Took some effort but overall not bad. Lots of help from Owen's site:
http://p4-8057.uk2net.com/jag/

The amp is tied down (yes, literally tied down with wire) to the top of the CD changer. It was a lot easier than drilling and more secure than it looks. All the wires were eventually tied up and fit neatly behind the felt-board trunk trim. The leads for the sub and tweets were made live using the guide provided on the aforementioned site.

For anyone considering the sub upgrade for their coupe, a round steel plate sits underneath the fabric & plastic interior panel that makes a for perfect sub adapter when cut properly. It was either do this or buy an adapter that is supposedly available from the Jag dealership (though I can't imagine at what price). The most time consuming part of the entire job was cutting the steel plate in a circle, very carefully, with a DeWalt circular diamond grinding blade (a hand held grinder tool, not a circular saw or jig saw). Tin snips might work for this task, though the result will be rougher. I finished off the edge inside the new circle with a stone to get rid of all burrs before installing the speaker.

The sub leads are dual and both can be made live. It's probably the same harness used on the convertible, which had optional (small) HK subs on each side. Therefore, when choosing a sub I went with a dual-coil 8" sub to get the full benefit. It's is a flea market special but hey, it's not easy to find a dual channel 8" sub at a reasonable price. If it craps out, at least I already have the hole in place, right?

So far, the sub works great and the tweets (also cheapos from a flea market) sound much better than expected. I'd like to get them and all the rest of the speakers tied into the amp also, since it can probably handle the whole system easily (Rockford Fosgate P400-4).

Thanks a bunch to Owen and his site - I would surely have screwed things up without the information and wiring guides there!

 

good project Burg! The sub looks like a bluapunkt with the 'fire' cage, and the only thing I'd be concerned about is the ability for it to operate as a 'free air' sub. There are very few out there in the aftermarket sector that are designed for such applications. Elemental designs is one that comes to mind, and Boston Acoustics G series (10" minimum though). Keep an eye on it.

so, when finished, how many speakers do you have running, the 4 coaxials (2 front, 2 door), the tweets in the dash, and then the 8" sub?

 

Under the arm rest looks almost exactly like what I did to my previous - a '98 XK8 coupe. I was lucky enough to find the OEM HK speakers (midrange, tweets and sub) on ebay. And I was able to mount an amp that I used for the sub only above the CD changer. But this was about 6 years ago and it performed flawlessly until I got rid of her last year. Very nice and enjoy.

 

Thanks, and yes, I now have tweets in dash (skipped the empty a-pillars), plus the stock units in the doors and rear, and the sub in the rear shelf.

I've got some replacements on the way for the door and rear speakers. Found a really good price on four JL Audio speakers that I've seen used in other upgrades:

http://www.dealercostcaraudio.com/se...udio+TR600-CXi

At $78.99 shipped it's an economical improvement over the stock versions which are probably ripped up by now anyway.

h20 - I'm not sure what you mean by the sub as a free air - should I have it in a smaller, custom enclosure? Thought the trunk would take car of that, but maybe not.

 

Free air, in simplest terms, is un-enclosed...too much air in the trunk to count as an enclosure. They are just designed differently, thats all. You'll get more 'bump' from one that is made to move without smaller spaces, but what you have may be enough.

Those JL Audios will be a nice upgrade, you going to run them from the amp? It'll make a ton of difference if you do.

 

If I can figure out where the leads for those speakers are, I plan to, yes. Do you know if they have leads near the CD changer in the trunk that can be spliced into?

 

If you don't have a separate amp back there with the basic system, I doubt it.

Ever take out your back seat?

 

No, never. Is that the only way to get to the wires?

 

Got a new head unit, the Alpine iDA-X305S

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ef=oss_product

plus an Alpine Bluetooth adapter:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ef=oss_product

And four JL Audio speakers, all the way around.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...ef=oss_product

Note: the picture of the speakers shows an integrated tweeter, but as shipped they come with separate tweets, no crossovers, but a good supply of mounting options.

Also used were a radio adapter and steering wheel control adapter from

http://www.autoleads.co.uk/

Thanks to them I am still able to use the steering wheel controls and the radio installation did not involve hacking and guessing the factory wiring harness.

As far as installation of all the equipment goes, I will not go fully into a blow by blow description but I am posting a few pics to show how easy it is to fit the JL Audio speakers into the stock locations. the only difference is that the stock speakers are a weird factory size, and as such any upgrade will not fit exactly. However using only one screw plus the cover should keep the speaker in place without any problems. I don't know why the very helpful Mr. Owen Mandeville(?) felt the need to remove both door panels during his front speaker installations, as this was clearly not necessary during the install on my '97 XK8 Coupe. Two screws and some gentile maneuvering and that was all it took to get to the front door speakers. The rears were a bit trickier, as removing the panels will inevitably result in damage to the plastic retaining clips. That, and one must find a location for the component tweets. I plan to either use screws or sticky tape - still not sure which is best. BTW, you do not need to remove the back seat to install rear speakers; I did that to run some wires to my trunk mounted amp.

The radio itself was a bit of a chore, particularly the Bluetooth unit setup. The instructions with the Alpine could be a lot more complete, but in my experience this is typical for nearly all car audio units, since most installers just chuck whatever directions come with the head unit no matter what.

If you attempt an install, plan to dedicate the better part of a day to trial and error. I have everything working now, but it was kind of a clusterf-ck between trying to coordinate Pandora and Bluetooth. I will be continuing to enhance this install by tying in my existing Rockford Fosgate amp, since the head unit has very little power on its own. Also looking for an adapter to let me use the stock CD changer, since as you can see from the pictures the connections from the changer to the radio do not match.

Meanwhile, I have four stock speakers in pretty good condition for anyone who might be interested....

 

I would love to see the install pics of the head unit!

 

Pics from the head unit installation. I did not get shots of the steering wheel control adapter or the radio adapter that plugs right into the Jag harness, but they are on the site I mentioned earlier.

The Alpine is great and gives lots of options, but I'm sure it will be a thousand times better once the amplifier I have is fully tied in. My only complaint is the steering wheel controls work, but are sligthly slower than they were with the stock radio. I can adapt to that - just happy they work at all. And now that I think of it, the Bluetooth connectivity with the Alpine adapter is hit or miss. You can pair a device (like an iPhone), get it working drive around then park and shut off the car. Come back five minutes later and start everything up again and then the radio doesn't recognize the Bluetooth phone you just had connected. Pandora is kind of frustrating in this way when compared to satellite. But i do like Pandora and think that the trend is in their favor - this type of service will only improve over time.

Sometimes turning off the phones blue tooth function and turning it back on again helps,as does turning off the radio and turning it back on. But seriously, this kind of stuff should be much more seamless.

Overall though, happy with the swap so far.

 

I see so many references to "Owen's site" at http://p4-8057.uk2net.com/jag/ but it appears to be a dead link now. Dang. Does anybody have Owen's info captured as a PDF, or is there a revised link to that site?

I'd really appreciate being able to check out that info. Thanks.

Walt

 

Yeah, I saw that - too bad, not sure what happened. If you email him he might respond. Got a few helpful hints from him a few months ago.

For the most part a basic speaker install isn't all that difficult. It's when you get into adding an amp or a subwoofer to a car not equipped with the premium sound that things can get confusing. I'd strongly recommend downloading the Jaguar manuals from the FAQ section of this site and using the wiring diagrams as you go along. They are a big help.

 

I'll do that. Thanks, BurgXK8.

 

X100 just posted a revised link to Owen's wonderful install information! Here it is:
http://jag.vis1.co.uk/Jag/default.htm