DIY stereo upgrade for under $500.00

[smurfslayer]

Shouldn’t take two tools. Just one.

Negative Houston. Mine was also super tight the first 2 or 3 times. I had to use one of the thinner panel tools to get inserted, but it wasn’t strong enough so ended up having to get a flat head screwdriver in, then add a bigger body panel pry bar shaped tool.

Those body panel kits are the bees knees for stereo work and other internal stuff. Much cheaper than busting, scratching and scraping up internal panels. I got one used on Amazon for about 25 bucks.

Thank you. I understand better. So my "B&O issue" maybe unfair to pin on B & O. Maybe it's more the Fomoc speakers. As Lawdog points out a number of times, no power to the rear speakers bothers me the most, but the quality of sound maybe is more speaker related.... Thanks again for your patient ,time explanations. Love my truck. Hate the stereo sound.

I know it sounds intimidating, but you need to think of it as a series of smaller projects and it’s really not that bad to do. I did the DIY route on my 2017 and only had a few pitfalls. If you do the time consuming stuff first, you can whittle down the cut over time. Power and ground cable home runs to the battery, mock up your new amp/zen location on the back panel, make sure you have seat clearance. If you’re mounting a behind the seat sub, get the box fit and in place.

Make sure you have tools, spare parts - battery connectors, fuses, fuse blocks, both rubber and electrical tape.

if you do components up front, you can cut in the tweeters to your existing tweets - be prepared to fab a bracket. Lots of options; I work with leather, so that’s what I used. While you do the battery power and ground home runs through the door channel, run your tweeter wire ( to the cross over / amp area ) just run it to the a pillar if you are not cutting over yet. These things suck a lot of DIY time.

There’s lots of help on the Gen2 audio forum via postings with pics and some youtube help.

Good luck!

 

[nfsraptor]

@smurfslayer

I got the amp, sub, and accessories for Xmas from the fam and just completed the install. Thank you again for all your knowledge I love the extra bump.

Had a dumb question though. I did the lazy man's way and posi tapped the power inverter line. I noticed the Kenwood amp is on (red) light even with key off. Will this cause a battery drain? I tend to leave my truck without driving for 3 to 5 days at a time at random since I tend to travel for work.

 

[dhmcfadin]

@smurfslayer

I got the amp, sub, and accessories for Xmas from the fam and just completed the install. Thank you again for all your knowledge I love the extra bump.

Had a dumb question though. I did the lazy man's way and posi tapped the power inverter line. I noticed the Kenwood amp is on (red) light even with key off. Will this cause a battery drain? I tend to leave my truck without driving for 3 to 5 days at a time at random since I tend to travel for work.

I’d strongly recommend you not go that route unless you want to light your truck up.

Running proper power and ground is easy.

 

[K223]

Gotta have a home run to the battery directly and must be fused.

Amp must utilize its own ground as well. What was said above is a golden rule for vehicle amps. You cannot shortcut this part.

 

[smurfslayer]

What they said. At a minimum put a 30A fuse on the run to the amp now. Then run your power/ground home runs.

The inverter circuit doesn’t stay on long and if you’re getting amp signal from the speakers, then the amp will power down. if you’re getting turn on signal --from-- the inverter as well as the actual power run, then you probably want to redo that.

 

[nfsraptor]

What they said. At a minimum put a 30A fuse on the run to the amp now. Then run your power/ground home runs.

The inverter circuit doesn’t stay on long and if you’re getting amp signal from the speakers, then the amp will power down. if you’re getting turn on signal --from-- the inverter as well as the actual power run, then you probably want to redo that.

I do have a fuse on it used an amp wire kit just didn't have time to run a proper power and ground its only temporary. The ground I got out of a cab bolt and power I fused it to the inverter line. I'm going on a long road trip and wanted it quick lol. I will run ground power from batt when I get back. Always such a pain to route the wires through the firewall grommet or make another hole in the floor pan grommets and neatly tuck wires but I know I got to do it. I was mainly concerned about power remaining on but no I didn't run a turn-on signal wire I just did power and ground and amp signal from the speaker's signal.

 

[TK85]

For the guys that did the dynamat on the enclosure, did you do the inside also or just the outside

 

[smurfslayer]

I just did the outside.

 

[nfsraptor]

For the guys that did the dynamat on the enclosure, did you do the inside also or just the outside

I did the outside and inside just the bolt hole for extra assurance. On my build I also noticed a fair amount of air around the edges of the speaker so I also ran the dynamat around the edge and up to the plastic edge of the speaker ring

 

[dhmcfadin]

I do have a fuse on it used an amp wire kit just didn't have time to run a proper power and ground its only temporary. The ground I got out of a cab bolt and power I fused it to the inverter line. I'm going on a long road trip and wanted it quick lol. I will run ground power from batt when I get back. Always such a pain to route the wires through the firewall grommet or make another hole in the floor pan grommets and neatly tuck wires but I know I got to do it. I was mainly concerned about power remaining on but no I didn't run a turn-on signal wire I just did power and ground and amp signal from the speaker's signal.

It’s not the ground that is your issue. It’s utilizing a power wire that is inadequate for your amp. Doesn’t matter if you fuse down stream. That fuse won’t do anything once you melt the wire that feeds your inverter. The power source you are using is not adequate, it’s not safe, it’s not the right way to do it. Running a proper power wire from the battery, through the firewall, and to the rear of the truck takes 30 minutes. Doesn’t matter how big of a rush you are in, you have 30 minutes to do it right.