Hey.
First of all, I think this is my first post. I'm glad that I'm in an informative forum. I just purchased 97 cl 3.0 I had to sell my 12 sec wrx due to my close relatives' damage by Katrina. No matter how I got the CL.., I'm glad that I got it, because it drives very nice.

I did some search and spent some good time reading a lot of threads, but I ended up confusing myself a lot more. So I would like to ask all the veterans to help me out but be really specific if possible. Of course... thanks a lot in advance.
Here it is:

I have stock 97 Bose system. My friend just gave me his 2 12" MTX sub with box and amp because he couldn't fit on his new car. I do NOT want to spend money on Headunit. But I realized that I can't fit RCA into the stock Headunit.
I bought the wire kit (8gauge...nothing fancy). How do I and what do I need to install the sub into the car?
And I just wanted little more bass. That's all..., I'm not really that big with stereo. I thuoght I might use the sub since he gave it to me without spending a lot of money. Please help me out guys. Thanks again.

By the way, I read a lot of threads last few weeks and so far I have CAI, LED gauge mod, and cheap "dasani" clock mod.

-soul

 

just get a line in/out coverter and tap into the rear speakers for a signal. This will give you an RCA out, so you could plug it into your amp to power the sub,

 

There are a couple diffent ways to do it.

With the amp there should be a lo pass wiring plug. You have to connect that to the OEM speakers in your car. OR you can get a lo pass to hi pass converter. What that does is it takes your OEM speaker wires and converts the signal to RCA cables.

Your best bet is to splurge on an aftermarket headunit. You will be a lot more happy with that. Im kind of an audiophile so any distortion in my sounds hurts my ears.

Forget about a couple other mods and upgrade your deck. You will be soooo much more happy. Plus you can get a deck that plays mp3, and if your too cheap to buy an mp3 player , you can just burn all the mp3s to a cd and play them that way. Its kind of a cheaper version of a cd changer.

The two ways i described above will "get you by" but you wont be happy with them,.

 

Just spend the $100-200 and get a hu it'll save you a lot of hassle annoyance and heartache.

 

besides, the money you put into geting that to work. You will probably spend a couple more bucks and could have gotten a H/U.... Trust me, you will not be happy doing it any other way. It will sound like crap. your base will be distorted and there will not be any depth to it. Dont cheap out. you will not be satisfied.

 

So if I get an aftermarket HU.
All I have to do is connect the RCA cable to the new HU and sub will work?
-soul

 

Your still gonna have to run power and ground to the amp though.

 

If you have the manual to the amp it should make it really easy. Just have to run the the power wire to your positive terminal on baterry, then run your remote wire to deck and amp, then run ground to an unpainted metal surface within 3 feet of your amp, and run the speaker wire from amp to subs. Thats basically it, and it sounds like you have everything you need from th eamp wiring kit. IF you dont have the manual you may be able to download it from the net at manufacturor's site. If you have any more questions, let me know.

 

You dont need the manual. It says on the amp what wires go where. Its really easy. If you can hook up a battery, you can hook up an amp. The hardest part is running the wiring.

 

Even running the wire is easy, if you use an 8 gauge, 4, 2, and 0 gauges are a bitch to conceal in our car.

 

I used 4 gauge and it was rather easy to conceal. I ran it in the corner of the floorboard, right next to the door sill...But i pushed it down into the carpet.

 

Or.....

Sell the box & amp & get an SAS Bazooka.

I got a 10" Bazooka w/a built in 150watt amp & it sounds amazing!
Install was very easy & you'll probably get the $ to pay for it w/the $ U make sellin' what you have......

www.SASBazooka.com

Just my .......

 

You can get the one that looks like a nitrous bottle so you can fool everyone. LMAO...

They better have came a long way with bass tubes because they used to suck ass!

 

I have a 4 gauge, and my door sill doesn't go down all the way cuz it's too fat.

 

They have my friend......

I get many compliments & when I pop the trunk, they !
The best thing is that they are lightweight.

 

I took my sill off then lifted up the carpet and pushed the wire down to the floor under the carpet. You cant notice it at all.

 

Yeah you will and don't forget that antennea wire that will do the remote on and off to the amp. I did the same thing to my 99 CL 3.0. I used a hi-pass to low-pass converter and that goes into a low freq. filter and then into the amp. The amp I have is a Jensen 3way. the amp powers 2 Jl 6x9 speakers and 1 12" JBL dual coil sub. all the mid and high range goes to the 6x9 while all of the 100db freq. goes to the sub. Bear in mind that I'm still using the stock HU. all it cost me was the time and the extra wire to pwer and ground the amp.

 

How does it sound?

 

That's a good idea, I ran it in the wire tray, not under the carpet, next time i yank my sills up I'll push it down.

 

How did you get the sills to stay down? Isnt that wire too big for the wire tray?

 

They stay down, I got the wire to fit in teh wire tray, but the back like 2 clips don't fully hold, if you wiggle it it would eventually pop out.

 

Thats exactly why i didnt do mine like that. Just take your sills off and push them wires underneath your carpet. You can push it all the way down to the floor. The only part tha tyou cant do this on is where the seatbelt connects to the body.

BUT if you take your wire out, you can run it under the seatbelt bolt.

I hate haveing wires you can see. Even if it is a lump in the carpet, drives me insane...

 

Me too man, me too