BMW F30 Sub Amp Install

Kicker amp, kicker sub L7, bmw f30, 2013 328i, kicker Iq, sub amp install

[@velocity5542]

Preciate it bro you the only UA-camr that explained everything in detail and explanation

[@sxlwer6025]

Finally a clear video about the subject on a bmw.
great job!

[@streetlamp1337]

Good video man! I bought a used 328i that came w/ an amp/sound system and I noticed while replacing my battery that the ANL Fuse (just learned the name of that tonight) is swollen and looking like it was about to explode. I'm a beginner DIY and your video answered a lot of questions of mine. Great video! Thanks!

[@f-30love90]

Thank you. Yes, you need to replace that fuse ASAP. That’s a fire waiting to happen. FYI try to keep the gain at 12 o’clock and no more than 3 o’clock. This way you’ll avoid the new fuse from melting on you.

[@streetlamp1337]

@@f-30love90 It seems like I'm going to have to review all the sound system wiring because I have a feeling it wasn't installed properly.
Will I damage any part of the sound system if I don't have the amplifier powered and I drive it while I look to see which fuse I have to buy? Also, which amperage fuse do you recommend?
I also don't know what or how to keep the gain at the range you said as I'm a beginner at sound systems too.

[@streetlamp1337]

Just kidding. Figured it out. Having to reverse engineer learn all these things as a beginner. It's really cool!

[@streetlamp1337]

@@f-30love90 Turns out I have a LC2i Audio Control that has the 12v AND the ground wire spliced into the wiring from the factory installed amplifier after figuring out how to remove all the panels. I understand that the LC2i Audio Controller needs a constant power source and I'm not sure if where it's spliced into is constant or not.

[@f-30love90]

@@streetlamp1337 it probably is. it’s not a constant 12v, it’s just a remote start wire, same as your amp. All it is a wire to turn it on and off. FYI, you don’t want anything connected in your car to stay on all the time, especially anything connected to a 12v source, it will drain your battery while it’s parked. This is the reason you have the remote wire on your amp and that’s what you have on your LC2. It sounds like you’re figuring this out little by little, great job! It looks like all the connections were done at the factory amp, the LC2 it’s no different than your LOC, it’s just that now you have a little more gain that you can use for your door speakers, which they’ve probably been upgraded. Your next step should be to see if the speakers are factory or not, so you can figure out how many watts you have available. You’re doing great. In my opinion, they had the gain to high, that’s what cause the melting you saw, but other than that it sounds to me like they had a solid connection. great job! Keep me posted.

[@divinebeatz9882]

I got my shit hooked up this was my first time doing any type of sub and amp thanks bro

[@Bimmerstye1]

It's a nice video but you tapped into the wrong speaker wires. The wires you used are these for the rear speakers. These speakers are high-passed, wich means the low frequencies that you will need for your sub are filtered out. The wires you need to use are black/red & black/brown and blue/red & blue brown. Those are the thicker wires for the underseat subs and those have the frequencies you need on them. Sure the sub will play when connected to the rear speakers but you have to turn it up much further to get sound. Also I'm sure the sub won't go any lower than 60Hz or so since there simply is no 60Hz and lower signal on those wires.

[@f-30love90]

It works just fine! The LOC it’s just that, a low output converter. Your amp let’s you set it to what ever frequency you want. Thank you for the feed back.

