Ulrisa's Volvo S40 Build

[ulrisa 26]

I am actually about to do this exact same install! Only minor differences, its an S60 and the mids are differemt brand but still 6.5" neo's and planned to put the 6.5's in the door, this really helped me, now I can make my plan of attack while I wait for FedEx THANK YOU for posting this log, its very helpful!

No problem! I'm happy that I could help someone! Yes, Volvo's do seem to require a plan of attack when modifying them lol. I swear the engineers that design them purposely make it a pain in the ass haha. I'm envious of your S60, that's my favorite of all their sedans. I'll keep an eye out for it. Which 6.5" speakers are you putting in there?

[ulrisa 26]

oh and it's been said but nice equipment and good work on the install

Thanks! And nevermind, I just saw your signature. It's cool that you are on Team Soundstream, I actually have a friend (local) that's on the team. Also, my brother is pretty obsessed with Soundstream haha.

[SPLScion 3]

oh and it's been said but nice equipment and good work on the install

Thanks! And nevermind, I just saw your signature. It's cool that you are on Team Soundstream, I actually have a friend (local) that's on the team. Also, my brother is pretty obsessed with Soundstream haha.

yeah I just realized where and kinda who you are, you mean EXO of course. I have heard about ya, I am TeamSoundstreamBil (Bill Geisendorfer), they guy with the red Scion TC. He lived here for a while. Btw his wall will probly be done pretty soon ;-) a little insider info for ya.

I'll be adding a build log here this weekend on what I have done so far, and yes it is the most difficult car I have ever installed gear into. I agree completely that their engineers hate after market audio and have decided their goal in life to make it as difficult as possible to do our thang! Anyone who pulls off a loud and/or solid overall install on one has my upmost respect.

Glad you like my Volvo, its black on black however your wood dash is sick! I would trade with ya but I need all the trunk space I can get. As you know we have decent sized trunks but the opening is rediculously small and akward. Oh and you WILL break your sunroof. In my research while preparing for building in this car everyone achieving 145 (@ 45 hertz or lower) has broken their sunroofs in very short order :-( I too am a victim of this and I haven't even gotten her loud yet! So you are wise to be concerned about it. The next time it breaks on me I am strongly considering replacing it with metal and eliminating it all together.

Oh what HU integration did you use? The one I have was supposed to be the right one according to the website but they sent me one model off causing some havoc, I am sure you know what havoc I am refering too or hopefully for your sake you don't lol. Thanks in advance!

Your brother is a big SS fan huh, I got some extra stickers if you think he would like one...

-Bill

Edited June 26, 2010 by SPLScion

[ulrisa 26]

yeah I just realized where and kinda who you are, you mean EXO of course. I have heard about ya, I am TeamSoundstreamBil (Bill Geisendorfer), they guy with the red Scion TC. He lived here for a while. Btw his wall will probly be done pretty soon ;-) a little insider info for ya.

I'll be adding a build log here this weekend on what I have done so far, and yes it is the most difficult car I have ever installed gear into. I agree completely that their engineers hate after market audio and have decided their goal in life to make it as difficult as possible to do our thang! Anyone who pulls off a loud and/or solid overall install on one has my upmost respect.

Glad you like my Volvo, its black on black however your wood dash is sick! I would trade with ya but I need all the trunk space I can get. As you know we have decent sized trunks but the opening is rediculously small and akward. Oh and you WILL break your sunroof. In my research while preparing for building in this car everyone achieving 145 (@ 45 hertz or lower) has broken their sunroofs in very short order :-( I too am a victim of this and I haven't even gotten her loud yet! So you are wise to be concerned about it. The next time it breaks on me I am strongly considering replacing it with metal and eliminating it all together.

Oh what HU integration did you use? The one I have was supposed to be the right one according to the website but they sent me one model off causing some havoc, I am sure you know what havoc I am refering too or hopefully for your sake you don't lol. Thanks in advance!

Your brother is a big SS fan huh, I got some extra stickers if you think he would like one...

-Bill

Yes, I was talking about EXO. Really cool guy, hoping to see him a bit more this summer. Maybe next time you come up I'll meet up with you guys. I can't wait to see the wall, it's going to be sick.

Hmmm... Now I kind of don't want to go over 145 db lol. My dad is a Volvo mechanic and I think it would make him cry if my sunroof shattered lol. I've heard that adding some stinger overkill around the sunroof helps a lot (or something comparable would work I'm sure), so I'm considering doing that. I'm not sure how loud the Xcon's will get in this car, but I have a feeling it's going to be pretty loud, considering this one lethal injection tears it up pretty good.

