It said to tie it into the fuse box. I did. Wrong, wrong, wrong. When I powered it up, there was no front sound. Quick voltage test said no power was coming out of the fuse box + power connection to the amp. Well, looking at it closely, that would because there was NO male prong on the fuse box side of the female connector the instructions had you insert the hot power wire into.

Reviewed instructions again. All installed correctly electrically per instructions. But, in the kit was what was obviously a power wire, with a fuse and a soldered on connector like you attach at the battery. Also a male to female four position connector was included. After taking out the fuse box to find a very expensive looking and massive circuit board in the back base of it, I realized it was not going to be practical to power that pin in the cable at the fuse box. Painfully I got the pin back out of the connector. Then I ran the power wire supplied with no instructions to the battery through the firewall--had to remove battery to get at the pass through wire rubber grommet. Pushed the wire through a rubber nipple I trimmed off, found it under dash (in the same area I put the amp per my other post), used the four position connector that was supplied for a single wire through connection for the power feed. Put it all back together, and presto powered right up.

Net, check your fuse box before wasting time wiring into it. If the indicated pin in the instructions is blank on the fuse box side like mine was, it's a dead end. Proceed to use the power connector hopefully supplied in your kit (as it was in mine), wiring it to the battery through the firewall. The supplied power feed was fused (20A), as is the amp. itself. Ground connection for me was under one of the four fuse box 10mm nuts that tighten it down to the metal threaded studs that are part of the passenger kick panel sheet metal area.

Oh, and the 1.5 hours estimated installation time in the instructions are a joke. Took me 1.5 hours basically just to do the door speakers, albeit first time I have done a Mini door panel (lots of experience with other similar newer car door panels though). Yes, I wire cleanly, with tie down straps, OEM style cloth tape where appropriate, etc. to avoid rattles. Ignoring the faulty wiring instructions and my checking into the underseat fitment for my car that has a full box due to sat radio, it was still 2-3 hours of steady work to do the underdash and amp wiring stuff, and close to another hour (net of the time to undo the power wiring to the fuse box that proved a dead end) to run the power cleanly from the battery. No, I'm not a Mini mechanic, but have lots of necessary tools, did previously take the drivers side dash and kick panel area apart to install JCW gauges, have done a lot of car interior fixes/changes/installs over the years, and have wired a fair number of conventional stereos with small amps in bygone years before the better factory systems came along.

Having said all this, yes I expect it was worth it. From plenty of experience, I figured it would take a while and I would run into some things in the real world of installs and tight fits in small cars with lots of gizmo's.

 

Hey All,

Update here - I finally pulled the trigger on the upgrade. Had done last week, and it's back in my garage now.

Here's the rundown: Total cost was around $1,200, parts and labor. Time taken on install was about a week - not their fault, though - my kit was missing a wiring harness that they had to rush order.

It did take them time to figure it out, though. This was only the second one that this dealership (Mini of SF) had done. My car also had the red-flag "satellite prep" option, so they weren't even sure that it would work. They gave me the option of pushing ahead & paying for labor in case it didn't work out. I gave them the green light to go for it - mainly based on info learned through this board. So, let me confirm, this WILL work on R57s that have the satellite prep option, as long as the amp has space to fit under the passenger seat floor.

First impressions with the sound - it's a lot better than the boost system, and it & the car are all under warranty. Immediately, you notice brighter highs, and more bass. Not killer bass, by any means - just more & better defined lows than in the stock system. The mids are pretty good, too. It gets a lot louder than the stock system, but if you push it, sound quality will begin to brake up. In an R57 you can get it loud enough to enjoy good quality audio while drowning out freeway noise (and in this car, there's a lot of it), but not too loud so as to overload the speakers.

I think this upgrade plus a small, powered subwoofer would be a very good option to consider for many folks out there.

 

BOSS 600/900 :

http://www.amazon.com/BASS900-Profil...3438778&sr=8-3

 

resurrecting an old thread, cuz I've ordered this kit for my MINI, will install when dealer gets it. As I already have a sub too (the BOSS one), I hope it'll round it out well. Plus I really wanted to have A-pillars w/ tweeters...

 

Car dropped off to dealer this morning, unfortunately they didn't have the "amp tray" (which, how come it isn't part of the kit?).. so they had to order and will install tomorrow; so I'm with their loaner until Monday...

 

Update: after the weekend, they eventually had the amp not working, so everything is in place (wiring and a-pillar tweeters) and a non-functioning amp they bypassed for now. They ordered a new one, (1-2 weeks), and when available they will take out passenger seat and then put it in. For now the new speakers are in too (in the door) and things sound a bit clearer, but interestingly I need to play w/ the fader (more to front) or I feel like things are coming out the back.

I'll update when the install completes. FYI my total cost is going to be about $950 or so. Black friday deal on the part, and 4-hour billed install.

