Help installing sub

[ajar]

Hello everyone
I have a mk4 mondeo and I would like to put a sub in soon. Just to make it difficult I'd like to possibly mount it on the back parcel shelf. I was thinking an 8" mid bass so nothing massive. I just don't know if I should mount it there or maybe underneath the rear seats.
Also, if anyone could point me to a haynes manual for this car, that'd be great.
Thanks!

[cobrin]

Originally Posted by ajar

Hello everyone
Just to make it difficult I'd like to possibly mount it on the back parcel shelf. I just don't know if I should mount it there or maybe underneath the rear seats.
Also, if anyone could point me to a haynes manual for this car, that'd be great.
Thanks!

Don't mount it on the boot cover, that's a bad idea. There's no room under the rear seats either. You could try and see if it fits in the centre armrest backing, otherwise in a box in the boot or integrated into a side panel.

as for the repair manual:
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI....d=624105450147

[tut0r]

Quick tip, I can't help you on placement in a mondeo but if you want to get good sound you are best off boxing the sub, downside to using any factory parcel shelf is the metal sheet usually isn't that thick so you get vibrations which is where you lose a lot of bass.

IF you end up going the route of a box in the boot depending on listening requirements might want to go a 10 or 12, if you're not huge into bass an 8 to 10 will give you good 'filler' for your music.

[ajar]

So how would a 10/12" sub sound in the boot? How much dampening will there be? Also, what do you mean by no space underneath the back seats?

[AlanD]

Hi ajar,

Welcome to the forum.

You do not say which model of Mondeo you have, but since the sedan has not been imported into this country since the middle of 2009, I'm probably safe in assuming you have a Hatch rather than a wagon.
So I'll endorse Cobrin's comment about not using the luggage space cover as a mount point because it is a flexible non metallic panel that has no real solid fixing to the car body. Because of these facts the loudspeaker will cause lots of nasty vibrations, which I'm reasonably sure you do not want.
Another factor is that the cabin of a car is possibly the worst acoustical environment that exists for the reproduction of high fidelity audio - especially when the car is moving. So, if this is your aim, I'm sorry to have to say you will be disappointed.
Further if you arrange a box in the luggage area (and this is the "optimum" method) you should remove any impediment to the sound energy being propagated into the car cabin and this would mean removal of the parcel shelf which will vibrate and muffle any low frequency sound energy if left in place.
The comment about there being no space under the seat cushion of the rear seat is true except for the small space that the manufacturer provides to allow seat flexing as the load on the seat changes when the car is mobile. Then you meet the floor pan of the car, and I believe that in this area the floor pan is raised to provide a place for the fuel tank to be located (It is, I just checked our Mondeo).
I think that your best (and probably least expensive solution) to obtaining better bass response would be to source a pair of better drivers to replace those in the rear doors, generally those provided by the manufacturer are a function of cost rather than quality.
That said I'm quite happy with the standard system in the Mondeo. Given the environment in which it works it is quite acceptable.

Cheers

[XP6]

An 8" sub would only need a few litres of space inside a box, it would take up very little room in your boot...

[tut0r]

The only thing I'm worried about if the sub is 8 inches XP6 is will it have enough power to penetrate the rear seats? But you're right the box would be tiny.

Alan one question, I don't have Mondeo but if its a hatch, it wouldn't have a parcel shelf now would it? So my guess would be that it is a sedan? Correct me if i'm wrong

As in relation to the sound you'd get from a 10inch or 12 in the boot, depends on A) how thick are the seats? You'll lose a lot of sound from the seats being closed, in saying that if you have a hatch you'd have no issue with sound coming through, what kind of music do you listen to as well? Are you just after filler bass to round out the highs of the music? Or something that can give you quite a nice hit.

[ajar]

Yes it's a mk4 sedan, I'm sorry. If I do end up putting it in the boot, I guess I'll need a 10 inch at least to penetrate the parcel shelf?

[ajar]

And yes i do like my bass, just not too powerful, but nice and even

[tut0r]

One of the nicest subwoofers i've heard with plenty of SQ was a Morel Ultimo, its pricey though unfortunately. I've always been partial to SPL so others here might have suggestions on brand, But I should ask with the sub are you planning to amp it or run off a factory head unit?

