ok yesterday I was playing music in my car and my box just sped playing and when I checked the two 20 amp fuse and both of them burned out so I took it out and I had two spare fuse soon as I barley dropped it in the amp it sparked and both of those blew too the car was not even on what could be the cause of that?

 

Why don't you start a new thread in the audio forums for this? We'll discuss it there. My build thread really isn't the right place for it.

 

eKrunch, I bow down to u!!....Thanks for showing all of us your work and for taking time to do this "and" post pictures while u went along !

 

cool setup

 

Just scrutinized all this............you're the F'n man. Immaculate job, cant wait for the final pics

 

Is there room in there for a DD deck? I noticed that white box, is there enough room under the deck and enough slack in the wires to relocate it? What is that anyway? Thanks!

 

Thanks for the compliments guy. Glad you're enjoying the show. I'm in the process of procuring some new rear speakers and then there will be more to see here. I'm mostly waiting on the money fairy to come and drop off some more funding!

Yes, there's plenty of room for a DD deck. The factory is a double DIN with a huge faceplate. To go aftermarket you just use the factory ISO mounting setup and a DD kit. Piece of cake. Lots of guys on here have them. I just went single DIN because I wanted the CDA-117. IMHO it's the best sounding CD player Alpine has out this year.

The white box can be relocated, but there's no need. It went right under the factory double DIN setup. If you have to, it's simple. It's just held in by a few screws and the cable is pretty loose.

 

SWEET! Thanks man, now I can shop for a DD deck!

 

Well sports fans, it's finally time for another update!

I got my JL HD750/1 in and wired up tonight. Here's a few pictures of the amp...




This one is my favorite for some reason


And the installation. I'll get a better shot of it all installed tomorrow once I clean the trunk up and vacuum in there.

 

3amps! lol what is each amp pushing?

 

The amp on the right is an HD600/4. 150w on front stage, 150w on rear fill.

The amp on the left is an HD750/1. It's bridged at 4ohm to the Solo 12", so 750w for the sub.

The thing in the center isn't an amp. It's a 15 farad hybrid capacitor from Phoenix Gold. This was the first model and it was actually manufactured by AlumaPro. It is equivalent to the AlumaPro C.A.P. 15 if you want to Google it for more specifications. You can also check it out at AlumaPro's web site.

 

So today I broke out the CleanSweep CD and a Fluke meter and went to town on setting the gains. Props to JL for including proper output voltages in the manual. Everything is dialed in and volume levels are great. Now I just need to drop in the rear speakers and start setting up the H100 IMPRINT processor. I can't wait to get this done, those Hertz components are absolutely amazing already. With a little signal processing it ought to be nuts.

Speaking of more, I had to throw in some more sound deadening today. Once I got some juice on my Solo-Baric it made my map light assembly rattle so I added some sound deadening to the roof and secured my bluetooth mic in with a little foam so it wouldn't rattle. Problem solved.

Here are a few pictures I snapped. Fortunately the map light hole is big enough to get some deadening material in. I even managed to get under the visors and such because there was enough gap to slide in the material. If I decide to do any more I'll have to drop the headliner.

 

Nice man....don't forget to do a video..i want to hear this system..thx again for all DIY.

 

I stand in AWE of people like you who fearlessly tear into their vehicles to perform modifications of this scale. This is especially true considering this is not your main profession. Kudos!

 

I will definitely do that. I want to do it after I set the PXA-H100 so I can show the "before and after" of using the processor.

Thanks! I appreciate the compliment. I have to admit the Maxima is a lot easier to work on now that I have the Field Service Manual. That makes it so much easier. That and a good collection of screw drivers, ratchets, and panel removal tools.

 

How did you pop out the info screen to get to the factory radio?

 

The screen up top? You just grab the panel and PULL. Start from the top and work your way down. Try to pull straight out. Once the clips are released there are a few connectors that go into the back of the upper and lower screens and the HVAC controls. Done deal. Worst case grab your panel removal tool and a shop towel and use it to pry from the top. Be super careful doing that though, it's easy to mess that top panel up.

The bottom piece below the radio has to come out too. Pull it out with a panel removal tool and a shop towel. Use the towel so you don't scratch the panels with the tool.

If you check the "AV.PDF" that's included with the field service manual, it has the play by play on how to remove everything.

 

looks good! enjoy

 

Have you replaced your front dash speakers yet? I looked over the post and didn't notice any pics. I am wondering what is the easiest way to remove the grilles, specifically the passenger side dash speaker.

 

Thanks! I am!

As I stated in an earlier post, I'm not replacing the dash speakers. The door/pillar setup I have now is 3x louder than the factory ever was an sounds 10x better so there's really no reason to even bother.

As far as how to do it, crack open the field service manual. It has instructions, pictures, etc. Just open "fwd.pdf" and use the index to get to the audio system entries.

 

Man you guys are brave...

 

Excellent write up. I always appreciate the dirty-handed extra steps forum members will go through to share the process!

Im in the same boat wanting to upgrade my S so I greatly appreciate the thread creation!!

 

all i can say is WOW.....the time and effort that was put into this thread to help everyone here is just amazing....you cant get better then whats in this post. TY

 

After re-reading....I have a question E, can you explain what/how you are planning to do the HVAC screen relocation? Can you physically seperate the "Two" screens? Just looking at it it seems like one screen with a strip to seperate the two areas.

I understand the DVD monitor up top but more interested in your plans of moving the HVAC section elsewhere. This would be my main hurdle to fully jumping into my audio install. Again, Thanks!!!

Aaron

 

From my experience working at the plant, putting these dashes together, you cant separate the "2". It is only one unit

 

Thanks for the reply,

I wonder if (Pray) there's a way to seperate or a compatible aftermarket display capable of showing the HVAC settings.

