2003 Nissan Sentra SE-R SpecV Install "Completed"

[phenryiv1 10+ year member]

I know that "completed" is never really finished, but the main install is now finished. I did a full write-up for my Sentra sites, but the high points are here.

Well, I started building up the audio in my SpecV. I have created a thread to discuss the effort, including sound damping, install pics and problems, and results.

12.29.06

The Victim, a 2003 Nissan Sentra SE-R SpecV:

The Lab (haha):

Source Unit (Pioneer Premier DEH-P580MP):

I used a Metra faceplate kit and a Scoche wiring kit. The wiring kit was for 1972-2006 Nissans and had extra wire connectors attached. I left the covers on them and taped over them. Since the dash has lots of space, this was not an issue.

The first thing that I ran into was a problem with a gap at the top of the HU when the trim plate was installed. This is the place there the top of the HU meets the actual trim ring. See the pic for a better idea:

If you look at the top, you will see a slight gap.

Now, this would not be a big deal, but with the fold-down face on the 580, I needed it to be a better fit to allow the face to flap open. To address this, I bent the metal support brackets ever so slightly, and I flattened the dimpled screw holes at the BACK of the bracket (using a bench vise) and "oblonged" the holes with a drill. This allowed me to tilt the HU up very slightly. I plan to do some more tweaking because the face seems to make contact with the bottom rim of the trim plate, but I will get into that later. As you can see below, the gap is fairly well eliminated.

More installed pics:

In the pics of the installed unit it LOOKS like the curvature of the trim plate fairly well matches that of the dash, but that is really not the case. It is close, but given the fact that Metra makes and sells thousands of these, you'd think that they might do a better test fit for both curvature AND HU alignment...

Pic at night:

I need better camera skills...

At this point, the only other thing that I had done was to add a Bazooka EL 8 amplified sub to add some low-end. This was an entirely temporary solution. The plan was to decide on a more permanent subwoofer setup AFTER I got my components installed.

The sub, so far:

And the back seat wren's nest of wiring ( some still coiled up on the floor):

Note the 8 gauge 12V+ on the passenger side and the 3-channel (yes, you read that right) RCAs on the driver's side. Since the sub channel was mono, I thought that I would be slick and just run (1) 3-channel RCA to the trunk. Not the brilliant idea that I thought that is was…

From here, the next step was to be front stage on a Rockford Fosgate 250a2 amp. I had bought a set of Hertz ESK 165s components (http://www.hertzaudiovideo.com/Doc/pdf_esk165s.pdf) for the front. These are made by Audison, and are gaining popularity for their SQ and value. I got a set from Don and will be writing a review for them after the install. These are a fairly slim fit mid, but I will be making PVC spacers to assist in the install. I will also be installing eDead and some closed-cell foam to damp the doors.

For a more permanent amp, I decided on an old school Xtant 404m amp that I picked up (used) on here for a good price. It is rated at 50W RMS x 4 channels, and I will be bridging 2 of the channels into a mono 4 ohm load, resulting in a 200W RMS x 1 and the standard 50W x 2 for the fronts.

I will be using the 580’s built in crossovers to simplify the system. I plan on an 80 Hz HPF for the fronts and an 80 Hz LP for the sub crossover, and I planed to utilize the HU’s level control to tune the signal sent to the bridged rear channels pushing a small sub- probably a 10" or maybe even an 8" driver. I wanted to keep things as small as possible in the trunk, and just need enough bass to supplement the 6.5" components. At this point I only had 8 gauge run to the rear to power the Bazooka, but the plan was to upgrade it to 4 gauge, since the Xtant has a 60A current draw.

Click to read more...

 

[phenryiv1 10+ year member]

Amp pics:

12.30.06

Some pictures of the Hertz components:

To mount the speakers, I ran into a bit of a challenge. The front doors on the Spec have only 1.9" of mounting depth, and the spacers that I am making will add .75" to that. What I have to do is pull the doors apart, remove a stock speaker, trace it, cut out the spacer, cut out the mounting hole, etc. This is a lot of downtime.

My play, which is much easier, was to buy these to use as a template for some better (thicker) spacers:

I will wait until they arrive and use them. That way, I can just do the install all in quick swoop without pulling my doors apart to use my OEM speakers as a template. Those are only 1/4" (not big enough), so I will use them as a template.

01.04.07

Bought (what I was told was) a 2-ohm DVC Image Dynamics 10” sub in a box. More on that later.

 

[phenryiv1 10+ year member]

01.16.07

With the templates in hand, I am making a whole run of spacers out of PVC boards to use for myself and to sell on the B15 (Sentra) forums. I am using PVC so that I don't have to worry about water or other crap getting all over wood spacers and rotting or molding it. This material is not cheap at all. $42 for a 1" x 8" x 8' piece- which makes about 4 sets of adapters.

