[raraku]

Hey all,

I've decided to post this up on here as I had a huge pain in the ass time trying to find ANY information relevant to the Hyundai i30 and the stereo setup/configuration - I hope this guide with the pictures helps some other people who attempt this sort of project!

I used this guide I found online (sorry another forum!) http://www.hyundaiforum.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6596 - to help find out some small details - but I found out the model of i30 I have does not have a built in factory amp (bonus for me, maybe not for anybody else) That link has a few pinout diagrams (careful attention to those, the ISO wires are a little different - as a result my temp sensor and stereo illumination don't currently work, but it should be an easy fix, and very minor)

The car stereo setup consists of the following

- Stock Hyundai i30 head unit (Double Din, but has a custom rounded faceplate on it, so making a direct swap very dodgy, unless I fabricate a new dash facisa)
- JL CX600 Coaxial speakers in the rear
- JL CX Series Coaxial speakers in the front (plan is to swap these down the track when I get speaker pods mounted near the mirrors)
- 450W 4 Channel Alpine VPower Amp
- 600W Monoblock Alpine VPower Amp
- 12" Alpine Type-R Sub

Now for some pics


Power cable run from the bonnet to through the left hand side wheel arch, into the interior, under the carpet to the passenger side seat.





Door side speakers with the stock speakers removed (they were rubbish, paper cones and a single piece unit) to remove these you need to drill out the pop rivets holding them into place - I ended up using a 6mm drillbit and lots of effort - do this with the windows rolled up!



Custom Jigsaw speaker mounts - made of MDF




Finish product - speaker installed (painted, screwed, bolted in!)



Amp mounted under passenger seat (other is mounted under driver seat)



Factory headunit was removed to run 8 pairs of wires, I bought ISO connector ends and made an adaptor to sit between the headunit and the factory loom to detour the speakers to the high level input on the alpine amp then back to the dash.



Sub in the boot


99% of the credit of this project goes to my good mate Scuzzy - you can check out his work at this forum here http://www.mobileelectronics.com.au/forums/index.php?showtopic=537176 and http://www.mobileelectronics.com.au/forums/index.php?/topic/560246-hyundai-i30-nothing-fancy-install/ (need to register, but check out his Toyota Sera build, its insane) this one took a team of 3 of us the best part of two weekends to complete - but it is very worthwhile!

Hope some of this info helps anybody else planning to do anything to modify their stereo in the future - I'm hoping to update it down the track when I replace the head unit and do some other minor things - but the difference is amazing!

[Dazzler]

HI raraku... WOW.. we get some great 1st posts on here from time to time but yours is really "up there"

Thanks very much and a very big welcome 

[agentr31]

wow mate! a bit of an insparation for those of us that will most likey upgrade the stereo in the future!

[Scuzzy]

Hihi, I helped Raraku with the installation and I must say it was pretty straight forward once we spent some time figuring out where and how to run wires and I'm glad to say we did the install without cutting anything factory (except for binning the stock speakers, and just removing the under seat aircon ducts). I'd say if people were going to do something similar I'd say get a really good quality line level converter, and possible a separate sub woofer volume control knob, the particular amps had all the gains pretty much zeroed with the headunit's bass setting dialed down to -10! Unless you're happy enough to just set the sub woofer's level and just leave it, I find I adjust my sub woofer volume with my aftermarket headunit often enough that I'd want finer control over it

We tried to figure out if we could run a higher rating speaker wire though the door's but it's pretty difficult with the stock door loom and plug, we even removed the entire door to get at the plug to see what could be done, so unless you were prepared to carefully drill out the connector and feed a larger gauge wire though the door jamb, we decided to just stick with the stock speaker wiring and crammed mini spade terminals into the factory plug.

Oh yeah, getting those door cards back on sure are tricky at times!

[2i30s]

got any pics of the rest of the car?

[raraku]

hey,

the car looks 100% stock minus the sub in the boot

Scuzzy did a pretty amazing job - I forgot to say the car was brand new so it was a bit daunting pulling it all apart with less than 400kms on the clock

the amps are under the seats and unless you go looking you won't find them

the OEM HU isn't bad - I like the ipod control - wish the ipod cable was longer so I could put my iPhone up on my dash - I will replace it in the future but for now it is fine

the door speaker/tweeter will be happening soon too but thats about it!

cheers for the welcome - I'm sure its not the first mod which will happen to it - I've seen the guide for steering wheel controls on here and I'll see if I can attempt that one next, just depends on cost - it's going in for a nice dark tint tomorrow

[Lorian]

Great mod 

[duke]

Raraku,  nice install and great pics ! sounds like your just the person for this mod. Rearview mirrow with nav. bluetooth , back-up camera   yeaaa!       www.azentek.com     

[raraku]

Hey,

I'd love to replace the OEM HU with something aftermarket - the drama is the dash facia to replace/cut/remould etc. Wiring it up shouldn't be a massive drama though.

