General Simple question - hope it's a simple answer!

[DotSPF]

Heya,

I want to replace the god-awful speakers that my Uno is fitted with with some bearable ones in the front 4" and decent ones in the parcel shelf.

I also have accumulated a small forest of leaves in the air intake and need to clean it out.

Unfortunately, I have no idea how to do either of these things.

Your help would be very much appreciated.

Yours,
Andy Bellenie

 

[Bushboy]

dunno about the air intake.. as for speakers

any 4" should easily fit in the dash but its a pain in the arse to fit. There is a little grill through which you can see the speaker (on the dash) ... its got 4 screws.. one on each corner of the grill. Unscrew each of these screws and this will detatch the speaker from the inside of the dash. now you need to remove the bottom panel of the dash (above where your feet go) and reach up inside and take the speaker out. Dont forget to detatch the cables from the back of the speaker.

Now when you have the speaker in your hand you will realise thgat there is a frame screwed into the speaker. remove this and throw the speaker away, keep the frame.

Now with your new 4"ers in hand, screw on the plastic frame that came off the old speakers. now go back to your car and attatch the wires from the head unit and thenput the new speaker up into the dash and align it with the screw holes on the grill. screw in... haypresto!


As for the rear speakers this is a harder question to answer as it really depends on how your head unit and car is set up. If your head unit (this is the radio just incase u didnt know) has support for rear speakers AND your car already has rear speakers (the standard s**t ones that fiat put in... my car used to have these) then its gonna be simple. All you have to do is unscrew the old speakers, disconnect the cables... saw a hole into your parcel shelf (with a jigsaw) and the put the speakers in and screw them in.. then just connect the cable.. it all really depends what you want and how you want it but its pretty straight forward really.

If your car doesnt have rear speakers but your head unit does support them then its a little trickier but can be done. Go out to currys or a hifi shop and buy some speaker cable of the length to reach the parcel shelf in your car. just get 10M and then youve always got more than you need and can keep it just incase. You now need to pull your radio out and find the wire that would normaly link to the rear speakers. now you need to get one of those little white plastic things that you can connect 2 wires together with (forget there name.. you can get them in B&Q or any hardware shop). Now once thats done you need to run the wire up threough your dash and down behind the plastic panels that run around and underneith the doors. these can easily be removed with a screwdriver. you then need to run it up besides the rear seat and then there is a little gap where you can put wires through and into the boot. now just connect the wires to the speakers you installed in the parcel shelf (in the paragraph before)

Now if your radio doesnt support rear speakers then you need to do the same as above but instead of finding the wire that would normal goto the rear speakers, you need to find the ones that goto the front speakers and cut them... then get one of those plastic things and use it to split the wire from the radio into 2 so that it now splits and goes to the front speakers AND the rear speakers... then follow the paragraph above....


hope this helps in anyway possible... If u can understand it

My Lovely Uno

 

[Twig]

Good question DotSPF

What about if you install an amp and you want to run front, back and sub's off? where would the power leads run for the amp? hehe

* I Like My UNO *

 

[Bushboy]

Git...

Right

um...

Thats pretty much how my setup is although I dont have front speakers and so i dont need to power them. However here we go...

well first of all you need to have your amp... now the usual place to put this is in the boot but it can go anywhere but im going to prosume you want it in the boot.

CONNECTING THE SOUND

now with your amp in the boot you need to make sure your head unit has a Line Out ... if it doesnt i would recomend buying one that does, but you dont have to! you can cut up thespeaker wires and convert them to the red and yello jack sockets that most amps need. Quite simple if you know what ur doing (use those white plasticthings from B&Q).

If your head unit has line out then all you need to do is get a 6M (its a bit too long but doesnt matter) cable ,with the red and white plugs on each end, from currys or somewhere... should cost around £15 ... or you could make your own if you know what your doing. Connect the wire to the line out of the head unit and then run it up into the dash and down under the panels that surround the underside of the doors and then up besides the rear seat and into the boot. now connect the cable to the amp. Tada!! your first section is complete.

POWER TO THE AMP

now this is a little trickier and i'm only going to tell you how i did it as this was works great for me but you might find it annoying etc but its upto you whether you do what i do and i take no responsablity for any damage you do whilst doing this... not that its dangerous... you just might run your battery flat or something by accident or something stupid like that.. [:0]

Now Most amps (both of mine did) have 3 power connections ( GND, REM, B+ ). GND means ground and this must be connected to the cars metal body or the batterys - but this is too far away from the boot... there are a number of screws in the boot of the uno which work perfectly for this. I will tell you how to find these later. but if you know how to then i suggest you connect it now!!!. REM means remote, we will leave this till a little later. B+ is simply the actual POWER to the amp. this needs to be connected direct to the battery OR to the ignition cable OR to the power cable to the radio. Mine is direct to the battery but dont think this runs power from the battery all the time... oooh no no no.. thast what the remote lead is for. Now, connect the B+ cable to the + side of the battery (disconnect the - side before doing this) and run it around the outside of the engine bay to the drivers side of the car (tie it off with this plastic tie things ... pack of 100 for 50p from B&Q) andyopu will notice there is a little hole that has a few wires already going in. This hole leads to behind the dash. Shove the cable through... put about 1M through. Now go under the drivers side of the dash and take the panel off. Reach up into the dash and pull the wire through (a colourful wire is always a plus at this point). Now oncethe wire is through you can put it under the panels aroudn the doors (follw the line out cable upto the boot) and then connect it to the B+ connection on the amp.

