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Howdy all,
I finally finished all the stereo upgrades I bought last December (yes, I’m moving at a glacial pace) and am very pleased with the results. I thought I’d tell you all about it and thank you for so many great posts about what has/hasn’t worked. The parts list:
On to the subwoofer, I wasn’t wanting to mount it to the back door for a few reasons- I’m going to eventually find wheel and tires that I like, and I expect they’ll weigh more than stock, and I’m not sure adding more weight to that tailgate door is helpful. Also, if I jack-rabbit a start from a light or something, I don’t want my dog or groceries or whatever to slide back into the subwoofer. I was looking for a side mount, and ended up using a MOLLE panel on the drivers side. The woofer fits (just) without interfering with the rear seat. It might be overkill, but nothing rattles, and it’s really solidly in place.
I had one minor hardware problem, and that was with the HS8 woofer that was part of the PlugNPlayKit. For power, I ran the long red line from the kit harness up through the firewall on the drivers side. There is an oblong rubber plug that is easier to see from the engine side, that apparently is used somehow with a manual transmission, and as I’m an automatic, it was doing nothing. Since I’m old and beat up, I grabbed my wall cavity fish tape tool and was going to pierce it from the engine side and pull my red wire forward so I wouldn’t have to contort myself under the dash. That worked surprisingly well, and I terminated the line with a ring terminal to one of those mounts right off the battery positive. For ground, I’d initially made the lazy choice to ground using one of the rear tie down bolts because I was there anyway with the MOLLE panel install. While I was getting 12v okay, I wasn’t confident that this was a good idea long term, so I ended up removing the driver rear panel (without breaking any clips- miraculous!) and used the ground Ford uses behind it. The problem was that the subwoofer LED was always red (not a good sign) and no sound came out.
I reached out to both Kicker and PlugNPlayKits, and only Kicker ever responded. They asked, where does the blue wire go? Huh? The blue wire that doesn’t attach to anything? THAT blue wire? Heh. Yeah. I misunderstood the Kicker documentation and thought the speaker signal was what would tell the sub to turn on/off. No, it needs a 12v switched circuit connected to that blue wire, so I read in another thread here about where I might find a good candidate. That feels like the kind of thing that would have been in my missing instructions. I read a thread from user SPITmadFIRE [https://www.bronco6g.com/forum/threads/tutorial-wiring-accessories-to-interior-fuse-box-with-add-a-fuse-tap.32486/ ] about tapping the window fuse (fuse number 2) for the switching signal, and thought that was a really good choice. This way if I arrive somewhere and turn off the car, it stays live until I open a door. I ended up buying an assortment of taps to get the “Micro 2”, so if any of you are near Tacoma and need one, I have spares I’ll likely never need or use- give me a holler.
With that all sorted, I still only got the red LED. Hmm. On a hunch, I ordered ANOTHER HS8 from Amazon just to give myself a reality check. Got the new one, and whaddya know? Works perfectly. I asked the Kicker people how to handle a return of the bad one, and they said to send it back to Amazon. I’m not sure how that works, but I’ll follow their instruction. That brings me back to PlugNPlayKits.com. I don’t know that I’d recommend buying a hardware bundle from them. The harness is great, but they never responded to my emails for support. I think I’d merely get the harness from them and then go to Amazon or wherever that accepts returns for the hardware. Kicker was responsive and helpful.
How does it sound? Fantastic! There is so much more… “oomph”? Yeah, but that’s not the entirety of it. The factory sound is not just weak, it’s losing detail- things that I know are in the song from other listening experiences are now audible in the Bronco. Soundstaging was never great, but it’s better. Initially I was going to leave the factory footwell speakers, but I’m so glad I didn’t. Those were anemic as hell. “12” is now a reasonably loud sound level, and while I haven’t measured a frequency response, the improvement is immediately obvious. The last little detail is where to mount the bass control knob. I have it loose in a cup holder at the moment, as I think about it and tinker. I don’t think it’ll be a thing I need to adjust often, so I’m thinking an out of the way place is probably the answer. Maybe in the arm rest cubby? I’ve seen others mount this to the dash, but I’m not convinced that real estate suits the occasion.
Oh, and to tie up loose end mentions from the parts list, the reason the capacitors in the speaker plug adapters were not necessary is that the Polk speakers all have their own. And in terms of modding the Mabett enclosures, I like them, but their default “grill” section of molded holes seemed like it was more closed than open. I cut that part out and replaced with tailored conventional perforated metal screens. And Dynamat. And Dacron.
