Alpine ILX F509A floating Head Unit

The challenge is to mount this beautiful floating head unit (HU) onto my car. 

But this car does not have factory brackets. It uses cage type to install single din. Alpine is also single din but cage bracket is too weak to support the 9 inch screen let alone trying to tilt it backwards.  So 1.2mm Aluminium plate was chosen as a suitable material to make a suitable bracket.  The bracket determines how far the floating display projects outwards from the car's cosmetic panel. I used cardboard to mark out its position and template it onto the car as a rough guide.

Alpine has 2 parts to install, one is the head unit and another display unit that connects it via a special connector . The 2 units are locked using 4 M5 screws. So the single cannot be mounted too far in or the screw driver will not be able to tighten the screws 

Test fit for easy access of screw holes 

Use cardboard again to estimate the size of the single din mounting bracket and cut it to size.

Make M5 transfer screws to mark the single din mounting holes accurately.

4 transfer screws in place ready to mark

Left and Right side templates

Marking the holes accurately

With the marked holes, drill to 5mm diameter and fit it onto the Alpine HU.

Use masking tape to mark out the excess material and remove 

Then mark the position of the mounting holes for the dash board panel using Acrylic  material and transfer over to the mounting bracket.

 

Before transferring the hole position, use a brake bender and bend the Aluminium bracket. 

Drill the Aluminium bracket and test fit.

Mount the bracket onto the HU and pray that the mounting holes line up on the dash board.

Oops , this picture has no dashboard holes  but you get the idea.

Then the big empty space at the top, just 3D print ABS and blank it off.

Assemble back all the cosmetic covers,  cables and linkages. 

Do the wiring harness for the HU  and plug it in.

This HU has no dimmer wire . It has a light sensor in front of the screen to detect light and auto dims the screen at night.

Adjust the height of the screen and fit it to the HU. Power up and enjoy.

TURN the key to ACC position and watch the magic happens on the 9 inch screen. Music playback is done at 96khz sampling at 24 bits!! Mind blowing sound and every musical instrument can be heard clearly.

The difficulty of this project is high. It involves precision mounting and drilling the holes exactly where it should be. You can drill oversize holes but with experience, the holes can be spot on  and the mount is more secure and stable. 

AERPRO sells third party Fascia mounting brackets but its all rubbish.  When you try to tilt and adjust the screen, the whole assembly will break loose and don't forget its a moving car  with lots of vibration.

DONE!!!

I.C.E. system ( In Car Entertainment)

It started with a cranky faulty HU (Head Unit) and the MP3 player could not play. Quickly replaced it with Double Din HU.  Out comes the climate control panel and all the cable and electrical clips. If you are doing this yourself , go slow and undo the clips and be patient. Access to the old HU will be possible. Only 2 screws holds the HU in place. New brackets were made for the Double Din HU. The matching wire HG harness was soldered to enable the quick release feature for future retrieval.

Top is supplied with HU purchase

Bottom harness is connected to factory wire harness

The old stereo and pocket to keep rubbish

Be prepared for many trial and error fitting with the custom brackets. Fit in the new HU and reuse the old screws to secure it in place.

Poor man's helper hands to solder the two together. I don't like to cut off the factory wiring. 

Soldered wire

Completed new wire harness 

Clip in the new harness, original factory 

wires are not cut 

Fit in the new HU 

and reuse the self tapping screws

Power up the unit and its a success.  But wait .... to make the installation with a factory look, you will need a Fascia cover. Just 3D print a carbon fiber one and put it on.

Custom made fascia with factory looks.

AMPLIFIER 4 SPEAKER CROSS OVER INSTALLATION 

Not too long later, the rear oval shaped factory speaker surround material that holds the cone disintegrated and the speakers  sounded terrible. Out goes the old ones held on by just 4 screws. But the new ones are 6.5 inch round ones so an adapter plate is required for a successful mount. I 3D printed one and was happy with the results. Soon it failed and wrapped under the sun so i made 1.2mm thick aluminum sheet. This was CNC cut out to reduce distortion. 

Blue color plastic 3D print. Wrapped  under the sun.

CNC machined out. No wrapping 

Perfectly aligned holes and curvature

Dry fit. Looks damn good 

WIRE INSTALLATION

  

The nightmare is about to start. 2 wires for rear speakers,  2 wires for front speakers,  4 RCA for the 4 channels  and one big wire for the power to the amplifier. One more wire to REM

REAR WIRES

The rear seats , all cosmetic covers in the trunk and cabin areas were removed to make way for the wire layout. Rear wires were easy but they need to tuck under the floor carpet for aesthetic reasons. I use laundry lines to help thread the wires through.  

