You didn't have to run a parallel configuration for the 8 ohm amp requirement? I ask as I have an 04 Land Cruiser which is similar to your setup.
How to: Replacing OEM Subwoofer in 3rd Row (2 Viewers)
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I try to switch them around and see what happens. I followed someone else's advise on this thread being that the red and black (on different looms) were negative whereas the green and yellow were positive. Thanks for chiming in on my question!
I'm just guessing, but I suspect red and black is one pair and green and yellow are the other. Here's a LC diagram for the sub. I'm not sure if it's the same year as yours, but maybe it will help.
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Anyone interested in a Skar 6" at a discount? I bought one before looking at my sub, and my 2000 has two 4" subs instead of one 6", so I have this perfectly good sub that I can't use.
Mine had the two 4" subs as well. I shaped a piece of aluminium sheet and screwed it to the sub box with a cut out for the 6". You just have to grind some of the reinforcement ribbing at the bottom of the box for it to fit. Didn't have to modify the outer cover panel at all
The wiring loom from the amp is actually red/yellow and black/green. The skar sub has 4 connectors per side (total of 8). Not sure if it needs to be bridged or not.
This wiring diagram appears to differ from the EVL-65 terminal layout. If you use a jumper on the inner terminals, it will short out one of the voice coils.
For the 8 Ohm configuration you'll want to connect the (+) from one side of the woofer to the (-) on the other side. Then connect your speaker inputs to the remaining Positive and Negative terminals.
Just installed on a 2006 LX with the Mark Levinson setup. In this config, the Red speaker wire in the sub enclosure corresponds to Black loom wire (4-pin) and the WFR+ connection on the amplifier, and the Black speaker wire to the White loom wire (4-pin) to WFL+. Looks the 2 rear woofer channels are configured in Bridged Mono Mode on the (2-wire) Mark Levinson amplifier.
I have no idea if the non-Mark Levinson amplifiers will tolerate bridged mono mode without destroying things. If it is supported, then it would likely work by connecting (+) to WFR+ and (-) to WFL+.
PSA - Apparently you should never use speakers less than 8 Ohms with the Mark Levinson amp. It will overdrive the amplifier and cause it to fail prematurely.
Hi all, just wanted to add another data point:
I've got 245k on my 2001 LX470 which has the ML system. I started down the path with the simply speakers re-foam and I thought that worked pretty well for the front and rear speakers. Wasn’t as hard as I thought. Sound is still not great, but it was cheap and much better than the previous situation with foam completely gone. (If there had been a good drop in speaker I would have done that, but it doesn’t seem like there is something super easy here?)
When I got ready to re-foam the sub though, I was surprised to find the foam was fine. But it was popping really bad when playing music. So I think the spider was probably worn out allowing the back of the voice coil to hit the back of the magnet. So that led me down the path of reading this thread and many others, and I first cheaped out and went with the Dayton speaker that others on here have mentioned. It was only $30 so I figured I would give it a shot. I put it in and it popped too! Did the same thing. Bottoming out with the voice coil hitting the back of the magnet.
So I FINALLY went with the path that most of yall did. The Skar sub. YES! It works so good! Just a few notes from my install:
SUPER big thanks to all those that have posted in this thread. The Skar sub is the perfect balance of cheap and just trying to make it sound good again. And it does indeed sound good! Amazing what that little thing can do.
I've got 245k on my 2001 LX470 which has the ML system. I started down the path with the simply speakers re-foam and I thought that worked pretty well for the front and rear speakers. Wasn’t as hard as I thought. Sound is still not great, but it was cheap and much better than the previous situation with foam completely gone. (If there had been a good drop in speaker I would have done that, but it doesn’t seem like there is something super easy here?)
When I got ready to re-foam the sub though, I was surprised to find the foam was fine. But it was popping really bad when playing music. So I think the spider was probably worn out allowing the back of the voice coil to hit the back of the magnet. So that led me down the path of reading this thread and many others, and I first cheaped out and went with the Dayton speaker that others on here have mentioned. It was only $30 so I figured I would give it a shot. I put it in and it popped too! Did the same thing. Bottoming out with the voice coil hitting the back of the magnet.