I used the 1/4" spacers as a template. The 1/4" set had a center mounting hole that was too small for any speakers that I had, so I enlarged the hole to accommodate 6.5" speakers.

Pics of the rough prototypes:

Speaker in spacer:

Spacer thickness- 1":

Spacer overlaid on top of template:

(I left off a small part of the mounting "wing" because that is how wide the material is. It does NOT affect the function of the spacer, since the mounting hole still has plenty of material around it.)

01.23.07

404m and Image Dynamics 10” sub installed. Apparently, the "DVC 2 ohm" ID 10 was actually an SVC 4 ohm. Same difference in my setup, but it kind-of bothered me that the guy was that wrong about what he had. No wonder it is in the wrong box- he has no idea what he has. When I opened it up to verify that the 2 VCs were wired properly before I actually hooked it to my amp, there was 1 VC and the model # was clearly an SVC model.

Trunk pics:

As you can tell, my camera skillz are the heat!

One REAL p!sser...the hex-head screws used to mount the Xtants look really cool, but the threads are designed to go in shallow grooves that run THROUGH the amp. Sounds good, right? Sure. So I get brand new screws (free) from Xtant and use them to mount my amp to an MDF board that I have along the back seat. The even SEND you the proper hex-head bit to go in a drill or hand-driver. At this point, I had planned poach a design idea where I suspend the amp from the rear deck to conserve space, but with the amp screwed to the board and with no way to remove the screws, it will be staying like this for the time being. It really sucked when I went to move the amp and to adjust the gains a bit, and the fudging thing is STUCK TO THE BOARD because the screw heads stripped out! What a pain in the ARSE!

01.29.07

Upped 12+ and ground to 4 gauge and installed Big 3.

Parts:

-New Batt Positive terminal. Despite having 4 outputs on mine, I STILL could have used more outputs. Changing the terminal was not necessary because you can use ring terminals for this upgrade, but I wanted to do this all of the way if I was going to do it at all. My new terminal had (1) 1/0, (1) 4, and (2) 8 gauge outs.

-Approximately 10 feet of LARGE wire- the larger the better. I used 1/0 that I bought from a car audio site. You can use anything, but 1/0 is the most logical choice for most people.

-(6) ring terminals for the proper gauge of wire. I have 2 red boots and 4 black, since we have 1 upgraded 12V+ wire that we add, and 2 upgraded ground wires. You could also use heat shrink tubing.

-In-line fuse holder (and fuse) for your Alternator+ to Batt+ run.

-Electrical tape.

-Wire loom (optional).

The new Batt+ terminal has (1) 1/0, (1) 4, and (2) 8 gauge outs. I had to do some "customizing" to make it work, but everything is run now.

When I cut the terminals off of the OEM wiring, I realized that the 8 gauge that runs from the Batt to the fuse box was too short to get to the new terminal, so I had to replace the wire.

I don't know if it was a placebo effect or not, but my headlights seem just slightly brighter. One thing that I am sure of is that my windows roll up and down much better when the car is at idle, particularly if I have the stereo turned on. Before, even if the volume was muted but the amp was powered up, my windows moved very slowly when I was at a drive-through or if I was "badging" in or out at work.

 

[phenryiv1 10+ year member]

01.30.07

Impressions so far:

The more I play with the Pioneer, the less ecstatic I am about it, but for the price that I paid it was a good value. I think that the SQ and output from it are not any better than (and may even be a step DOWN from) my '98 DEH-P835R and my DEH-P77R that I had in past vehicles. This may be my choice of amp, but we will see more once I get it all tuned.

It seems that there is a notable lack of bass. Despite the small cabin and the 200W RMS rating with the amp bridged, it seems that that SVC ID 10 is not putting out much sound unless the "loudness" setting is enabled and the sub level control is at +3 or +4 (Note: a subsequent call to ID revealed that the box that the sub was in when I bought it is about 30% larger than what the sub really likes to see). I have not played with the amp gains (because of the fact that the mounting screws stripped out!), but I still feel like I am coming up short somewhere. Having the Hertz installed and adding some midbass to the equation SHOULD help things, but I guess we will see. On some songs, the bass is great. On others, I wonder if the amp is even turned on.

On a positive note, my 4-channel Monster Cable 201XLN 4ch 5M RCA's finally arrived.

