I know, I know, I know. "FINALLY. Aaron got his Lukebox."
So after M Car Day at Griot's, Luke was gracious enough to come to my house and install my "Killer" stereo. Before I get into all the fun details, yes it's Life Changing Bass and I would have saved myself lots of time and trouble had I done this sooner - details on this later.
So Matt (mlarsen), Simon (2mAn), Luke and I rip out the old stereo - this was a hack job beyond hack jobs. Why on earth someone chose to treat a Henna M3 in this manner is beyond comprehension. In Luke's words, "I'm surprised the thing played at all". I had a Sony deck, Sony 10 disc changer, Kenwood amp. No sub, but someone had one in the trunk at one point because my poor rear deck has a porthole cut out of it :hitler:
It was a horror - mismatched wiring, wood screws, exposed wires... This thing should have caught fire. There was house wire connected to speaker wire connected to god-knows-what with a half-connected amp and bypassed power window wiring (WTF??) And that's not even the worst of it.
I've had a water-in-the-trunk problem for as long as I've owned the car. I typically park it in the garage but when I don't and it rains, water appears. I did tail light seals, adjusted the sunroof, etc to no avail. When we ripped out all the carpeting, we found that THE SUNROOF DRAINS WERE NOT CONNECTED. THEY WERE JUST DUMPING INTO THE TRUNK. Yeah.
Luke had so many "WTF were they thinking" moments I actually lost count. The install was definitely done pre-2000 based upon conversations with the previous owner who never changed the stereo since buying the car.
So here's what I ended up with:
-10" Luke box
-Lighted amp rack with fans
-JVC Deck with HD Radio, iPod, blah blah blah
-FLi Audio 1000w 5-channel amp
-10" Infinity sub
Luke did an excellent job with a nice clean and tidy install. #1 reason why I didn't attempt a DIY, I could have probably made it functional but he made it pretty.
Lukebox pokin' thru - interestingly enough my ski pass was already knocked out.
We finished up just before 9:00 PM - Luke is a credit to the community for the work he has done to my car, and what little I actually forked over for the installation. His work is a value at double the price and if you don't have a Lukebox yet, buy one now before he realizes it!
Here's the finished install with the amp rack:
A couple issues though:
-Apparently my rear speakers were replaced by some crap, and my right front speaker has a tear in the diaphragm. So I need THREE premium speakers if anybody has some on the cheap.
-I don't really like my deck all that much - it only has a front USB - I wanted a rear setup so I could route an iPod cable permanently instead of having one poke out of the HU. Oh well, I chose it. Moar research next time.
-The FLI Audio amp is great BUT the remote sub adjust cord isn't long enough for an e30, and it's hard-wired to the switch. So you have to get a phone cord extender which we didn't have. Lame.
-The fans for the amp are LOUD. At normal speaking volume you can hear the fans even while driving. I might want to add in an on-off switch.
So after M Car Day at Griot's, Luke was gracious enough to come to my house and install my "Killer" stereo. Before I get into all the fun details, yes it's Life Changing Bass and I would have saved myself lots of time and trouble had I done this sooner - details on this later.
So Matt (mlarsen), Simon (2mAn), Luke and I rip out the old stereo - this was a hack job beyond hack jobs. Why on earth someone chose to treat a Henna M3 in this manner is beyond comprehension. In Luke's words, "I'm surprised the thing played at all". I had a Sony deck, Sony 10 disc changer, Kenwood amp. No sub, but someone had one in the trunk at one point because my poor rear deck has a porthole cut out of it :hitler:
It was a horror - mismatched wiring, wood screws, exposed wires... This thing should have caught fire. There was house wire connected to speaker wire connected to god-knows-what with a half-connected amp and bypassed power window wiring (WTF??) And that's not even the worst of it.
I've had a water-in-the-trunk problem for as long as I've owned the car. I typically park it in the garage but when I don't and it rains, water appears. I did tail light seals, adjusted the sunroof, etc to no avail. When we ripped out all the carpeting, we found that THE SUNROOF DRAINS WERE NOT CONNECTED. THEY WERE JUST DUMPING INTO THE TRUNK. Yeah.
Luke had so many "WTF were they thinking" moments I actually lost count. The install was definitely done pre-2000 based upon conversations with the previous owner who never changed the stereo since buying the car.
So here's what I ended up with:
-10" Luke box
-Lighted amp rack with fans
-JVC Deck with HD Radio, iPod, blah blah blah
-FLi Audio 1000w 5-channel amp
-10" Infinity sub
Luke did an excellent job with a nice clean and tidy install. #1 reason why I didn't attempt a DIY, I could have probably made it functional but he made it pretty.
Lukebox pokin' thru - interestingly enough my ski pass was already knocked out.
We finished up just before 9:00 PM - Luke is a credit to the community for the work he has done to my car, and what little I actually forked over for the installation. His work is a value at double the price and if you don't have a Lukebox yet, buy one now before he realizes it!
Here's the finished install with the amp rack:
A couple issues though:
-Apparently my rear speakers were replaced by some crap, and my right front speaker has a tear in the diaphragm. So I need THREE premium speakers if anybody has some on the cheap.
-I don't really like my deck all that much - it only has a front USB - I wanted a rear setup so I could route an iPod cable permanently instead of having one poke out of the HU. Oh well, I chose it. Moar research next time.
-The FLI Audio amp is great BUT the remote sub adjust cord isn't long enough for an e30, and it's hard-wired to the switch. So you have to get a phone cord extender which we didn't have. Lame.
-The fans for the amp are LOUD. At normal speaking volume you can hear the fans even while driving. I might want to add in an on-off switch.
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