Finally! my Aftermarket Subwoofer and Amplifier Integration into Bose Audio How To

Skorpio

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2015 Deep Crystal Blue Mica GT FWD
Finally! my Aftermarket Subwoofer and Amplifier Integration into Bose Audio H...

I'm sorry it took so long for me to make this how to, but I have been SO busy driving my CX-5 and listening to great sounding audio! Maybe not audiophile quality, but more than satisfactory to me. About 200% better than factory. Ok, maybe that's not mathematically possible. Whatever(silly). I actually did the work almost a month ago, so I may have forgotten a step or two, my apologies!(bowdown) For now, my sub, amp, and wires are installed as shown in the pics, but future plans are to solidify the connections even further, and making a stealth sub box in either the rear quarter panel or floor. Follow me and you too can make your Bose audio sound like it should have been from the factory!

TOOLS NEEDED
wire cutters/strippers/crimpers
trim fastener tool or flat head (slotted) screw driver
10mm socket and ratchet
appropriate tools from your amplfier and sub instructions (usually hex keys and #1 and 2 phillips and slotted screwdriver)
basic knowledge of electrical and automotive systems

MATERIALS NEEDED
subwoofer with speaker box
amplifier
line out converter (LOC)
+ power wire
inline fuse for + wire
- ground wire equal in thickness size to + wire
RCA cable
speaker wire/remote wire
(1) fuse tap and some red 10A fuses
(2) wire taps
(2) "O" wire crimps of appropiate size
a pack of zip ties
electrical tape
clothes hanger (optional)
knife (optional)
RTV sealant (optional)
(1) 6mm by 1.00 TPI nut (thanks Bmarsh!)
non arthritic hands (unlike mine)
Beer or your choice of refreshing beverage


This is what I got to work with after I gutted my Civic that I traded in. No way was the stealership getting this beautiful mess!(cool) Of course, I didn't use ALL the wiring.
senyzysa.jpg


ENGINE BAY
-Open your hood and look behind the battery on the right side. There's not much room to view, but there is a black rubber boot going into the firewall.
(sorry, not a great pic)
This is your entry into the interior cabin. I would recommend taking the black negative cable off the battery with a 10mm wrench or socket. This will prevent any accidental shorts. Notice: if you disconnect power you may have to reset your personal vehicle settings. You can also remove the battery to make it a little easier, but I did not and was able to work around it.
-unclip the black plastic protective housing off the + battery post. Not just the flip up part, the whole housing. Once exposed, you will see a red ditribution block with smaller power wires channeled to different sources. Notice there is one post not used? Perfect for an aftermarket amplifier connection! (give the engine design manager a RAISE!)(2thumbs)



INTERIOR
First, you'll have to find a place for all your sh...stuff. Temporarily, my amp sits on top of the sub box which is behind the rear seat. Some other amp and box locations can be under the front or rear seats.
-At the driver's floor area, begin to carefully, yet firmly, take off the door seal(pulls straight out), plastic kick panels(one plastic nut and push pin fasteners, just pulls off) and scuff plates (push pin fasteners, just pull straight up). Do the same for the passenger side and both rear door floor plastics.
-Remove the glove box. If you aren't familiar with doing this, instructions can be found in my how to here. With the glove box and kick panel out of the way you can see the Bose amp to the right.

-Put your rear seat down, possibly after removing the headrests to do so (FIRE the Mazda interior design manager please!). (braindead)
-With the seats folded down, there is a carpeted panel that can be lifted up revealing three plastic fasteners. pull it up and you can see the bottom of the hatch floor.



-Remove an existing 10mm bolt for the placement of your ground wire. I used the bolt that already had ground wires connected.