 

A link that might be useful for people looking into this - this shows real good photos of what you get -- http://www.ecstuning.com/ES1876759/

edit: another link, in russian, showing some good photos and details of what the system parts are: http://www.drive2.ru/cars/mini/coope...5266124068331/

 

Just wanted to update that I now have my car back, and the Alpine retrofit is in place. The dealer ran into two bad amps doing the install (first had a left-channel issue, second wouldn't power up!) so it took a while. I confirmed the final install had everything working, tweets add just enough clarity to improve the audio like I wanted, and my sub is still in place (and from my POV essential to round everything off). Any q's just ask.

 

How does it sound and was it worth the $950?
Our '09 had the base stereo and it wasn't great...

 

It sounds pretty average and I will be upgrading to the IA system when it becomes available.

 

Look, for me the key was (like deciding on a JCW tuning kit over aftermarket) factory look & warranty, dealer installation. I really wanted and can tell the mere presence of the new tweets. They sounded well to me trying with my music, including some dance tunes.

 

According to Shop Mini this Alpine system cannot be installed with a MINI Sirius Satellite Radio (655). Is there any kind of workaround for this problem?

Whoops! It looks like MP1.6T has a solution as far as SAT is concerned. It looks very labor intensive so I'll be interested in knowing what the dealers have to say. Has anyone with Sirius had a NJ or PA dealer do the install? It would be going into a 12 MCS hatch.

 

I am looking at a 2010 JCW with the base stereo. I understand the upgrade but have a question.

Based on reviewing the thread it seems the rear speakers are pretty muddy to say the least.

Has anyone upgraded the rear speakers or added another amp n addition to this factory ALPINE upgrade?

Thanks,



Bill

 

First question is... Why do you want to do the Alpine upgrade?

Second question is... Are you married to the Alpine upgrade?

Third question is... What's your budget?

 

Reasons: I want to upgrade since the 2010 I am looking at has the base radio and it is weak and muddy at best. I do not want to void the remaining factory warranty. I would like to keep from making modifications not easily reversed.

I am far from married to any specific upgrade at this point.

Budget is 1-$2k and I have a local quote of $1,400.00 for after market system that includes upgrading the 6x9s in the rear. The price does not include the new pillars. It does include installation. I can save some $$ if I install my self. Then I could spend more on the equipment.

I would like to keep from making modifications not easily reversed which is what I was quoted.

 

I just installed this kit myself and thought I'd post my experience here.

When I first decided to pull the trigger on the kit, I knew I'd be going to the dealer in a few weeks for scheduled service, so I was going to wait until then to special order it (since they wanted full payment up front, and a trip to the dealer is out of the way for me.)

But I did read the instructions posted earlier in the thread and based on that ordered my multifunction box lid and the A-pillars from ECS tuning.
So you can imagine I was a little surprised to find the multifunction box lid already included in my install kit (65-41-2-167-234). I realize that the above instructions link came from a UK site a while back, but besides the German version, I haven't been able to find any other source of instructions for it; the kit itself certainly didn't come with any.

Anyway, I agree with an earlier post by MP1.6T that the 1.5 hour installation time is a joke. I have previously taken my door panels off, and the whole thing still took me just shy of 4 hours...

...and then I spent the next 8 trying to figure out what was wrong with it -- the sound was only coming out of the right side and sounded pretty weak (I already had the fade set full to the front so I could hear just the new sound.)

Ohmed out the entire cable and double-checked all the connections to the circuit diagram at the end of the instructions. I say double-checked because initially I did find a connection where the wire colors didn't match up to the diagram so that set me off on a wild goose chase until I proved eventually that everything was connected correctly, and they got the wire colors transposed on one connection of the diagram.

Unhooked the new cable and reconnected the original connectors and everything was good so knew it had to be the amp. Fortunately, I'd also read post in this thread by isthar saying he had his kit installed by Mini and they ran into 2 bad amps -- one with bad left channel and one that didn't powerup at all -- so I felt more confident in this conclusion which previously had seem pretty unlikely. (BTW, whole time I'm reconnecting/disconnecting the negative connection to the battery so I don't fry anything, and I also made sure to plug the passenger seat sensor back in before connecting the battery so I didn't accidentally trigger the airbag light.)

Put the car partially back together so I could drive it a few days while they ordered a new amp (everything but the door sill panels.)

Next day went to Mini parts department and explained the whole issue. They looked at me like I was crazy. Then he told me the only way they could do a return was if it went through the service department. I said, fine. Then he said they would have to order another kit and when it came in, they would have to install it for me in order to do it as a warranty claim. I asked him if he was talking about the kit that I already had 99% installed in my car (solely lacking a good amp), and he said yes. Told him that was not fine and I'd have to talk to the manager because there was no way I was going to pay to have something installed that was already installed correctly.

He disappeared for 15 minutes and came back and said he talked to the manager (guess he was too chicken to talk to me himself) and that if the amp itself was orderable separately, he could order that and swap me out. Fortunately it was, and I got the last amp in the entire US according to the parts guy.