So I FINALLY went with the path that most of yall did. The Skar sub. YES! It works so good! Just a few notes from my install:
- The screw holes line up just right! That was nice
- Just like many others, I ran the Skar sub in 8 ohm mode with a bridge wire. I don’t want to over stress the amp. Don’t worry, it has plenty of sound in this mode.
- My OEM sub was the 6.5” and it only had a black and red wire. I checked the polarity of the speaker and despite some other comments I’ve seen, red was indeed positive and black was negative. I hooked up an AA battery to the speaker and the sub popped forward with positive on red and negative on black.
- Nevertheless I listened to the Skar sub with both polarities. To be honest I didn't notice a ton of difference either way. At the end of the day I stuck with red on positive and black on negative.
- Thanks to d4nvu for the diagram in post 279: How to: Replacing OEM Subwoofer in 3rd Row - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/how-to-replacing-oem-subwoofer-in-3rd-row.282462/post-13464714 This worked great! The only difference was I stretched out a thin-ish stripe of butyl rope as the layer on the front and back of the spacer. This seemed to work great.
- This might seem simple, but if you didn’t take out the whole sub enclosure for the install, make sure you at least tighten the bolts that hold it to the frame. Two of mine were a little loose and just tightening these helped reduce some rattle.
SUPER big thanks to all those that have posted in this thread. The Skar sub is the perfect balance of cheap and just trying to make it sound good again. And it does indeed sound good! Amazing what that little thing can do.
I just ordered the SKAR and then realized I have the 2 subs as well. Will probably plan to do this same thing. Do you have an amp or is is the factory amp and HU? I just replaced the 4 door speakers and am thinking an aftermarket amp with the stock HU is what I want.
Hey I'm running an Alpine R-A90S R- Series amp under the seat in place of the nav dvd player computer. It's a 6/5/4/3 channel running in 5 channel mode. I'm still running factory HU as its a Jap import Nav one and no one offers an easy changeover at this stage
Thank you @XAlent ! I have a couple other questions if you dont mind. How was the wiring to get this up and running? Did you run new wires to the HU or use existing? Did you run new wire to the sub at all? The crutchfield rep advised me to run new wires to the HU and the Sub but I am worried about the grounding with the factory head unit.
@FamilyCamper I used the factory wiring for all speakers and subs. Seems to work fine, it's not massive power anyway so factory stuff is more than adequate.
As I was replacing the factory amp it made sense to use what was there. If I was changing headunits then I'd use RCA cables from HU to the amp as low level inputs
As I was replacing the factory amp it made sense to use what was there. If I was changing headunits then I'd use RCA cables from HU to the amp as low level inputs
May I ask what door speakers you chose? I have a 2004 LX470 with the Levinson sound system. So, for the Levinson, the Skar EVL-65 is a good choice, thanks very much. My goal is the simplest combo of bolt up easy with better sound. Thanks again
Polk Audio DB 652 from crutchfield with the wiring adapter. Honestly I am not getting much from the Skar and I dont think its worth it. There is a slight chance I wired it incorrectly but I think I did it right. Maybe it has something to do with going from the two subs to the 1 but im not sure. I have an aftermarket HU and AMP now and the bass coming from the door speakers is really solid. Sounds so much better than before. My recommendation is to get the 4 speakers changed out as that was the easiest and disconnect the wires for the rear sub to hear how it sounds. Then if you do not like it work on doing the subwoofer mod. Regarding the door speaker upgrade I have some notes
1. It really was plug and play for me and I didnt even have mod the little tabs that it said to remove to get it to fit flush. The rear door cards are probably touching the speakers and went back on 95% flush but it looked really good so I just left it and no issues so far.
2. I do really like the sound I have but I think I would maybe get nicer speakers for the fronts and get the polks for the rears.
3. I was using the polks with the factory amp, HU, and woofer and the sound was improved. It did improve a lot more once I changed the HU and Amp but that was a LOT more work and money.
4. I did not notice a significant loss in volume that some people mentioned when going to the 4ohm speakers.
Thanks, I just ordered some speakers crutchfield as well. They do not have a sub to offer. is the 2004 Levinson sub enclosure a 2 sub or 1 sub enclosure? Sorry for all the nube questions, plus I'm old!!
I am not 100% sure but pretty sure it's just a single sub
