BMW e90 Base Stereo Upgrade Gide By Rocky Special Thanks to e90post.com, MusicarNW and Technic
Introduction BMW is offering different audio level for their 3 series, one of these is the base stereo setup (Which is being upgraded in this guide). And unfortunately is the worst. Why it is so bad? - Lakes of tweeter. - Has poor quality speakers for fronts, backs and underseat mid-base speakers. - Has no dedicated high class audio amplifier, only the one built into the head unit. - The amplified audio signals from the head unit are highly equalized in order to compensate the bad quality speakers installed. What do we need to fix the audio quality? Staring from the head unit, a digital audio processor is needed to flatten the highly equalized audio outputs from the OEM head unit as shown in the right audio spectrums Thanks to Ken from FRONT REAR MusicNW-. The JL CleanSweep - used in this project is accepting a full range amplified signals and produces a flattened and line level outputs for the next stage which is the amplifier. As you can see from the spectrums above, the front outputs are having the low and high frequencies boosted, and the rears having low frequencies completely filtered. Applying the rear signals to the CleanSweep will cause unsuccessful calibration because the processors supposed to receive full band audio signal, and to overcome this the processor will try to boost the low frequencies as much as possible to receive a flattened signal thus unwanted noises is expected, I will discuss how to overcome this in the last stage of installation. In this project I used the JL XD600/6, it is a class D aftermarket amplifier, and it can accept 2, 4 or 6 channels and outputs 6 channels. The other good thing about this unit is the ability to HP or LP filter any pair of the 6 channels. Now, you have a good amplified signal that need to be fed to a good aftermarket speakers, you will need to upgrade the front door speakers, install tweeters, upgrade underseat mid-bass speakers and optionally upgrade back speakers. In this project, I upgraded fronts, underseats and installed tweeters. Page 1
Equipment List 1. Focal IFBMW-S 10cm 2-Way Component Car Speakers and tweeter trims: As you can see, the set contains all necessary items to upgrade BMW e90 front door speakers, even a set of 4 door panel retainers are included. These will replace your broken ones if any. You will need to replace your existing tweeter door trims in order to accommodate the tweeter properly, otherwise the set supplied with special mount that allows you to mount the tweeters on you existing trim, however you will need to drill a hole to pass the cable and it will look ugly in my opinion. The part number of the OEM tweeter trims are: With HARMAN KARDON Logo: Door front left 51337270891 Door front right 51337270892 No Logo, Black cloth behind grille to hide tweeter: Door front left 51337258575 Door front right 51337258576 No Logo, No cloth behind grille: (I ordered these) Door front left 51337171201 Door front right 51337171202 Page 2
2. Earthquake Sound SWS-8XI Shallow Woofer System Series - Pair of 2 Ohm 600 Watt 8" Car Subwoofer and pair of Speaker Adapter: Found this set at Amazon and includes the installation spacers which are really a good quality built with connection wires. 3. JL Audio CL441DSP CleanSweep OEM Audio Interface: Page 3
4. XD600/6 - JL Audio 600W 6-Channel Class D Amplifier: 5. Technic Harness: These set of cables are intended to make your installation 100% PnP and reversible, Technic a member of e90post forum is providing a complete set of cables which are really of a good quality. Page 4
6. Amplifier installation kit: Scosche Revopak4 4-Gauge Revo Series Single Amp Power and Audio Kit-Silver/Black. The kit includes: - 17' revo RCA Audio Cable. - 17' 4 AWG Power Cable with Protective Mesh Cover. - 4' 4 AWG Ground Cable. - Mini Wafer Fuse Holder with 120A fuse. - 17' Remote Turn On Lead. - Water Proof Grommet. The power cables are very flexible, and are real 4 AWG that is the size recommended by XD600/6, and this set is really one of the best quality products available around. The supplied audio cables are too long for my installation, and the package includes only one stereo pair, so I decided to buy two short RCA pairs, also supplied fuse is very high rated for this amplifier, ordered set of 60A fuses. Rockford Fosgate twisted pair 6-Feet Signal Cable db Link MANL60 60 Amp Mini ANL Fuses Page 5
7. Other installation materials: - GTMAT 10 sqft Automotive Audio Dampening 50mil PRO - Noise Reduction Installation Kit. 3M Fastener TB3571/TB3572 Hook/Loop Black Frost King R338H Sponge Rubber Foam Tape 3/16- Inch, Black Page 6
8. Amplifier Mount: Best place to mount the XD600/6 is OEM amplifier location, and since I have no OEM amplifier fitted, I had to build my custom mount made of wood. This is the dimensions of the mount in details: To secure the mount in place, I put 3M fastener tape at the leg built under the mount. This will avoid the mount and amplifier rattling during car move. Photos of the one I made: Page 7
Installation My complete installation equipment: Installation steps: 1. Upgrading front doors speakers, and installing tweeters and tweeter trims. 2. Upgrading the underseat speakers. 3. Running the cables from front console and underseat speakers to trunk. 4. Installing JL CleanSweep and JL XD600/6 in the trunk. 5. Removing head unit, and connecting Technic Harness. 6. Calibration and adjustment. 7. Enjoying, and some photos. Page 8
