. fe3565345 or whatever all those numbers are ;) used a molded enclosure that appears to be smaller internally than stock subwoofer, and he gives praise to his L5. I haven't done mine, but I really plan on getting it done this week. If you're in no rush, I'll give my .02 as well once it's done.

Finished building zerochief's enclosure and there's 4inches of depth.

However, the first 5" from the top portion is slanted down to make way for a bracket. So it takes away about 1-1.5" of depth. It doesn't seem like a regular sub/magnet would fit. I ordered the Kicker CVR 8" instead of the shallow version for supposed better bass. It's coming in this week so it looks like I'm going to have to redo the top portion.

Did you eventually remove that module in the back? What is it for? I'm thinking about bending the bracket backwards to clear up some space.

That little thing is actually the actuator for the locking fuel door. I completely removed it and it's bracket in order to give me more space for my enclosure. I've got the factory plastic enclosure sitting on my bench, Dremel'ed and waiting for me to start fiberglassing the new bumpouts I've made.

I know your trying to maximize your airspace, but have u actually calculated
what your going to get by eliminating the indention's in the factory box?

I first thought that too, but realized i would just make the box weaker.

Plus the airspace is right in the middle of where the kicker woofer requires so
its okay. I know with more airspace you can get a deeper note, but if u
want that then you need to go ported to notice a difference anyways.

It's that whole "is the effort required worth the reward" conundrum. :confused:

Mine hits nice.. but not as big as my past setups.. but i like the whole
stealth install look in vehicles. It's a shame you cant come see/hear it.

For the cover rattling, I cut the square woofer shape out of the plastic cover
and have it stick thru. Looks good. Only thing I'd change is make the woofer sit
out a bit more so its fully seated in the plastic cover to look snazzier. I may do that this summer...
maybe.. as it requires me to make a wooded "washer" the shape of the woofer to make it stick out further.

Ill post a pic of my cover later... that is if I'm not too late to add my $.02 :whistle:

I realize it's more effort than it may be worth, but I'll never know since I've already cut out two areas in the back. I just haven't finished becuase it's been so cold in the garage lately...my fingers we're literally numb from organizing my new tool box for like an hour today. I'm in no rush, but since I've already started, there is no turning back now. I'll post up pics when I'm done.

Absolutley brilliant what you,ve achieved.Is there any chance you could e-mail me the exact measurements piece by peice so i can cut out and assemble please many thanks

There are subwoofer threads all over the boards here w/ about 3 different designs, measurements and all...use the search button and you'll find them.

Sorry I know this post is little too old but I wanted to see if any one can confirm that alpine 10W1v2-4 sub will fit in this enclosure if I uses .5 inches MDF ?

After deciding that JL Steathbox and Bavarian Sound Werks subwoofers were too expensive to my liking ($550 (sub and box only--no amp) and $600 (full kit for 8" sub and amp), respectively), I ended up persuing over Essam's and ZeroChief's designs.

I initially decided to use ZeroChief's design as a good template as I wanted to maximize space. However after building the box in 1/2" MDF with my handy with tools brother (he had a finish nail gun, which works great in conjunction with Liquid Nails; belt sanders and router make for great finishing touches as well), we realized that more space could be had with a rectangular box that protrudded from the lower box and still fit under the plastic back cover surround (4-6 oclock to the spare tire), so a modification was made. See pics. if I had to redo this, I would consider decrease the top box width from 10 3/4" down to 10 1/2" so it gives a wiring harness (near the front of the back right cargo space--prob for park distance sensors and rear hatch controls) some more clearance. 1/2" MDF was used to maximize internal volume as the subwoofer space available in the right rear cargo area is very low.

In the end, will this extra air volume make for better bass? In theory it should, but is it really noticeable in the real world? Without having both boxes on hand to compare, I couldn't say. Sometimes, I do wonder if it was worth the extra 2 hrs to figure out a way to fabricate the extra additional space (esp. trying to seal it internally with internal bracing blocks to attach 2 walls onto) after modifying the original ZeroChief design. Extra air volume on this very small sealed subwoofer box never hurts as there was room to get closer to the recommended 0.45 cubic feet (accounting for loss of 0.081 cubic feet that that sub displaces in the box).

SURFACE PAINT. We used truck bed liner black paint for the exterior (Duplicolor brand as it has more texture than the Rustoleum brand).