In contemplating my next move, I have hit a dilemma with sound deadening. I have about 30 square feet of asphalt-based eDead V1. I want to use it on the doors, but I really only want to pull the doors apart once. Because it is asphalt-based, I'd rather NOT use it on the doors and risk it coming off. Of course, that means another week or so of waiting for RAAMmat, Secong Skin, or a new order of the Butyl-based eDead (which is DIRT cheap!). If I get a butyl-based deadener, I will use the eDead that I have now on the floor or trunk floor.

02.24-25.07

FINALLY...Components installed! It took 10 hours, total (I did more than just install the components).

Brokeback door handle (my only broken or lost part of the install):

Proper wire routing:

I ran my 4-channel RCAs and speaker wire down the passenger side, and on the driver's side I fed the turn-on and speaker wire through them. I have my 4-gaugeand remote turn-on run on the driver's side (because crossing the firewall wastes 4-5 more feet of power wire), and with the stock wire pack going through the carrier clips it ends that 4 gauge cannot run in the same path, though it can parallel the stock wiring. I Zip-tied the 4-gauge to the stock wiring. I ended up having enough 4-gauge left over, and I could have run it down either side, but once it was laid down I was not about to re-lay it.

Snaking the wires to the door (note the use of a HUGE zip-tie as a wire snake):

Note: HVAC zip ties (the really wide ones) make the BEST wire snakes that I have EVER used. They are fairly stiff, yet fairly flexible, and are very durable. They were perfect for routing tweeter wires through the dash and midrange wires through the stock rubber door conduits.

Component install:

Tweeter Mounting details:

Stock Tweeter:

Hertz Tweeter Mount on stock bracket:

Hertz Tweeter installed on stock bracket:

Hertz Tweeter mounted in stock location:

...and with stock A-pillar cover in place (not much to see here):

Stock Door:

 

[phenryiv1 10+ year member]

Midrange details:

Spacer installed; part of deadening completed:

Mid in Spacer (Driver's side):

Mid in Spacer (Passenger's side):

Door Deadened with both mass and barrier loading:

Deadening:

I only got part of the door skin done because it was pretty chilly outside and because the rear part of the door has that huge hole that has to be covered. Once it warms up, I will be using plexi or masonite to cover the hole and then deadening it, then covering it with the same foam barrier membrane that I used on the front part. Overall, I think that the cost/benefit of deadening the doors has thus far been well worth it. The time it takes to do it is pretty substantial, especially when each section of the mass deadener has to be heated to get it to stick to the door skin. I have about 2 hours in the doors already. The rear of the door has a lot of smaller spaces that would have been very difficult to cover without taking a LOT more time- something that I did not have a lot of this weekend. I wanted to get the components installed, to run new RCAs, and to get things tuned. On top of that I have a 4 month old who I had to attend to.

All of the deadener- both mass and barrier type- are augmented with aluminized HVAC tape to help ensure that the deadener stays where I want it. I cut everything about 1/2" short and ran sections of the aluminized tape directly over the deadener and onto the metal of the door. I recommend this be done in short (6-8") strips to make it easier to apply.

For the actual deadener, I used eDead on the outer skin (below the crash support) and on both sides of the inner skin. I also covered the inner skin with a 1/8" foam deadener that has an aluminum layer over it. Whereas the eDead kills vibrations and deadens the actual mechanical movement, the foam blocks the sound, providing a barrier between the sound and the passenger compartment. I have used mass-loading alone before (like dynamat, eDead, etc.) and adding the foam makes a huge difference at very little cost. It is also very easy to install.

The foam is a closed-cell foam HVAC product made by a company called “Thermwell.”

(http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=28929-1410-FV516&pad=true) It is a duct insulation that is available at many home improvement stores. It is 12” wide and 1/8” thick, and has an adhesive on the inner foam layer, with an aluminum backing that is flexible and easy to mold, particularly with a wallpaper roller. Cost is in line with most of the other 1/8” car-audio tailored closed cell foam products on the market, but the advantage to this being no shipping cost (but you do pay tax) and immediate availability.

Sound:

For what I have invested (total of under $600), it sounds good. I am still a bit oversized on the box for my sub (0.93 cu ft as opposed to the 0.75 I need) and my initial impression is that most likely everything is underpowered. I remember when an RF amp w/ 50 watts per channel would break windows...this Xtant is very clean, but the 50 watts per channel is really not as far-reaching as I had hoped. The Hertz have very smooth highs and very clean midrange. More true midbass is there if I lower the HPF to 50 Hz, but they sound very clean with the 80 Hz HP (I am using the built-in x-over on the Pioneer). The good news is that I could not push the Hertz to distortion without maxing out the volume on the HU, and that is with the amp's gains up around 90%. Like I said, the amp is clean, but just does not have a lot of headroom.