Green leader line leads the way

Tape the speaker wires and pull through.

Tape together with factory wires and make sure the wires clear the cosmetic cover's snap clips

FRONT WIRES

This one was tough.  There's no way into the cabin from the door and the factory makes dedicated plugs with rubber boots to keep out the water. Many would thread the speaker's wire here. But using 16 Awg wire for me just wouldn't work. I starred at the problem for a good 45minutes before i saw the solution. Its not made known to the public but the manufacturer made a square opening at the hinge pin that leads back to the cabin. Water is not able to get in because of the door's weather rubber strip. Here's the chance. Its a tight squeeze for the speaker wires as well as the tweeter wires. Rubber grommets were use to prevent the sharp chasis from cutting the wires.

That's the only hole back to the cabin.

Center console was removed to make way for the wire on the right speaker to travel back to the amp. 

BATTERY POWER CABLE

So the last piece of wire, the power cable, must be connected to the battery and goes into the cabin area and connect back to the amp. 

I looked for existing grommet that the factory has left behind so that I can fit the 4AWG wire past the firewall but there isn't one. Finally there was just one but at the left hand side of the car just before the A pillar.

Fenders and mud guards were removed to route this thick wire in. Get the quality flexible multi strand wires to make the job easier. 

Remove fender and headlights 

Power cable zip tied for safety

From cabin out to battery terminal 

Terminate the wires with quality copper sleeves, crimped spade connector and 60A fuse box.

Spade connector to +ve battery end

More than 200 strands of fine copper and flexible rubber insulator.

Copper sleeve and solder added

Bad ass 60A fuse box added

REM WIRE

This is the wire that turns on the Amp when the HU is activated. It sends +12v to AMP remote turn on terminal. Its like a switch but controlled by the HU.

Its a small wire so i use a small connector and added another copper sleeve for assurance.

TERMINATING SPEAKER WIRES

To get the best sound and years of trouble free stereo, use proper connector.  Here  proper crimping technique is also applied.

Spade connector and insulating sleeve. Cross over tweeter wires connected as well 

I zip tied the adjacent wires so that it wont come off easily. 

Black remote turn on wire in the background. The rest are speaker wires with proper crimped terminals

This power cable is dangerous hence the added bellows for more protection

Multi strand speaker cable. Very high quality but no brand.

PUT IT ALTOGETHER 

The front speakers are mounted using the plastic bracket that came with the purchase and they worked fine.  All wires are neatly tucked under the carpet and arranged. 

Front Left

Front Right

FRONT SPEAKER BAFFLES 

Water can sip through the window areas. You need this one so that front speakers will not have water damages. ABS 3D printed these and fits in exactly. ABS will withstand summer temperature and hold its shape.

Front view of water baffle

Side view of Water baffle 

AMPLIFIER FLOATING MOUNT 

Most installer will secure the Amp either behind the trunk or put it under the front passenger seat. Trunk space are precious and will need longer power cables and add up cost. Put it under the passenger seat means it might be kicked by rear passengers and also reduce leg room. The idle mount is a floating Amp. Brackets are made and bolted to the seat and the Amp mounted to this bracket. 

Bracket and MDF board assembled 

12mm MDF board used for strength and seperate chasis GND from Amp

Checked the chair  sliding clearance when it moves forward and backwards

GROUND WIRE

This wire is anchored to the chair itself since its all metal underneath so doing it this way means rear passengers will not kick onto it.

The Ground wire for the Amp. Its a strong connection point

TWEETER SPEAKER 

i dont like cutting the factory door interior panel to install the tweeters so i made a curved triangular box and it sits on the dashboard top. Easy.

Add a badge and it looks awesome!

POWER UP 

Connect all the  wires to the amp and turn it on. The amp lights up and the music fills the interior. Sound imaging is great and seems to come directly at you in front of the car. Just amazing!

COMMON PROBLEMS

The trunk torsion bars are going to vibrate once the volume is cranked up. Simplest fix is to pack in between these bars with thick sponge and damp the annoying resonance.

Damping the torsion bar vibration

Quality thick sponge

Waterproof rubber baffles for the rear speakers and the thick sponge to dampen the vibrations

 

CONCLUSION

This DIY project is not for the faint hearted.  It involves a lot of foresight and identifying problems. If you are not comfortable doing this yourself, pay someone to do it before you damage the vehicle as it involves a lot of wiring and dismantling of cosmetic panels.