Also usually bass gets muffled from your seats, obviously being a cushion it takes a lot of the sound out, Alan might be able to give you more info on what would sound good having driven a mondeo I haven't driven one in years!

Also depending where you live there are a lot of sound system installers that can do a nice 'stealth' install which uses minimal space and can fit in with the car quite nicely.

[ajar]

Hey I just had an idea: what if I put a port on the parcel shelf, like a hole. And put a sub in the boot. Would this port be useful at all?

[ajar]

And AlanD, with putting drivers in the rear doors, would they fit? I believe they have 6.5" shallow speakers there, meaning I'd have to cut? And then, there wouldn't be enough space for even a shallow 8" right?

[XP6]

If there is a space in the parcel shelf that can be left open the bass will get through... old speaker hole perhaps, im not familiar with your particular model car, are the rear speakers in the door or parcel shelf?
Have a look from underneath the shelf there may be some knock out panels... might even be one for a factory sub!

[AlanD]

Hi ajar,

Why are you "shouting"?

Firstly, letting everyone know that the car is a sedan up front would have made providing advice more targeted ( and I might add that many people refer to the movable compressed fabric panel in a hatch as a "parcel shelf").
Secondly, you would need a port in the parcel shelf, otherwise, as has been pointed out, the seats will muffle the sound energy, nullifying what you are trying to achieve.
Thirdly, what are you trying to achieve? Better fidelity or simply more bass volume? And if it is the latter then I'll presume you have used the existing head unit menu to promote the bass in the frequency spectrum? If not then use the "tone" button on the left of the display. Amplify the bass to whatever, another press of the tone gets you the midrange which you can attenuate, another press brings up the treble, press again to take you back to the "normal" display and adjust the volume. I just did this and, although I personally don't like the result, the bass was quite significant.
Fourthly, bigger size is not necessarily better bass, it will depend on the design of the driver and a well designed and manufactured (read expensive) smaller driver will work better than a poorly designed larger driver (read cheaper). This is why I say replacing the drivers in the rear doors with better units that fit the existing mount points is a cheaper and faster method of getting towards what you want (I think).
Fifthly, so far as I know there is not an output on the sony head unit that combines both channels. This means that to obtain the bass you are looking for you will need to arrange this with an appropriate amplifier. Combining right and left channels into a single speaker is a good way of damaging the head unit amplifiers. (And using either left or right is going to unbalance the signal. The Bass component isn't always equally divided between the left and right signals.
Sixthly, there are some cutouts in the parcel shelf (but none of them are speaker appropriate) that could be used as vents if you are prepared to cut through the parcel shelf fabric and fit some covers.

Good luck with the quest.

[ajar]

Alright, sorry I haven't made it clear. I was theoretically gathering some ideas to fit a sub if I needed it, but what I intend to do is replace the head unit, replace the front speakers to some more powerful 6.5" and run all four speakers off the head unit's amp. If I can't do that, then I'll just run the front speakers off a standalone 2 channel amp, and run the rear speakers off the head unit. Then if I feel the need for a sub, I'll put one in, using a separate single channel amp

[tut0r]

Hi Ajar,

Firstly I'd suggest working out a budget of what you're willing to spend, this can be a very limiting factor. If you want to get an aftermarket head unit this will output more power than the stock.
But in saying that, I wouldn't recommend running front speakers on an amp and rears on the headunit, this had been done on my car before I got it and it caused conflicting sound between the speakers. Mainly the rears never played loud enough to keep up with the amped fronts, i'd suggest if you're amping speakers get a 4channel and do it properly.

Now for the sub, to get quality sound no matter what type of subwoofer you're using, it needs to be boxed. Mounting it on the parcel shelf isn't recommended because of two reasons.

Parcel shelfs aren't exactly....'stable' so everytime your bass hits you're still going to lose a lot of sound through vibration in the shelf itself, which in turn rattles the car a lot more than you'd want.

Alan is right though, putting a subwoofer in using a high level input amplifer will allow you to get a signal off the existing speaker connections but isn't always accurate. So in short If I was you, figure out if you're keeping the stock head unit or using an aftermarket first, this will dictate what you want to do next if you use the stock headunit i'm assuming it doesn't have RCA outs you'll need high level input amplifers to get signal.

Cheers