(bolt shown with - ground already installed)

WIRING
-Loosely map out the amount of +power wire you will need from the engine battery to your amp, leaving some extra length for kinks and bends.
-Connect a fuse tap to a remote wire (speaker wire) and loosely map out the distance from the interior driver's kick panel/fuse block area to the placement of the amp, again leaving some extra length.
-Under the dash To the left of the brake pedal is the same boot you just saw from the engine side. Using a clothes hanger or similar, straighten it out and wrap an end around the power wire then tape it/zip tie it so it won't slip off. Poke a hole and pierce the boot higher than the existing wires to prevent damage to them. Carefully push the + power wire through your new hole.

-Go back under the hood and carefully pull your newly exposed wire into the engine bay. Loosely feed the wire around to the front of the battery and loosely map out where you want it.

- Go into the interior and start tucking both power/remote wires under the driver's plastic scuff panels, through the seat belt panel, under the rear panels and rear seat and up into the hatch area. The plastic fastener removal tool or flat screwdriver is helpful in hiding the wires. If you're planning to put the amp under the seat then you will have to get creative on where you'll route your wires. For something like that, I'd recommend removing the seats and carpet for a professional looking job. For now, I'm keeping this simple and wiring it to the hatch area.


(Notice my $1 "Drop Stop seat gap filler")

For your remote wire, take the fuse tap end with fuses installed and put into the 3rd fuse hole on the right bank, which is labeled #11.. Follow the directions on the fuse tap and install it correctly. This will power on your amp only when acc. or your CX-5 is on.



BOSE AMP
Here is the part where there is a lot of clouded information. Or lack of information. After researching for this answer online, I couldn't get a straight answer to which wires to tap into before the Bose amp. So, I had to figure it out myself(boom08). But now you don't have to.


There are 3 wire harnesses on the amp. You will remove the very top one and it will contain a brown wire and a green/white striped wire (props to Bmarsh and Popinfreshpsk).

This is the input to the front speakers where you will tap into with your line out converter (LOC). At the time, I wasn't sure if the CX-5 required an LOC or not, but since I already had one this made it much simpler for converting the wires into RCA plugs. Using taps, connect the brown and yellow wires to speaker wires and then those wires into the appropriate locations on your LOC. If your LOC has adjustment settings, go ahead and adjust them. Mine is a cheap $20 Scosche LOC from Walmart. Simple, cheap, and works pretty darn good for the $ until I upgrade to something more fancy (more $).

Connect an RCA cable from the LOC and once again tuck the RCA under the trim panels all the way back into the hatch.

HOOKING IT UP!
So now that you have your power, ground, remote and RCA wires set up, you can hook those to your amplifier and sub. Once you have good connections head on back to the engine bay, crimp an O crimp onto your + wire, connect it to the battery distribution block and secure it with a 6mm by 1.00 nut.



Now go back into the hatch and crimp an O crimp onto your ground wire and bolt it to chassis ground behind the rear seat.

At this point, you should have power to the amp and the sub should be working. Ta da! You have successfully installed a working amp and sub into your factory system! Your CX-5 now looks like a mess, huh?!(burp)
Fine tune all your settings, and put all the interior trim pieces and bolts back together for a factory fit. Don't forget to wrap the rubber boot under the dash with some electrical tape for a good seal and maybe some RTV sealant on the outside of the boot.

Go for a good test drive to tweak your settings until it sounds just right to you. When you're finished and happy with the results, drive back home and find that beer!(thinkbeer)
 
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Yes, in my civic I wired in aftermarket door speakers, ambient lighting LEDS in the footwells, door cup handles, trunk. And I also had an iPad mini install so I needed extra Bluetooth wiring and Clarion equalizer among a whole bunch of other stuff. The good news is I didn't have to buy any more wiring. Now imagine if your car was transparent. You have about a mile of stock wiring hidden in your car. Imagine how big that pile would be. Some food for thought.
 
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Thanks for this! I'm getting ready to install an amp/sub to complement my new aftermarket head unit, but this will help with that as well.
 
