I have upgraded the head unit and  front speakers in my '02 Focus to
some JBL direct replacements and am rather pleased with the results.
The next job  is to  to run a 60Amp cable through the bulk head to the
boot for my powered subwoofer. Has any one done this before on a Focus
and if so where is the best place to pass the wire though? Will I need
to make a new hole ?

Can any one recomend a decent head unit mounting adapter, since the
one I have got has literally fallen to pieces.

Simon

"mr p"  wrote in message 
news:4beed7d9-cf34-4e4a-bfb8-b69a4fa1d97a@2g2000hsn.googlegroups.com...
>I have upgraded the head unit and  front speakers in my '02 Focus to
> some JBL direct replacements and am rather pleased with the results.
> The next job  is to  to run a 60Amp cable through the bulk head to the
> boot for my powered subwoofer. Has any one done this before on a Focus
> and if so where is the best place to pass the wire though? Will I need
> to make a new hole ?

I did a complete install on my 2000 focus zetec, when i owned the car! The 
factory speakers are reasonably mediocre. If you have the 4000 or 5000 HU 
this is where the real crap comes from. You would not believe how rubbish 
these are!! Even a £50 HU will improve matters. Details as follows:

Firstly, do NOT attempt to make a new hole through the bulkhead!!!! They are 
double skinned and very very hard to get at, not least you may drill through 
some cables.

If you open the passenger door and look in the shut, there is a large black 
grommet which passes into the car to the left of the glovebox - punture the 
grommet with a knife, drop the lid down and use some stiff wire to fish 
through, and vertically down behind the kick panel (which you will need to 
remove) and thence I ran the power cable under the sill carpet to the boot 
where I mounted my amp in the rear seat back. you could mount one under the 
seat if you like! If you do mount it in the boot- remove the carpet and 
no-nails a piece of 1/4" ply  to the seat back. You can then screw through 
into the wood. Do not screw through the metal of the seat frame into the 
foam- its not very thick and you risk poking the back of any passenger.

To get the power cable to the battery, remove the pollen filter cover and 
run the power cable under the bonnet hinge, through into the pollen filter 
box, then out again with the factory loom, then down the inner wing to the 
battery box. I mounted the 60A fuse block inside the battery case and 
brought the cable up through the bottom into it. Completely stealth. Cable 
tie it all and check the bonnet hinge doesnt rub the cable- you will see 
where it needs to run better than me trying to explain.

I ran the signal cables down the drivers side under the trim covers. They 
pop off with careful levering - some will come off with the sharp metal 
barbs attached- these need to go back into the sills before you snap the 
covers back on.

The speaker wires I ran with the power cable and remote on the passenger 
side.

The earth needs to be local, and convieniently the seat belt buckle bolts 
are good for this.

I made up a speaker loom the right length to go front-back with a ISO 
connector spliced in either end of the loom so I didnt cut the car's wiring. 
I looped through the HU's rear channels, and passed the fronts through the 
amp. Remember to add a remote wire to turn the amp on!

You really need to amp the front speakers with somewhere in the region of 
50-75w+ rms with a good amp. I used a blaupunkt 4x75w amp, as my install was 
blaupunkt right through.  Silver autoleads facia adapter with the filler 
plate at the top. 'Borrow' the Ford HU's locating plastic thingy onto your 
new HU so the rear of it is supported firmly.

I found best results were gained with the x-over set at about 100hz high 
pass. I ran Infinity Kappa 5x7' components in the front doors. Factory 
rears. Run the rears at about 25% as set by the fader on the headunit.

I had a 10" sealed sub in the boot run off the same amp- remaining 2 rear 
channels bridged, low pass set at about 120hz. (if you plan to do this, buy 
the right spec of amp to allow you to do it)

Set up the system as follows: Set the EQ to flat, and fader 100% to front 
channels. If you employ a sub, leave this out til you have set up the front 
end. Set the HU to about 75% volume then bring up the amp gain til it just 
starts to clip. You will need the engine running for this so the amp sees 
the full 14.4V.

Then bring up the gain on the sub to balance out the front end. Then dial in 
your prefered EQ and loudness, and bring up the rears on the fader to create 
some fill.

Other thing is to carefully observe polarity right through. If the phase is 
out on one speaker it can make it sound really weird!

Hope this helps!!

Tim..

Tim.. wrote:
> "mr p"  wrote in message
> news:4beed7d9-cf34-4e4a-bfb8-b69a4fa1d97a@2g2000hsn.googlegroups.com...
> >I have upgraded the head unit and  front speakers in my '02 Focus to
> > some JBL direct replacements and am rather pleased with the results.
> > The next job  is to  to run a 60Amp cable through the bulk head to the
> > boot for my powered subwoofer. Has any one done this before on a Focus


SNIPPED
> Hope this helps!!
>
> Tim..

Thanks for the tips ! I  have an Apline head unit which I suspect will
be powerful enough once the Powered sub is installed. With out the
sub.  the bass is acceptable but not great. The head unit has
programmable crossover points for front and rear and a dedicated sub
output. The should mean that I can send all the bass to the sub and
tune the fronts to use the head units available power more towards the
mid and high range The JBL speakers are very good.. A lovely punchy
sound with great tweeters and they are a direct slot in. My head unit
also lets me apply time delays to 6 individual channels so that in
theory at least  the bass in synchronized at the drivers seat.. Quite
pleased so far, the last time I added new speakers to a car they
sounded /worse/ than the originals !
I have a couple of pairs of the JBL`s for sale if any one is
interested, I will be putting them on ebay at some point.

Si