[@Bimmerstye1]

@@f-30love90 LOC actually stands for Line Output Converter and it converts the high level (not high frequency) amplifier speaker output to a low level (again, not frequency) RCA input signal. Aftermarket amplifiers with speaker level inputs don't need a LOC. On those you can directly connect the speaker wires coming from the factory amp.
Now, frequency is a totaly different thing than level. Level is the power of the amp outputs while frequency is the spectrum they play. Tweeters play very high frequencies. Mids are playing the mids and subs are playing the lowest frequencies. For that to work there are crossovers in the factory amplifier. These make sure the right frequencies are going to the right speakers. So the rear speakers, the ones you have tapped into, are filtered high pass. I a BMW this means they will only get frequencies above about 160Hz. Below 160Hz they slope down. They don't stop playing at 160Hz but they gradualy get less loud as the frequency goes lower. The underseat subs however are filtered low-pass up to 160Hz. This means they play up to 160Hz at full volume and get less loud as the frequency gets higher.
This is the reason your sub still works. There is some level of frequencies below 160Hz present on those rear speakers but not the full level. And the level gets lower as the frequency gets lower because of the slope of the filter. By setting the amp to low-pass and set a desired frequency on it you are not gaining anything. If a frequency isn't present on the speaker wire, the amp or the LOC can't magicaly generate it. It needs to be there in the first place. That's why you should use the wires for the underseat subs. There you will find the highest level of low frequency output. When using those you will find that your sub will play louder and, more importanly, will play lower. Just try it. Be sure you turn down the gain on the amp and the level control on the LOC however before you start playing a song. The bass will be much louder than it is now and if you keep your current settings chances are you will blow something.

[@f-30love90]

@@Bimmerstye1 I understand what you are saying, but what I’m telling you is that it’s working fine for a long time with no issues.the gain is no higher than midway, the bass it’s set to about 50Hz, and it sounds good inside the car. Maybe I should mention that I turn the bass all the way down in the car radio setting and the the only bass it’s coming from the sub, maybe that’s why I’m not hearing any distorsión. I’m not arguing against, I think everything you’re saying it’s right on, all I’m saying is brother, this method works. I’ve done it on 3 different f30 and we’ve had no problems.

[@Bimmerstye1]

@@f-30love90 If it works and if you're happy with how it sounds there is no need to go and change things now. But if you ever should add a sub to another BMW, just try connecting it to the sub wires just to see how it works. I think you will be pleasantly surprised. ;)

[@f-30love90]

@@Bimmerstye1 I sure will try it your way. Thank you for the feed back and the education, I truly appreciate it, thank you.

[@noracja9496]

zank you man i have a 2016 x3 doing this now as i didnt want a dealer to do it

[@darellandminadigitals]

Excellent job broh, my question is did you still unplug the battery when you tap the positive wire?

[@jonathanjimenez183]

Yes, you don’t want to tap the positive wire while is connected to the battery. Remember, the car is ground and if you touch it with the positive wire while is connected you can cause a short and fry your circuits. Best practice is to always disconnect the positive wire.

[@Vexulus]

Great video !

[@vincentorme9906]

This is really helpful 👍🏻
What is the purpose of the wire connecting to the 5amp fuse?

[@f-30love90]

The purpose is to turn the amp off and on. That’s called the remote start wire. This wire turns the amp off and on when you turn the car on and off. If you didn’t have that, the amp would be on all the time drawing from the battery, killing your battery. Hope that answer your question.

[@streetlamp1337]

@@f-30love90 Is it common for the remote wire to be connected somewhere else on the car?
I noticed the remote wire from the amplifier that came with my car was not connected to the fuse box but somewhere else. I haven't tracked down where just yet.

[@Vexulus]

Oh can you list all the parts you have as well would help some that don’t know what they are looking for and pin it in the comments or add links

[@dennybrows9916]

How do you connect the on switch for the amp

[@jonathanjimenez183]

That’s the remote wire. You connect it to the fuse box. Watch carefully where in the fuse box I connect it to. That fuse is what turns the amp on and off, Whenever you turn your car on and off.

[@jobanjeetsingh48]

my car doesn't have an amplifier, should i get the high level output from door speakers or subwoofers under the seat?

[@jonathanjimenez183]

It doesn’t really matter where you get it from. Get it from what is easiest to you. If you are going to set up the amp in the back, grab it from the back speakers. Grab it from where ever is easiest to you.