I finally finished all the stereo upgrades I bought last December (yes, I’m moving at a glacial pace) and am very pleased with the results. I thought I’d tell you all about it and thank you for so many great posts about what has/hasn’t worked. The parts list:
- “Kit 15” from PlugNPlaykits.com which is the wiring harness, Kicker Key 200.4, and Kicker HS8 sub. [https://plugnplaykits.com/products/...1&_sid=638e13cd3&_ss=r&variant=41969635688638]
- The Mabett 6.5” rear speaker pods (that I modded) [https://a.co/d/eCuI5kt]
- Polk marine speakers. I like Polk generally, and figured the marine line would hold up well if ever they got wet. 4x of the 6.5” [https://a.co/d/1k5TWAB ] and 2x of the 4” [https://a.co/d/4pZLEff]
- Pig tails (speaker wires with plugs) with resistors for bass blocking and easy plugging (the bass blocking ended up being unnecessary as I’ll mention later.) The pig tails for the footwell speakers are different, FYI. Amazon says these don’t fit (the footwell), but they do. [https://a.co/d/49j3tej]. The ones for the other speakers I got via eBay. [https://tinyurl.com/4zeybtwh]
- A Builtright MOLLE panel for 2dr, driver rear. I wanted this for my subwoofer mount. [https://builtrightind.com/products/molle-compatible-cargo-panel-single-panel-ford-bronco-2dr-2021]
- An assortment of fuses and fuse taps, because of course the one type I didn’t have was the “Micro 2” Ford now uses. [https://a.co/d/4Hk8nDN -fuses] [https://a.co/d/3jPVkjD - add a fuse taps]
- Assorted consumable supplies- a length of 16 gauge wire, wire connectors, wiring harness loom tape, zip ties, Dynamat, and Dacron.
On to the subwoofer, I wasn’t wanting to mount it to the back door for a few reasons- I’m going to eventually find wheel and tires that I like, and I expect they’ll weigh more than stock, and I’m not sure adding more weight to that tailgate door is helpful. Also, if I jack-rabbit a start from a light or something, I don’t want my dog or groceries or whatever to slide back into the subwoofer. I was looking for a side mount, and ended up using a MOLLE panel on the drivers side. The woofer fits (just) without interfering with the rear seat. It might be overkill, but nothing rattles, and it’s really solidly in place.
I had one minor hardware problem, and that was with the HS8 woofer that was part of the PlugNPlayKit. For power, I ran the long red line from the kit harness up through the firewall on the drivers side. There is an oblong rubber plug that is easier to see from the engine side, that apparently is used somehow with a manual transmission, and as I’m an automatic, it was doing nothing. Since I’m old and beat up, I grabbed my wall cavity fish tape tool and was going to pierce it from the engine side and pull my red wire forward so I wouldn’t have to contort myself under the dash. That worked surprisingly well, and I terminated the line with a ring terminal to one of those mounts right off the battery positive. For ground, I’d initially made the lazy choice to ground using one of the rear tie down bolts because I was there anyway with the MOLLE panel install. While I was getting 12v okay, I wasn’t confident that this was a good idea long term, so I ended up removing the driver rear panel (without breaking any clips- miraculous!) and used the ground Ford uses behind it. The problem was that the subwoofer LED was always red (not a good sign) and no sound came out.
I reached out to both Kicker and PlugNPlayKits, and only Kicker ever responded. They asked, where does the blue wire go? Huh? The blue wire that doesn’t attach to anything? THAT blue wire? Heh. Yeah. I misunderstood the Kicker documentation and thought the speaker signal was what would tell the sub to turn on/off. No, it needs a 12v switched circuit connected to that blue wire, so I read in another thread here about where I might find a good candidate. That feels like the kind of thing that would have been in my missing instructions. I read a thread from user SPITmadFIRE [https://www.bronco6g.com/forum/threads/tutorial-wiring-accessories-to-interior-fuse-box-with-add-a-fuse-tap.32486/ ] about tapping the window fuse (fuse number 2) for the switching signal, and thought that was a really good choice. This way if I arrive somewhere and turn off the car, it stays live until I open a door. I ended up buying an assortment of taps to get the “Micro 2”, so if any of you are near Tacoma and need one, I have spares I’ll likely never need or use- give me a holler.
With that all sorted, I still only got the red LED. Hmm. On a hunch, I ordered ANOTHER HS8 from Amazon just to give myself a reality check. Got the new one, and whaddya know? Works perfectly. I asked the Kicker people how to handle a return of the bad one, and they said to send it back to Amazon. I’m not sure how that works, but I’ll follow their instruction. That brings me back to PlugNPlayKits.com. I don’t know that I’d recommend buying a hardware bundle from them. The harness is great, but they never responded to my emails for support. I think I’d merely get the harness from them and then go to Amazon or wherever that accepts returns for the hardware. Kicker was responsive and helpful.
How does it sound? Fantastic! There is so much more… “oomph”? Yeah, but that’s not the entirety of it. The factory sound is not just weak, it’s losing detail- things that I know are in the song from other listening experiences are now audible in the Bronco. Soundstaging was never great, but it’s better. Initially I was going to leave the factory footwell speakers, but I’m so glad I didn’t. Those were anemic as hell. “12” is now a reasonably loud sound level, and while I haven’t measured a frequency response, the improvement is immediately obvious. The last little detail is where to mount the bass control knob. I have it loose in a cup holder at the moment, as I think about it and tinker. I don’t think it’ll be a thing I need to adjust often, so I’m thinking an out of the way place is probably the answer. Maybe in the arm rest cubby? I’ve seen others mount this to the dash, but I’m not convinced that real estate suits the occasion.
Oh, and to tie up loose end mentions from the parts list, the reason the capacitors in the speaker plug adapters were not necessary is that the Polk speakers all have their own. And in terms of modding the Mabett enclosures, I like them, but their default “grill” section of molded holes seemed like it was more closed than open. I cut that part out and replaced with tailored conventional perforated metal screens. And Dynamat. And Dacron.
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