I bought my 2008 back in November and it has been a LONG Winter!
Especially being forced to listen to the horrible stock "Pioneer" system.

Problems addressed: lack of bass at mid to higher volumes, lack of detail in the mid-bass region, factory CD player not reading discs all the time.

Out it goes!!!!


Removed the stock deck to run my RCA cables and route the USB cable to the glove box.

If you look at the picture closely you will see what parts of the plastic I had to cut out to gain me some depth for the cables and the deck.



Went with a Pioneer single DIN radio instead of a double DIN. Why you ask? Because I am a CD guy first and foremost. I don't care about iPod, Bluetooth or DVD. I chose this deck based on it's AUDIO features, not it's bells and whistles. I like that the USB is off the rear of the deck, so I routed the cable to the glove box in case the GF wants to use it, and I don't have to look at it.

Also added a voltmeter and you all need to know, I did NOT use a wiring harness. I went to the BCM/Fuse panel in the console for ground, constant power and RAP power. Yes I lost the warning chime but NOTHING else was effected. No warning lights, no run ability problems, nada!
I tucked the factory harness away in the cavity.

 

Front speakers:

I went with Powerbass XXL 6.5" comps for the front stage. These are being powered by a MTX 2150x amplifier.


Tweeters mounted in the factory locations in the A-pillars. I heated up the cups with a heat gun so they would form to the contour of the pillar.


I used Scosche speaker adapters.


Pretty nice mids I thought.


And the mid mounted in the door.

When I officially see some warmer weather I plan to sound deaden the doors.

*The rear speakers I left stock and the Pioneer head unit is running them. I don't ride back there and although I am not a fan of rear speakers I felt the rare time I have passengers they would appreciate them.

I ran speaker wire form the radio location to the driver's side rear panel location and grabbed the rear speaker wires off of the factory amp. I unplugged the amp, T'd into the harness and hid the harness in the rear panel, do NOT plug it back in!

 

Sub Box:

I thought about where to mount a sub for a long time, and I have seen all of the sub installs on this site. I was going to build a box where the factory Pioneer 8" sub was but was afraid of too many rattles. Plus I may someday want to put this ride back to stock.


I decided to go with a single Rockford 12" Punch woofer that I personally got to build on a trip to their factory a few years ago.


I built the box to down fire against the back of the back seat.


I went with a sealed box to gain some SQ. 1.11ft3 is what I wound up with.


Carpeted in black to match the cargo area.


Kind of a half trapezoid box.


Woofer box installed in the HHR, takes up a little room, but I can put stuff on top of it as well as window peekers can't tell what it is.

The amp in charge of this is a MTX 275X bridged mono.

So to be clear, I have a larger amp running my front speakers than my sub. Cool huh?

 

Amp board.

I wanted this all to be out of sight, yet if I wanted to show someone I would not be embarrassed to. Plus I still wanted some practicality.


Started out by cutting a board to fit the well above the spare tire. I will continue to refer to this location as "the well".


Cut a circle out for the spare tire nut.


Test fit of all of the audio equipment in the well.


Everything got wired to the vehicle.


The little silver boxes with the "X"s on them are the passive crossovers for the front component speakers.


And just what you thought, the spare tire nut holds it all together! The amp board is attached to the well, the well is attached to the vehicle with the spare tire nut.


Left enough wire on the amp board to lift it up, and lay it on it's top on the folded down back seats to access the spare tire and battery.


*I did custom paint and pinstripe the amps myself, thought they needed a fresh look, they are from 1998 after all.

 

Battery connection:


I cut off the factory (+) battery connector and used one I had laying around that would accept the factory wiring as well as my new power wire.


Mounted the main fuse holder to the rear of the spare tire compartment.

 

System review:

I've had it in a few weeks now and I only made one minor change.

At first I was afraid the woofer box was going to be too small so I added fiber-fill to it, after about a week I took the fill out. I believe it to be better now.

The front stage is high and a tad bright at first, I had to dial down the 12.5K band on my deck's EQ.

Front mid-bass speakers are high-pass at 80Hz and they are handling it no problem.

I will answer any questions you may have.

 

Wow that's very very nice,clean install,time worthy.

 

Sanitary work man, and I loved the idea of the longer cables for the amp board.

 

Really nice install. I'm still running the factory head unit and Pioneer system. I've always been an audiophile putting my money first into a nice system for my rides. I love the features with the factory headunit such as the bluetooth on the steering wheel and the radio controls on the steering wheel. To get what I want and keep the factory features I've been quoted upwards of $800-900 for a headunit with all the controls and wiring kits. As for the bass, I've got my daughter with me for most of my ride...I've gotten to where I like to roll down my windows and listen to my exhaust when she's not with me. My morning commute consists of talk radio so I just don't see putting any money into something I'll rarely use.

 

but this install is clean and very well executed well thought out , good job!!