AMPLIFIER. For the ampliifer, the Alpine MRP-M500 (300W RMS @ 4 ohms or 500W RMS at 2 ohms) will be used ($142 from Buy.com). The Alpine will fit snugly in the place of the left plastic surround on that's at the 7-8 oclock position of teh spare tire (just remove 3 nylon screws and lift out the plastic cover). With that plastic surround trim cover removed and mounting the amp there, the left aligning rod from the cargo bay tray will close and hit the amplifier--remove that arm's 2 screws to get it off. As 2 bolts are exposed on the unibody (as I have a hitch kit), we created a platform out of 1/2" MDF for the amp to be mounted on--pics to come in a few days--so the trim screws and hitch bolts are not jamming the amp from the bottom. EDIT: Instead of the Alpine, I ended up using a Kenwood X500-1 amplifier as it has a smaller footprint and easily fits in the very tight space.

SUBWOOFER. The older 10" Pioneer TS-SW251 (shallow mount; $65 shipped from Buy.com) will be used for the subwoofer. I debated using the newer TS-SW2501S4 (or the S2), and I'm sure it would have worked just as well (albiet a little more expensive but also more power handling; slightly faster frequency dropoff from 40Hz down vs. the older TS-SW251 however). A couple of other shallow mount subwoofers are also available by 2-3 other manufacturers--in the real world, they all probably would sound comparable.

WIRING. I plan on tapping the factory amp wiring (nav, non-DSP, 10 speaker stereo) later this week when the electronic parts arrive. Lots of good info on Xoutpost on how to access the factory amp wiring in the left cargo access compartment (just remove the CD changer's 4 front bolts to reveal the amp and wiring harness that's situated towards the floor).

RIGHT REAR ACCESS COVER. Will trim the plastic ribs on the cover to give the subwoofer more clearance. Then will cut out a 10" hole in the lower port of the cover. Ordered a mesh metal 10" 2 piece speaker cover (off eBay for $16; first piece is the cicular mount to go on the carpeted access cover, and the mesh screen then just snaps in place over the mount) so it will allow air movement into the car's rear bay and minimize rattling in the access compartment.

Will update once I get the full install done. Looking forward to getting a bit deeper sound than what seems like 70Hz that the stock stereo's tiny speakers can bottom out at. I also tried BSW midbass speakers and they don't help the least bit for bass--as the stock speakers sizes are too tiny to do any good for deep notes.

Can't wait to get some bass in my car--don't need thunderous bass, just to add it in for musical enjoyment. So far, thanks for the groundwork laid out by ZeroChief and Essam.

Zerochief design (original)
Attachment 54213

Zerochief design (fit) [notice space that is not filled towards the spare tire]
Attachment 54214

Modified Zerochief (fit) [extra space that protrudes under the plastic spare tire surround (the plastic spare tire surround trim still fits in place--not shown, though)]
Attachment 54215

Truck Bedliner painted Modified Zerochief
Attachment 54216

Look nice. How much internal volumm gain with the modification?

Do you think from looking at it that an 8 inch sub with a 7 inch mounting depth could fit in your box? I have a jl audio 8 w7 that i would love to use but its a huge sub.

Nope. The shallow end of the box is only 5 1/2" deep.

Not as much I'd like to admit--about another whopping 0.04 cubic feet of internal volume. For what little available space is in the compartment bay, I'll take it though :)

Wow, years and years ago I did the Essam version and contributed some to the thread, and I return to the forum and it is still a hot subject, with different versions and 32,000 hits!

BTW, mine is still going strong. Cut a hole in the trim panel and installed a grill so it looks stock. Frankly I wouldn't worry too much about tiny differences in volume as I doubt you could hear the dif, but some of the new boxes look very nice indeed and so why not.

Mine was also updated with new speakers so it is vastly better than the awful original.

Finally got around to try to install the amplifier and to my dismay, the Alpine MRP-M500 amplifier doesn't fit in the floor space by the L side of the spare tire and access panel. Some other folks got it to fit, but I think with my nav, CD changer, and iBus controller, the current space is about 1/8" a bit too tight in depth and I don't feel like grinding any part of the unibody down. Will have to wait a few more days to get a new amp: probably a Kenwood X500-1 (7 3/8" depth) or MTX TD500.1D (5 9/16" depth) (both 300W RMS x 4ohms). Both will easily fit in the space (measured 3x to make sure).

Nonetheless, the subwoofer and amp wiring all installed and ready to go...

Just curious, which subwoofer did you use and what are you using now? Thanks.