My biggest problem is cash at the moment - you're looking at 500-600 for a chinese head unit replacement on ebay + 200 for extras if thats what you want.

The final plan would be to put in a head unit with GPS/TV/DVD/MP3 etc the works - but thats a lot of $$$$ to outlay! I'd be keen to give it a shot, but I wouldn't know which head unit to get to begin with and to go from there.

I just got the car back from the workshop on thursday with a really awesome tint job (I'm in Brisbane, Australia and if anybody wants a recommendation, let me know, these guys were great) so I may give it a wash on the weekend and take some more pics to show whats going on.

Trust me, this will be the start of the few little mods - I've got a few planned, but once again it comes down to time/money! I'd love to do some fiberglassing for moulds and actually mount that sub in the boot - installing the tweeters in the dash pods, maybe some lighting mods - puddle lights would be quite cool

[Dazzler]

The final plan would be to put in a head unit with GPS/TV/DVD/MP3 etc the works - but thats a lot of $$$$ to outlay! I'd be keen to give it a shot, but I wouldn't know which head unit to get to begin with and to go from there.

Not sure if you've done any searching with the search function above? I know $$$ is an issue but still worth looking at what others have done or are considering..

A lot have talked about it but not a lot of our members have done it...

If you look at the Korean Club Picture thread you will see they are more active in that area..

[Master_Scythe]

Question:

Higher level trims have a built in amp (and a DAMN POWERFUL one at that [for oem]; 4X60w or so)

If you buy a low level trim, is the wiring still there, just no amp? and can I install an OEM amp at the dealer later?
Its the only feature I'll really miss from a low level trim. Maybe the steering wheel controls, but I can live without those.

[agentr31]

that would be PMPO for sure! although you never know! may be RMS!

[Master_Scythe]

its RMS for sure. I need to know if it can be added after sale.

[agentr31]

wow i wouldnt expect it to be RMS watts... thats a shock

[Abis]

Hey all,

I've decided to post this up on here as I had a huge pain in the ass time trying to find ANY information relevant to the Hyundai i30 and the stereo setup/configuration - I hope this guide with the pictures helps some other people who attempt this sort of project!

Hey raraku,

thanks for the great post! I'm planning on installing a subwoofer into my i30 CW and I could use some advice.

Do you happen to have any pictures of how the amp power cable is routed from the engine bay to the wheel well?

I took my left hand inner fender off and I could see there's a gap on top of the wheel well that I think you utilized, but does it go straight through or did you have to drill a hole?

How did you connect the amp power cable to the battery plus connector? Did you replace the original connector?

How did you earth the amplifier? Was there a mounting point you could make use of or did you need a drill to make an earthing point?

Thank you in advance!

[Scuzzy]

Super late reply!

The power cable was run over the arch of the wheel and we found a gap that we basicaly stuffed the wire through towards the headlight to get to the battery area.

We attached a ring terminal and found a bolt on the standard battery connection that we could use, The standard battery connection was left.

Amps were grounded I think on the seat rail bolts, but it's so long ago I forget now

[Abis]

Thanks for the info, Scuzzy! 

[syecadelic]

https://i30ownersclub.com/forum/index.php?topic=6017.msg94647#msg94647

i have changed the stereo since this thread, and also added a proper fascia adapter, basicaly a proper  rectangle

not to hard to cut, and just takes time.,

[raraku]

A very quick update

I went and bought a chinese head unit (aussie dollar was strong so I figured why not)

Managed to find one which fit my car perfectly and has full features/gps/dvd etc all built into it.

Whole swapover took me less than an hour to do and I'm in the process of finalising it

I'd recommend anybody to get one of the ones on ebay (search for i30 ipod or something similar) as they are leaps and bounds above the stock factory head unit. I will eventually take some pictures of the install and how I've run the new aerials/gps antennas as well

[syecadelic]

Let us know the quality etc of it. I had seen these when purchasing mine, but being unbranded I wouldn't have faith. Also do these headunits (Chinese) allow for control over the subwoofer levels, HPF's LPF's etc.? Another reason I didnt like the idea.