1.Upgrading front doors speakers, and installing tweeters and tweeter trims: Placing tweeters into the door trims, you will need to remove the tweeter housing and front grille in order to be able to insert the tweeter itself into place: While trying to place the tweeter in place, you will notice three clips that holds the tweeter in place, make sure the three clips are holding the body of the tweeter to avoid any rattles or noises. Next, we will remove the door panel and original door trims: Start by removing door trim using a plastic trim removal from inside to outside as shown below in red, circles in blue shows you the locations of trim retainers. Try to keep the removal tool as close as possible to the retainer location to avoid breaking the trim. At the end the trim is hocked into door panel so be careful when you reach to the end. Then you will need to remove 4 Torx T20 screws marked with green circles below. Page 9
Now you are ready to remove door panel by inserting the removal tool just below the tweeter box, and start unclip the panel all around as shown: After removal of the panel, disconnect speaker connector, window control key connector and door handle connection. Next, remove the tweeter trim from inside to back. It is very straight forward. One of the best videos to illustrate this whole process is Here. The panel removed: Page 10
Remove the OEM speaker by removing three bolts. OEM vs Focal speaker: You will notice that I have applied a rubber foam strip around the new speaker to seal the mount to door panel. OEM speaker has the same foam strip. Applying the audio deadening materials to door panel, to increase isolation and improve audio quality: Page 11
Door panel finished upgrading, showing the upgraded speaker mounted and crossover wires set installed: Before proceeding with panel mounting in place, have a look at the 9 door panel retainers as some of them might get damaged during removal. I already have 4 spares supplied with Focal speakers set. After changing the tweeter trims, it is time to place the panel back in place. Best practice is to have the door window completely down, and start mounting the panel from the above side parallel to the window, then you can move around the panel. It is better to test speaker and tweeter before moving to the other door which is very similar to passenger door illustrated above except that the diver door has no handle. Passenger door panel after updating: Page 12
2.Upgrading the underseat speakers: Starting at the passenger side, we first need to remove four Torx T50 bolts that mounts the seat in place, two in front and two at the back. 1) Move seat forward enough to expose rear bolts holding seat tracks to chassis. 2) Move seat backwards enough to expose front bolts holding seat tracks to chassis. Be careful not to disconnect the cables connected to the underneath of the seat itself as it contains cables to the head airbags and will raise an alarm if disconnected. If you are afraid, you can disconnect the battery before proceeding. You don t need to completely remove the seat just incline it back as possible so you have enough room to work at the speaker area. REAR FRONT Speaker grille is mounted with 6 Phillips PH2 screws as shown in the right photo below, just remove these and you will expose the speaker enclosure underneath. To get better access, remove the plastic door trim that hold the side of the carpet in place, you will need to remove it anyway to run the new cables. Speaker enclosure is mounted to the vehicle with two 10mm nuts marked with red in the below photo. Remove them and the enclosure is ready for removal, and don t forget to remove the audio connector. (Photo from another project) Page 13
Enclosure removed: The stock speakers are actually glued into the enclosure! So they need to be pried from their location. This is a silly job! Stock speaker removed: Page 14
Stock speaker vs EarthQuake SWS: (You can hear the difference ) I cleaned the enclosure from the glue residuals, then added rubber foam all around the enclosure mount position: Page 15
And here is the final, after inserting the speaker spacers supplied with the EQ set, and the speaker itself: We can now put the speaker back in place. You will need to jumper the existing connector coming from the vehicle harness and you will need to run new cable to trunk for each underseat speaker. This photo shows the jumper supplied by Technic, without these jumpers you will lose audio going to door speakers. (Photo from another project) Page 16
3. Running the cables from front console and underseat speakers to trunk: At this step we will only route the cables, I left removing the head unit and actually connecting the harness after completing the installation. Three sets of cables need to run to the trunk: 1. From Head unit to CleanSweep processor. 2. From Amplifier back to head unit. 3. From driver s side underseat speaker. 4. From passenger s side underseat speaker. In my installation, I ran head unit extension cables through the passenger side, and seems I was wrong as the cables were short of about 70cm to reach the location of the amplifier. You should run the cables through the driver s side. The diagram below shows the routs you need to use (Not the same as my installation), colored as the above list: To run the head unit cables, you need to remove a plastic panel under the glove box it is mounted by two torx screws. Then remove the right plastic panel by simply unclipping it from place, then remove the door/floor plastic trim the same way by unclipping it from its place. Through the B-Pillar trim pass the cables including underseat speaker cables to the rear door trim, and here you need to remove the rear seat cushion by pulling up on front corners of it to disengage cushion retainers. Do the same thing at the driver s side. Page 17
4. Installing JL CleanSweep and JL XD600/6 in the trunk: As described earlier, best place to fix the amplifier is the OEM amplifier location, using the mount built above. For easier wiring of the amplifier, don t screw it in place till you finish. You need to remove the trunk left side panel to gain access to the amplifier area: - Remove the CD tray by sliding your fingers under it and pulling up. - Using the trim removal tool, remove the clips holding the panel off. They are consisting of 2 pieces, you will want to pry these apart. Do not try to pry the whole thing off the panel at once, you will break it. Once you have separated and removed the first piece then pry the second piece off. Page 18