Since I'm waiting for my new amplifier, I thought I'd spend some time modifying the rear cargo cover. I used a 10" metal mesh two-piece cover from eBay ($16 shipped)--the inner piece is a metal ring (about 1/2" deep lip) with mounting holes for screws/bolts, the outer piece is the metal mesh that snaps in place.

I measured where the subwoofer would go on the rear cover, then used the inner metal mounting ring to estimate where to cut the plastic cover. The inner side of the rear cover has a deep pile carpeting which can be lifted from the "mushroom" rivets to reveal the inner plastic cover. An angle grinder was then used to cut the new hole in the cargo cover. The deep plush carpeting was cut with a basic utility knife to reveal the speaker.

Attachment 54280
Attachment 54283

The metal inner ring was mounted with #8 bolts (3/4" length; round bolt side facing the speakers) and the accompanying nuts (both were purchased at Home Depot). The included screws that came with the speaker cover were too long and the locking metal tabs were designed to be unsuable for this particular application. I used a medium threadlock on there so the nuts wouldn't work loose over time. After that, I just snapped the outside mesh cover in place--looks factory clean and stealthy and the cargo area is still fully usable (see photo).

Attachment 54284

If you desire more "stealth", from the cut-out circular deep pile inner carpeting, you can peel a thin layer off of it, and get a 10" piece portion to stay just inside the mesh cover so that the PIONEER logo doesn't show through. Alternatively, you could use a very thin pieice of black cloth to wedge in place as well (to hide whatever speaker you may have behind the speaker grill mesh).

Now I just need the smaller footprint amp (Kenwood X500-1) to get here so I can finally get the missing bass from the factory setup and put the project to rest.

Again, thanks to all of those before who lead the groundwork on this project to make this a relatively easy task.

wondering how the OP setup is holding up.i placed the amp in the same location as his and there was an interference of some sort.constant static noise and when i moved the aftermarket amp it was fine

I mounted my Alpine mrp m850 under the spare tire. its been going strong for over a year. I also have the sliding floor so it made my install even harder. but the spare tire fits in just the same and my amp has not overheated yet. this includes 5 and 6 hour drives to sc and NJ. I just pushed the amp as far as I could towards the front of the vehicle and dropped the spare tire over it. The tire sits a little bit crooked but once i put the put the removable black cover on its in there and everything opens and closes correctly. Those alpine Mrp m series amps were made well. I never seen a post about them getting hot.

interesting choice.i was thinking of mounting on the panel so that it fits on the backside of it where the 2nd set of fuses are but wasn't sure how practical it was due to over heating.i suspect my amp just over heated so many times it finally just shut down.so your amp fit between the battery and the vertically mounted green box under the floor?

ill get you some pics today.. its too early for me to go outside right now.
Im checking my harddrive now to see if i have any install pics too.

FINISHED SUBWOOFER INSTALL
 

I spent my afternoon installing the smaller Kenwood X500-1 (300W RMS mono) amplifier along with the Stinger SGN12 line output converter (requires splicing into the factory amp wiring--which is relatively simple to do), and I must say that adding a 10" subwoofer helps out with adding in the missing bottom-end that my E53 has sorely been missing. While not windows shattering bass, which I did not want from the getgo, listening to music in the car is actually quite enjoyable again.

I had upgraded my tweeters, mids, and midbass from BSW, and I thought they were a good upgrade for cleaner sound than the stock speakers. However, the midbass speakers didn't do much for bass (no improvement over the stock speakers, except for better clarity), so I ended up with building the subwoofer box that originated with Zerochief (mostly), Essam, and a few others.

The smaller Kenwood X500-1 fit in the place that my original Alpine MRP-M500 amplifier could not fit in before. I have nav, non-DSP 10 speaker radio, and a CD changer in my 2005 X5 4.4i, and with the iBus module in the same rear cargo area, it was hard to fit the Alpine amp in place (1/8" too deep). The low footprint Kenwood fits great with room to spare on 1/2" MDF mounting plate I made (see picture). This MDF plate stablizes and firmly holds the amp in place so it doesn't rattle in the trunk nor short something out.

Attachment 54395

The amp was rotated so only the low level inputs faced the spare tire (easier to remove the spare tire by a quick disconnect of the cable), and allowed me to be able to easily access and adjust the amp settings, and lastly, made for a cleaner look (hides the bulky ground, remote, power inputs and speaker outputs).

