DIY: Putting a subwoofer in the rear deck of an LX

[djpaw]

So I was sick of a big box in my trunk, so I decided to put a sub woofer in my rear deck. Problem is, the LX does not come with a sub cut out or even a port in the rear

Thanks to CivicCoupe06 and CollegeHillsHonda for helping make this possible.

This link will tell you how to remove a LX deck and put an EX deck with a sub woofer port and the Third LED brake light.
DIYHonda.com Video Podcasts: Podcast Episode #97 - Civic Coupe LED 3rd Brake Light Upgrade

Here is a pic of the LX Rear Deck



Here is a pic of the EX Rear Deck



This is how the deck looks, with the rear deck out



I then placed a stencil that comes with the subwoofer, to trace the cut out for the port.



I then cut the deck. This was a PITA, but I used snips and it took me 2 hours, Can be done in 2 minutes if you have the right tools



This is the Pioneer 8" Shallow subwoofer that I was using. I also purchased some weather stripping to provide a padding between the sub and the metal.



Cut it and shaped it and stuck it bottom of the woofer.



Fixed the sub in the cut out



Before


After

[djpaw]

Connecting the third brake light was a pain, since the connectors were not long enough.

Need to Sound-deaden the whole thing now, as everything vibrates and rattles like hell.

Sub sounds good, deep, and i got no junk in my trunk.

Ofcourse, nothing compares to a 12", but this will have to do. I think im growing up

[Ryd1ZZ]

Nice work! Might have to do this.

How much was the deck lid?

[msjwild3]

Is there alot of rattling and vibrating? I would think that would be a huge problem.

[djpaw]

Thanks !!

DeckLid $40 (Comes with the brake light, which costs $50 if ordered separately!! weird!!)

Snips $17 to cut the metal.

Pioneer SubWoofer $77 ( I had an Amazon Gift card, so it was free for me ! :P )

Dunno, how much I got to spend on sound deadening, but will not use Dynamat. Seems when it gets freezing cold outside, Dynamat becomes like hardplastic. Probably lots of foam and weather stripping and all.

[djpaw]

You bet it all rattles and vibrates. Will need heavy soundproofing , to make it perfect. Will do that this weekend.

[ooskers]

I can't believe you could cut through all of that, what a beast

[ThePiper]

if you believe, you will succeed HAHA

[07mugencivic]

thats a good DIY

REP+

[djpaw]

Thanks 07mugencivic.

It was crazy cutting that. Luckily there was a cut out already, so I had some place to get leverage.

I had to do it from outside, with the boot open and seats down, with my hand upside down cutting from below.

[mhuynh]

whats the specs on the sub?

[Sexy6Speed]

awesome job! how do u like the pioneer? im interested in putting one of these in my si, does JL audio make a similar sub? i heard they did but i cant find it.

[spocheld]

How are you powering the sub? And I wonder if a dremel tool would have enough torque to cut through the metal.

[choklit]

^^^i doubt a dremel would be good enough to cut that

how did you hook it up to the stock radio?

[bizzybearfigiblue]

nice work... for the efforts... i hope any info i gave u b4 helped...

[bizzybearfigiblue]

the dremel would work but u might go through a few wheels to get the job done... also the sparks might cause a problem as well...

[Soichiro Jr.]

Originally Posted by spocheld

How are you powering the sub?

Yeah, what amp is powering your nice new pioneer sub? Thanks. Toodles....

[djpaw]

Originally Posted by bizzybearfigiblue

nice work... for the efforts... i hope any info i gave u b4 helped...

Thanks !! Your pics in that other thread sure helped.

I did not use any dremel to cut it ! I think it would be difficult to cut it with a dremel, the metal is kinda thick. Not sure though. I used cheap 15$ snips from Home Depot. They cut pretty decent, they cut in small increments, but do the job. They cut kinda shabby, but if you are careful and trim it proper, it does a decent job. Takes a looong time. I live in an apt, so I did not want to invest in power tools yet.

There is already a place to start from, see attached pic. You can see the cicle i drew with a black marker to trace the stencil to mark what i had to cut.

[djpaw]

Here are the specs of the pioneer :

Amazon.com: Pioneer Premier TS SW841D - Car subwoofer driver - 120 Watt - 8": Electronics

There are other ones with 8" inch subs, but this one is shallow. They clear the torsion bars below the rear deck, plus i have had good experience with Pioneer.

I hooked my amp to the factory LX deck using an LOC module, tapping the rear speakers. Luckily the 07 LX coupe has tweeters. So the entire system sounds very nice, even with the stock Head Unit and stock Speakers.

The stock speakers have decent mid bass, but only when the car not moving. Road noise kills the bass.

I now have a Sony 222 amp, which is like 7 years old now, which used to power an older free air Pioneer 12", so its more than enough to power this 8". Free air subs always need less power.

[djpaw]

The sub sounds nice and deep, hits nice low notes and punches well too. Depends on your taste of music and loudness. I usually go upto volume 20 with techno, do not like it more than that, maybe 25 if im "amped" up....

I got a few songs which go really really low,it does distort a bit, but I need to play with the amp gain to get it right. 98% of other songs, including hip hop, sounds sweet. I always like direct vibration from rear deck subs.

I am happy I did this, it was a cheap DIY, since I already had the amp from my old car, my boss and gf gave me amazon gift cards, and my neighbor had some dynamat left over !!

If you want trunk space, and decent bass, go for it.