 

I highly doubt there ever will be. That's the unfortunate reality of the factory doing all of this cool integrated stuff.

Really? The field service manual shows it as two different units with two separate harnesses. I've had mine in my hand a few times and it looks like two units. I'll have to pull it out and disconnect the top screen and find out for sure. I'm in the process of acquiring some equipment for phase 2 of my audio project, so it's about time to rip the dash out anyway.

Glad you enjoyed it. There's more to come.

You're quite welcome. I found a lot of good answers when I first joined up and it saved me from potentially breaking a few things during this build. I'm glad I can contribute back to the community as well since it was so helpful to me!

 

I've seen a few people say it's two separate screens and I've had mine in my hand a few times and it looks like two screens from the back, each with their own separate harnesses. After reading tigersharkdude's post, I'll have to pull the dash out.

My current plan is to remove the bottom screen and move it down below the HVAC controls. Not quite sure how I'm going to pull that off just yet because my new toy that is arriving this week is going to take up the second half of my double DIN dash opening.

Once I have a chance to rip the dash out I'll try and separate the screens and see if it still works.

 

where did all the heat and ac controls go?

 

You're my HERO

Please update when you get the screen out to confirm. I too would like to relocate it to the bare panel below.

 

Does anyone have a step by step stereo replacement? I have been looking for a couple of days now and these pics are great but I am still not sure how to get the old one out.

 

You need to get the field service manual. It's in there. I believe I've posted the link in this thread or it's in the main 7th gen forum. There's a sticky post for it. It's a directory of PDFs. What you want to do is load up fwd.pdf and it will link you through the other ones. AV.pdf should contain what you want.

The basics are, you remove the top panel where your HVAC controls are. How? You use a panel tool and a shop cloth to keep from messing up your interior. It's all just clipped on, pry it up and pull. Disconnect the wiring harnesses from the back and you're good. You'll need a small flathead or the edge of your panel tool to remove those connectors.

Next you use a panel tool and a shop cloth on the bottom piece below your radio. It's just clipped on. A little leverage and it'll pop out into your hand. Then there are a few screws on the bottom and top of the radio. Done!

 

Here's a link to the sticky here on the org where they keep the link to the FSM! It's a few posts down and says "FSM".

When you navigate to the Nicoclub link you'll get to a directory full of PDFs, use a download manager or something and get them all. You'll need them all on your local machine and in the same directory. Trying to use it online will frustrate the crap out of you. Once you have them all, open fwd.pdf, that's the index and it links to all of the other ones.
http://forums.maxima.org/7th-generat...cessories.html

I know this is tedious and all, but really, it's worth it. Everything I needed to know about how to rip apart my '09 was in the FSM. I wish I had one of these for all of my previous cars. It would have saved me a lot of broken panels!

 

Thanks man that is very helpful. I have two more questions for you real quick. 1 when you took out the front speakers did you notice if there was room for a 3 way system? And two do you like the performance of the JL hd amps? I am considering the 5 channel JL HD amp or the 5 channel class d alpine amp. I am gonna run all jl audio speakers and I really only need one 5 channel amp just not sure which one.

 

If by 3-way you mean something like a 6.5" midbass, 3" midrange, and 1" tweeter, there's definitely no room for a 3-way speaker setup inside of the stock locations. You might be able to squeeze a 5 1/2 and tweeter in there using the stock panels. If you removed the factory 6x9 mounting plate, you could fabricate something to hold a more exotic setup. Without those factory holders in there you could easily get a 6.5" and tweeter, especially if you suspended the tweeter over the mid range.

Just out of curiosity, which JL components are you looking at? I was originally going with a C5 setup, but once I heard the Hertz 165XL it was no contest. But I do know a lot of people who swear by the JL and was wondering what you liked about them.

I do love the JL HD amplifiers and I wouldn't recommend anything else from JL. They're small, adapt well to voltage drops, and they absolutely rock. My HD600/4 drives my front stage to insane volumes with excellent clarity, and that HD750/1 really gives my Solo 12 a workout. Tons of clean power output while running cool and staying efficient. Highly recommended.

One footnote on the HD amplifiers, I wouldn't drop the ohm load down if you can help it. You *can* drop the ohm load but it doesn't get you any more power. What it does get you is less efficiency, lower damping factors, and more distortion. If you're buying new woofers for this setup then you have the choice, present a 4ohm mono load to the amplifier and I think you'll be a lot happier with the result.

 

Oh and as far as the Alpine PDX amps, I looked at them too. I went to 2 different shops here in Chicago, both respectable Alpine & JL dealers. They both told me to get the JL HD's over the Alpine PDX series. I know Alpine has some new revisions of the PDX series amps that are coming, but the current ones supposedly have noise issues and such. Check out what the guys on diymobileaudio are saying about them. Once I saw all of the negative press on the Alpine's and no negative press on the JLs, it was an easy decision to spend the extra cash on the JLs.

 

whoa.. nice install..

 

Its been a while since I have been into car audio and I like to go with one company for the whole install. I already have a brand new 12" W6 so I was thinking of doing my whole install with c5 components in the front Id like to do a 3 way system but if not ill just got c5 in front doors and either 650x in the rear doors or id like to try zr800s in the rear doors or the rear deck if they can be fabbed in.

 

I can assure you its two separate screens.

 

Ah, okay. I was just curious.

Well I can definitely recommend their HD series amplifiers. I love mine. Not sure about the speakers though.

The rear doors are 6.5" but you'll need the Nissan speaker adapters. It's the same adapter as the front doors of the '08 Maxima. They're pretty easy to make too, I wouldn't spend a lot of money on them. I think I paid $20 with shipping for some wooden ones, and then I decided I didn't need rear fill once I heard the Hertz speakers up front.