I've acquired an HK amp and speakers from a totalled Mini :???: , ( not mine) and have some questions:
1) Is the head unit the same for the HK option and for non-HK cars?
2) Is the sudio wiring harness the same?
3) Do I need the radio code # to reset after I add in the amp?
3) Is there any other partsI need or anything else I need to know to perform this swap?
Thanks in advance,
Mike

 

i can help out a little here.

1. the head unit is the same... it's the HK amp that adds the extra features on the HU.

2. Dunno

3. Dunno, probably as the battery will get disconnected.

4. I'm sure you'll need a few things, but I'm useless as to what!

Best of luck man..you'll love the system.

 

Good luck, thats gunna be some headache!

 

HI Mike

The swap will not be that hard if you still have access to the car. You will need:

the H/K speakers and for looks the H/K grills

the wiring loom for the doors; they have three speaker leads.

The main wiring loom (head unit to H/K amp and rears speakers) now you can make this if you have the main connectors at the head unit and the H/K amp.

Now answers to your questions

1 Yes but maybe not the real early ones (2001 head units)

2 NO

3 No, well really it is dependant on how you set up the head unit setting, but it should not cause you any problems.

4 Yes more parts are needed depending on what you have got from the totalled MINI.

 

Short answer- you need the HK wiring harness.
Your dealer can check in one minute if you have it or not.
If you lack it- then you can't really easily add it- too much labor cost.
Can you make an HK like wiring harness- technically yes but not for the faint of heart.

Search the threads on this topic in audio- there is alot already written about it.
More later. And it is all good.

 

Ok, you have HK amp and speakers. That's good.
No HK harness pre installed in your cooper? That's not as good.

Pooky13 used her stock HK speakers and headunit and added two amps, JL Stealthbox and one farad CAP to get a good system. Send a PM to her.

Using the HK system to replace a stock audio system was my previous goal but although it might be possible to attempt, it would have been not worth the time and effort for the average person.

The HK harness has all the good stuff wires for the HK system. It is installed at the time the car is put together. Some people say that a MINI can have either the HK harness or a regular wiring harness- you just have to look in the right rear fender interior access panel area for the huge wire harness for the HK amp or CD changer.
If you still don't see it then look in an HK equipted MINI and check out the harness.

 

Just for clarification, here is the HK amp connector:


You can see from the number of wires on it how difficult the install will be if you don't have the complete harness ... four speaker wires to each door, four speaker wires to each rear panel, five wires from HU, iBus, power, ground, etc.

 

Hi 4th Gear.,

Do you have this 42 pin connector wiring color run down? Due I try to select some of them to connect to my aftermarket amp.

Thanks

 

>>Do you have this 42 pin connector wiring color run down? Due I try to select some of them to connect to my aftermarket amp.

See the image linked here - sorry it is a big JPG; I never got round to re-typing it as text.

If you want to replace the HK amp and drive the speakers, be aware that you will probably need some crossovers / filters.
I have not fully verified the data on this chart - some of it might be wrong! As a second check, match the colors at the connector with the colors at the speaker (I have posted pics of the speakers/wires before).

 

Ian -

looks like the 42-pin connector pic is moved or missing. Is this for the connections coming OUT of the H/K? Or does it have a single connector containing both input and output?

What I would like to do is put my amp between the DSP and the speakers, just unsuccessfully trying to find a pinout that will tell me how to do it.

Are there really 10 channels of output? that would be 20 wires, +/- for each of door woofer, mid, tweeter, and rear woofer, mid. Is that right?

If that IS correct, I wonder how I should run these into and out of my six-channel amp.

 

Sorry, GBMINIs web site moved (again) ... I will try hard not to move it again in the future, I promise :smile:

Here is the link to the HK connections
I really should get around to typing this rather than leaving it as a big jpg!

The HK amp has a single connector for power, inputs and outputs. Some of the pins are bigger and carry higher currents - like power and the rear "sub woofer" signals.
As you will see, the HK amp sends two wires to the mid/tweeter and two to the bass in each door, and four wires to each rear speaker so that is 16 wires total. There is a small capacitor on the mid/tweeter to filter the tweeter signal.


If you take the signals out of the HK amp, you will accept the DSP processing that the amp does.
You need to choose which signals you want amplified more. For example you could amplify all the rear speaker signals in an attempt to get more bass.

BUT there are some big questions:
1. Are you replacing the speakers? If not, shoving too much power into the HK speakers will probably destroy them.
2. Also, the HK speaker coils are 2ohm; many amps will not like to drive them.
3. You will not get more frequencies or a "better" sound, only LOUDER. If you take the signals after the HK amp, you cannot reverse what it has done to the frequencies.


Personally I would not consider what you are considering. Either live with the HK system as a whole, or replace all of it. Note that if you remove the HK amp, the HU reverts to normal and you could then run speaker levels to your new amp, and replace all the speakers with ones more able to handle the power.



(but I think we discussed this by email)