Do you like your HIFI system, but want a little extra bass? Well wait no more. MINI kindly put everything you need right within reach of the boot, including a power source and a good ground. No need to run cable from the battery through the firewall and no tearing the dash apart. I am not a car audio expert and there might be better ways to add an amp/sub, so please chime in with your thoughts. Right now I'm using an 8" Bazooka tube that's destined for my wife's car and it makes a HUGE difference. The long term plan is a custom box that's flush with the rear seats when folded down.

Standard disclaimer: Use this information at your own risk.

• Pull the 2 fuses for the stereo from the fuse block located in the passenger side footwell. The back of the fuse cover panel will show you which are for the stereo.
• Remove the plastic trim piece that covers the boot latch. There are three plastic pins to remove toward the floor and four hidden clips that will pop when you pull up. You do not need to remove the two 1” circles that flank the latch.
• Remove the driver’s side panel (not just the access cover, the whole panel) that covers the HIFI amp. There are several plastic pins to remove with a small flat screwdriver. See the “R56 Speaker Replacement how-to” thread for pix. Be careful of the 12 volt power outlet and light that are wired to this panel.
• Remove the bolt on the top of the amp and slide the amp out.
• Remove the wiring harness from the amp.

Now for the useful stuff

• The wiring harness you just removed from the amp is actually two sub-harnesses inside a larger harness. Remove both of the sub-harnesses from the harness by gently prying the back side of the harness out and then sliding the sub-harness back and out of the harness. This sounds confusing, but if you examine the harness, it should be pretty clear what to do. This is not required, but it makes working with the wires a bit easier.
• Locate the largest gauge red wire and use it to power your amp. Please see concerns voiced below before using this to power an additional amp.
• There is a grounding block behind the driver’s side panel that holds the rear speaker. It is well within reach and can be used for your ground. Look for a bolt coming out of the side of the car with a bunch of brown wires running to it.
• I used signal from my rear speakers for the audio signal for my sub. Each sub-harness will have several twisted pair of wires. Locate the red/brown pair in each harness. These are the signal that goes to the rear speakers.

Splicing

• There is precious little slack in the wires you’re tapping into, so measure twice, cut once. Ok, there’s really no measuring to be done, but be sure you have the right wires before cutting.
• If you grab a flashlight and look behind the panels toward the rear speakers, you can see a vertical run of wire on each side of the car. This is how I identified which wires were used for the rear speakers.
• With the little amount of slack, you’ll need to use a connector for your splicing instead of the good old fashioned twist method. I used something similar to the image below. It accepts three wires (the two that you cut apart and the third that will run to your new equipment) and is crimped down onto stripped wire. I got mine at AutoZone and they each had a plastic sleeve so taping wasn’t necessary.
  
• Once you’re done with splicing, put the fuses back where you got them and hook a cheap household speaker up to the speaker wires you spliced into to test your connections.
• Decide how/where you’re going to run your wires and put everything back together. I ran my wires under the panels to the tool area.

Regards,
Mike

 

I'd suggest to be careful about current ratings.
The fusing and wire gauge for the HiFi amp will be sized to the amps needs, NOT to the needs of the amp and some additional amp that you add.
Blowing a fuse would be annoying but not too bad - but if you replace the fuse you'll be overstressing the wires / connections, and risk long term damage and maybe fire.

 

So if the fuse doesn't blow, is it safe to assume that the wiring and fuse are up to the task of handling an additional amp?

 

No,its not safe to assume that everything is good if the fuse doesnt blow. You could do long term damage to your fuse block/ connections by loading it above the normal current value , could cause a lot of $$$$ damage. Safest and smartest way is to run a seperate circuit.

 

Just thought of something. (dont have my Mini yet) but I believe there is a 12 volt accessory plug somewhere in the back.!!. Maybe that could be used. Check the fuse rating.

 

djam is correct.
The fuse protects against catastrophic failure. For example a 50A fuse wont' blow at 51A, or even probably at 60A, but it will get hot and the wiring (if rated for 50A) will also get hot.

Of course if you never run the amplifiers close to maximum, then you won't be pulling maximum current and you'll be OK.

 

So is the rear aux power plug enough juice to run an AMP? Also my car is leased. Is this all "undoable".

O yeah. THROW UP SOME PICS!

 

The stock amp has a 12-15 amp fuse and a tiny (for an amp) hot wire going to it.

I would not use that wire for any aftermarket amp. Do it right and run at least an 8 guage hot wire to your new amp from the battery (with a large inline fuse located close to the battery).

Do not use the aux power plug wire to power an amp either.

 

First, a 50A fuse, WILL blow at 50A. In fact, ussually they will blow at about 2 to 5% UNDER the rated amperage.

Second, fuses are to protect the WIRING, not the device. The purpose of a fuse is to protect the wires from heating up and catching fire. Most poeple think they are for protecting the device, they are not.

Lastly, DO NOT use the amps red wire, DO NOT use the power plugs red wire, RUN A SEPARATE power wire to the battery, and fuse it properly per size and lenght of your wire, to protect it from fire. The car is 6 feet long, how hard can it be to run a 8 or 10 gauge power wire to the battery??

Where is the battery anyway?

 

I have a NewMiniStuff.com X9331 Harness Kit For Sale.
It is brand new, never installed.
It does not include wire and is not soldered together yet.

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cheers...