Whole time he was gone I was pondering what he said about they would only warranty it if they installed it, and I was also reading the fine print on the invoice that said no return on electrical parts, only warrantable if installed by service department, blah, blah, blah. Only trouble with that was 1) nowhere on the Mini accessory page does it say that the kit has to be installed by the service department, 2) no one told me when I ordered it anything to that effect either, and 3) the only time I saw the fine print was after they'd taken my money in full.

Fast forward to today: pickup the last amp in the US 3 days later and anxiously plug it in tonight. Fortunately it worked because if it didn't I knew I'd be in for a long fight since the parts guy told me today that if this one didn't work they would have to do the "install" for me.

Impressions: I don't think the sound is that much better since I already have a subwoofer; I just mainly needed the extra amplification because my stock head unit was going into overcurrent/thermal shutdown occasionally and without warning when the volume was moderately high. And you can't get it to come back on until you shut off power to the car first which means if it cuts out and you have 30 minutes yet to get to work on the highway, you ride in silence for 30 minutes.

I was originally impressed by "Alpine", but I see now that the amp is crap (based anecdotally on experiences by myself and isthar.) When I was looking for a circuit diagram of the amp on Alpine's webpage, even Alpine didn't claim it by any reference to the model number or part of the model number on their support page.)

Even the speakers don't completely impress me; they don't sound quite as clear as the moderately-priced speakers I got from Best Buy and installed previously. (And, no, I don't believe that was the source of the overcurrent tripping as these were 4 Ohm speakers just like the original Mini ones. I never had a problem with the overcurrent tripping until after a friend said, "oh, let's check out the stereo" and before I could say anything turned the volume **** 360 degrees in about 100 ms. When do you EVER turn up a stereo to 100% instantly?? Am I the only one who gradually turns up a stereo volume?)

Overall, my installation was a bear and there was going to be a serious fight with Mini if this 2nd amp had also been bad. I don't see a big improvement in sound quality, but since I do have extra amplification now, I guess I'd have to say I'm grudgingly satisfied.

 

i am getting ready to get this alpine installed in my mini coupe. just wondering my interior is black with the usually factory speakers exterior are black. what color are the extra speakers like the tweeters and the other ones that they will have to place somewhere. and can that amp go in the back i have a coupe no back seats i do not want it under my passenger seat. please respond asap cause it should be here 9/11/12!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

The speakers are silver. And I don't think you can put it in the back.

 

I'm assuming you're having a stereo shop or the like install this kit for you as I don't believe Mini would have signed up for it?

As mavic1010 said, the speakers are silver.

The instructions in the link which I originally reposted are no longer at that link or on their website that I can find. Fortunately, I downloaded the pdf before it disappeared. You can see that the instructions at the top of the 1st page say the kit is for R55 and R56 models, so it's not intended to fit exactly in your R58 coupe.

True, they are just speakers, crossovers, and an amp which could probably be placed anywhere, but the wiring harness is specifically made to go from the left side of the driver footwell, along the firewall, around the passenger footwell, and terminate under the passenger seat. There are also additional wires that are branched off at certain points along that run, so if you're running the harness elsewhere, those branches probably won't be close to the things they need to connect to.

And while the overall harness is probably long enough to put the amp elsewhere in your coupe, I'm not sure the connectors it is designed to tap into are fabricated and wired the same in the coupe as it is in the R55,56? You would think they probably would be, but there's a possibility they aren't.

Good luck.

 

This alpine upgrade was in the 2012 mini coupe accessory book at my mini dealership. One dude on the forum told me the a-pillars (tweeters?) are anthracite ( my interior roof is anthracite and it looks black).
Are u just talking about the outer membrane cover? I was wondering, he said the amp went under the passenger seat is there enough room to lower the seat all the way down with the amp under it?

 

Yes, the covers for the A-pillar tweeters look black, and you can get the A-pillar trim with the speaker enclosures in grey or carbon black to match your interior. They have to be ordered separately, btw.

And once the amp is installed under the seat, you can't tell it's there because it fits in a well that's sunken into the floorboard currently hidden under your carpet. To install the amp, you remove the passenger seat, cut away a specific section of the carpeting, and remove the styrofoam insert that's currently filling the well. Once the amp is installed, there's a plastic lid that covers everything, but it's essentially flush with the surrounding carpeting.

 

Hello, this is my first time here, hope someone can help me....

I own a Mini Cooper D R56, and today I went to my local Mini dealer to install the Alpine Hi-Fi retrofit kit, so far so good. At the end of the day they've called me to pick up the car, but I think something is very wrong with the installation.

When I connect my iPhone using a simple cable trough the AUX radio the sound looks amazing on the car, and I can turn up the radio volume until my ears blow.... by the other hand, using the sound from the radio FM or from the CD player is really poor and the volume is very low compared with the AUX.

Maybe I have a problem on the connection of the amplifier? I don't understand much about electronic connections...

Any ideas?

Many thanks in advance!!

 

AUX has a setting in the radio for how boosted it is; try lowering it.

 

 

Hello isthar,

AUX is boosted on zero in the radio settings.... :(

Tks anyway mate