[@biay7270]

Thenks mann👍

[@coletherose]

how did you hook in that remote start cable to the fuse? did you just shove it down into one of the holes in the fuse and just wedge the fuse over it?

[@felipef6516]

thats exactly it. just make sure its a fuse that turns on when the ignition is on, and off when the ignition is off.

[@timcarpenter8198]

I hooked mine up in my 2018 bmw 330i with the exact wires used when I turn my radio up high the sub will shut off when I turn it down it comes back on dose anyone have that problem or know what it could be

[@jonathanjimenez183]

Your gain is too high. Put the gain at 1 and 3 o’clock

[@jonathanjimenez183]

You need to bring down your base in the radio settings. You don’t need bass coming out of the doors speakers, that’s what the sub is for. Bring your mids and highs up, and the bass all the way down or almost all the way down.

[@jonathanjimenez183]

*the gain between 1 and 3 o’clock

[@timcarpenter8198]

Thank you I will adjust and see what it dose

[@timcarpenter8198]

I have a master level and a gain do you have a suggestion on both of them

[@grimbereapin]

What if I have two beige and red wires

[@jonathanjimenez183]

You shouldn’t have, but if you do try them both. Look really carefully. Also you can read up a few msg back, he did them with a different sets of color.

[@grimbereapin]

@@jonathanjimenez183 yea I have two sets of the ones he said were the left side, I’ve yet to find anyone on here with my exact BMW X1 xdrive28i and mine is a lot different from what I’ve been finding on here. Like my battery isn’t in the back and my factory amp was on the right.

[@lazaroperez286]

Would it be the same wires/install if you have Harmon Kardon system?

[@f-30love90]

They should be…check out the last guy that commented on the video, he has the exact color wires to use. The ones i picked works great for me, but why not use the exact ones. It should be the same wires, as long as is an f30, they’re going to use the same wire harness

[@peterodriguez5388]

Yes

[@EllienZoe_4413]

What is that on the left?? Do these come amped already? I want to put a 10 in in ours but want it to look as stock as possible.

[@f-30love90]

I wouldn’t put in a 10” it doesn’t sound as good as a 12”. It has an amplifier, that’s what you see on the left, but that’s not even close as far as the power you need to move a sub. They sell better speaker to replace the factory, you could get a little better bass, but not as as good as an after market amp and sub.

[@f-30love90]

What makes it an F series is the chassis

[@coletherose]

Does this end up amplifying the speakers as well? I’m hoping to get a boost out of the speakers from installing an aftermarket amp.

[@f-30love90]

Do, you mean the door speakers? If that’s the case, no. Those are low watts speakers and you can’t amplify them. You would have to replace the speakers and then connect an after market amp in combination with a 5 channel LOC.

[@coletherose]

@@f-30love90 if I replace the stock speakers with aftermarket speakers and then follow the steps in this video to install an aftermarket amp, would the amp then power the speakers? Is the LOC in this 5 channel or is that a special kind?

[@f-30love90]

The LOC is what converts the speaker wire signal from analog to digital using the RCA wires. You need to connect the speakers to the loc and from the loc to the amp. The connection would be a little different, you’ll have to look for a video on how to connect a five channel loc or pre amp? The connection are all the same.

[@coletherose]

@@f-30love90 am i able to add a sub in as well with the same amp using the five channel LOC?

[@f-30love90]

Yes, you could. Just don’t use the loc I used in this video. You would need different RCAs, but you could still wire it all into the loc and from the loc to the amp.

[@jasonw3790]

Im looking to install a aftermarket speaker box in my bmw no bass tho juss the top end like vocals n shit were do i connect the amp to so its connected to the radio

[@jonathanjimenez183]

It’s the same connections, what you need to find is the twisted wires that corresponds to the speaker you are trying to replace. Now, that’s if you’re adding speakers, if you are replacing them. You need to locate the wires coming from the radio and connect them to the INPUT on your amp, and locate the wires going out to the speakers and connect them to the OUTPUT in your amp. If you don’t do it this way and you hook it up to the car’s amp, you can burn both amps. Be careful.

