Hello everyone from Spain.

Congratulations for this forum, it is like some sort of well of knowledge

Following some of the recommendations that you wisely give, I have done the channel swap in my R56 Cooper S Aut.

Now I want to upgrade the speakers and my next steps are going to be:

• Buy a pair of brand new A-Pillar with tweeter hole (Original from my MINI dealer)
• Buy a 2-vias Kit, I've chosen CORAL DLK 165 or CORAL MK165 but I'm open to suggestions

PROBLEM: I have no idea on how to mount the A-pillars and specially on how to connect the woofer in the door with the twitter in the pillar (both of them from the kit I'm planning to buy).

I am really pissed off about sound quality in this car but I've never done any car-audio projects and I would be very glad if you could help me. How can I pass the wire from the door to the A-pillar? How is it done with the factory HIFI-upgrade?

Additionally, I've read that manipulating the A-pillar could end with an AIRBAG
malfunction. Any advice in this regard?

For further information, I don't have a great budget and I am not interested in great volumes so I have discarded the amplification option.

My music preferences are Hard Rock and Heavy Metal.

In near future I will consider to upgrade the rear 6x9 but I don't have any idea wich would be the best option considering the non-amplificated setup and my intention of maximizing the bass response (not interested in subwoofers because my wife would kill me if I diminish the space in my boot. Any suggestions?


Thanks in advance and sorry about my poor english.

 

This will be simple for you.

What i would do is to run a wire from the X9331 connector (radio side) (located in the left side footwell behind the panel) to the crossover and then a wire from the crossover woofer out back to the X9331 connector (speaker side). Then run a wire from the crossover tweeter output up to the A-Pillar tweeter.

Remember that with what you are doing you will want to disconnect the 4" speaker int he door so that it does not affect the sound quality of the new speakers.


No need to worry about this as I have explained above your best and easiest way to connect the new speakers.

There really should be no problem here. The air bags are located above the headliner, NOT behind the A-Pillar. And as you will not be removing the seats to put an amp in there is not reason to worry about the seat airbags.

There are many options out there but none will really give you better base response with out a subwoofer.

Your English is good. No worries there.

Good luck with your install.

 

Mmm... OK,
If I have understood you properly, then I have to house the crossover in the same place than the X9331 connector or close to it in orden to run the wire from the crossover to the A-pillar tweeter.

4 doubts come to my mind in this situation:

• How do I wire from the X9331 space to the A-pillar hiding the wire?
• How do I operate with the right side speakers? Must I house the crossover in the X9331 space too? Then, how could I run the wire from there to the right A-pillar hiding the wires?
• I suppose that when you talk about plugin the new wires to the male and female side of the X9331 you are talking about disengaging the pins for the front speakers (left and right side, + and - polarity) and to solder the new wires to the old ones in orden to pass the signal through the crossover. Am i more or lees right?
• What kind of wire do I need to use? (type? gauge?)

Regarding the deactivation of the 4" speakers, if I do that, would I be changing the total impedance for the front channels from 2 ohm (4" and 6.5" speakers in parallel) to 4ohm? (only the impedance of the new kit)? If so, how does it affect to the power delivery in front channels from the head unit?

Thank you very much for your kind help.

 

I am not sure how big the crossovers are but they looked really small in the pictures I saw of them. And if they are that small them they would hide behind the panel where the X9331 is.

• The wire will run behind the panel, and up thru the body to behind the A-Pillar cover

• Run the wire under the dash to behind the right side foot well panel and then up thru the body to behind the A-Pillar cover

• that is one way of doing it the other would be to by a set of the pins and plug housings and make up a small harness that plugs in between the two parts now.

• Something the same gauge as in the car i am not sure what that is without tearing my car apart

the OEM set up has the 4" and 6" divers in the door connected in parallel. This will be bad for the output of the crossover. The head unit will see the impedance of the crossover not the actual drivers. And there is no need to worry about that. it will be fine

If you need more info please come back and ask.

Here is a link to write up I did on my system
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...-upgrades.html

 

What kind of harness should I buy? Where are these kind of components usually sold?

Do I need any special tool to create this harness?

Thanks again for your kind help.