I actually don't know about the havoc you are talking about is. What happened? I'm sure whatever it is it really sucks lol. I just used a male-to-male 3.5 mm headphone cable to connect my zune into the rear aux port of my pioneer HU. Or are you talking about the mounting kit? Because if you are, none of them will ever fit correctly in a Volvo haha. I know mine looks ok, but it's really terrible. I basically just had to shove it in there and call it good, it's not solid like the install I did in my girlfriend's car. I'm just going to get a double din at some point and avoid the whole mess. Let me know if I didn't quite answer your question, I don't feel like I did.

[SPLScion 3]

It's my fault for not being specific, I meant the adapter used to hook your Pioneer to the cars stock plug in. If you use the wrong one all kinds of weird stuff happens. The trunk will only some times work with the remote, the dash will act odd and occasionally not even work at all lol. Luckily it has no effect on the actual audio and even more lucky I know exactly what the problem is: wrong adapter and the 1st time I unhooked the stock stereo you have to disconnect the battery first or the dash go's all screwy. I just can't find the exact adapter I need or they say they have it then send me the wrong one (very frustrating lol)

By sunroof breaking I didn't mean the glass shatters I meant the track breaks and it will not open or close depending on what position it is in when it breaks, it will also leak once this happens.

On a good note once you install everything perfectly in a Volvo you can install in anything!

Your dad's a Volvo Tech huh, no wonder it looks to be in such great shape, nice! Always looking for good mechanics who are more familiar with the car then other mechanics.

[BASSnoob 22]

The amp is in! It is a beast. It's the most awesome sight I have ever seen lol. I can't wait to hook this baby up, it's ridiculous. For those of you who don't know, it does 3600 watts at 1 ohm, 12.8 volts rated. That means even more powah at 14.4! According to some sources 4600-4800 watts at 1 ohm. It's pretty sweet. Anyway, on to the pics.

Wow that is a huge box.

For some reason I could not get this picture to come in clear. I think the amp was distorting the camera's image by being so awesome lol.

I really like the input section on this amp. Quite the step up from the Punch 500-2 lol.

Very nice, very nice...

This is the Incriminator badge on the front of the amp, it looks really bad ass in real life.

Here is a pic of the amp guts. Looks really nice!

Just thought I'd throw in a pic of Kendra

I'm really impressed. I'll be sure to post more when I get some more progress going.

coool its as big as my soundstream rubicon almost looks the same from inside.

[ulrisa 26]

It's my fault for not being specific, I meant the adapter used to hook your Pioneer to the cars stock plug in. If you use the wrong one all kinds of weird stuff happens. The trunk will only some times work with the remote, the dash will act odd and occasionally not even work at all lol. Luckily it has no effect on the actual audio and even more lucky I know exactly what the problem is: wrong adapter and the 1st time I unhooked the stock stereo you have to disconnect the battery first or the dash go's all screwy. I just can't find the exact adapter I need or they say they have it then send me the wrong one (very frustrating lol)

By sunroof breaking I didn't mean the glass shatters I meant the track breaks and it will not open or close depending on what position it is in when it breaks, it will also leak once this happens.

On a good note once you install everything perfectly in a Volvo you can install in anything!

Your dad's a Volvo Tech huh, no wonder it looks to be in such great shape, nice! Always looking for good mechanics who are more familiar with the car then other mechanics.

Ah, well when I hooked it up I didn't realize that their was a kit for for the stock plug in, I just manually spliced the wires. I guess it's a good thing haha. It's going to suck if I ever need to put the stock radio back in though. I might be able to get a wiring diagram if you'd want to splice yours, might be less of a hassle.

Thanks for the heads up on the sunroof track breaking, that does make a lot of sense, mine is starting to squeak already. I'll see if I can figure something out for bracing with my Dad and let you know if it works out.

I'll ask my brother about the stickers, I'm sure he'd like them. Also, I meant stinger roadkill, not over kill before.

[ulrisa 26]

coool its as big as my soundstream rubicon almost looks the same from inside.

Thanks, I'm sure the rubicon is sexy then. I love the way this amp looks inside and out, it just makes me want to install it now.

[SPLScion 3]

It's my fault for not being specific, I meant the adapter used to hook your Pioneer to the cars stock plug in. If you use the wrong one all kinds of weird stuff happens. The trunk will only some times work with the remote, the dash will act odd and occasionally not even work at all lol. Luckily it has no effect on the actual audio and even more lucky I know exactly what the problem is: wrong adapter and the 1st time I unhooked the stock stereo you have to disconnect the battery first or the dash go's all screwy. I just can't find the exact adapter I need or they say they have it then send me the wrong one (very frustrating lol)

By sunroof breaking I didn't mean the glass shatters I meant the track breaks and it will not open or close depending on what position it is in when it breaks, it will also leak once this happens.