[@jasonw3790]

I dont want to replace any speakers im gunna keep the stocks and juss add the box that has tweeters , so im wondering the blue remote wire do i connect that to the wire in the truck or behind the radio comin from the amp

[@jonathanjimenez183]

You don’t need to connect it to the back of the radio, you can connect it to anything that turns off and on with the car, just as long as you’re getting twelve volts. The purpose of the blue wire is to turn the amp off and on when ever you turn your car off and on. This way your amp doesn’t stay on all the time and drains your battery. Your fuse box just like I did for my car is the ideal place to connect it, this way will also be easiest to remove if you ever need to.

[@mikechat16]

What amp would you recommend for this car, thinking of getting just a 10’

[@f-30love90]

I wouldn’t get a 10”, it doesn’t sound great, it just gives you a thump. You want the bass to Carrie not just thump. It all the lends on tour budget. I would do a kicker comp R with a kicker amp that gives you anywhere from 400-500 rms. That set up will run you less than $500.

[@f-30love90]

*depends on your budget

[@f-30love90]

* sorry for the incomplete message, I’m just waking up 🤦🏽‍♂️... you want to do a kicker 12” comp R with a potted in closure, you want the bass to breath in the trunk. I’ll create more pressure inside the trunk. You’ll find it at Best Buy. If you tell them what you need, they’ll tell you exactly which one to get. I hope this helps.

[@f-30love90]

Extremely important, make sure that the amp gives you 400-500 rms!

[@mikechat16]

Thank you Bro

[@Lordhelp684]

Bro my f30 upgraded the screen and added subwoofer amp. The quality is low on Spotify also when I get phone call it makes a shusssh noise can't hear the person and when I put the volume up it don't show on screen only when putting radio volume it shows up please help

[@jonathanjimenez183]

I don’t know if I can help u there. First thing you need to do is lower the gain to about a little past half way. That should get rid of some of that noise. If you added a sub, you need to adjust the settings at the radio. Turn the bass all the way down and your mids and hi all the way up. If you did the connections exactly like mine, you shouldn’t have any issues with the sound quality. Double check your connections and make sure that you’re not using cheap RCAs, that can affect the quality of the sound.

[@jonathanjimenez183]

If you bought a cheap aftermarket android screen, you’re going to run with those kinds of issues. They use cheap electronics that can cause interference with each other.

[@lifeclip9878]

I tried the fuse you showed simply doesn't work for me.

[@jonathanjimenez183]

Just look for one that turns off and on when you turn the car off and on.

[@lifeclip9878]

@@jonathanjimenez183 I tried today. I plugged into every miniblade fuse free non of them work. The only one that works is the far right hole on bottom fuse bay in the boot.
When I say it works I mean the amp turns on but doesn't turn off when ignition is off so I'm assuming that auto shuts off after 5 mins

[@jonathanjimenez183]

Try pulling down the seats and place the amp where you can see if it does turn off after 5 min or so. Shouldn’t have to wait 5 minutes, just lock and untuck with key fob should do the trick. There has to be one fuse that turns off with ignition. I’m scratching my head.

[@jonathanjimenez183]

Sorry, brother I just re read your last msg, it doesn’t have to be a free slot, you rap the wire around the fuse that turns off and on, then insert it back in. My apologies if I misunderstood.

[@lifeclip9878]

@@jonathanjimenez183 aparantly the ignition fuses is the bay on far left . I've no spare fuses there so don't wanna unplug any as I've only recently got the car

[@elliotjaaksi3691]

Epa el

[@granitkrasniqi7227]

Hello Im cheeking my bmw 3 seris 2015 and I opened the left side to find the amp and theres is no amps how should i find it

[@jonathanjimenez183]

That’s imposible, the amp has to be there. That’s where it is. You have to take the covering off. It’s bolted to the plastic frame.

