Originally Posted by jbewley

OK, I've read this entire post and am impressed. I am now ready to do the swap and feel confident that it will work. Thanks to all who made it possible.

Question: I was driving my ford F-350 today and noticed that it had really good seperation between left and right speakers (go figure. I's a farm truck). I could clearly hear drums on one side and strings, vocal on the other. I have not noticed the in my Mini. Is it me or has anyone else noticed this??

Jim

Originally Posted by schatzy62

One thing to remember here also is that the MINI is much smaller in size. It is not easy without a second person but measure the distance from your ears to the speakers in the car and the truck you will probably find that the distance on your left side is fairly close. The truck being about 1.05 to 1.15 times the distance of the MINI. but on the right side the distance in the truck is probably more like 1.5 to 1.7 times the distance. This can and will make a big difference in the sound stage if the car has poor speaker quality as well.

Listen to the same piece of music in the truck, your MINI and a friends sedan if you can. You will probably find the MINI has the lowest sound quality. Then do the channel swap and recheck the MINI. It will sound better. Then add some good quality speakers and it will be even better.

Originally Posted by jbewley

You are right about the size of the "sound stage". The truck is a "cavern" compared to the Mini. Guess this means that the speakers will have to follow this mod.

Thanks,

Jim

Originally Posted by k6rtm

Look on the bright side -- it takes less volume to fill up the space! You need good speakers, but you don't need huge speakers. Nor do you need a huge amp. I'm putting along quite nicely using the OEM head, and the little bass600 bass box -- a very good size for the Mini.

Try things in stages and over time -- I've found the "good enough" level for me.

cheers--

Originally Posted by jpmcc00

I managed to get the trim off yesterday in an attempt to do the channel swap... managed to get the wires swaped and then diaster... somehow I managed to break one of the metal connectors which slide into the slots

Now I have great sound on the drivers side and no sound from the passenger side.. question is how do I replace the broken metal connector, I cannot solder it back together as in my rage I lost the other half, can you buy them seperatly from MINI anyone have a part number

Originally Posted by Dr. Pepper

Any tips on removal of the plastic interior pieces? I yank and pull and nothing wants to move. Prying didn't work either. I dont want to break anything.

Originally Posted by Robin Casady

Which pieces?

Originally Posted by eurotrash01

I just did the swap this morning. Not difficult at all, and like tintman718 I used no special tool.
[EDIT- note: I worked on female pins, not male as others have mentioned in previous posts. If you are looking at the schatzy62 picture, you'll see the female pins. My work listed below concerns pressing down on the rims of these female pins with my torx bit in order to get them out of the connector.]

1- Pull out about 2 feet worth of the door liner (it isn't glued in there or stuck in any way. Time taken, 4 seconds)

2- Pull the panel below the hood latch out to right, disengaging it from the frame somewhat. This takes much less energy that it took removing the door panels to replace the speakers last weekend. 2 seconds.

3- The small triangular panel above the hood latch comes out easily by pulling it toward the back of the car. That is the way the attachment tabs work on this piece, so don't pull it to the right as done in the last step. 2 seconds.

4- You'll see the black piggy-backing connector in there with the one we want hiding behind it. Don't bother trying to disengage this black one from the X9331, as you'll simply need to pull apart X9331, freeing the end that you want to work with. Reach in and twist the connectors around a bit. There is a little bit of play room there and you can free up some more space easily. The connector shown in earlier pictures comes out easily once you unclip it from below. It then can be swung back to face you just as you see in the pix earlier in the thread. Orient the thing as explained, with the big brown ground wire (#1 hole) at the upper right. I found that it "wanted" to sit that way anyhow. Time taken...a few minutes to figure it out, and about 20 seconds to do. Done another time it wouldn't take any time at all.

5- With scissors, cut back/pull back 1-2" of the shroud that covers all the incoming wires. This will give you some room to move wires/pins without forcing or bending them. The good news is that this shroud is much more scissors friendly than the shrouds in the doors protecting the speaker wires. Time taken, 20 seconds.

6- KEY STEP. Using a flat-nosed screwdriver for a little leverage between the side of the connector and its base, you want to work around the base of the famous connector (wire end) disengaging the 4 plastic tabs that hold the base in place. As you're doing this, it will "want to" re-seat" itself in place, so keep a bit of pressure in opposite directions on the thing - wire end one way, the end with the 12 holes the other way. What you end up with is the base (holding all pins) pulled out about 3-4mm (only) from the body of X9331. This step allows for easy pin swapping. I thought I'd need to disengage the base more than this at first, but you really only need to go this far. It does not "want to" go farther than this anyhow, so stop there...simply making sure the 4 tabs are all disengaged.

7- Using the torx bit in the hand-held wrench, push down in the holes of X9331 to release the pins. I thought this would be harder than it was, but the previous step really gets you a long way toward simple surgery. Swap them as per diagrams presented here. Make doubly sure the pins are fully back in place (high enough). Push the base back in place clicking the 4 tabs. Re-attach our friend to its host back behind the black-piggybacking connector. I used 2" of electrical tape to tidy up the shroud end a bit where I had cut/pushed back. Twist it all back into place. Time = 2-3 minutes.

8- Slide in upper panel, bang in lower panel getting those door/panel round clips to "pop." Stuff the door liner back in place. 30 seconds.

Take car out for a test. Worked for me. Easy job. No complaints from the wife expected.

Originally Posted by MiniLe

Thanks again to all and thanks for giving me the confidence to hopefully attempt my next mod! If you just bought an 07-09 Mini, don't hesitate to do this mod!

Originally Posted by jbewley

Swap was, sadly, unsuccessful. After feeling like I had all the advice from this thread clearly understood, I launched on the project. The two side covers came off with ease, a half rotation of the connector and it was free, pressed on the two side clips and the bottom (female) came lose. Everything went like clock work until I atempted to remove the female pins. All the torx driver was doing was mash the copper edges of the pins and I got no movement. Not wanting to mash anything so it would not re-seat, I put it all back and left well enough alone. Some say the pins ca,e out with ease, so what was I doing wrong??????

Jim

Originally Posted by Robin Casady

I doubt it was anything you did. I suspect that the barbs on those connectors were just very well dug into the plastic. The real BMW tool (tubing) is supposed to go along the outside of the connector and retract the barbs. However, it didn't seem that effective when I watched k6rtm do it. He had to use a significant amount of force on some connectors when first removing them. Once done, they are easier to remove a second time.

Originally Posted by cheapdanny

I ran into the same situation until I pulled out what looked like an internal plastic wire container within the female connector. Once i did this, the wires popped out without any problems. I used two small flat head screwdrivers and and a small needle nose pliers. Hope this helps.

Danny