On a good note once you install everything perfectly in a Volvo you can install in anything!

Your dad's a Volvo Tech huh, no wonder it looks to be in such great shape, nice! Always looking for good mechanics who are more familiar with the car then other mechanics.

Ah, well when I hooked it up I didn't realize that their was a kit for for the stock plug in, I just manually spliced the wires. I guess it's a good thing haha. It's going to suck if I ever need to put the stock radio back in though. I might be able to get a wiring diagram if you'd want to splice yours, might be less of a hassle.

Thanks for the heads up on the sunroof track breaking, that does make a lot of sense, mine is starting to squeak already. I'll see if I can figure something out for bracing with my Dad and let you know if it works out.

I'll ask my brother about the stickers, I'm sure he'd like them. Also, I meant stinger roadkill, not over kill before.

Ha I used to always splice the wires, over the years I started to use the plug in kits and guess I got lazy or my memory is going I for some reason never even thought about that! If you could find a wiring diagram that would be sick, thank you for looking for it whether you find it or not! Any tips on fixing the sunroof track would be more then great, the price to have some one fix it the 1st time sucked bad and I won't be paying for someone to fix it again :-)

sunsbcribed to this log

[ulrisa 26]

Ok, big update today. I did most of this stuff about a week ago, I just hadn't gotten to putting the pics up yet. Basically, I received all of my wire, fuses/holders, and accessories and I redid the big 3. I also installed my stinger volt meter. Enjoy!

Here's a look at all of the stuff.

These are the fuse holders.

300 amp Fuses, Battery Terminals, Ring Terminals, and Grommets.

200 amp Fuses and a Stinger Volt Meter.

Knukonceptz Collossus Fleks wire, this is some really nice stuff. Super flexible, great looks (if that matters to you).

This is the Knukonceptz SS speaker wire. I got some 8 awg for the subs, I really like the thick jacket on this stuff.

Just a little comparison of the wires.

These are my ridiculous monoprice rca's and aux cable. The rca's were only a couple bucks but they are NICE. Great option if you want to keep the budget low, but the performance high.

A close up of the most ridiculous aux cable I've ever seen. I also picked this up for $3.00.

Comparison of these wires.

My old big 3 wires. A little burn on one of them, the way they were connected put too much stress on the contact points and frayed the wires. Bad situation to be in, haha. Luckily I changed them out before it became a big problem (Voltage suffered though )

This is the battery location without the battery box. The original ground was below it, but I relocated it. I relocated the engine block ground to the bolt just under the air box.

The alternator location with the dip stick taken out. I know you are all jealous! haha, I had to crush my hands to fit them in there. Good thing I had some ratchet extensions.

The new wires ready for their new home. It's a garage chair, don't hate lol.

Battery back in place with the new terminals. Looks nice, I love it.

New alt cable going into the crevice where the alternator dwells lol. Secured pretty snugly to prevent movement in the engine compartment.

Here is a farther away look at the battery. Top terminals are only temporary, until I do the new runs to the back. I'm waiting on the subs/enclosure to do that, I want it to come out right the first time.

The new Stinger meter installed and calibrated. Usually charges between 14-14.5 depending on heat (90 today). Still charges strong at 14 with the a/c on and everything now.

I'm very pleased with the results of the new big 3 install and volt meter. Looks a lot better than my old volt meter, and it's much more accurate. If you saw the rust and you were like, what a pos, remember I live in Maine and everything gets rusty the second it thinks about going on the road. haha.

14 days until I order the Xcon's! WOOOO!!

[ulrisa 26]

Went to a bass comp today! I actually entered, and I'm happy I did. I hit 134.5 @ 34 hz (at least that's what the song peaks at). Not bad I'd say, I got a little certificate too. I also picked up a battery from my friend EXOcontralto. I'll get some pics up in a bit.

[xAndrew225x 8]

These are my ridiculous monoprice rca's and aux cable. The rca's were only a couple bucks but they are NICE. Great option if you want to keep the budget low, but the performance high.

