GS4Man

I think I remember this post on the old forum, but I am looking to replace the stock sub on the rear deck of my 98 GS400. Before I break anything, can someone post instructions. It appears to be more than just popping some carpet and plastic. THANKS !!

Percy

GS4man,

Read carefully.

This is a LONG and involved process. Should take you about 2 to 3 hours
to do if you're taking your time and doing it right.

Seat cushion. The is a hookclip under the left and right passenger seat
locations. Grab underneath this and PULL HARD. Don't throw out your
back! Put the seat cushion aside somewhere.

Seat back. You'll need a 12mm deepwell socket and a ratchet. Or better
if you have a good (high torque) Porter Cable/Milwaukee/Makita power
drill with an adapter to use sockets. Remove the 4 bolts that are on
the bottom of the seatback. There are two HIDDEN bolts behind the
headrest. Lift up on the headrest. You'll find a cover held by Velcro
(tm). Lift up on the cover. Behind each headrest is a 12mm bolt.
Remove these. DO NOT REMOVE THE SEATBACK JUST YET. Read on.

Seat belt guides. You'll need a small flat bladed screwdriver to
release these. There are small notches where you can gently pry these
open. Once when you have these opened up, you can remove the entire
seatback.

Now the fun part. The trim area by the footwells has to be removed.
Gently pry up using a flatbladed screwdriver. The side closest to the
front of the car will pop out while the side towards the rear will have
a hook/latch to it. Be careful. You'll have to take out the rubber
surround -- it has a cloth/rubber and is used to seal the door with the
body of the car. Just grab this and peel off. Remove the entire seal
and be careful entering and exiting the car when this is off. After
this is removed you'll have to go up to the next trim area piece. This
is approximately at the same level of the seatbacks and is easier to
take out since they're held by metal clips.

Deck trim. Before the deck can come out you'll have to pry out the left
and right sides of the deck. These actually hold the deck in place.
Once again, with the flatbladed screwdriver (or better yet, an
upholstery remover), pop these panels out, both the left and right
sides.

3rd brake light. (if equipped internally) You can slide this over to
one side and then lift up. This will remove the housing. Disconnect
the electrical wire and put the housing in a safe place.

You've finally reached the deck. There are 3 plastic retainers holding
the deck in place (you've just removed everything else). Using an
upholstery remover (or the screwdriver...but be careful), remove these 3
retainers. Then you can remove the deck by sliding the deck out.
NOTE...if you have previously tried to remove the subwoofer cover
before knowing about this procedure you can now fix it back up by
tightening/pressing in on the retainers that hold the cover in place.

Now you're at the sub. You'll need a 10mm shallow socket, ratchet and a
utilitiy knife. There is a black cover blocking all of the bolt
locations so you'll need to use the utility knife to cut the cover for
access to the bolts. Then take the 10mm socket and remove the 4 bolts.
Remove the sub. You can either desolder (the right way!) the wires from
the sub, taking care to mark polarity on the sub itself or you can clip
(quick and dirty way) the wires. In either case you now have full
access to the trunk/deck location. Enjoy!

Percy

GS4Man

Percy,

Thanks. A very valuable stack of information. I am going to swap the stock sub with a Vifa M26WR-19 ($85), which is designed for such an application. Based upon other information you have posted, I will have to build a custom mounting board and appropiate foam gasket to mount the new sub from the trunk. I will let you know how it works out. Any other tips are much appreciated. Again, thanks for all your insight on this board !!

RocketSlug

I just cut the wires to the stock sub, routed them to an amplifier, then from the amplifier back to the stock sub. It is more bass than I want when bass tone control is set to flat. Remember, the stock sub is 2 ohms, and even a tiny amplfier is going to give it a lot of power. Right now, mine is getting about 120 watts, and it is fast and loud.

ezryder

I'm replying to an old thread (I orignially PM'ed RocketSlug, but did not receive a response) but I'm hoping someone will be able to help.
I'm not wanting a huge increase in bass so adding a new amp to the factory sub sounds like a good idea if what RocketSlug described in his thread is true.
Has anyone else tried hooking a new amp to the factory sub?
Does this add more bass without any distortion?
Any suggestions as far as amps?
How about any advice on hooking this up (i.e. wiring)?
Any help/adivce is really apreciated!

Thanks!

Rockero28

iTrader: (8)

Hey lemme know how that sounds.. I replaced mine with a free air Kicker 10" and a Kicker Mono amp. Sounds 100 times better without the box thing.... But as always, don't wanna pass up an opportunity to upgrade..

Rock

ezryder

Hey Rock,
Not sure how it will sound as I'm not sure if I will do this if no one else has tried this.

I'm not much of an electronics person (obviously), but do you (or anyone) think or know that by just adding an amp to the factory sub it will improve the sound and/or bass that much?

Has anyone tried this?

Thanks!

Rockero28

iTrader: (8)

Well I am a jack of all trades as you may have notived from the posts I recently did on the dash lighting mods.... But I would not add an amp to the factory sub. It is a cheap Pioneer and may blow. I would go ahead and get atleast a free air sub and a good bass amp. That is what i have and it sounds very clean and tight..... For my taste anyway.... I hope this helps.

Rock

ezryder

Thanks Rock,

Did you get a bigger sub when you upgraded?
What sub and amp did you go with?
Sorry for all the questions but if you have seen some of my other posts I'm kind of a rookie when it comes to stuff like this!

Rockero28

iTrader: (8)

I went with the same size 10" and a kicker bass amp..... Sounds very good.

Rock