# 2011 RAV4 Stealth Log



## thechrisl (Jan 12, 2011)

This is my first build from scratch. About 3/4 done at this point and I'm thinking I definitely saved a ton of money doing it myself -- but time? Not so much. This is time consuming stuff with a day job and no garage (carport only).

The other reason I'm doing this myself is because my last car was "professionally" installed (around 2004). While they did a decent job in some respects, over the years I noticed a lot of room for improvement. No sound treatment whatsoever and various other things (i.e. door speakers screwed to bare metal) I would have done differently. I was a newb back then and I overpaid for sure. That being said it sounded pretty good and I was happy with the gear they provided. But I'm looking to do better this time around.

After visiting one of the more well known/reputable shops in town, I knew I would pay a high premium for labor and if I didn't buy one of their brand name amps (at MSRP of course), not to mention wiring and accessories the per hour labor charge would be even higher. I feel fairly confident they would have done a competent (and fast) job but would they have done things the way I asked? Doubtful.

*A few design goals:*
-- Keep the stock look (second best theft deterrent in my book).
-- Re-use some equipment from previous install.
-- Make it easy to upgrade components down the road (namely sub and MP3/Media player).
-- I decided to go with rear fill mainly because I'm used to it. I also want do some more fancy stuff down the road using a processor.
-- Since the rear fill are coax, I incorporated a passive crossover. Later I plan to roll off some of the highs if they interfere with the front. 
-- Front will be 2 way passive but wired for active (once I get the processor).​
*Gear:*
-- Memphis 16-EQP4 preamp (for now -- Plan to get a 3SIXTY.3, BITONE or similar in the future).
-- Memphis 16-MC4.50 (rear, bridged).
-- Zuki Eleets 4 (front).
-- Memphis Mclass Coax 5 1/4 (rear).
-- Audison Voce 2-way kit (front).
-- Dension MP3C HDD based MP3 player with remote (the pinnacle of 2003 technology. Short of a full on carputer I haven't found anything that can handle 250Gb worth of music with a fully functioning remote -- even Dension punked out and started selling iPod accessories).​
...Just wanted to get this started. To be continued, pics coming...


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## thechrisl (Jan 12, 2011)

Some thoughts on soundproofing:

I have to start by saying I'm not an expert. If I was I could be making a lot more money than I am now. But I have read some books on acoustics (Everest) and done some home studio work. A car is one of the worst sound environments out there. You can spend ungodly sums of cash on treatments and it won't get rid of the fact that you are riding on 4 noisy tires behind a noisy engine and surrounded by at least 4 single-pane windows. Oh and there's wind too.

So with that in mind I tried to be smart when it came to soundproofing, concentrating on where speakers are to improve the "signal-to-noise" ratio in that area. In other words, making an effort but trying to avoid diminishing returns.

*Sound Dampener *(Damplifier Pro) -- It has a purpose but most people use it waaay too much. I only used it in the 5 doors, rear wheel wells and a bit over head. I limited placement to fairly flat sections away from bends, welds, etc. Other than the pan in the back (which pops like a soda can if you press on it), I didn't bother with the floor. Not sure whether it would help much considering the existing floor mat and carpet do quite a bit of dampening already.

*Barrier *(MLV with closed cell foam backing) -- I'm using this in all 5 doors as well as the rear wheels. Firewall and under the carpet would be nice too but I decided not to take it to that level. I also decided to take down the headliner to run a wire to the MP3 remote. Since I was going through all that trouble I added some foil backed insulation (ala Heatwave Pro) which will help (a little) with sound and hopefully keep things cooler. I also have some liquid soundproofing stuff from another project that I plan to use outside in the wheel wells.

BTW soundproofing.org is a pretty good source for MLV. Cheaper per sq ft that the popular car oriented products.

Again I'm sure I could have done more (and I don't have measurements to back me up) but I think this will provide a pretty decent bang for the buck.


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## thechrisl (Jan 12, 2011)

Speakers are riveted & had to be drilled out. Yes indeed they are super cheap. Here's a rear door with DP applied to the outer skin. You can see the white connector dangling in front of the speaker hole. Since the rear door wiring passes through a connector which is a beotch to either remove or drill through (though some have done that), I decided to cheat and just use the existing wiring. I ran 14AWG up to the pillar where the connector is. So the last 18in or so is probably 18AWG. Crossover will be mounted in the door too.










