2016 Porsche Macan S - stealth SQ build

[mikeyt]

I remember Geo that you said in one of your earlier posts you were going to keep most of the factory wiring, I'l assume for the doors mostly, however how are you going to hook those up to your amplifiers, I haven't seen anything regarding that. If so can you show how you're doing it?

[Ge0]

Today I installed my rear fill drivers. I was a little nervous about going from a 3" shallow mount Bose driver to a regular 4" midrange. But, no issues. No interference fit or weird problems due to the ScanSpeak 10F's super strong unshielded neodymium magnet.









Ge0

[Ge0]

Yesterday when installing my driver side door midrange I broke a weak little cam lock lever on the window lift module connector. As a result, the drivers side door window lift switch panel was dead. The connector would not engage and lock. So, on the list of things to do today was to repair the cam lock lever.


A cheap little plastic piece holds the window lift switch panel connector in place. If it breaks like this the connector won't lock into place. Then, you can't control the windows from the drivers switch panel.



Temporary bond with CA glue



Rough up the plastic with sandpaper
]





Mix up some JB weld



Apply and wait to harden




When this test specimen dries it will be time to re-install door panel. The epoxy will be strong enough.



Ge0

[Ge0]

Surprisingly enough. One of the toughest things I have had to do in this install is to run freaking speaker wires to the front of the vehicle for the tweeters. Factory wiring has tweeters wired parallel to door midranges with a filter capacitor. My amp will have separate channels available for the tweeters with their own dedicated DSP channels. So, they need their own speaker feeds.

Removing the door sill trim to pass wires through was a major challenge. The front door sill trim is one piece with the kick panels. The rear door sill trim is one piece with the rear cargo area trim. A major pain to remove. Especially the drivers side. The hood release latch makes it impossible to fully remove the drivers side door sill trim.

Word to the wise. In this car remove the upper B-pillar trim by the seat belts (easy) tyen remove the lower B-pillar trim with a plastic trim removal tool. Wtach it, there are at least 4 clips in the B-pillar and one on the floor.

I had to break out my electricians FISH TAPE to help route the wire. Six hours later I completed the passengers side and finished the driver side 50%. Ughh...




With rear cargo trim removed feed the wire forward down to the rear passengers door sill here:





The wire will come out down here:



Feed the wire forward through the B-pillar towards the front door sill trim.





Now you need to run the fish tape down from the tweeter hole to grab the wire from the other side. Be patient. This took almost an hour.





Once you have the wire fed through start to secure it with Tie wraps everywhere you can:




Now you can replace the front and rear door sill trim. This is a major PITA. I don't have any advice for you besides be patient and be careful. The clips mis-align / crush easily...

Ge0

[Ge0]

I remember Geo that you said in one of your earlier posts you were going to keep most of the factory wiring, I'l assume for the doors mostly, however how are you going to hook those up to your amplifiers, I haven't seen anything regarding that. If so can you show how you're doing it?

All coming in a future post. Be patient. Stock wiring is mostly 12ga and 14ga. I'd be a fool to run new wiring when stock stuff is more robust.

The only dedicated wiring I am running is for the front tweeters. They are tied in parallel to front midranges and filtered through high pass capacitors. i would rather my DSP handle this duty and give my tweeters their own amp channel.

Ge0

[mikeyt]

cool, I look forward to seeing it.

[Ge0]

Fish tape torture and other dastardly things....

Running the tweeter wires was an absolute nightmare. Hours of work trying to get the fish tape to find the right line / hole. Cutting and gouging my hands up. Then trying to get all the trim pieces to snap back in place properly. But, I was determined to do this myself vs. pay an installer. Reminds me of the good ole days when I was a poor college kid who couldn't afford help.


It was not 100% necessary to completely remove the drivers side door sill / kick panel trim. It was easy enough to fish the wire up this piece of plastic.



Tie down wire along factory harness for security. Don't want it getting pinched somewhere...



Fishing the wire up from the kick panel and behind the fuse box was an hour of swearing and nearly giving up. The wire just could not find a right path.



Pushing the wire further up from the top of the fuse block to the tweeter hole was another test of my religion. Is there really a God? If so, why is he doing this to me?



Wire snugged up and out of the way so trim pieces don't pinch it.



For the final stretch I was able to pull the wire the rest of the way through the tweeter hole. This onloy took 20 minutes. We are on a roll!!!



I pulled about 3 extra feet of wire through the tweeter hole and stashed it in the trim. I didn't want to risk it sliding back down. The tweeter also helped hold it. Yes, at this point there is sweat, blood, and dust all over the dash and wind shield. I'll clean that up later



While I was at it I put my door trim back on. My fix for the broken connector cam lock worked .



Wrestling the door trim back in place and making it seat properly was another hour long cussing session. I ended up removing the entire B-Pillar to make the job easier.




In the end everything snapped back into place properly. I hope I never have to go through this mess again in this vehicle.

Now its time to move on to the cargo area and start dressing wires and preparing to install the amps.

Ge0

[Cutaway]

Great job man... Fishing wire sucks sometimes and the metal fishing line can be a real PITA. One of the things that i have found that helps in these instances is to also use LONG plastic zip ties to aid in the fishing. Sometimes i take 3 - 5 foot zip ties and feed from the opposite direction towards my fishing line and then i can attach my line and my zip tie to help feed thru. Example: if i need to fish wire from the floor of the vehicle up to the windshield, i will start at a halfway point like the fuse box, fish my zip tie down to meet my metal fishing tape and then use the zip tie to guide my fishing line up to the halfway point and start the process over...

[Whiterabbit]

haha good stuff. In a world where if it bleeds, it leads, it's always morbidly fun to read about the jobs that cause stress, pain, and blood. It's the one job I can never comment on, being a tall very thin guy with spider limbs that bend like stretch armstrong, I don't own fish tape. I just hold the wire and snake my arm up in there and get it where it needs to go. Most useless advice for everyone else, ever.

Isn't it funny how the most mundane, simple task of an otherwise supremely complex build with gobs of attention to detail somehow requires 10 pictures to document, and results in a hand and forearm that look like you got into a battle royale with your house cat?

[JayinMI]

Now you can replace the front and rear door sill trim. This is a major PITA. I don't have any advice for you besides be patient and be careful. The clips mis-align / crush easily...

Ge0

Good advice for any German car. lol