[@granitkrasniqi7227]

I double cheeked but still couldn’t find it. Is there possible not to have amps at all all I can see there its metal frame mate
Thanks for the reply

[@granitkrasniqi7227]

Also the car its in UK can be any different

[@EllienZoe_4413]

Also what makes it an f Series

[@im7422]

You don’t have to do anything on the front with the stereo?

[@Alikhan78611]

No, he is taking speaker input from the factory amp.

[@ICXCONE]

What wire did your LOC tap into doe, stock subwoofer or mid range speakers?

[@jonathanjimenez183]

It doesn’t matter what you’re tapping into.

[@jonathanjimenez183]

You can tap into any of those signals. Your amp will amplify them.

[@hugoibarra5465]

For your subwoofers, you should tap into the subwoofers. Your midrange gets low frequencies filtered out.

[@sanjayproductions5690]

Bro do you have a way I can contact you outside of UA-cam, I have some questions

[@f-30love90]

Sorry, but I don’t think I would like that. Post your questions and I promise, I would answer every single question as much as I can.

[@sanjayproductions5690]

@@f-30love90 Ight so basically my friend got a 10 inch JL sub installed powered by two 300 watt amps and he upgraded the stock amp to make the door speakers louder. But, apparently the place he took it to to install it put the wrong gauge of wiring and it burnt his ECU out. The car wouldn’t start but luckily it was still under warranty so he got it repaired. He took it back to the same guy, the guy changed the wiring, and his ECU burnt out again a month later. He said new BMW run everything off the ECU and when you add more power to the system it burns it out so it isn’t possible to upgrade the sound system. I have a 2018 f30 and I was just about to get some subs installed until he told me. So I guess my question is how did you do it without messing up the electronics in the car

[@f-30love90]

You can’t upgrade the factory amp. You have to bypass the amp. If you want to amp the door speakers you have to change them and run the wires straight back to the amp. Or make sure you find the wires that correspond to each speaker and use it to connect it to the new speaker. It’s a little complicated process. You do not touch the factory amp. There’s lots of things are being control by the amp. There’s no way to amp the factory door speakers, you need to replace them with a higher wattage. You have to find out which wires coming out of the amp is for which speaker, cut the wire and use the speaker side of the wire not the factory amp side. You’ll need 75watt door speakers and make sure that the amps are 300watts rms if it’s less than that, divide it by 4 and that would be the wattage of the speakers you’ll need. If you bought a high wattage speakers and the amp is way less per channel, it will not move the speaker.

[@sanjayproductions5690]

@@f-30love90 ohhhh that makes sense. So the reason his ECU burnt out is because he tried replacing the stock amp. If I left the stock amp and door speakers alone, and just added another amp for the subwoofers completely separate, I should have no problems right?

[@f-30love90]

If you do the set up how I have it on mine, you will find that it’s really loud. I would use a single 12” potted kicker comp R, powered by a kicker amp that gives you at least 4watts rms. One 12 is way better than two 10”s. What you do is to make it sound louder is: first, you turn down all the bass in your sound setting. Second, you turn up the treble all the way up. This change aloud you put your volume all the way up without hearing any distortion coming from the door speakers. You don’t need bass coming out of the doors, your bass it’s already coming out of the trunk. The music will sound really loud and clear inside the car. That’s how I have it on mine. My f30 is a 2013 and I’m almost sure that your factory sound system sound louder than mine. Try it my way first, then think about spending more money and potentially messing with your factory set up.

[@parmvirsangha3037]

Don’t you need the power and ground for the loc ?

[@f-30love90]

No, You don’t you’re already grounding it with positive and negative speaker wires and the same with the rca

[@timmiller1226]

It depends ...
If it is an active line out convertor then yes, you will need power & ground. These require 12 volt power to output a signal.
Active line out convertor are more advanced than a passive line out convertor. Some can handle up to 400 watts per channel, so amplified OEM or high power systems are not a problem.