[raraku]

Quality is way above the stock HU - much more control

My likes
- Nice big touchscreen, has GPS, Bluetooth, Plays DVD's, VCD's, has SD Card Slot etc
- Easy to connect to harness (they supplied a direct swapover one)
- Included GPS antenna etc

Dislikes
- No longer charges my iPod/iPhone as it doesnt use the existing wiring in center console (this is a big upset to me but whatever)
- GPS seems a bit iffy on entering details, needs an update as this version is 2009

EQ control is excellent, they also provided RCA outs so all the settings can be done on my amps instead of the head unit which is excellent. At the moment mine are wired directly and I do the control on the EQ on the HU

All in all, for $400 and the two hours work it's well worth it. Beats the stock head unit hands down.

[jfdelacruz]

Sorry to revive an old thread but, what was the size of the original speaker wires (front and back)? Did you replace the tweeter as well (what size)? And why'd you run such a thick speaker wire (where did you route it to make it go from the engine bay to the HU)?

I'm thinking of upgrading to a full MB Quart or JL Audio system and was wondering if I needed to do a rewire or not. I'm planning on leaving the stock HU to retain steering audio controls and iPod charging but I want to add an amp (mine doesn't have the factory amp). Is it feasible to mount an amp in the original location (right rear trunk panel)?

I guess what I'm trying to say is, I'm too careful of my i30 that I dont want to "hack" into it without knowing if I can reverse something or not... You know the saying, if it's not broken, don't fix it... I don't want to end up with rattles, electrical problems, warranty issues, etc... So hope you understand me asking too many questions.

[Dazzler]

You might be best to PM raraku with these questions (he hasn't been on since June) or even Sye (Syecadelic) as he works at a Hyundai dealership in Ireland and is cluey with audio...

[Scuzzy]

I wanted to pull the door loom apart and fit upgraded wire, but my mate didn't want to, so it's just the factory wiring

Edit: I had this topic set to notify me of replies, it never did :s

[Shambles]

Edit: I had this topic set to notify me of replies, it never did :s

Your notification is only set to notify you for moderation actions & only if you started the topic (which you didn't). You need to change your notification default to "Replies and Moderation"

[Scuzzy]

Your notification is only set to notify you for moderation actions & only if you started the topic (which you didn't). You need to change your notification default to "Replies and Moderation"

It's notified me of your post now since I re-toggled the notify option

[Shambles]

(there's another one for you )

[SiYCoN]

Hello new to the forum, i was just wanting to know a few things if anyways could help me before i start full steam ahead on this,

speaker spacers.. ive seen MDF ones online



RW-SR-19 6.5”  166mm  144mm  22mm

RW-SR-20  6.5”  177mm   144mm  22mm

RW-SR-21  6.5”  166mm  144mm 36mm

any of these?

also need to know if to fit coax speakers or component

and does the cars wiring from the head unit go to a cross over or some sort of capacitor on the speaker ?

or can i just wire  new speakers strait into the wiring ..

at this moment in time i don't know if i want to fit a subwoofer or just see how some decent speakers will make a difference

, also not too sure about setting up an amp on High input wiring or just leave it stock head unit power on new speakers


 I WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE any advice and opinions

thanks
 

[Phil №❶]

Welcome to the forum SiYCoN,

There is a huge amount of information available here and we welcome your participation.

A couple of members have modified their sound systems, use the search facility, see what you can find.

[syecadelic]

Hello new to the forum, i was just wanting to know a few things if anyways could help me before i start full steam ahead on this,

speaker spacers.. ive seen MDF ones online



RW-SR-19 6.5”  166mm  144mm  22mm

RW-SR-20  6.5”  177mm   144mm  22mm

RW-SR-21  6.5”  166mm  144mm 36mm

any of these?

also need to know if to fit coax speakers or component

and does the cars wiring from the head unit go to a cross over or some sort of capacitor on the speaker ?

or can i just wire  new speakers strait into the wiring ..

at this moment in time i don't know if i want to fit a subwoofer or just see how some decent speakers will make a difference

, also not too sure about setting up an amp on High input wiring or just leave it stock head unit power on new speakers


 I WOULD REALLY APPRECIATE any advice and opinions

thanks

welcome along

Okay, so in regards to mdf spacers, you could probably fabricate your own easy enough, your going to have to drill the rivets out of the existing ones and then use self tappers probably to aid installation of the new ones.

Coaxials for the rear speakers and components up front. No crossover/capacitor standard from what i know, but just change the existing ones with aftermarket, should be fine.
Good quality speakers should mean you dont need a subwoofer unless you want a lot of bass.. For an amplifier I wouldnt spend the money straight away until you've changed the speakers.

My advise is..in this order sort of lol
1. Change door speakers, kenwood pioneer or alpine
2. Change headunit (same brands as above)

see how things are sound wise if thats all your looking and if its not loud or god enough then start adding amplifiers