Attachment 54396

In any event, I'm extremely happy with the subwoofer addition, and once I get a bit more tweaking on the gain, crossover, and bass boost over the next few days, it should dialed in. A hint for folks who may be tuning the subwoofer--once you put in the carpeted rear cargo floor, it will attenuate your bass a bit. I tried tuning without it in place and thought I had it right where I wanted it, but once I put in the carpeted rear cargo floor, I had to turn up the gain a bit to compensate for the damping. For reference, my Kenwood settings (per my preferences and my subwoofer box): bass boost: +3db (@ 40Hz), low pass crossover: ~90 Hz), and input sensitivity (~1.6 volts)--subject to change over the next few days as I tweak the sound a little more.

Enjoy!

After driving around a few more days, here are my updated Kenwood X500-1 amplifier settings (based on my custom box and the Stinger SGN12 line output converter)--may help others tune their system:

• Bass boost: +1db (@ 40Hz) [previously was set too high and bass sounded muddled]
• Low pass crossover: ~80 Hz [near where the midbass speakers cutoff]
• Input sensitivity (~1.0 volts)

Nice clean sound without sounding overly harsh or synthetic. Again, just my baseline settings for my particular setup to help others that may want to tune their setup. Nonetheless, everyone will have their own preferences.

================


Also, as a reference to tap the Stinger SGN12 (or any line output converter; or directly to the aftermarket subwoofer amp if it has speaker level inputs) off the factory BMW amplier harness wiring, here are my notes. Again, this is for a 10 speaker, premium, non-DSP system--if you have a 6 speaker or DSP system, these notes won't pertain to you:


2 subconnectors on the main BMW amplifier wiring harness: a grey subconnector and a black subconnector.


GREY SUBCONNECTOR
White (plain white): remote on lead [near the back 2/3rds of the grey connector]
Twisted pair #1: Blue with black stripe (+) // Brown with Orange Stripe (-) [midbass, rear door speaker tap; one side (can't remember if the L or R side)]

BLACK SUBCONNECTOR
Twisted pair #2: Yellow with black stripe (+) // Brown with Orange Stripe (-) [midbass, rear door speaker tap; other side from above]

I used butt connectors to splice the factory amplifier harness wiring with the Stinger line output connector. There are other methods you can use as well. From there, you hook up the line output converter RCA jacks and the tapped remote on lead to your added-on aftermarket subwoofer amp, and you should be good to go.

Good luck with the install. You'll enjoy your car's stereo that much more!

Bumping an old thread due to trying to install only an aftermarket deck while using the stock amp, speakers and sub enclosure. For the life of me I.can't figure out how to get the factory amp to turn on though based on what little information I was given.

http://www.xoutpost.com/bmw-sav-foru...ml#post1036603

Hot Holy 3 year thread bump LOL

A little while ago I installed a thin sub amp in the spare tire area on the driver side that just was able to fit. The amp is a Razor Power Acoustik Model RZ1-2300D on ebay as of this moment for about $105 Power Acoustik RZ1-2300D 2300 Watt Monoblock Class D Car Subwoofer Amplifier New 709483043763 | eBay

I connected the amp using high side audio inputs from this posting:

http://www.xoutpost.com/articles/x5/...ctory-amp.html

"Other Harman/Kardon equipped X5: After ejecting the connector you should now see 2 connectors side by side, a gray one and a black one. The pins are numbered from 1 to 13 on the gray connector and from 22 to 34 on the black one. The pictures 6 and 7 below show the 2 connectors. On this connector Pin #1 (-) and #2 (+) are for left rear woofer and pin #24 (-) and #25 (+) are for right rear woofer."

For my sub, I used a DSP sub from ebay and wired both speakers to a conventional speaker terminal that I replaced the factory pin connector.

After properly adjusting the amp settings, for my ears it gives just enough low end bump to make me happier with the stock factory upgraded S676 sound system.

I will try to add pics of the location for my install:

http://www.xoutpost.com/members/semc...2-img-1431.jpg

http://www.xoutpost.com/members/semc...1-img-2815.jpg

http://www.xoutpost.com/members/semc...0-img-2814.jpg

Hopefully this can help others see a viable amp and location for the tight rear deck area. :dunno: :dunno:

Mike

I have one of these enclosures for sale, it was in my 03 X5. Comes with a MB Quart 10" Sub and Kicker 300 watt mono amp. Sounded awesome and delivered great balanced full bass.

Give me a offer

Belongs in the sale section of the forum

Cool Story

I'll make an offer.

