2005 Hyundai Accent GT - System for the old lady

[thund3rstruck]

Ok, I know it's not much compared to most of the members here but I wanted to do something really special for my wife. She loves country music so I decided to build her a system that would sound great and really bring out the various tones in the music (banjo, flutes, violins, etc) as oppossed to the way it sounds now (where all the notes are flat and tinny).

Components

Head Unit: JVC KD-R210 CD Receiver

Amp: Pyle PLA2200 2-Channel 1400-Watt Bridgeable Mosfet Amplifier

Sub: Pyle PLQB10 500W in Bandpass Enclosure

High/Low Speakers: 4x SSL F252 FORCE 5.25" 2-Way Speakers, 200W

Installation

Head Unit

To get to the factory stereo in this car I had to perform these steps:

1. Remove rubber glovebox stops
   
2. Disconnect temperature control cables (behind glovebox & behind accelerator pedal)
   
3. Remove screws in cupholders
   
4. Pry off the control panel with small screwdriver
   

After removing the factory radio, I spliced and soldered all the connections from the car into the wiring harness for the new JVC stereo.

This vehicle doesn't have a traditional stereo inset panel, just some steel mounting brackets. Luckily I was able to find a Hyundai mounting harness, and it worked perfectly for the Accent.

I removed all the plastic panelling in the car to conceal the RCA output and remote turn on cables.

After running the cabling, I tested the unit to ensure all the speakers were working and the unit was functional.

Amplifier/Subwoofer

I was not able to locate any existing area in the firewall to route cable through. I lost a lot of time trying to figure out how to run the 8g amp power cable to the battery. With some assistance from a relative we were able to finally find some rubber grommet beneath the driver's side kick panel above the fuse box. But it required we route the cabling through the wheel well up into the engine compartment.

I don't have and pcitures of this (sorry)...

I wired up all the connections to test the amp/sub. I originally tested the speaker in mono/bridged mode but changed it back to a single channel since the woofer has a 500w peak limit.

After setting the amp to low-pass mode and setting the frequency and gain settings, I mounted the amp onto the enclosure box

I did some sound checks from around the car to see how much the bass tones carried in various areas of the vehicle.

Mid/High Speakers

ToDo: these photos are on another camera. Will post these in the next few days

Conclusion

I know its nothing custom or competition grade but so far I think my wife is pleased. The car is extremely small so a single 10" woofer is almost overkill for the music she listens to but I expect the system to make a huge quality of life improvement for her daily commute!

I hope someone finds this log useful or interesting.

Click to read more...

 

[americannight 10+ year member]

Nice simple system. Let me know how that R-210 deck works out. Personally I've had terrible luck with the R-210. I bought one at Car Toys here in the Seattle area and it died after 45 days of use. Car Toys refused to exchange it after 30 days so made me wait 2 months for it to be repaired by the manufacturer. Meanwhile my daughter's car had no stereo. They didn't even offer up a loaner. Finally got it back and put it in the vehicle. It died after 5 minutes of listening. When I pulled it out, the heat sink was super hot. It basically fried right there in the dash. I know all my wires are right. After the deck died the first time, I double checked the wires with my volt meter. Curious if I just got a bad one off the line or if there are chronic issues with this deck. For $79 I pretty much plan to cut my losses at this point and go somewhere else with better customer service. I don't think JVC is bad in general, though. Have had good luck in the past with their other decks.

 

[thund3rstruck]

Uh oh... that's not cool at all. I did the install on Saturday (it took about 10 hours) and on Sunday the amp stopped turning on. I took the multi-meter to the amp and the power and ground were good but the remote connection was reading +0V. So I ripped apart the dash again and re-spliced and resoldered the remote line and it started working again. I figured that I must have done a poor solder joint! From your troubles it sounds like this problem could be endemic to the circuitry! I sure hope this unit doesn't suffer the same fate as yours!

 

[americannight 10+ year member]

I sincerely hope this is not the case with your R-210. The first issue I had with this deck was that it was popping fuses after it had been working for a few weeks. I checked all wires and could find no shorts. Only when the deck was plugged in would it short out so it was an internal short, inside the deck itself. That's when I took it back to Car Toys and they sent it in for repair.

 

[TNTR70 10+ year member]

heres my accent thread with some pics http://www.caraudio.com/forum/car-audio-build-logs-cars-trucks-suvs/376139-new-member-2001-hyundai-accent-8-memphis-10-m3s-2.html ....nice to see another in the forums...very solid car with no rattles.

 

[Burton6431 10+ year member]

good start man we love diy jobs around here ya your **** aint great but youll get there, im familiar with your door speaker brand and they should be decent products, i also have to admit to using pyle material i run pyle comps but hey i lovem.