It occurred to me that the wire I was cutting contained the signal from the HU -- why not use it? Since there is a 12V outlet in the back for remote turn-on, there is no need to crack open the dash at all! Here's where I made the switch, using quick disconnects (and some heat shrink of course). BTW easy switch back to OEM (when it's time to sell the car) was another consideration.

You can see at the bottom where all the new wiring is running from front to back. That blue one is CAT5 for the 3SIXTY.3 which won't be available for several months.:shout: I confirmed with RF that the remote vol control will work with this.










Obligatory comparison between the rear Mclass coax and the OEM speakers.










BTW thanks to RAV4world for many tips on how to take things apart!


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## thechrisl (Jan 12, 2011)

After some research I decided to use cutting boards and a jigsaw for the spacers. These are from Harbor Freight. The saw did a great job, no melting.



















Some details on the mounting. T nuts and Mortite (like clay, great stuff!). I used Rustoleum on the holes and applied some Loctite on the screws before mounting the spacers. When the speakers are mounted, the plastic serves to hold the screws in very tight! I had to drill pilot holes to avoid cracking but the plastic is somewhat soft.










After confirming that the doors do get pretty wet inside (possibly from the weep holes more than anything) I got some of these and cut holes in the back and sides. Hard to see but I cut a slit at the bottom front which will hopefully let any water that splashes in drain out rather than funnel into the speaker.:wreck: I had plenty of space in back of the driver but these baffles make a nice spacer too, almost 1/4". It may come in handy when I do the larger front speakers.


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## thechrisl (Jan 12, 2011)

Rear door after treatment. I used some fairly thick sheet metal (forget the gauge) to cover up the large openings. It's mounted with Mortite & screws and the edges are covered with caulk. More Damplifier over that. Now I'm hoping it wasn't a mistake to slap some primer on the metal first. They are coated with zinc (I think) so I should be OK.

Originally I wasn't going to do an infinite baffle for the rear fill but I figured this would be good practice (and cheap on materials).










MLV on the inside. I have to wonder whether this will be worth the cost since any holes in a sound barrier will reduce effectiveness a bit. I also made an attempt to line the 6 1/2 speaker holes with some closed cell foam to help tighten up the gap with the 5 1/4 speakers I put in. It looks better from the other side.

It took me a week or so to do the rear doors (with only a couple of hours daylight after work). So after driving around without most of the rear interior bits, I can say it sounds a lot quieter now! That's because those interior bits add quite a bit of noise reduction already. I wish I could snap my fingers and go from stock to treated to do a real comparison. But anyway...


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## thechrisl (Jan 12, 2011)

Working on the wheel wells. I started running low on MLV so I don't have continuous pieces here. Due to the 3D shape I would have needed to cut up a single sheet anyway. In the end I covered all the seams with tape and all but forced the trim back on. This stuff definitely fills in whatever gaps there are between the body and the trim. The hardest part so far has been putting things back together.

Just to the rear I was able to tap into a 12V outlet and get remote power.



















More to come...


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## thechrisl (Jan 12, 2011)

Here's where I tapped the 12V outlet. I used one of the little pop out plugs to hookup the ground. The other side is just aft of the rear wheel (behind the mud guard). I sprayed a bunch of Rustoleum under there.










The MP3 player is a Dension DMP3 (not MP3C). I was wrong, it's really the pinnacle of 2002 technology! This thing really is a little marvel. After all this time it's hummin' away with a 350Gb HDD. I think it's skipped due to a shock in the car maybe twice since I've owned it. It supports M3U playlists and the highest quality MP3s I can throw at it. No flac, wav, etc. of course.

Dension DMP3

My pics don't do the display justice. Not a lot of frills but the menu system is killer compared to what I've read about modern USB support in the various head units. The satellite remote is an exact replica of the faceplate and connects with an RJ-25 cable.


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## thechrisl (Jan 12, 2011)

The Power Plant:










Original battery wiring. The chassis ground is visible here. Both the chassis and engine ground are hard connected to the OEM terminal so both had to be chopped off.










After some consideration I decided to do a Big One upgrade rather than a Big Three. Honestly I don't see the value in upgrading the engine ground. I wanted to upgrade the Alternator to Battery but from what I could tell, the EFI system is also connected to the alternator & it looked like an upgrade could get ugly. This RAV4 came from the factory with a beefed up charging system (tow package option) so I should be good...