I'll pay $50 for the enclosure. $35 of that goes directly to this site to make you or the person of your choice a supporting member who can post in the classifieds. :thumbup:

I actually bought the enclousure from a guy selling them on this site few years ago for $60 enclosure alone. The Amp and Sub were another $150. I can get $100 on Ebay.

Besides I finally sold my X5 the repairs were getting overwhelming. One thing after another. I tried my best to stick up for BMW but anything pre 2008 is pretty much a turd. Last BMW I will ever own.

Pretty sure you mean anything POST 2008 is a turd quality BMW. I figured I'd just correct your spelling mistake. You're welcome.
Well my job is done here...

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Cool Story.
I will offer $45 since it's so old and not worth more since technology has improved since you bought that all...

Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Technology has not improved in car audio. The golden age of car audio was the 80-90's before the mass production mergers. Go look up vintage Fosgate and Kicker items on Ebay or search car audio forums.

Cool Story.

You're a turd.

If you can't work on them or pay for someone else to work on them... they aren't the car for you.

There are very few BMW models/years that I would actually classify as "turds." The e53 is not one of them. BMW's do not need you to stick up for them, they need you to maintain them properly. Then everyone who takes a ride in your car/suv/etc will marvel how well it drives, handles, and is constructed without you having to say a word.

Well I worked on every repair on the vehicle including:

Front Suspension overall
Water pump
Thermostat
Blower Motor
Alternator
4 window regulators
2 door handle carriers
Fuel Pump and Filter
DISA valve
Belt and pulley system
That dosent even include all the electrical gremlins I fought for years, Even sold it with the Key FOB and many minor issues.

I also did every oil change, Tune up and brakes my self.

Sure the motor is still running but its leaking like a sieve and I can hear the lifters pinging like crazy.

Well said

Just needs to be fixed to get something more out of it. 200K and still running is pretty good. Most of the newer BMWs will not see that mileage.

At 200k miles, not surprising it's leaking oil! When did you reseal the engine? Valve cover gaskets, timing cover (both upper and lower) gaskets, lower oil pan gasket? My '01 E38 has 275k miles, performed TCG 40k miles ago (guides weren't broken at all, did as a PM) and at that time, I had oil leaks all over as the gaskets had hardened over the years.

Since completing that job, not a drip anywhere. Likewise, my lifters were a bit noisy before that work, but are now pretty much silent and the car runs like new. Similar to the multiple other BMW's I have/now own(ed), maintenance, especially gaskets, are a major part of their life cycle.

BMW's are known to leak, to begin with, but can be resealed pretty easily. Unlike an Audi that you know something is wrong if it doesn't leak.

Then you were well on your way to owning a great example of an E53. All of those problems were because the owner before you did not care about the X5 and passed the expense on to the next owner. Pretty standard used BMW story. All of the repairs you listed above can be performed for less than $2000 doing the work yourself.

Don't blame the truck for being neglected. BMW's need regular maintenance beyond an oil change every 6500 miles. They need full suspension every 100k-120k. Full cooling system every 100k-130k. Plugs and coils every 100k-150k. Trans flush every 60k (despite what BMW says). DISA valve every 100k-120k. Oil seals (valve covers, timing, OFHG, etc) every 100k. Plus other known foibles like window issues, door handles, etc. All of the above can be done as preventative stuff... I don't usually wait for something to break. People ride in my X5 who don't know BMW's think it is a MUCH newer vehicle than it is.

^Yes, that makes them high maintenance. They are also more fun to drive than a Honda, Toyota, or almost anything in the same price brackets. I do not make excuses for them, they are high maintenance chicks, but if someone doesn't educate themselves to that fact before a purchase... I don't blame the vehicle, I blame the buyer.

Amen crystalworks! :thumbup: :thumbup:

Early BMW owners seem to love the BMW ride and prestige and sadly, some of these early owners are unwilling or unable to give them the maintenance that they require when approaching the 100K mile mark.

Many of these E53s are well into 100K mile territory now and if they had one of the unwilling or unable early owners, the new owners will either have to Cowboy Up or run the thing into the ground with more unwilling/unable maintenance.

Like you, people get into my E53 and also ask what year it is. It has an excellent exterior and interior and everything works and rides as designed.

