Hi guys, I felt obligated to sign in and thank you for the wealth of knowledge in the forums. I just installed a 10" Rockford Fosgate powered sub (300-10) in my spare tire cavity. It sounds fantastic in the mini and it fits perfectly on top of the tools in the spare tire hole. I must of spent 5 or more hours going through these forums, learning about the infamous x9331, the 'craptastic' base radio with the roll off, the DIY channel swap and so on and so forth.

Here's the gear I bought:

Rockford Fosgate 300-10 powered sub: great reviews and about 180 delivered on Amazon.

8 gauge amp kit: Rockford Fosgate premium wire, about 50 bucks on Amazon.

PAC line converter: 10 bucks Amazon

Trim tools and a bunch of STAR bits for taking the car apart - 50 bucks at my local Auto Zone.

I removed the passenger seat and the trim around the door, pulled the carpet back. Then I popped the hood and removed the battery cover and cut a small hole in the rubber seal/grommet. I then fed my red battery cable through the hole and it landed inside right by the fuse box. I ran it along the passenger side carpet to the back.

I then removed the carpet and panels to expose the amp and used instructions I found here from Integral Audio on how to read the pins. I found a few other posts by members that labeled the wires and the pins back there and found another post from IA that pretty much said the colors change from year to year but the pins are still the same. After comparing the notes I gathered, I was pretty confident I found the right channels. I was looking for FR and FL (+-). I cut each wire and spliced them with the appropriate wires on the Line Out Converter.

I then connected ground to a bare metal surface I scratched out in the boot and ran the remote control underneath my toggle switches up front, underneath the plastic shell that makes up the center arm rest and then I cut a slit in the carpet and ran the rest of the wire under it so it wouldn't be seen in the back seat.

The 300-10 DOES NOT need to be tapped into a 12volt switched source if you use Line Out which is the number one reason I went that route because I read less than optimal things about connecting to the 12vt power supply coming in the back.

Tested it and it was good to go.

My only issue came when I had to take a friend to the doctor. I hadn't put the seat back yet and now my air bag light is on and wont come off. I'll figure that out later.

All in all it cost me about 300 bucks and 5 hours of actual wiring. I would have taken it to my trusty install shop but they quoted me 80 bucks for the LOC+amp kit and 180 for labor and I just couldn't justify the expense. I've done some pretty complicated installs on my past vehicles and this one seemed pretty straightforward. Times is tough and I got mouths to feed so a penny saved is a penny earned.

Anyhow, couldn't have done it without you guys. The 10 fills in the much needed lows I was missing and the HK sounds great on top of it.

Now just gotta get that damn light off.

 

How about some pics of the sub?

I believe your going to need to go see the dealer to get the light off......

 

You can reset the airbag light with the BMW software and special cable. That cable will run you about $25-30, and the software is widely available. Hit the NCSExpert threads for links to download. (Or send me a PM.)

 

Surprisingly, you will not need to see the dealer to reset the airbag light; nor will you need to buy any tools either! I had this same issue when removing my seats for a thorough carpet cleaning. After much time spent searching on ways to clear this light without breaking the bank, I reluctantly called my dealer and spoke to a service tech. He told me to disconnect the positive and negative battery terminals from my battery and touch the two cables to one another for approximately 10 minutes, using a cable tie to hold them to one another.(and being careful not to short it to the battery!) Then all I had to do was put it back together, and the light was off!