Thrillhouse

After 3 days of work I finally finished my C6 stereo installation. I found several threads on this forum to be very helpful with certain parts of the install, but still found myself on my own for other parts. Here's a list of tips I would have for anyone attempting a stereo project in a C6. These tips may already be in other threads around here, but I thought it might be helpful to combine them all into one.

The equipment I used:

Pioneer z130BT
PAC interface module with RAP relay and chimes module
CDT CF-6G 6.5" components
JL Audio stealthbox/10W1v2
Arc Audio mini 4channel amp
Boyo VTL-425 backup camera
Axxess steering wheel control interface
BXT II sound deadening
Ensolite insulation


Here's my tips:

• The best place to get a power wire through the firewall is above the passenger footwell, to the right of the fusebox, above the black plastic trim. There is a large rubber grommet there that you can put a hole through, or there is plenty of bare plastic to drill your own hole. This area is easily accessible with the battery removed.
  
  
• While an Arc mini amp will fit inside the space previously occupied by the Bose amp, I can't see any good way of installing one there. The entire space is plastic which leaves no good way of mounting the thing other than the Bose mount points. As far as I can tell, this would require mounting the amp upside down which would make adjustments a pain.
  
  
• If you then mount your amp in the back of the trunk, like me, there is pretty much no place to ground the amp. The entire inside of the trunk is plastic. Your options are the seat belt bolts underneath the sail panels, the ground point underneath the trim at the back of the passenger door, or drilling a hole through the floor of the trunk cubby. Since I only had a 3ft ground wire, I couldn't reach all the way to the sail panel, so I got under the car and discovered a threaded stud sticking out of the frame rail a few inches away from the bottom of the cubby. I drilled a hole in the bottom of the cubby next to the OnStar box and ran my cable through the hole and bolted it onto the stud. I found one of the 10mm nuts from my Boyo camera was the correct size. Be sure to put some gasket maker on the hole to keep it watertight.
  
  
• I struggled with where to put the crossovers for my component speakers in the doors. One possibility is the Bose amp location in the passenger footwell. I decided I wanted mine in the doors themselves, so I used industrial strength velcro and attached them to the back side of the door panel towards the end of the door. There is a large open space with plenty of room. This faces towards the large access hole in the door, which had just enough clearance for the cover over the crossover with my blockoff plates installed. To pass the wires through the door you can either drill a hole in the speaker mount plate, or use the existing hole behind where the 3" twiddler used to sit. Just poke a small hole through the rubbery sealant material.
  
  
• If you put the crossovers in the doors, be sure to zip tie your wiring up out of the way of the window mechanism. I had to go back in and fix that after the fact. There's a large wire bundle at the front of the door that works well.
  
  
• Use the gray wire on the traction control button for your illumination signal.(orange wire on a pioneer)
  
  
• Reverse signal wire is in the large wire bundle in the fuse panel going to the rectangular brick connector. Peel back the electrical tape and splice into the light green wire.
  
  
• Steering wheel control wires are in the main radio harness coming from the car. Cut/Peel back the cloth loom and find the purple wire and the blue wire right next to it. These need to be spliced in to the wires on the steering wheel control module. Follow the instructions from the module's website.
  
  
• You don't need to hook up the VSS wire. It is only used for dead reckoning when the system can't get a satellite signal. If you care, it is accessed behind the instrument cluster or at the ECU in the front passenger side wheel well.
  
  
• Installing the door panels is a pain. The best method I found was to align all the plastic pins around the edge of the door and engage them just a click or two to hole the panel in place. Then start at the front of the door by the hinge and bend the top of the panel back while pushing it towards the door. Once you get the metal clip over the ridge, push down to seat it. Then go down the door and bang the door panel with your palm in an upwards direction. As soon as the clip pops over the ridge, push down on the panel to seat it. Continue down the panel until all 4 of the metal clips on the top are seated, then go around the edge of the panel pushing the plastic pins in the rest of the way.
  
  
• The bluetooth microphone works really well if you mount it right up by the onstar microphone on the driver's side a pillar. You can partially remove the a pillar enough to see down into the footwell, then feed a piece of stiff wire through the gap, hook it around the microphone, then haul it back up. Clip the microphone to the headrest in the corner and nobody will ever notice it.
  
  
• The chimes module that came with my PAC harness makes a much less pleasant noise than the OEM chimes. Possibly a different brand would be better?
  
  
• I used the Boyo VTL-425 license plate camera. I like it because it is fairly small and discreet. To install it the easiest way is to take out the inside passenger side tailight. You will see a big grommet there for the taillight wiring. It's easy to poke a hole through it and use a pair of needle nose pliers to pull the wire through. Since the Boyo camera has the power connections at the end of the wire, you'll have to splice them in behind the radio. I used the same switched 12v wire and ground as for the steering wheel control interface.
  
