2009–10–12 Adding an 18-inch Subwoofer to my Tiburon

Originally posted on landoblog.com [now deprecated] on October 12th, 2009. Retrieved courtesy of Wayback Machine — Internet Archive.

I’ve had it in for a while now, but I’m finally getting around to posting details of my latest modification.

After my brother John had his car turned into a block of waste through the Cash for Clunkers program, I took back my 18-inch JBL M-Pro418s (PDF Link: Specifications Sheet) and borrowed his newer Power Acoustik amplifier as my two Apache 2apc-1400amps (Web Link: Specs) burned out a while back. I took the amplifier apart and cleaned the top case and rubbed it with steel wool until I realized that the top was NOT aluminum, it was actually painted steel. Now instead of the “brushed aluminum” look, I have the “brushed paint” look. Since I was a little frustrated with the finish, I decided to mount the amp to apiece of fiberboard and cover the end with self-adhesive pipe insulation foam and place it upside down underneath the woofer in the car. Problem solved. (It even has a cool blue glow now.)

I also removed the back seat backs, bottom, and seatbelt fasteners. This gave me the few inches I needed in order to fit the sub without blocking my view and being unable to close the trunk lid. It actually sits quite well, other than not being able to move the front seats any farther past where I find comfortable. Sorry tall passengers.

Running the power wire in a Tiburon was an interesting an long experience. I wanted to remain as “stock:” as possible, so I was originally planning on tapping one of the outputs on the fuse box. I found that none of them seemed to be capable of handling the current I would eventually want. I ended up tying directly to the battery terminal, but was able to cut the original cap cover so you can’t tell unless it’s off. I also used black split loom tubing (as Hyundai does) to run it to the front driver quarter-panel. The 40 amp fuse sits in between. I had originally planned on needing a 100 Amp fuse, but the 40 handles the full load of the amp I have now. Since I wanted to use 0 gauge wire, I had an even more interesting time lubing the wire up so I could snake it into the quarter-panel, which I had to partially remove, and then into the boot connecting the outside of the car to under the drivers side dash. It then goes under the door sill through a series of metal supports. This is the part which destroyed my hands for the next week (those metal ring supports are SHARP). It then goes right to the amp. Easy… (not! : 7 hours total)

The sub is then connected using the Speakon to bare-ends cable, while RCAs run on the other side of the car from the rear of the head unit. I strapped it down using ratchet straps from Lowe’s to the bars that the seat attahed to. Very sturdy, the thing cannot more without loosening the straps.

I still have not gotten to tweak it as I have to place my head on the floor of the car and sit on the concrete in order to change the level or cutoff frequency. Now the fun part, see pictures!