Since I have a factory fitted TV module, I couldn t find enough space to mount the CleanSweep in the equipment are under trunk removable panel: So I decided to mount it in the left area of storage space under the trunk panel: Page 19
- Amplifier connections: A. Power: (+12V), (GND) and (Remote). (+12V) terminal need to be fed from battery directly, and since the battery is located to the right part the trunk we will need to rout the cable carefully to the amplifier. After looking carefully in the trunk I found the best route is the support arm located at the top of the trunk: Important Notes: - Don t connect (+12) terminal to vehicle battery till you completely finish all wiring. - Make sure the fuse holder is just near the battery, I came across some installations where the fuse was placed at the amplifier side! This is very DANGEROUS as it could cause a fire or vehicle electronics damage if the cable get spliced in any place in the route to the amplifier. (GND) terminal is much easier, as a ground point is just near the amplifier location, remove the GND nut and put the ground terminal: (REMOTE) terminal is fed from the extension cable coming from the head unit. Page 20
B. RCA audio cables from CleanSweep. We need to run two pairs of RCA audio cables from CleanSweep to the amplifier. C. Speaker outputs to head unit. Eight terminals need to be mounted to the extension cable going to the head unit. - CleanSweep connections: A. Power: (+12V), (GND) and (Remote In). I connected the three terminals to the corresponding points in the amplifier. B. RCA audio cables to the amplifier. C. Speaker inputs from head unit. Eight terminals need to be jumpered to the extension cable coming from the head unit. You can connect battery cable now: Page 21
5. Removing head unit, and connecting Technic Harness: - Remove the dash big trim that holds the center AC vents, by carefully prying the edge where it meets the passenger side door. It will come out easily. There are 4 retainers holds the trim ash shown: - You then need to remove two cable connectors at the back of trim just behind the center vents. These attaches the hazard light switch and AC blend switch. - A third connector is just behind the Start/Stop switch. Actually, you can just partially lift the passenger side of the trim, just to get some room above A/C control panel so you can remove it easily, as sown: - Remove the AC control panel, using your hand just pull it out with little force. Page 22
- Once removed you will find three plugs which simply unclip. The center and right hand clips in the picture have a bracket which you unclip and hinge downward. - Once the AC controller is out, you will need to remove the outer plastic trim surrounding the head unit by carefully pulling it out by your hands. Note that the trim has a flat type cable running to the AC controller which plugs into the left hand side connector shown earlier. Page 23
- Time to remove the head unit itself. It is held in by 4 Philips screws. - Slide the unit out. You will need to place the gear into the (D) position in order to clear some space in front of the head unit. - You will need to unclip antenna, CID display, and main connectors from the head unit to clear it. - Carefully unclip fiber connector from factory main connector before proceeding. - Connect the main Technic harness in between the factory connector and the head unit. - Insert the fiber connector to the new connector that is goes to the head unit. - Connect the two Technic extension cables going to the trunk. - As you can notice, the extension cable connector with the factory is a bit bulky, and will block the head unit from sliding back in place. You can hide it at the back area of the head unit place, and to the left side there is a grove you can use to fit it there. - Put back the head unit back connectors, and insert the head unit back in place, then screw the 4 Philips screws. - Put back the plastic trim that surround the head unit front, and don t forget to rout the cable back to the A/C control panel area. - Put the A/C control panel back in place, after connecting the 3 connectors. - Put back the dash trim back in place, by simply pushing it at the retainers areas. Page 24
6. Calibration and adjustment. Here, we need to adjust the amplifier settings, and calibrate the CleanSweep. - Calibrating the CleanSweep: 1. Turn the CleanSweep master volume control all the way down (Counterclockwise). 2. Adjust the head unit Fader, Balance, Bass, Treble controls all to center position. 3. Put the calibration CD in the head unit and play Track-1. 4. You can raise the CleanSweep volume a little bit, just to make sure the CD is playing. 5. Using a small pointed tool press the CALIBRATE button on the top of the CleanSweep. 6. Process will take approximately 20 secs. 7. You should have front channel indicators in GREEN, and back channels flashing RED. This is normal because as described earlier, back channels are high pass filtered and the processor is trying to get a full range flat response. This is not a real problem, however after contacting JL Audio they advised me to jumper front channel to both front and back device input for calibration, then you can connect back the front and back channels - Adjusting the amplifier: After doing some searches over the forum, I came across a post by Technic who has adjusted a similar system as follows: - Channel 1/2 (Front): Filter Mode: HP Filter Frequency: 135Hz (27 clicks) Input Sens: Minimum (7 O clock) - Channel 3/4 (Back): Filter Mode: HP Filter Frequency: 135Hz (27 clicks) Input Sens: Minimum (7 O clock) - Channel 5/6 (Underseats): Filter Mode: LP Filter Frequency: 174Hz (30 clicks) Input Sens: (9 O clock) Page 25
7. Enjoying, and some after finish photos: Page 26