I am looking into replacing the factory sub with either a new 8" or 10" but still use the factory box for now. I have the box out right now and will be finishing the dynamat on it shortly. Eventually I will be building a fiberglass box in the factory location for 2 10's or 2 8's but that will need a bigger amp for sure. I will save that for when I replace everything for better and bigger stuff. But for now I want to replace this tiny whimpy BS of a sub with something that will fit in the factory box.

As many know the box is shallow so that will play a key role in my choice of sub but even more important is the OHM rating of the sub. The box is marked 2 ohm but when I measure the speaker (disconnected from the car) EACH coil measured 2ohms (dc of 1.8ohms). This leads me to believe that the factory sub is running at 2 ohms stereo to the amp since the wiring to the amp is using 2 wires per coil with no signs of parallel or series wiring before the amp. So with that info I am searching for a dual 2ohm sub and not a straight up 2ohm sub like the sticker on the factory sub box would have me looking for.

My big question and the reason for this thread is to see if any of you know of a decent dual 2 ohm sub that does not need a ton of power and is not taller the 5". I will be using the factory amp so the sub needs to be more sensitive and require little power to move it. I will be adding speaker rings to give me more mounting depth but do not want to have to go to far as I would prefer to keep it behind the factory grill.

A second question would be to those that added an aftermartket sub to the factory box while using the factory amp as well, what ohm sub did you use and how did you wire it? I would think that if the factory sub is wired in 2ohms stereo then it "SHOULD???" be able to be ran at 4ohms MONO so perhaps I can just find a decnt little 4ohm SVC sub. This would give me a ton more choices since low wattage is actually a plus in my case.

 

If your going for a bigger build, i would start piecing that together. You will notice a bigger difference by buying an amp first. The factory amp only pushes about 40w to the sub and to me sounds like it processes the signal by further reducing low frequencies. You can always turn the gains down to match the stock sub, or have fun seeing how much it can take before melting into a pile of slag :) then replace with a worthy sub.

 

I have thought about doing it like that but I won't be able to jump on that for a little while. I have my other halves car to build a system for first. She already thinks that this means I am building my system first insted of hers (we've had her car for almost 2 years now...times were hard ya know). All I want right now is just a sub that sounds like a sub to get me by until I can start on my system.

Since I opened up my search to include 4 ohm svc subs I found a few that seem like they would work for all requirements, even volumn wise. One was the Rockford R1S4 10" sub. It will work in as small as .5 cuft and the stock box seems to be that at the smallest. This sub will work with as little as 45 watts so the factory amp should be able to push it. It also has a less then 5" mounting depth. I found a few others that read well for this application but I decided to try the Rockford sub and went out and bought one an hour ago. I have to make the rings and then attach them and the sub to the box on Monday before I will know how it turns out but being a 10 I should get a bit more bottom to my bass. If it still is not better then stock then I am only out $49 or I go get a small temp amp to power the sub. Either way this should be a good short term band-aid lol.