So that leaves the chassis ground. It was hard to tell until I chopped it but the OEM cable was already 4AWG. It's a little embarrassing to show but this is the engine ground. I had to spice a piece of 4AWG to accommodate the new battery terminal. It looks ugly here but the strands were separated into four segments, each twisted together and soldered heavily. Then covered with 2 layers of really heavy shrink tube. It started raining while I was doing all this. :surprised:

The chassis ground was replaced by 2AWG. I scraped the paint at the connection point and coated everything w/ dielectric grease.










I've never been comfortable with the idea of a screw type terminal in the engine compartment. They just look sketchy to me. So I went with all crimped lugs. Fortunately the positive terminal had enough room for the additional lug.

After looking for a good spot near the battery for a rather large ANL fuse holder, I gave up on trying to hide it and just mounted it right on the engine cover. The 2AWG cable runs through the big grommet on the passenger side all the way to the back. You can see the new negative terminal here too.


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## thechrisl (Jan 12, 2011)

This RAV stores the spare on the door so there is plenty of room in the back. I decided to tie everything together there. Except for the sub, I didn't want to lose any cargo space so it all went underneath. I plan to keep about half the storage available for actual stuff like tools, jumpers, etc.

There is a long plastic storage tray right behind the rear seats. Here you can see the space after it was removed along with the big storage area in back. There is a lot of space under that tray for bringing in all the wires.










6 speakers, power, ground, head unit, MP3, MP3 remote and RJ45 for 3.SIXTY. It's starting to add up...










This is the tray. I'm working on getting all the distribution & fuse panels laid out here. All the signal cables will be tied to the preamp as well. Hopefully the 3.SIXTY will fit here in place of the preamp. I cut holes and inserted rubber grommets so it would look nice... 



















3 runs of 4AWG power and ground takes up more space than I thought. I had to bite the bullet and cut a big chunk out of the tray to allow room underneath. Getting all this to fit with the tray installed was a beotch!










I placed the MP3 dock under the rear seats using velcro, thin particle board and t-nuts through the carpet. There I can reach it from the driver's seat when I want to pop out the player and take it somewhere. I had to remove the seats to do this (also a PITA!). This is the one place the dock would fit so that the seats could be moved back forth (and laid flat) without crushing it.



















Zuki being wired into the storage compartment. This will be a 2 tier shelf with the second amp and (temporary) crossovers on top. More particle board & velcro to support the shelves from the other side. Again I didn't want to put any new holes in the body.


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## trojan fan (Nov 4, 2007)

Looks like you're making some nice progress... keep it up


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## thechrisl (Jan 12, 2011)

Zuki all tucked in. I'm hoping it will stay cool under here. The false bottom (above the second shelf) will have a hole in it to allow for heat to escape.










Finally getting things locked down:


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## thechrisl (Jan 12, 2011)

Workin' on a front door:










The front window comes down further into the door than the back did. Plus the Audison speakers are deeper than the Memphis (but still not too deep to be a problem). I'm using 2 layers of cutting board for the front, plus the foam baffle and mounting ring (and Mortite). This allows just enough room for the speaker and window to get along.





































I put the plastic back on for two reasons. One because it was the easiest way to cover up that black tar stuff. Two because that layer of white batting adds a nice thin buffer between the door guts and MLV. Hopefully it will help prevent any rattles.


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## thechrisl (Jan 12, 2011)

I used duct seal instead of clay as someone suggested in another thread. It's dense but very easy to work with. I'll have to check back during the summer to make sure there is no meltage. I didn't take it to the next level with bearings. This door is going to be pretty heavy already.



















Not a very elegant mount for the tweeter but it gave me some control over the aim. I pointed it up towards the windshield.










After selling my last car and getting no interest until I removed the stereo gear and dropped the price, I realized a kickass sound system isn't always a helpful selling point. In fact it can hurt resale value (pearls before swine I guess). So I was able to salvage all four crappy woofers and the 2 tweeters for the next owner's listening pleasure! It should take me about 90 minutes to replace the speakers and hook them back up to the head unit.


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## thechrisl (Jan 12, 2011)

Getting the speaker cables through into the door. I didn't figure it out until the last door but it really helps if you can disconnect the cables going through the loom. Then you can pull the assembly part way out and have a fairly straight path to fish through versus a tight bend.

