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The X9331 is just a connector between harnesses. One comes from the head unit to one side of the X9331. The other side of the X9331 is connected to the speakers. So, you could get the parts for the male connector and the female connector. Wire up your own harness that goes from the female X9331 to the amp to provide signal. Then another that goes from the speaker outs on the amp to the male X9331 connector. (I hope I have the genders correct).
This would be very easy to do, and could be returned to stock setup if you had a warranty problem. If you tap into wires, you may void the warranty on things electrical, since it is all connected. The downside would be the skinny factory wires.
OK... wow so I'm not going to be running wire through the door, that looks like a pain in the A**! And I would really want to run three 12 gauge wires through and that doesn't look possible. So now the plan is to pop out the x9331 connectors, wrap wires around them and run them to and from my amp so I can return them back to stock if need be. Got a great idea how to make a molex tool that works for the mini thanks to this guy on the web
"ok people, i have noticed molex pin removal tools all over the net, and their kinda expensive, so i thought i'd share the one i use. just find an old radio with a collapsable antenna,cut it into it's different sized pieces, and find the section that fits on the pins, the next smaller section is then used to push the pins out of the plug. i've used one of these for years, and it works like a charm"
(Going to goodwill today and picking up an old hand held radio!)
For the issue about using oem wires, and them not being up to par with what I want. This was what I thought at least and I was thinking this probably because of the companies that market big expensive wire. I read into speaker wires a little and it seems like I would have no problem running 24 feet of wire if the wire is 16 gauge, or 40 feet of wire if it's 14 gauge because my speakers are 4ohms.
OK... wow so I'm not going to be running wire through the door, that looks like a pain in the A**! And I would really want to run three 12 gauge wires through and that doesn't look possible.
I ran 14 gauge into the doors. It goes to a crossover in the arm rest, and 16 gauge goes from the crossover to a 6.5" speaker, and a separate strand goes to a tweeter in the 4" speaker location.
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So now the plan is to pop out the x9331 connectors, wrap wires around them and run them to and from my amp so I can return them back to stock if need be.
Wrap wires?
Buy the X9331 connector parts. wire one half to your amp inputs, and the other to the speaker outputs. Then just plug them into the two halves of the MINI's X9331 connector.
I suspect there are some NAM vendors who could get them as well. I'm not aware of anyone who carries them in stock. Both of the above companies order them from BMW. It took Pelican about 7 days to get them, then a couple days to get to me. ECS Tuning got them in about three days, but they ship UPS, so without paying for 2nd Day air, it would have taken just as long for them to get to California. Prices are a little lower at ECS, but shipping rates may be lower at Pelican.
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For the issue about using oem wires, and them not being up to par with what I want. This was what I thought at least and I was thinking this probably because of the companies that market big expensive wire. I read into speaker wires a little and it seems like I would have no problem running 24 feet of wire if the wire is 16 gauge, or 40 feet of wire if it's 14 gauge because my speakers are 4ohms.
For the signal from the HU side of the X9331 connector you can use rather small wire. If you take apart a 4 channel RCA cable designed for this purpose you can see they are using something like 28 gauge. CAT6 data cable would probably work well.
The speaker wire I linked to above is inexpensive, high purity, oxygen free copper that is "Multi-twist, rope lay." Other than going with pure silver wire, I think there isn't much you can do to improve on that.
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Robin Casady Bombadil: 2007 MINI Cooper S, R56, Pure Silver, LSD, Wood Shift Knob, Rota Slipstream 16x7, NAV, HIFI...
I have the hi-fi R56. Is it better to tap into the X9331 connector or buy the splicing harness from neministuff.com. What's really the difference.
Currently, I have the OEM amp output going to a Audiocontrol DQL-8 then to an Alpine PDX 150.4 powering focal 165VR3's in the front and 690CVX's in the rear, with all this it sounds "not excellent" I'm thinking of adding a Alpine PDX-600.1 powering a Image Dynamics IDQ10V3.D4 in a 0.8 ft3 enclosure from urbanmini.com.
Given all this I thik I'd be much better off, changing the setup to picking off before the OEM amp as I mentioned before. Thoughts?
I have the hi-fi R56. Is it better to tap into the X9331 connector or buy the splicing harness from neministuff.com. What's really the difference.... Thoughts?
With the harness, I believe you have to trear the dash apart to get at the head unit. The X9331 connector is much easier to get to.
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Robin Casady Bombadil: 2007 MINI Cooper S, R56, Pure Silver, LSD, Wood Shift Knob, Rota Slipstream 16x7, NAV, HIFI...
I've been trying to figure out how to add an amp and sub to my 2008 mini with hifi. I understand to tap the x9331 connector from the front speaker inputs because you want to get the signal before it reaches the amp.
My question is this. My amp is going to be in the trunk, Is it possible for me to find the wires coming from the x9331 connector thats going to the amp, and tap into them in the trunk before they go into the amp, or does it have to be done right at the connector?
Thats what im thinking too, If it's that easy, why does everyone mess with the x9331 connector?
The specific reason I tapped off up front is becuase the amp in mounted under the front passenger seat.
Another reason for taping at the front would be that there are 10 wires in the X9331 and the wires are much easier to separate at the X9331. Also the pins in the X9331 are much more difficult to break than those at the amp
Another reason is that there are 40 plus wires in the very tightly wound in the harnesses at the amp. One wrong move and you can very very easily snap a pin off in one of the connectors and then you are screwed in trying to replace it.
Yet another is the fact that the wires going from the X9931 to the amp are not shielded. I actually went as far as the back of the radio to put in shielded wire for the radio to the amp.
Also the X9331 connector is much easier to get to. Pull of one panel and it is exposed. Getting to the amp means taking most of the back interior of the car apart.
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08MCCS, HC/HC/Blk, 6 SPD, Premium, Sport, Cold Weather, Convenience, HiFi, HC L/C - Steering Wheel - Shift Knob-Boot, - E Brake Handle-Boot, English Oak - 17" Web Spoke (R98) Painted H/C, H/C Club Member #42.
im planning to tap into the wiring at the HIFI amp too, since im gonna put my active sub in the boot. following robin's color guide, i easily found the front right and rear left since the (+) is twisted to the (-). however, that's not the case with the wires for the rear right and front left. the wires are there but are twisted to other colors.
robin, at the x9331 goint to the amp, are the (+) and (-) pairs twisted to each other according to speaker location?
if they are then i would think some of the colors have changed.
thanks!
__________________ "Coope" is a pure silver 09 MINI cooper s hardtop
robin, at the x9331 goint to the amp, are the (+) and (-) pairs twisted to each other according to speaker location?
if they are then i would think some of the colors have changed.
I don't recall anything about twisted pairs. They all went into a bundle with black wrap. Perhaps they started twisting them to reduce noise. Perhaps I just didn't notice. I suspect the that the position in the X9331 connector would be the same.
I'd recommend making an X9331 pass-through connector, rather than tapping wires. That way you can take it back to stock if you need to.
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Robin Casady Bombadil: 2007 MINI Cooper S, R56, Pure Silver, LSD, Wood Shift Knob, Rota Slipstream 16x7, NAV, HIFI...
I ended up taping into the front x9331 connector. It really wasn't hard to run the wires at all, if you take the rear seats out, you can do it without taking anything else out. I have a 2008 with hifi, and two of my speaker wires weren't the same as robin casady's diagram. I don't remember off the top of my head what colors they were, but If you really need me to, i can try to pop the panel off and look (however in in NC and about to get snowed in, so that might have to wait haha). Good luck on the install
"Coope" is a pure silver 09 MINI cooper s hardtop