I think that with a few more watts, these would SCREAM. I DON'T like the in-line crossovers, but they would be easy to upgrade, and they were a snap to install because they can be tucked just about anywhere. Also, the mids have a basket that seems a bit thin. I could probably torque the mounting screws enough to actually bend the basket/flange if I tightened them any more. You could see the mounting flange start to bend as the screws cinched down.

On the plus side, the speakers are VERY musical, and don't sound like speakers- they make music sound like music. For the price, they are the best components I have ever heard or run. My only wish is that I had more power to put to them, and that I had a betterl-tuned sub to augment them.

Next steps are a smaller box to start. I will be putting blocks of wood in the current box until it sounds the best, then I will build a new box with that same volume. I also want to re-mount the amp from the back of the seat to a suspended platform under the rear deck in the location where the stock “subwoofer” is located. That piece of crap is already disconnected, but I will be removing it, deadening the rear deck, and replacing the stock rear speakers with some inexpensive Pioneer 6.5”s. To get to the gains on the amp (and to really make the thing easier to work with, I had to get it off of the mounting board (remember my reference to the stripped hex-screws?!?). I had to literally put my fingers under the edge of the amp and rip it off of the board. Ripping screws that are 5/8” into MDF is not that easy. I then had to use Vice-Grips to turn the screws from the threaded side until I could get a grip on the head and unscrew them from the top. Needless to say, I re-installed it with different screws this time. Long drywall screws FTW!

After driving it for an hour today, I realized that it gets more than loud enough for daily driving, so while my old basshead, hear-me-down-the-block self would need more power, I will take this nice, clean sound and put the $$$ from another amp into something else...

 

[Octavio 10+ year member]

Hi Penry

I have the same back seat as you, that seat does not let your bass out of your back trunk ...... any comments?

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k271/phenryiv1/Stereo005.jpg

 

[phenryiv1 10+ year member]

Hi Penry
I have the same back seat as you, that seat does not let your bass out of your back trunk ...... any comments?

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k271/phenryiv1/Stereo005.jpg

I will be removing the stock sub to give me a pass-through in the form of the factory grille. It is already disconnected, but I need to remove it.

 

[MTXman 10+ year member]

Very nice install man.

You are more of an SQ guy, that ID sub was a good choice.

 

[phenryiv1 10+ year member]

Very nice install man.
You are more of an SQ guy, that ID sub was a good choice.

I really need to do something with the box, becase as the volume stands right now (about 30% large), sub SQ is not where I want it to be.

I have considered pulling the box altogether and running (2) 8-ohm 6.5" subs wired in parallel. I could pull the rear speakers and have the 6.5 subs firing right into the cabin. They'd most likely be more efficient than a 10 in the trunk, but something in me thinks that (2) 6s are a step down from the 10...

 

[dkmesa 10+ year member]

Cool. Nice tweeter mount, thats lucky

 

[phenryiv1 10+ year member]

Cool. Nice tweeter mount, thats lucky

I was hoping that I could modify the stock mounts without destroying them. All that I ended up having to do was to drill (2) 5/64" holes to attach the cups to the stock mounts.

 

[o2 SENTRA 10+ year member]

Hi Penry
I have the same back seat as you, that seat does not let your bass out of your back trunk ...... any comments?

http://i90.photobucket.com/albums/k271/phenryiv1/Stereo005.jpg

This is o2 SENTRA!Nice install!How does the 2.5 move?I had a pulsar with a 2.5 andthat had a hard time staying below 80.I have an 02 SENTRA as we speak.For my install--front stage-Alpine type-R-components-tweeters in the front doors,rear stage-Alpine type-R-co-axial 6.5's.The source unit is the Alpine-9847 cd-mp3 w/3pre-outs.The amps--Alpine MRP-F-450--4-channel amp is my interior amp-at 2 ohms it pushes 100 watts rms.For the subs,I have two ofthe JL AUDIO 12W3/3-4 ohm run paralel in a slot-vented (Ported) enclosure to 2-ohms.My sub amp is the Alpine MRD-1005,the birth sheet is 1086 rms at 2 ohms.I have my gains turned down some so I don;t smoke the W3'3.As it is, I might be running 400 watts to each sub as it is.I would like to go to some 12 w-6's or the new type 'R' sub.Great Install.I'll have to take some pics and then try to figure out how to post them!!My SENTRA is that green/silver color.It's stock--but it hits hard. O2 SENTRA out..........

 

[evan 10+ year member]

Nice pick on the gear.

 

[phenryiv1 10+ year member]

Nice pick on the gear.

Thank you. I am actually considering switching amps to an Audison 4 channel. How did you like your Audison amps? I am waiting on a price from Don before I decide.