Also it helped to disconnect that door dampener (one bolt in the middle). It allowed the door to open a few more degrees which made a big difference.










Finally, to maximize storage space in the back, I decided to replace the OEM false floor with something that has a smaller trap door...



















...and a way for heat to escape.




























Once I get the last door together, that's about it. Just need to tweak the amps & (god forbid) do any troubleshooting. In a few months I'll be looking to go active with a 3SIXTY.3.


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## Mikcuz (Apr 2, 2011)

Liking the stealth install. Monitoring.


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## thechrisl (Jan 12, 2011)

Ugh... it sounds good when cranked but rather noisy otherwise. Alternator whine & other pops and clicks. So far it does not appear to be the (brand new) Zuki or the (fairly old) MP3 player. It's either coming from the Memphis pre, OEM HU or the cheapo LOC I used as a stopgap until I can get a processor. Troubleshooting....

The highs also sound a bit harsh to my somewhat treble sensitive ears. I'm hoping this is due to the fact that everything is running thru the crappy HU and cheap LOC. I know I've said this several times but this is just temporary. In the future I plan to run the MP3 player direct through the processor and only use the HU to listen to NPR or the occasional CD.

Here are a few shots of the Dension satellite perched up in the sunglasses holder. I didn't get any pics but, yes, the headliner came down to make this happen. It blocks the rear view just a bit but I can still pop it up into the closed position.


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## thechrisl (Jan 12, 2011)

Still having some noise issues but I'll ask about it in a separate thread.


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## HondAudio (Oct 19, 2006)

thechrisl said:


> Also it helped to disconnect that door dampener (one bolt in the middle). It allowed the door to open a few more degrees which made a big difference.


I don't think I've ever seen this mentioned before. Great idea! As long as it doesn't affect the alignment of the door, it's a great way to make wire runs through the boot a little easier.


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## thechrisl (Jan 12, 2011)

There is some serious spring action in the damper so you have to be careful. In other words, don't try to close the door. It's at rest when the door is open. Also, don't bump into it accidentally causing it to open too far. If the hinges give way, you could damage the exterior. As a temporary measure while fishing wire, I think it's pretty safe otherwise...


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## HondAudio (Oct 19, 2006)

thechrisl said:


> There is some serious spring action in the damper so you have to be careful. In other words, don't try to close the door. *It's at rest when the door is open.* Also, don't bump into it accidentally causing it to open too far. If the hinges give way, you could damage the exterior. As a temporary measure while fishing wire, I think it's pretty safe otherwise...


If I'm reading this correctly, the damper is spring-loaded, and compresses when the door is closed, and expands when the door is opened? As long as I know that, and make sure the door doesn't swing too far, I should be in good shape. 

I've decided to make "flying leads" in the form of ~2' lengths of finished and protected speaker wire which will go into the doors and terminate in the kickpanels with a barrier strip. 

These will stay in place no matter what midbass is used in the door, that way I don't have to fish the wire from the amp all the way to the front of the car and then also into the door.


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## thechrisl (Jan 12, 2011)

Right -- for my car anyway, when the door was opened, there was no tension in the damper. If I pushed the door closed a bit, it pushed back & tried to pop out since there was not bolt holding it in place.


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## thechrisl (Jan 12, 2011)

Long story short, I ended up getting a Cleansweep which did everything I expected. I removed the cheap LOCs. HU signal sounds clean, I'm not hearing the whine any more. The auto-EQ works very well. The harshness I was hearing in my new Audison tweets is gone (probably due to hyped treble from the HU). MP3 player is connected directly to the Cleansweep. I get to make use of the all important remote volume control which doubles as a source selector.

I'm still using the preamp after the CS because it has some sub control and a fairly limited EQ. This screws up my gain staging a bit since the CS is capable of overloading the pre and the pre is capable of overloading the amp. So I'm pretty sure the system is capable of getting much louder -- but I have it tweaked to avoid any clipping. 

From a SQ perspective, the system kills now, IMO! The Zuki + Audisons especially sound great and so far no rattles in the doors. The Zuki does get a bit warm though, I may need to cut out a space in that first shelf so heat can rise & escape a bit easier. I still plan to replace both the CS and preamp with a 3Sixty.3 for additional tweakage but I'm very happy for now!


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## grinkeeper (Jun 26, 2015)

Thanks for the tips, Im doing a RAV4 build now


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