Thanks for this! I'm getting ready to install an amp/sub to complement my new aftermarket head unit, but this will help with that as well.
which h/u? I'd like to add it to the reference in my sig
 
thanks i3enny! To me, it sounds SO much better. similar to the Mark Levinson system in the Lexus RX400h I was looking at before deciding to purchase Evil Em. Well, the highs are not quite as crisp, but much better low frequencies. which I suppose is to be expected with a 12" sub pushed by a JL 500/1 (lol2). In my opinion, a sub is about the only thing lacking in Mazda's Bose audio. Well, maybe a little more power in the satellites too (I listen between 35-55 on the volume).

Update- I usually play music through my iphone via bluetooth so Centerpoint is not compatible. I recently played a CD with Centerpoint on and it sound spectacular! The front stage sounds like the band is right in front of me with surrounding low bass. With Centerpoint, I would claim it's BETTER than the Lexus' ML system.
 
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Can you go into a little more detail on these two sections. I just got my 2015 CX-5 and looking to add a sub or two.

1 - How exactly to you add the remote on cable to the fuse box. Just didn't follow you on this one.

2 - Which wires on the Bose Amp are you using for + and - . I was under the impression that you had to connect to 4 wires not 2.

Thanks a bunch great post!!!
 
Finally! my Aftermarket Subwoofer and Amplifier Integration into Bose Audio H...

Can you go into a little more detail on these two sections. I just got my 2015 CX-5 and looking to add a sub or two.

1 - How exactly to you add the remote on cable to the fuse box. Just didn't follow you on this one.

2 - Which wires on the Bose Amp are you using for + and - . I was under the impression that you had to connect to 4 wires not 2.

Thanks a bunch great post!!!

Thank you, appreciate it! (1)Remote wire- I used a fuse tap found at an auto parts store
crimp it to your remote wire. Connect the fuse tap to the instructions above in my post. That is accessory power. This allows the amp to turn on and off with the car.
(2) If I'm not mistaken (it's been at least a month since I did this) the brown is +, yellow -, although it may not matter as the sub is not stereo. I'm not sure where you got the impression, but I can confirm it is 2 wires, as I also have 2 wire to my (single coil) subwoofer.
quzuqa8e.jpg
 
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Awesome stuff. In regards to the 4 wires I am planning on running two separate subs there by running a right RCA to the amp and a Left RCA. I've never had to use an LOC before so I was thinking that each (Right & Left) RCA had to have their own pair into the LOC. Does this sound accurate?
 
Awesome stuff. In regards to the 4 wires I am planning on running two separate subs there by running a right RCA to the amp and a Left RCA. I've never had to use an LOC before so I was thinking that each (Right & Left) RCA had to have their own pair into the LOC. Does this sound accurate?

You got to make things hard huh (lol2) J/K. Since this doesn't apply to my set up, don't quote me. My cheapo LOC has one rear and one front RCA hook up. So, for my application for two rear sub amps I would buy two RCA splitters and connect to your subs that way. For me, that would be the simplest solution.
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Could u post a video?

Hi Skorpio!
Could u post a video of your aftermarket system working?
I would like to see how does it work, how does it sounds (as much as we can hear from a video) and understand if the STD cam works when you use the rear gear...
Moreover, I would to know: it's possibile to still use the HMI I have on my CX-5 with the Pioneer?
 
Hi Skorpio!
Could u post a video of your aftermarket system working?
I would like to see how does it work, how does it sounds (as much as we can hear from a video) and understand if the STD cam works when you use the rear gear...
Moreover, I would to know: it's possibile to still use the HMI I have on my CX-5 with the Pioneer?

what up Fabry1979! I'll see what I can do about a video. I doubt you'll learn much from it though, audio sound is subjective, and through a recorded iPhone, it won't be accurate. I can confirm my back up camera works perfect when I shift into reverse- a photo from a couple weeks back when I installed my trailer hitch
hudy9yjy.jpg
And for the 3rd question, I don't have an answer for as I don't know what it means. HMI? What Pioneer? (confused)
 
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