Yes, I have a maintenance log book for all my vehicles and since 2014 (at ~78K miles) I have logged quite a few maintenance items for my E53: including full front and rear suspension makeovers, sound system upgrade, brakes & rotors, driveline fluids flush, trans fluid flush, brake fluid flush, SS brake lines, AGM Battery, new airbags and strut/shocks all around, every belt and pulley and idler and water pump/T-stat and water hose in the engine as well as a seized alternator replacement and blower motor "hedge-hog" resistor and driver seat module.

For me, a vehicle this luxurious and agile with no monthly payment will give me years of trouble free/low maintenance cost service, being just at 100K miles now.

Blame the prior owners for poorly caring for these machines, not the machine designers and engineers. :thumbup:

Mike

has anyone ever bought a pre-made box from online source?

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/MDF-closed-s...JclTaU&vxp=mtr

I have noticed the home made boxes are definitely more angular adn use more space than these, but I will be honest right now. I will be lazy with this one task. I love love love the external 10" sub and box in my trunk, but it takes up room that I'd like to have back and if I can put a good sounding, pretty looking sub box in the place of the factory (unused) sub, then heck, why not!

I have suber deep hitting bass now so I worry going to this smaller box with a shallower mount sub will not hit as deep. I'm not looking to enter a stereo competition but nice sound just makes a drive that much more enjoyable.
I am hoping to be corrected, but from the pics, it looks like a small square mounted to some wood that is not open/adding to the volume/capacity of airflow. Hope to hear differently

^Not personally. But I know someone running that particular box. Sounds good and fit well. Hopefully he'll see this and chime in.

hope so too. I dont really need to spend $250 on this, or more, as I'd need to buy a shallow mount sub then, but I'm open to the idea if its that good of a system. I should have bought the BSW box/amp set from the guy in Texas selling it on facebook. nuts.

I had this box and it indeed sounded much better(than BMW stock "subs"). It is a VERY tight fit. So much I had to repair/modify my gas door actuator lock. I ended up replacing with the JL audio stealth box I was lucky enough to acquire later on that fit better. This fills the mid/low frequencies well, but misses the solid hits/thump from a larger sub box. Sub selection will also play factor. I'm using a Kicker Comp RT shallow mount which I would qualify as entry/mid level. I'm sure you could drop some cash on a better sub for even better sound. Just be sure to get proper measurements as this box will limit your sub selection.

thanks Mouse. I'll stick with the current set-up I have since that sub hits HARD, like Mike Tyson hard. I will just continue to live with the box in trunk.

EDIT: I made my own homemade box by modifying the factory box. removed both 6" speakers and cut off face to install MDF and 10" shallow mount and its incredible! SO HAPPY to have a full trunk space again and sub sounds about 80% as good as other 10" sub in external sub (which was over kill)

I wonder which of these is better

https://www.crutchfield.ca/p_1369428...tealthbox.html

Or

https://ca.jbl.com/JBL+BASSPRO+HUB.html

I cant imagine too much air flowing out of the spare tire well on an E53 (or anything that isn't a Dodge product). Whether load floor or not, the floor is made specifically to add support to the rear shelf for hauling and insulation from road noise way down there in the Bimmer nethers.

My 1st hand (ear) experience (ear-perience?) is with my own JBL Stealth box and a JL 500w amp. I've run it now for 3 or 4 years (maybe more?). I do use Focal's in the doors, so I have pretty decent quality there. They run off of a JL VX 800 which does a fine job as well.

What I did for adding a sub to my non-DSP E53 was to source an OE subwoofer enclosure from eBay and mount it into the OE location. It took a little bit of rewiring and termination work to go from this:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0

to this:

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0

and connected that up to my separate amp that is located in the spare tire well

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0

To my ears this has been an excellent subwoofer sound added right where the OE placement was located.

Mike

you are in Calgary too, come check out my sub box. I'm actually selling another I made. just send me a private message as I'm not on this forum as much as I used to be.

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace...6498635336968/

Thanks I might consider something like this.
I thought that oem plastic is not the best for subs vs these enclosures:
https://www.ebay.ca/itm/185475688912...mis&media=COPY

The reason I considered an sub in the trunk is because of all the rave reviews. But maybe it won't work well in E53

fair. I have no experience with that box, but I do love the option of it and most swear they sound great. I have zero concerns with my plastic box but I'm not going to try to talk you into something you dont want :) but never hurts to listen to my set up so that when you buy the wood box, you can see how much different it could sound.
If ever intersted, just private message me. No worries!

I'd be delighted to meet up with xoutpost fellow member!
I'll send you a message in the coming weeks, appreciate the offer :)