From A to Zed

Hi Dan, Sox

I'm going guys, and it's my second year too. I'm going with friends rather than the GF as she doesn't really get the car scene... Only last night she said 'oh God... You're not friends with the quagmire idiot are you? I explained that was me

I'm leaving very early on Friday on the 7.30am Eurotunnel staying on Maison Blanch and returning on the Monday morning.

Dan - A good chance for me to give you that beer I owe you!

Matt

I thought mine was going to snap! I almost got a hernia getting that beast off

Mine was on incredibly tight too... I never thought it would come off.

I got a better purchase on the gear stick by wrapping it in a small piece of cut out bike inner-tube and then clamping some mole grips on nice and tight. I got my bother to sit in the driver's seat holding those grips as tight as possible/

Next (sitting in the passenger seat with more room) I covered the gear knob with an old rag / T-shirt and turned it off with a 2nd set of mole grips. It was very tight indeed, they must have very strong robots Japan!

Btw you'll love the new gear knob, the shift feels so much better

And send your silver strut cover to Paul for a nice carbon-look finish

If Apple can track the IPOD they should be able to provide the IP address of the PC using it. The IP address is linked the user's internet account thus the user (of your Ipod) can be traced. I could be wrong but I think this is how they track people looking at naughty stuff on the interweb.

You can bet your bottom dollar that the data protection act prevents this from being the case. Despite the fact that government officials are free to leave laptops lying around every time they have a couple of lemon bitters.

And of course the Police won't care as nobody was speeding

.. Sorry rant over.

I'm glad to hear your car is ok!

I only needed to go back as far as the glove box mate. Would you be happy with the NAV in the glove box behind the passenger seat?

You can remove the plastic trim surrounding the rear strut brace and run the wires under that that but it looks quite fiddly. I think the plastic there is quite brittle and the clips are quite tight so you have to be careful and apply your pressure as close to the clips as possible...

Cheers guys, thats a great route. Has anybody succesfully got cables into the cubby behind the passenger seat without pulling apart the whole interior? I have a number of signal cables running under the central armrest and a power cable installed as above, all of which i need to get into the cubby! Any ideas?

This isn’t too hard buddy…. It sounds like a lot of a work but it can be done by lunch!

First up you will need to raise the centre consol. I left the gear knob on as you can raise the centre consol ~10cms which is plenty for running cables through. If you want to completely remove the centre consol the gear knob will have to come off first.

Have a few tea towels or cloths about as the plastics can scratch quite easily.

Pop the gear knob surround out and remove the 2 screws holding the centre consol in place. They are the lowest ones you can see.

Remove the ashtray and remove the 1 screw in the cubby hole.

Slide both seats forward to remove the screws on the each side of the consol rear.

Pull the hand brake up (quite hard) and you can raise the centre consol about 10cms. You need to kind of slide is back first and then up, you’ll see what I mean…

I used some cable ties and electrical tape make a little loom with my RCA’s and speaker wires and I run this down the driver’s side of the consol. On the passenger side I run my constant live and remote live. It is much easier if you loom the wires together for the next stage. It also keeps it tidy and prevents things from moving about.

As you work the cables down the centre consol and under the arm rest cubby (where your Bluetooth lives) you will feel two round holes about 3cm across on each side which enter the rear of the car.

The rear cavity is essentially one large space partially split down the middle but there are plenty gaps and holes to poke your cables through. To get to the cavity on the passenger side remove everything in the glove box and use a flat head to remove the plastic tray under the carpet. Disconnect the two electrical sockets and slide the tray out. Pull out the sheet of sound deadening.

If you reach under the floor you can now ‘meet’ your fingers reaching through the hole under the Bluetooth and pass the wires through. Relief! This was my live and remote live done.

If you are running a live and want to keep this away from the other cables you will need to remove the Bose woofer (it’s only 4 bolts). You might need a friend at this stage, the Bose is one heavy mother of a sub…

Remove the sheet of sound deadening and again you can reach across and meet your cables through the other hole under the Bluetooth. Shine a torch in the cavity and you can see plenty of spaces to run the cables through to the glove box. You should now have everything you need in the glove box and you can rebuild the rest of the car!

Drop me a PM if you get stuck or need a quick chat.

Thanks everyone, this is really helpful

I am going to make some mounts like these... A willing friend will give me hand with running the wires through the doors. WON'T YOU CHRIS!

I'm off to get busy with my dynomat now.

Thanks again,

Matt

Thanks Marky. Did you remove the door to do this or did you manage find space with it still attached?

btw, sorry to see your thread last week... I hope everything works out for you after all the effort you've put into the car.

Ta,

Matt

Pm sent Thanks guys.

Hi guys,

After a terrible day attempting to install my stereo I managed to break my passenger door handle

I'm after the plastic part (which you clip the metal piece on to) and bolt in two places through the door card to the door skin.

Rob / Alex, I'm hoping you have one?

Ta,

Matt

Thanks Clarkie. I will give them a few days and drop them a PM after that if they don't see my post.

I might take it all apart again tomorrow, just for fun

I'm really impressed with the way the Zed is put togeather, it just takes a bloody age to pull anything apart!

I think these will solve my mounting issue and save a headache or two;

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/6-5-Fron ... 5fSpeakers

If anyone can assist on my wiring issues above it woud be great!

