[re-volution]

Hi all,

Just thought I'd post up how I did my new ICE install including all the features of a double din + rear camera + sub and amp. I'm by no means good at this stuff but thought it might help someone else out if they are doing the same thing and aren't really sure!

So here goes….

I purchased myself a nice looking double din Xtrons unit off ebay, it was going cheap and as my first double din unit I thought why not, I knew it wasn't going to be no Sony or top quality one but it had satnav/radio/usb/ipod/aux/dvd/cd and all the trimmings. Cant really go wrong. Installing was easier than I thought....
Taking out the existing trim was very easy and just snapped out, then all is required is to unscrew the bottom tray and the double din fits perfectly in that hole that's left (with a double din adapter cage mind you)

http://www.lancerregister.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=223369&stc=1&d=1361484238

The old unit came out, then wiring up began, I had already spent a while looking at the very comprehensive wiring diagram printed on the unit itself and tried to figure everything out. I had made previous mistakes on my old car where I hadn't put the amp remote cable to the correct one so the amp was always on and drained the battery.

http://www.lancerregister.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=223370&stc=1&d=1361485657

I then got to work on the sub and amp. I had a huge sub in an even bigger sound box and I just wasn't happy with the amount of space it took up (after already shortening the box for my previous car!)

http://www.lancerregister.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=223371&stc=1&d=1361485657

I had seen on this forum somewhere that a guy had made his own way of installing it and it got me thinking. My plan was to either bolt a solid thick bit of wood on the rear bracing behind the seats or bolt it down so that the back of the sub was in the cavity of the spare wheel. That space isn't used anyway as I have 18" rota drifts so it was a possibility plus that space packed with blankets might act like a 'sound box' anyway. I decided to go with the first option and bolt it on to the rear body.
So out came the drill, mdf was lined up and holes drilled. I also decided to keep the original back cover thingy just to smarten it up so used my trusty dremel to cut the shape of the speaker to allow it to poke through and to eliminate any nasty vibration that might occur with it being flat up against it.

http://www.lancerregister.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=223373&stc=1&d=1361485657

http://www.lancerregister.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=223372&stc=1&d=1361485657

http://www.lancerregister.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=223374&stc=1&d=1361485657

I was trying to cut corners here, I knew the rear seats would have to come off to bolt the wood on, I should have taken them off at an early stage which would have helped me no end measuring up the cover thingy, as you can see from the picture I got the measurements slightly wrong!! Not a major drama though as the mdf would cover this. I offered up the mdf to make sure it would go, I used bolts with nylon washers against the metal to counter any vibration I might come across (not being sure if it would make any difference or not anyway!)....

 

[re-volution]

http://www.lancerregister.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=223377&stc=1&d=1361486821

http://www.lancerregister.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=223378&stc=1&d=1361486821

Next was the amp. I had to do some work with the wiring because the sub was meant to be in the box so had all its connectors on the side of the box, I just had to remove those and solder them together. Everything was fed through to the front, found a close negative on the body, remote line was hooked up and everything tucked away. Using the very best of zip ties there was some handy holes in the frame to mount it to pulled tight and then the bottom left end was screwed into the wood. Nice and sturdy and quite an accessible position.

http://www.lancerregister.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=223379&stc=1&d=1361486821

Very happy with the result, nicely tucked away there and I have finally got my boot back woohoo!

Next thing I did was install the rear camera. It was quite tricky feeding all the wires through the body but managed it. I mounted the camera just to the right, above the number plate. On the rear bumper there is a gap behind the number plate so it doesn't make it possible to mount in the middle (with my camera) so just to the left worked well. It's a good little camera, tiny thing and again off ebay, includes IR for night.

http://www.lancerregister.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=223380&stc=1&d=1361486821

Connected the camera up to the back of the unit. It had its own output from the head unit which was usefull. The wiring instructions are crap that came with the camera (clearly just a google Chinese translation!) I wired the main lead from camera to head unit (being the longest gave that one away) . There was another 2 cables and so I wired one into the reverse lights of the nearest light cluster so that it received power when reversing but I also used the other wire that was with the main lead to wire into another 'constant' power source in the belief that I could then use the camera whenever I wanted to. I wired one end into the courtesy light in the boot and the other end to a spare 'battery' output behind the head unit. I'm not entirely sure if it worked, but it does come on automatically when I reverse which is cool, but I haven't yet figured out how to select it manually on my head unit?! Frustrating. It must be possible? Again I soldered all the wires in so there was no issue of connectivity and then at least its done.

http://www.lancerregister.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=223381&stc=1&d=1361486821

http://www.lancerregister.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=223382&stc=1&d=1361486821

Then it was fitting the head unit. Fits nicely into the space but the black plastic trim bit that goes around the head unit didn't work because the face winds down to put Cd's into and caught on the edge. Pain. so apart from finding one of those bits its all good and am pretty pleased! Took 2 days though! Camera is top quality and is more useful than I thought it would be. Once I figure out how to manually select it I'll be even more happy.

 

[re-volution]

heres a pic of the unit in action, its not bad. If anyone wants a clip of it let me know I'll chuck it on youtube and post on here!

Cheers

Dom

 

[Jonesy24]

Ingenious :smthumbup

 

[WizardKing]

If in doubt, get the Dremel out !
Well done, looks a spot on job .

 

[drue1]

It looks like the same unit I want for my merc,what make is it ?
How does it sound doing the sub like that ?

 

[TOMM1]

It looks like the same unit I want for my merc,what make is it ?
How does it sound doing the sub like that ?

Id like to know this as well :thumbup:

 

[re-volution]

If in doubt, get the Dremel out !
Well done, looks a spot on job

yeah indeed, after the trusty hammer first though!!

It looks like the same unit I want for my merc,what make is it ?
How does it sound doing the sub like that ?

It's an XTRONS TD174G. It has all the gadgets inc satnav and dvd. I'm pleased with it, when I was researching it people were saying be weary of it, but i think its really good. Its no top of the range sony but then I wasnt expecting it to be like that.

I'm really happy with the sound quality. I was worried i'd lose the 'baseness' of it with no box but it hasn't at all and I actually think its better, maybe that's because its directly thumping into the back seats so the vibrations feel greater I don't know. But I am certainly happy with it and it looks cool too there (I think!)

Cant fully appreciate the sound quality from this clip but its a taster anyway:

If you look at my other youtube vids theres another clip of the actual head unit.

cheers.