Amplifier under the seat
 

Does anyone know how to get a small amp, say an Alpine PDX 4.100, to fit under the passenger seat? I've seen photos of it, but no one seems to have a how to. It looks like the carpet has to be cut, something I don't really want to do. Although I do not have the amp yet, I've decided on this one and I need to start looking for mounting locations.

I don't have answers, but here are a set of photos that might help a bit.

http://www2.bugs78.ca:8830/photo/gar...iS/ampinstall/

I don't think that burying your amplifier under the carpet is going to help with heat dissipation. Your amp needs to "breath". Looks clean installed but I don't reccomend.

Its pretty simple.

Your just cutting out the section that would be cut out if you had Navi.

Its easier to remove the entire interior, seats, interior panels, downtubes, console and cupholder base, rocker sills and the entire carpet. You can properly route the wiring that way. Last time I did it, I ran the power wire up the middle so it was way far away from all other wiring. (RFI in these cars is a BAAAAD thing) I also ran the RCA's up the middle next to the tunnel and up behind the heater box and dash frame. Then you can run your speaker wiring neatly wherever it needs to go. I'm a fan of twisted pairs of wires, held in bunches with zipties, and held to the floor with little 3"x1" strips of Dynamat.

The area has proper ventilation, the Navi brain is mounted in that spot from the factory.

Tanks for the info not-so. Not trying to bust anybodys nuts or anything. I stand corrected.

Its cool, one more bit of info in print now, so it will come up if someone searches. :thumbsup:

yeah-yeah, uhhuh-uhhuh.

Thanks. Also, the Alpine PDX series is a digital amp that runs cooler, apparently.

Those are great amps, and small. I just put a full system into my MINI and used two PDX amps. I'm VERY happy with them so far, though I don't have anything to compare them with in terms of heat generation.

They are VERY small!

First time I saw one I thought it was a CD changer. You should have no problems as far as space goes under there.

Nabeshin, I installed my Blaupunkt amp under my seat without any problems. It sits on top of the carpet, which I did not cut at all. The amp is small enough to sit under the seats low bar with no rubbing. I used 2 rubber floor matt screws (not sure what they are called) which screw through the carpet and velcro'd the bottom of the amp to sit on them. Note, I did have to modify them a little so that once they were screwed in they were flush. The wires were fed behind the radio, the area under the carpet and through an existing slot in the carpet for the vent system. I don't have any pics, but hopefully this helps.

Nabeshin----did you do this? I am on the fence about purchasing the same amp for my interior but not sure where I should mount it. The only thing about mounting it under the seat uder the carpet where the NAVI brain would be is adjustability. If I need to tweek the frequency or anything for that matter... how hard would it be? MiniDaMoocher made a point about just mounting it on top of the carpet...but....:sly:

Depends where the adjustments are located, and if you need a passenger seat...
The seat comes out easily (four bolts), but to fully remove it, you'd need to disconnect the battery or endure the wrath of the airbag gods (if you disconnect the airbag connector with the battery connected, you need a dealer to reset the airbag light.)
I can't see a reason to cover the amp with carpet - it WOULD be under the seat, after all.

My OEM HK amp is mounted behind the rear access panel in the boot. So, I also put the Terk XM receiver back there, so there is a little extra room.

That might be an option.

Ah, well, I ended up putting my amp in the trunk on the passenger side. I had tried putting in the cubby hole spot behind the panel. It could fit, but I didn't have a way to mount it there. I didn't put it under the seat because I thought it too much of a hassle to run wires under the carpet and what have you. Also, I had to spend a lot of time tuning the dials on the amp after listening to lots of music to get it right. Had it been under the seat, I'd have been screwed.

The alpine pdx 4.100 is a great amp. Just be sure your crossovers for your front speakers are away from any of the car's electrical componets. (under the dash is littered with them.)

^^^got any pics? I was thinking of mounting to the back of the p/s rear seat down low so if I drop the seat it'll be ok. I thought about that cubby hole but I couldn't see a way to mount that amp there either

What are the dimensions of this area? I have another project in mind and it seems like an excellent place for it :)

It was around 12"x12" if I remember correctly.

how about the depth?

no more than 2 or 3 inches

Hmmm, I might have to dig in and try to find some exact measurements on that. This is 13 1/16 in one dimension according to specs, but otherwise would be perfect, and affordable!

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_489AP10...40.html?tp=115

I have a question. I have seen other putting amps under the passenger seat mainly and one pic with amps under both seats. Is there some piece of equipment underneath the driver's seat? I have an 03 MCS w/o nav. and wanted to know if I had room for an amp under each seat.

Bringing this thread back...

Can anyone confirm the maximum dimensions available beneath the seats? 2 or 3 inches thick is quite a range when most amps seem to be around 2 1/2" tall.