Matt

Sorry, I should add 'British approach' as I don't want to offend our friends to the North or West

Thanks Martin. I did have the read the wiki and the guys over there hacked up the socket joining the car. I am hoping one of the guys here had a more sympathetic (or should we say creative, or English) approach to the wiring

Thanks for adding the link, it's good reference material for anyone else reading this thread

I recommend a white beer if you have had a bad day!

 

Kronnenburg Blanc or Hoegarden will sort you right up!

Yeah just a couple though as I obviously have my work cut out tomorrow

Cheers,

Matt

Not at all buddy.... A few beers and match of the day will cheer me up. Until tomorrow

Ok, today has not gone very well...

First up I removed the door cards to discover that the door loom is actually connected to the car via a socket and not a simple loom. This has prevented me from running my speaker wire from the doors into the car foot wells. 2nd problem: I bought some MDF spacers but my speakers still impede the windows. So, after giving up for the day and rebuilding the doors I realised that I had forgot to attach the locking cables so I had to remove both doors cards again (to attach the cables) and re assemble them. During this saga I managed to break my passenger door handle too.

I've looked through all 23 pages in the ICE folder and after reading some of Rob's posts I'm reasonably confident I can build some more complex MDF rings to house the speakers, but how did you guys run the speaker wires into the car? Can you use the Bose wire and re-connect to that somewhere else in the car? This is what I am hoping to do, I don't want to attack the sockets.

Replacing the sub woofer looks like a bar steward too as I can tell the factory grill will not fit once I use an MDF ring to mate my sub to the old Bose woofer 'box.' I honestly wish I left this well alone now....

Any advice would be greatly appreciated,

Matt

Well played Chris, it's all downhill from here... Exhaust next

My order from Sextons arrived yesterday Sadly I was out last night and Corinne spotted the box (you couldn't really miss it) so I'm in the dog house now!

Dennis,

Just don't mention the football when limp out next year

Matt

Hey Paul,

You should be fine mate. Before you start;

Ensure you have the proper Samco clips for all the hoses. If not order them from demon tweeks (~ 19 pounds) or buy some good jubilee clips.

Have a can of WD40 ready and a large bucket or container to catch the coolant.

Have some old cloths ready to mop up any coolant.

Buy a spare bottle of coolant. You might kick the bucket over in a rage!

1). Remove the radiator cap on the top right of the radiator (or you will have an air lock).

2). Get the car on axle stands.

3). Remove the plastic tray under the engine.

4). To drain the system you need to remove the plastic plug under the radiator. It's on the near side. Use a flat head to remove and be gentile with the thread.

5). Allow the Zed to relieve itself!

6). Move the coolant to one side, replace plug to prevent any left over spillage.

7). Remove the lower hose clips using mole grips or pliers. Watch those fingers and knuckles as the clips are under a lot of tension. The hoses can also be a bugger to get off. I gripped my hoses by wrapping them with an old cloth and tugging like mad. You could also try squirting some WD40 in there if you can - i.e wriggle a flat head under the hose and spray away.

8). Fit the lower hose and clamp it in place.

At this stage you can replace the plastic under tray and lower the car back to the ground. It's easier to change the upper hoses with the car at ground level.

9). The hose on the top left of the radiator is easy. Tackle that one next and clamp it in place.

10). The longer thin hose is a bit of pain. You need to remove the plastic engine cover and it also helps to remove the induction kit / air box for easier access. I found this one even harder to get off and gashed a knuckle or two... A few four letter words helped at this stage.

11). Fit your new hose, give it a twist to ensure the logo's are on show and admire.

12). Replace the induction kit / air box.

13). Replace your engine cover. I managed this without removing the strut brace.

14). Check your radiator plug is in and slowly refill the system using a funnel. I'm not sure what the correct procedure is here, I slowly poured directly into the radiator and the expansion tank to ensure that no air is trapped.

15). Check your coolant level is ok. I ran the car for a bit and went for a spin... Once back I checked the temp and coolant level and all seemed well.

16). Take a final peep to check out your new hoses and grab a beer

- drop me a PM if you get stuck.

Matt

If you move the seats as far forward as you can you will see two screws (on the side) of the centre consol. Remove these.

If you car is the 2003 - 2005 model you will need to remove the ashtray and remove the screw in under that. IIRC there are no clips and it just lifts out... Good luck!

Matt.

That does look nice mate Ideal for the tight space too.

To cut a long story short I'm using hardware I have lying about so I'm not really looking for a new sub. I'm just trying to figure out the best way to mount the sub woofer without hacking up the interior

Hi all,

I have replaced my Bose headunit with an Alpine unit which is currently connected to the Bose AMP and speakers. I intend to bypass the Bose system completely with the following set up;

Alpine headunit -> 1 Alpine V12 4 channel amp

Front 2 channels -> To power a pair of 6.5" focals in the doors. I will use MDF rings and dynomat.

Rear 2 channels -BRIDGED-> 10" focal sub in the factory space. I will attempt to seal / dynomat this space.

The rear speakers will just be disabled.

I removed the Bose sub this weekend (on a little recce) and the internal width of the hole is 9.5" - and if I have read correctly the Bose sub is 10.5."

I intend to use the factory grill to keep everything stealth and was wondering how you guys have mounted your woofers in the factory space? Will a 10" fit ok or will the new woofer be slightly too small? Would you recommend making an MDF ring / spacer to mate the sub with the metal hole?

Thanks for your help guys,

Matt

With your two-tone anything other than black might look a bit odd buddy...

Have you considered a matt black if you're going for that Jap street racer look?