[@alexgarza8998]

What year bmw are you working on?

[@jonathanjimenez183]

It’s a 2013 F30

[@91dope31]

Can you do an aftermarket stereo install?

[@f-30love90]

You could, but you shouldn’t. You’ll end up spending more money than needing to. The goal is to have a great sound. What you do is replace the door speakers to 75-125w RMS, get a sound processor (LP5) wire the speaker to it, tune the sound to your liking. You can tune it to the right frequency. The only thing that the radio is doing is sending you the signal. This is the least expensive way to get you sound right. If u do an aftermarket radio, you’ll need to buy the interface and the dash kit. That will run you anywhere from $400-600, and that’s without the radio. it’ll make the car look cheap. Just leave as is and work around the issues. I bought a backup camera from allí express for $142 and it work just fine. My Bluetooth wasn’t working so I bought the BimmerCode app and fixed that, I went on the bmw website and downloaded the latest update for the radio and installed that. My point is that there are ways you can get what you want out of your car without having to change it. Let me know if you have any other questions.

[@anasfaraji9318]

Remote ?

[@Dat550go]

Are you sure?

[@spdy-norskcsgo9334]

Does this work on a e61?

[@jonathanjimenez183]

Yes, it should. You just have to locate where your fuse box is so that you can connect the remote wire.

[@hectornieto1838]

Just installed my system at a shop and it says battery discharging while stopped. Have you had this issue? Any ideas?

[@f-30love90]

No, it has not. My suggestion is: make sure that the gain is not set too high on your amp. Set it to half way or just a bit to the right of it. That should stop the battery discharging notification. The other thing I can think of is that it might be too much for the battery and you might need a stronger battery, but my money is on my first sugestión. If it continues I would take it back to the place where you got the system installed. Please let me know how it goes.

[@hectornieto1838]

@@f-30love90 thanks so much i greatly appreciate it. I turned the setting lower at about 40 just to give it a chance to recharge. it was set at I would say 85% for most knobs on the amp. Crossing my fingers this works. Will keep you updated for sure.

[@f-30love90]

Nooo, 85 is too high. Keep it between 50 and 75, about 60 tops for my preference. Play with your strings on the radio and with your frequency knobs on your amp, if you want the bass to hit a little better. Another suggestion is to work backwards from 85 until you see the dome light in the car stops flickering, that will let you know that it’s no longer pulling so much from the battery. Good luck brother.

[@hectornieto1838]

@@f-30love90 so far so good my amp bass boost was at the highest setting. I put it to 0 and still hits and the error went away! Thanks again!

[@f-30love90]

The knob 🤦🏽‍♂️I forgot about the bass knob. Yes, so exactly what we talk about before. Keep the dial at the amp at 50-75% so that when you put the knob all the way up, all you’re getting is 50-75% of the bass. That way you won’t get the battery warning again. I’m glad I was able to help. Thank you for the feedback, I’m sure it’ll help someone. Thank you. Enjoy!

[@ahasantt8166]

Does the f20 have the sane wiring?

[@f-30love90]

Yes, yes it does.

[@PARA19951]

wow....now thats some jankie sht.....zipties and tape.....just wow....

[@f-30love90]

Of course brother. I live in Florida and if you don’t use the zip ties the heat will make the electrical tape gooey. The point is not to cut wires, you never want to do that. You never know when you have to Go back to factory set up. Plus, it looks nice and clean that way. You splice it, put the wire in between, cover it with electrical tape, and secure it with a zip tie. Hey, any of your suggestions are welcome.

[@PARA19951]

@@f-30love90 Well sure i hate the tape too, and you dont need much heat to make it go off. but would be nicer to use some posi taps. i always use those. never had a bad connection and they are removable. they exist in different styls and shapes.