A close up of the most ridiculous aux cable I've ever seen. I also picked this up for $3.00.

i got my rca's from monoprice also. best deal ever, work PERFECTLY

nice choice

[ulrisa 26]

Here's a pic of the battery:

I installed it yesterday, took out the Batcap 400 as well. BEST THING I'VE EVER DONE! I am so happy with this battery, I can be sitting at idle with the a/c on and not drop below 14-13.8. Absolutely no dimming lights, it was like night and day. I feel like a nerd being so excited about the voltage, but I just can't believe the difference it made.

And now, after the comp I keep thinking of songs I could of used for the 30 second average that might have been better. Damn. lol.

[ulrisa 26]

i got my rca's from monoprice also. best deal ever, work PERFECTLY

nice choice

Thanks man! Yeah, I love monoprice. Such cheap cables with such great quality.

[ulrisa 26]

Just ordered the Xcon's! The lethal injection is being sold to my friend. I wasn't going to sell it, but I need to recoup some money before I go back to college . Excited for the Xcon's though.

[j-roadtatts 1,129]

Good luck with the vinyl the next time around, PM me if you need some tips.

[ulrisa 26]

Good luck with the vinyl the next time around, PM me if you need some tips.

Thanks man! I need some tips lol I'll make sure to ask you. I really liked how your pods came out. Now I'm afraid to take the pods back out because they sound so good.

[ulrisa 26]

Ok so it's been a while. Finally the Xcon's came today (Thanks Aaron for dealing with me asking when they would be here lol) and they look amazing! I can tell this is going to be awesome before I can even listen to them. Here are some pics of the sexyness.

Oohhh...

The magnet is HUGE and heavy. It's hard to get a picture of it, but the voice coil looks awesome too. Definitely top notch quality.

The iconic dustcap. Looks great it real life, I think it will look better with a little excursion.

I was trying to get a pic of the voice coil but you still can't really see it that well.

Pole vent. Going to have some fun with this tonight!! Haha j/k

One last pic of the beasts.

Also here is some stuff I did a couple days ago. I ran the 1/0 wire from front to back. It was actually really easy which really surprised me.

The 1/0 fits right through the stock grommet. I have to wonder why that was in the design, but it was pretty awesome.

This is where I cut the hole for the ground run of 1/0. Again, a surprisingly easy place to do this.

I love seeing all of those connections . GM terminals are way better than the posts IMO.

Just a pic of the fuse holder. Wire was really easy to get in there which was nice.

Sorry for the huge delay, but this volvo is going to be bumpin in just a few days. Dave the box guy is building my box and he'll be done either Saturday or Sunday. Keep on the lookout for my next update!

[sefugi 166]

Subs look Awesome!!!! Bet your happy! Wiring is shaping up! Won't be long now!

[BanginGMC 23]

interesting ...

Is this all you can add to peoples build logs?

Every build I've looked at has this.

Hahahahah

[Mark LaFountain 1,054]

Nice! Glad you got them.

[Notorious97200 339]

Another Xcon owner/lover !

Waiting to see pics of your box and install!

I'd like to have 2 xcons 12" in my car ! But I still need my back seats and my spare tyre (or tire ? dunno, lol), the trunk is too small for a big box, big amps and batts

:popcorn:

.

[ulrisa 26]

Another Xcon owner/lover !

Waiting to see pics of your box and install!

I'd like to have 2 xcons 12" in my car ! But I still need my back seats and my spare tyre (or tire ? dunno, lol), the trunk is too small for a big box, big amps and batts

:popcorn:

.

Thanks! Yeah I just took out the spare tire and jack for now, I'm getting AAA for my car so I'll still be covered if I pop a tire or something. Had to put heavy duty springs on the car to deal with the weight because that is a weak point on this car. I think it's definitely going to be worth it though!

I'd give you a demo but you are kind of far away haha.

[j-roadtatts 1,129]

Oh my, Them are some SEXY subwoofa's!!!

[ulrisa 26]

Finally got the 40.1 in today. As some of you may know, I had to go camping right after I got my enclosure. I decided to go visit my friend EXOcontralto and he had the tools I was missing to hook it up. After making a little make shift amp rack, we got it all hooked up and ready to go. The trunk isn't fully sealed off yet, so it should get a little louder when I finish sealing the rear deck.

All we did was match the gain and let it rip lol, and it was still amazing without even changing the settings. These subs are insane! The only issue I have now is my sunroof is flapping on the low bass songs lol.

The car takes ~3500 watts on just two ~70 AH batteries and the stock 120 amp alt surprisingly well. Lights still dim and all (damn sensitive lights), but the voltage stays above 13 from what little experimentation I had.

I'll have a better update tomorrow. Pic's and hopefully a quick vid.