  
• My metra dash kit was not labeled correctly. The side brackets were labeled "L" and "R", but if mounted that way the unit was upside down and would not install properly. Be sure to follow the pictures in the instructions. They are correct.
  
  
• Before you button up your install, be sure to test that the face on the nav unit can open. When I first installed mine I used the wrong set of screw holes and the face would bind up when it tried to open.
  
  
• The most difficult part of the whole process was getting all of the wiring inside the center console so you can push the nav unit all the way in. To start with, be sure you cut out the plastic support behind the radio. It will interfere with the aftermarket unit. It's fairly brittle plastic, you don't need a dremmel to cut it. I used a pair of diagonal pliers and regular pliers. Stow all the various modules off to the sides of the enclosure and try to tuck all the loose RCA connectors to the side in the back. There is a LOT of wiring back there, but there's also quite a bit of space. If you carefully stow everything the unit should fit all the way in without forcing it.
  

NYC6

Well done, but arent you gonna tell us how it sounds?

Craig P

Great post!
Thank You, I am getting ready to do this myself.

kedar

i have recently installed my system and will offer the following tips:

-you can mount your crossovers using 3m dual lock velcro above the passenger and above the plastic trim piece in a cavity. there is a place for lots of space there. i mounted mine in such a way that the switch on the crossover faces down. some say that mounting the crossover in the car is better because it is accessible to make adjustments and because you avoid potential water damage.

-it is easier to pull / push wire into the engine compartment through the factory grommet in the firewall. as the op mentioned, remove the battery. then get a wire coat hanger through, attach wire in the cabin using electrical tape, and then push / pull the wire through. it would be helpful to coat the wire with a silicone lubricant.

-the power wire can be installed to the fuse box remote location in the engine compartment.

-if for whatever reason you completely remove the nut on the battery clamp that connects to the battery terminals, and then for whatever reason you drop / lose that special nut (it is a cam nut with a taper on the bottom), then don't bother going through the dealer. you can only get that nut by purchasing the positive batter wire at a steep price. don't bother going to local auto part store because they won't have it either. you can buy the nut for ~$5 on that online auction site.

-the factory chassis ground in the passenger side pillar is easy to access without having to completely disassemble the interior. you can pop up the plastic sill piece and you can pull out that plastic side piece enough to access the bolt. i was able to run ground wire forward to the passenger footwell under the plastic trim piece and behind and up the piece on the side of the passenger footwell. rather than drilling through the cubby, get a longer wire.

-arc audio mini amps fit in the passenger footwell. in fact, i have two there. one faces down and one faces up. i have a bracket that was made by Rick at Raam Audio that makes it possible. to get an amp in there you will have to clip a zip tie on the car's wiring harness and will have to push / disconnect some things to make it fit.

-give yourself enough time to get the job done. it may not be realistic to do everything in one day.

Grzldvt1

Mounting anything in the doors is pretty risky as they will not be 100% watertight over time, plus the closing of the door is a bit rough on the X-overs.
I also have mine mounted on top of the lower dash panels on each side. There is plenty of room, and they are easy to access if you need to change them.
I also used the B-Pillar ground. Didn't even think of poking around outside the cabin...

Thrillhouse

Sound is pretty subjective I need some more time to adjust things, but so far I'm happy with the sound. The additional mid-bass from a pair of proper speakers with an insulated and deadened door panel is remarkable.


To the others, I agree that putting the crossovers in the doors can be risky. This is why I attached it to the door panel trim itself. Judging from the lack of any water marks / debris inside the panel I think it stays pretty dry. There's an entire layer of fiberglass between any moisture and the electronics. Luckily the CDT crossovers are pretty much set-and-forget, so I shouldn't need to dig back into the doors any time soon.

blairR

Thanks so much for the great post. I have a few questions.

You said:

• The bluetooth microphone works really well if you mount it right up by the onstar microphone on the driver's side a pillar. ... Clip the microphone to the headrest in the corner and nobody will ever notice it.

My bluetooth voice recognition is horrible, even after moving the mic to the A pillar from the rear view mirror. I don't understand how you would "clip the microphone to the headrest" if it is being mounted on the A pillar next to the factory Mic. Could you elaborate or provide a picture or better yet, both.

Mregor

Think he meant Sunvisor.

Thrillhouse

Yeah I didn't mean the headrest, sorry. I have the mic clipped to the headliner above the sunvisor just at the top of the windshield. The pioneer bluetooth mic has a little detachable U clip that fits well on the headliner.

I was going to get a picture, but it's been endlessly raining here and I haven't had the car out since.

WAwatchnut

You can just pull down on the leading edge of the headliner, and slide the top uf the u shaped bracket in there. Works the same for Kenwoods mica.