Now, the REMOTE connection. This basicly works like a switch to turn your amp on and off. If you want your amp on all the time then jsut connect this to the battery like the B+ lead. but you probably dont SO you will either need a switch OR connect this to the radio power lead so that when the radio is turned on, the amp is turned on. I tried to do this and ended up messing the whole lot up and now i have the amp and radio on a switch. So a switch is probably easier and so that is what i am going to talk about.

Now, you need a switch. Visiting your local B&Q probably isnt a good idea unless you want a wall lighting switch in your car... like i have :I. but you can get a nice small back switch from the big B&Q warehouses... go have a look .. you mihgt find one you like. Anyway, DONT get a switch that needs to be earthed before it works... it just complicates things. Now, with your switch in hand, cut a hole in your dash where you want to have it, drill a hole and then put a jigsaw cutter in the hole and cut out the right shape for the switch. once the hole is ready, run a cable from the amp, through the side of the rear chair, under those panels and up into the dash, and now through the hole you have just created. Connect the remote lead into the correct part and then connect another wire, this one is going to the power lead you just threaded through to the B+ connection. So Now, at a suitable point, cut the power cable (disconnect it from the battery first) and strip the ends, now get one of those plastic thigns that let you connect 2 wires together and connect it so that the power from the batter goes in and splits into 2 wires, one going to the amp and the other going to the switch. Tada!!! you now have a swtich that turns the amp on and off... or do you??? nope becuase you havent done the GND wire yet...

Now as i said there are a few screws in the boot that work fine as a grounding point as they are toughting something that is touching the car body. Now, go reconnect the power to the battery and switch the switch to on. If your wiring adventure has been successful the amp should be on. well.. i say on but its not. Most amps (if not all) have 2 lights on the front.. one green and one red. Nowq on both of my amps (boschmann and sony) the green one says power and the red says protection. With your amp switched on, the red light should be lit. This means that ther power is getting to the amp but it hasnt bean earthed. Now to get it earthedyou need to run a cable from the GND connection (turn the power off then connecting it.. switch back on when connected) and place it onto some of the screws in the boot. try them all. if you find a suitable screw then the red light will turn off and the green will turn on meaning it is earthed and the amp will run. When you find a suitable screw, unscrew it slightly and then place the wire underneith and screw it down so that the wire is secure under the screw.

And there you go.. a working amp that runs off a switch.

Now all you need to do is connect up the speakers (follow the instructions manual for this as i dont know how you want to set it up) and play some music. AND DONT FORGET TO SWITCH THE AMP OFF ONCE YOU LEAVE YOUR CAR... best thing to do is switch the amp off before the radio so that the music stops and you know the amp is off!

Oh and, insulate the wire in the engine bay and insulate with insulating tape (usualy black or red) the cut in the power cable where you split it for the switch. Oh and although i didnt mention it, you are allowed to screw the switch into the dash now

Hope this helps

My Lovely Uno

 

[DotSPF]

Wow - thanks Bushboy - I wasn't expecting anything NEAR as helpful an answer. FYI the little white blocks you refer to are called cable splitters. The only thing I didn't get from your ENORMOUS answer was how to remove the bottom panel of the dash in the first place. I'm guessing from the fact you didn't mention it that it's dead simple, so I'll have a go later on.

Yours,
Andy Bellenie

 

[Bushboy]

well to be honest i dont know as my right one isnt attatched properly anyway so i can just take it on and off easily (never bothered to fix it) and my left one is replaced with the right shape in ply wood so its even easier to take off. Im sure its just as simple as removing a few screws to get it off

My Lovely Uno

 

[Morty Mort]

Hei.

I mounted my Phoenix Gold under the passengers seat, with a "kickshield". The front speakers were replaced with new ones. As mentioned, throw the existing speakers as far you can, but keep the frames. It is possible to mount the new ones without doing any dismantling of the dash - it was a s**tty job, but I've had worse on the Uno. Make sure there is a amp power off (remote) on your head unit, which again is connected to the ignition. Ignition off = radio off = amp off. Good head units shuts off the amp's power before without sending a pulse to the speakers. Also, make sure the amp's chassis doesn't touch the cars metal. Use the ground connection for this - else you might have nice little constant hum.

Forest leaves. Turn on/off the fan plenty times, twist the outlets and use a pencil at the same time to crack the leaves which now will fly as debris in all the car's interior.

Morten.