My stock sub recently went bad on my 92' SC400. I was originally gonna get a Free Air 10" Subwoofer but ended up going a little larger and settled with a JL Audio IB4 12" Free Air sub. But before I can have it installed, I need to decide on the proper amp to go with it. I've been looking at a JL Audio 500/1 that I saw in the classifieds. Does anyone know how well that amp will work with the IB4 12?

Also, every now and then, my CD shoots up an error code when it tries to switch CD's. On further investigation, I saw that the reason it keeps coming up as an error is because when it tries to swap CD's, it tries to load the current CD into the slot that the new CD is supposed to come out of. This causes the CD player to jam with both CD's in the same slot. I'm wondering if maybe the CD loader lense is dirty and is misreading or something, or if there's some kind of malfunction on it? If anyone knows what I can do to fix this, that'd be greatly appreciated.

 

If you plan to put that 12 where the 10 is now, you're in for a bit of a challenge. Depth is critical, and many subs are just too deep to fit without contacting the top of the fuel tank. And the hole in the rear panel is going to be really hard to modify, with such limited space under the rear window and over the fuel tank.

I have done the sub upgrade twice now, on a 93 and a 99 SC (both with Nak) and I have done a bit of an unorthodox, sorta fiddly process that ends up working really well. The first time, I used a Pioneer 10in free-air sub that I really liked. This time, I couldn't get the same Pioneer, so I went with a Blaupunkt that was advertised as capable of free-air installation. Free-air subs are getting hard to find.

When you pull out the oem sub, you will see that the cast aluminum ring on the speaker includes the clips and slots that secure the speaker cover in place. In order to be able to continue to use the oem speaker cover, I butchered the old speaker - cut the cone away from the ring, and used my Dremel with a cutoff wheel to cut the basket away from the ring. The ring is actually two pieces: the aluminum surround for the speaker cone, and a plastic insert topped with a foam ring. I remove the foam, then use the Dremel with sanding drums to relieve the inside of the plastic ring until the new speaker fits snugly into the old speaker's ring snugly. The new speaker drops into the ring from the top, which actually helps with the clearance issue at the tank since the new sub sits on top of the old ring, elevated about an inch. The depth of this new sub, from the back of the mounting ring to the back of the magnet, is just shy of 5 inches, and when mounted it has almost the exact same clearance (about 1/2 inch) from the top of the fuel tank. When I get the old ring whittled so the new speaker fits (that's the fussy, time-consuming, messy part) I then clean the surfaces that fit together on the new speaker and the old sub's ring with isopropyl alcohol to remove all traces of dust and oils, mask the adjacent surfaces for a neat finished product, and glue the parts together with marine-grade polyurethane adhesive caulk. Believe me, the caulk will be strong enough when it's cured to keep that new sub in place. The plastic ring that sits on top of the aluminum surround, by the way, may not be well secured; if it's not, it gets glued in place with the same tenacious caulk. The new sub's front mounting gasket may need to be trimmed down so the oem cover will snap down after the rear tray cover goes back in.

When the trunk trim is in place correctly, it provides a pretty tight fit and turns the tank/speaker space into sort of an enclosure, which vents into the trunk through those slots at the top of the front trim panel. I haven't measured it, but I'd guess it's between 1.5 and 2 cubic feet. The new sub will boom and thud without the panels in place, but once they're in, the speaker is damped enough to provide pretty tight response. My point here is that a speaker that isn't designed for free-air use will probably sound okay in this (sorta) vented, bass-reflex enclosure.

I'm pretty happy with the results I've gotten on the two upgrades I've done. I wasn't willing to give up trunk space to a sub box, and this upgrade (along with a 200W RMS amp for the new sub) is invisible, with the new amp hanging from the underside of the panel just to the right of the sub.

Also, since so much disassembly is required to get the rear deck trim out, I suggest replacing the rear corner speakers at the same time. The oem corner speakers are crap, and if one of them hasn't quit yet, it will soon! You may as well replace them while you have the whole rear interior out of the car.

Regarding your cd changer error, it may help to pull the thing out, open it up, and blow it out with clean canned air, the stuff that's used for cleaning camera lenses, etc.

 

Thanks for such a detailed response! I actually had intentions of going with a 10" Free Air sub to begin with. I had my eyes set on the JL Audio IB4 10" which is free air. I ended up finding the JL Audio IB4 12" and was unable to find a 10" version. But from what I've heard it should be able to be installed the same fashion without much issues with mounting.

I'm not the best for these sorts of things because I'm not a big electrical person, so I have plans for it to be professionally installed. I'm still debating on which rear speakers to go with because I'm not sure if I'm keeping the 4" rears or if I'll have them upsized to 6 1/2" rears yet.

Thanks I'm going to try using that cleaner, I'll pick some up from Walmart today when I get my groceries n ****. I think that may be all it is, because I'm having issues playing my CD's too. Like they'll play like normal and randomly stutter a little and skip forward a few seconds and keep playing.