I plan to mount my 5 channel amp where the current bose sub is. I would like it out of the way and mounting it that high with the bose grill as a vent seems look like a good solution. Can anyone think of any reason why this would not work?

Here's what is going in:
Eclipse CD8454
MTX Thunder 5400X amp
Image Dynamics IDQ 10"
Polk Audio DB3065
Polk Audio DB5510 or DB6510 (depending on what size the rears are)
PAC SWI-X

Few other questions:

1) I have the service manual and I noticed that the antenna has an amp. Should I hook this lead up to the power antenna on my aftermarket hu?
2) Which illumination wires do I need? My guess is that I only need to hook up the illumination wire to my hu and can ignore the dimmer.
3) Do I need to ground the "amp ground wire" from the nissan radio harness? Does the antenna amp use this?
4) For the pac swi-x, do I just need to add resistors to 5 wires and connect them to the white wire? I'm looking at the service manual and it shows that the steering controls are grounded. Are they grounded through the bose head unit or through some other connection which I dont need to worry about?
5) Anyone have any suggestions to run new speaker wires to the doors without drilling or cutting any current speaker wires?

Your assistance is greatly appreciated.

 

Common, someone has got to know this... I just need 1-4 answered.

 

Not a real good idea to mount an amp under the rear deck. I have seen it done and have run into overheating issues. If you go that route, get a fan.

As for #5, I have the same car. You cant fit anything else through the stock gromet. Even during my alarm install I had to add gromets after drilling new holes.

Sorry I can't help more.

 

There will be a 10" by 7" opening above the amp since the bose subwoofer will be gone. I hope that is enough for the amp.

Anyone know about my other questions?

 

Sounds like a nice setup- Bada ss HU BTW

I also would stray away from putting amp there, zero ventilation

 

First of all, that is all awesome stuff.

I agree with everyone, the rear deck is a bad idea for an amp. Try the back of a seat.

1)You shouldnt have to worry about the antenna, just get the antenna adapter and make sure to hook up the power antenna wire (blue/white) when you put the aftermarket head unit in.
2)I dont even worry about illumination wires. 99% of installs, the people will either get confused or want their lights on in the day, and illum. just screws with that. Its up to you, but I prolly wouldnt hook it up if I were you.
3)Since the antenna amp is factory it should already be grounded. You do not need to use either the amp ground or radio ground in particular, just ground whatever needs to be grounded, i.e. the head unit and the aftermarket amp.
4)Here is the write up for the PAC SWI-X install. You most likely will need to use 2 of the resistors, connected on one side to the white wire and on the other side to the steering wheel controls.
5)Factory wiring really isnt that bad. However, if you do want to run all new wiring...on my 00 there was a small hole in the door jam with a grommet in it. The wires in the door jam have a harness on the car side of them, so I ran the new speaker wire through the separate grommet then into the black rubber loom the factory wire is in, which goes into the door. It took some time and patience, but when its done you will be a lot happier than speaker wire showing and looking ghetto.

Hope this helps.

Kevin

 

Thanks for the info.

I was wondering, do you have a link to the write up?

 

i did at the time i was typing this reply, but im retarded so gimme a few hours, ill try and find it again

 

http://forums.maxima.org/showthread.php?t=291114

there you go

 

have fun with the writeup.

 

lol yeah, its gonna take a few tries to get all that done, with only a 7 second delay in between each button setting. when you go to do the install youll see what we mean.

 

HAHA, thanks fellaz. Going to try to install everything right now.

About the wiring in the doors, is there an open spot to feed them out of the body into the gromet in the doors? Someone had told me there is an opening somewhere, but I forgot where.

 

Yeah, in the door jam there was a small hole with a grommet in it. The hole is above the existing black rubber loom of wires, and more towards the front of the car. Just take that grommet out and run the wire into the existing thick black rubber loom, then into the door. If your really ****, you can even put your own wire loom over the exposed speaker wire to look more factory.

Good luck, and you might want to get an old coathanger to feed wires through.

Kevin

 

I wanted my install to look stock, so I drilled holes through the plastic connectors (when you remove the bolt on the stock loom, you'll know what I'm talking about.) There is enough room where there aren't any wires to drill a 5/16's size hole. This allowed me to pass the 12 gauge speaker wire through without any problem. Watch out though, this procedure took about 4 hours per door, because you have to be extra careful otherwise if you damage the wiring your door controls/power might no longer work. I'm glad I did it this way and have the wires run through the looms.

 

Damn, I didn't even notice that other gromet. HAHA, you got me. I had already purchased wire loom to put over the speaker wires...

 

Passenger side is done. Still have driver's side, dash, and trunk to finish. I'm driving around with no radio and my rear seat disassembled. Is it normal for the fuel pump to have a high pitched soft noise?

I accidentally pop'ed one of the gromets through the body. I couldn't fish it out, so I found a good replacement at OSH. I had to cut some rubber off to push the gromet in the body, but it looks very factory and the hole which was already cut is exacly big enough to feed the wire loom through it perfectly. I think its part# 900-J.

 

#@$#@$WEASDF@#$#@WQEFD

Finally finished. Deck is in. All front on the front are in. Just have to mount the amp, sub, cross overs, clean up the wires and reassemble the entire rear & seats.

Future advice, dont try to install a deck when it is dark outside. The ammount of wires plugs from the dash combined with the radio harnesses and the pac wires running everywhere makes it hard to do.

Also, be very careful around the battery. I ended up dropping the nut which holds the wires on the positive clamp and it took me an hour to find the f#$#@ing thing. Also whatever idiot decided to torque my bose screws at bazillion ft-lbs, so I ended up stripping 6 of the 8, then spending another 1.5 hours drilling them out. I'm glad its over, but I still need to mount the amp and figure out where to put my aux plug and pac ir.

ps, sorry for any typos, I've been going at this thing since 10 am and its 1:15am now

 

1) yeah I hate doing installs in the dark
2) Every single Nissan Ive ever done, and every Nissan we used to work on at Circuit City had the same problem. Cant get the screws outta the side of the radio. I dont know what Nissans problem is, why they gotta make em so tight, but whatever.

 

yep. i had to drill out 2 of them.. took a few hours of my time.

 

Damn, glad I wasn't the only one (guess that isn't good news for everyone else)

The car is back together now, I just need to play around with the amp settings and learn the hu.

 

here are some pics




I mounted the amp in place of the bose woofer. I figured there would be enough ventilation through the bose subwoofer grill. The only problem is that it started rub against the trunk springs when going over bumps. I fixed that by folding a paper towel

 

is that the metra dash kit?

 

Its the American International.

 

how well doesit match the dash, and howd it fit?

 

its temporary I'm going to recess it about half an inch then put the factory bose face plate on top as a cover when parked.

It has two brackets which connect to the bottom row of screws from the radio. Those brackets attach to the back of the storage pocket of the dash kit.

 

Nice Job creative with the amp rack. how did you decide to mount the tweeters?

Can you post dimensions of that Eclipse headunit without the trim piece - just across and the height. They don't have anything on their website. I"m debating whether to get the Alpine 9835 or Eclipse 8454 and trying to fit that in a GXE dash kit. But from my recollection, I thought the Alpines are wider so it fills the gaps more.

 

The dimensions should be in the pdf of their recievers. I can still take off the piece and measure it.

I got very lazy about the tweeters. I put them in the included mounting cup then used duct tape to attach them to the a-pillar trim. To avoid rattling, I had put some adhesive foam around the ring of the mounting cup where it contacts with the trim. I also put some on the back of the duct tape to avoid rattling with the car's body.