this past weekend i finally got around to swapping out the stock jbl sub with a jl 8w0 and adding a rockford punch 250 to power it. it's a pretty straight-forward install and the majority of the info to do it can be found here by searching. but here's my 2 cents worth of insight...
to get to the jbl enclosure, you'll have to remove both sides of the plastic cubbys behind the back seat. there's 4 10mm bolts (3 on the right, 1 on the left) and a row of clips along the top edge, down the sides, and a couple on the bottom. its difficult to get to the bottom clips since the seat presses against the cubbys. once the top and sides are loose, pull up and out. i busted a couple of clips in the process, oh well.
i found it easier to work with the back seat removed. there's 6 12mm bolts securing it to the floor.
the jbl sub is secured with star-pattern screws (as opposed to standard or allen)
the new jl has a 4" mounting depth, which is too tall. there are these ribs along the back wall of the enclosure that can be cut down with a dremmel/rotary tool (thanks cabocoma )
the new jl does not line up with any of the jbl screw holes, so make new ones and fill in the old ones with caulk or something.
the 4 wires from the jbl amp to the jbl sub are the ones i used for my high-level inputs to the rockford. the jbl wiring diagram in the service manual downloads proved invaluable. if you don't have high level inputs on your amp, connect these to your line-level converter.
i spent a lot of time figuring out where to splice my remote wire to an ACC source. the grey wire behind the HU and going to the amp are 20 gauge and very short (at least what's accessible). after deciding that i didn't want to take the chance of screwing something up royally, i searched for another location and went with what norcal and others did and plugged into the fuse box on the driver-side behind the small flip-down cubby. the ACC fuse is in the top row, third from the right.
and thats that...took much longer than i anticipated, but the end result is worth it. the new setup has much better punch and frequency response and won't cut out at higher volumes like the jbl system would. like i said, there's a lot of threads that address upgrading the jbl system, but most were somewhat vague. i would've saved a bunch of time had i known most of this going into the install, so hopefully this can help someone else out in the future...
to get to the jbl enclosure, you'll have to remove both sides of the plastic cubbys behind the back seat. there's 4 10mm bolts (3 on the right, 1 on the left) and a row of clips along the top edge, down the sides, and a couple on the bottom. its difficult to get to the bottom clips since the seat presses against the cubbys. once the top and sides are loose, pull up and out. i busted a couple of clips in the process, oh well.
i found it easier to work with the back seat removed. there's 6 12mm bolts securing it to the floor.
the jbl sub is secured with star-pattern screws (as opposed to standard or allen)
the new jl has a 4" mounting depth, which is too tall. there are these ribs along the back wall of the enclosure that can be cut down with a dremmel/rotary tool (thanks cabocoma )
the new jl does not line up with any of the jbl screw holes, so make new ones and fill in the old ones with caulk or something.
the 4 wires from the jbl amp to the jbl sub are the ones i used for my high-level inputs to the rockford. the jbl wiring diagram in the service manual downloads proved invaluable. if you don't have high level inputs on your amp, connect these to your line-level converter.
i spent a lot of time figuring out where to splice my remote wire to an ACC source. the grey wire behind the HU and going to the amp are 20 gauge and very short (at least what's accessible). after deciding that i didn't want to take the chance of screwing something up royally, i searched for another location and went with what norcal and others did and plugged into the fuse box on the driver-side behind the small flip-down cubby. the ACC fuse is in the top row, third from the right.
and thats that...took much longer than i anticipated, but the end result is worth it. the new setup has much better punch and frequency response and won't cut out at higher volumes like the jbl system would. like i said, there's a lot of threads that address upgrading the jbl system, but most were somewhat vague. i would've saved a bunch of time had i known most of this going into the install, so hopefully this can help someone else out in the future...