Jump to content
Do Not Sell My Personal Information


Hassen's Ford Focus 1.6 Tdci Build Thread


Hassen
 Share

Recommended Posts

Small update: My front left tyre was losing air for a while and at the last service at the Ford garage it was checked and they couldn't find anything wrong with it. It was still losing air at the time and I thought that it might be a slow puncture. The garage couldn't find the cause.

So, given the fact that I had purchased the tyres not too long ago from them and that part of the service is that if there is a puncture in between car services that they would fix it for free, I brought it back to the garage. Left the car on Friday and they found out that the valve was defective. It was fixed for free and my car got a car wash as usual.

Thought it was very decent of them to stand by their word and repair the tyre for free. I really appreciated the car wash as it badly needed one :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites


Back to sound matters for a bit. My current setup has the Vibe Slick 6 coaxials in the rears for a long while now. They are turned nearly all the way down and all the sound come from the front Focal 165KR Speakers. I have been toying with the idea of getting a set of Focal 165KRC coaxial Speakers for the rear to add rear fill and ambience to the set. I know purists will say that rear Speakers are no necessary but I can definitely hear a gap of the middbass frequencies between the front speakers and rear subwoofers. It's hard to explain in words but to me it feels that there is something definitely missing there. The setup has been in its current state for a good few months now and I listen to it everyday, 5-6 days a week for at least 1-2hr per day. So, I know it quite well :)

I would like to hear any thoughts people on the forums have on having rear speakers in this setup? Worth it or waste of time? Or, should I go with a set of componets, same as in the front. This will cause placement issues as there is no stock placement available for the tweeters and I want to avoid that if possible.

Thanks

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Also, got the Goodridge brake lines delivered last Friday. Still awaiting the Whiteline rear antiroll bar and then going to get them fitted by the mechanic. Hoping it arrives this week :)

IMAG2411_1_zps6s7snaso.jpg

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Not too sure mate. There are a few people on the forums who had them replaced. Might be a good idea to ask them. I think Lenny did that for his car. Not 100% about that.

Not really my thing as I would not get to ever see them while driving :P

I have them & they are awesome when lit up

Yunii

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I will be putting rear Speakers in when I do my build. I am also putting components in. I found these on eBay so it looks stock when I install.

post-40390-143015753954_thumb.jpgpost-40390-143015755382_thumb.jpg

Sent from my iPhone using Ford OC

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites


Yunii, I reckon the rear led lights are awesome. I am holding back on any visual upgrades for now and focussing on getting the car to drive and sound just the way I want to.

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I will be putting rear speakers in when I do my build. I am also putting components in. I found these on eBay so it looks stock when I install.

attachicon.gifImageUploadedByFord OC1430157538.728035.jpgattachicon.gifImageUploadedByFord OC1430157552.985145.jpg

Sent from my iPhone using Ford OC

Did you find these door cards with the tweeter locations? I wonder if they would fit my 5 door Mk 2.5? Also have to weigh up the benefit of having components in the rear and the price cost as this would add buying the 2 door cards to the total. I want to be in a position to return the car back to stock when selling it as I plan on keeping the Speakers for the next car. Along with that, I rarely have people in the back of the car, so these planned Speakers would only be used for rear fill/ambience rather than for people in the back listening.

So far cheapest place to get them were eBay. If anyone seen them for cheaper, please let me know. Cheers :)

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I will be putting rear speakers in when I do my build. I am also putting components in. I found these on eBay so it looks stock when I install.

attachicon.gifImageUploadedByFord OC1430157538.728035.jpgattachicon.gifImageUploadedByFord OC1430157552.985145.jpg

Sent from my iPhone using Ford OC

Your existing door cards should have the cross hair location for drilling these holes in your existing door cards,

Yunii, I reckon the rear led lights are awesome. I am holding back on any visual upgrades for now and focussing on getting the car to drive and sound just the way I want to.

Did you get the sinewave test going on the amps yet mate?
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Drilling holes in the door cards means that when I do decide to sell the car, the only option I will have will be to get another cheaper set of components to replace the Focals (if I do get them) or get another set of door cards.

How are you proceeding with your rear door install Lenny? You going to drill holes to put the tweeters?

I still didn't get a chance to do the sine wave test. I did mess about with the settings on the amp earlier on today and I also was testing out the rear Speakers. The Vibe Speakers sound quality is quite "muddy" as compared to the front Focals. There's no clarity in the high frequencies and the mid bass is not pleasant to my ear. When I put them on, it really makes the whole system sound muffled or muddy. I just had to turn them down very low.

Still very tempted to get another set of Focal 165KR or 165KRC for the rears :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

How are you proceeding with your rear door install Lenny? You going to drill holes to put the tweeters?

Im great thanks,

My build is complete

I fitted two sets of JL Audio C3 650 in my focus,

The JL C3 have a unique ability to convert from component to coaxial Speakers giving the same results in both fitments,

Page 79 of my build link: http://www.fordownersclub.com/forums/topic/41443-taking-oval-to-blue-horizon-lennys-build-thread-2010-2015/?p=469406

So i didn't see any purpose in drilling the door cards personally as i retain the power of a component system within the same space.

Best price on JL Audio Products in the UK is from sound evo

Link: http://www.soundevo.co.uk

There also trading as "FastCarAudio" on eBay see link:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/fastcaraudio

Tell em lenny from FordOwnersClub.com recommended.

I still didn't get a chance to do the sine wave test. I did mess about with the settings on the amp earlier on today and I also was testing out the rear speakers. The Vibe speakers sound quality is quite "muddy" as compared to the front Focals. There's no clarity in the high frequencies and the mid bass is not pleasant to my ear. When I put them on, it really makes the whole system sound muffled or muddy. I just had to turn them down very low.

Still very tempted to get another set of Focal 165KR or 165KRC for the rears :)

Highly recommend doing the sine-wave calibration to ensure the amplifier is putting out the correct Ohm level to the Speakers prior to spending too much time tuning equalisers just my two pence of info there.
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the info Lenny. With regards to Speakers, if I were to get rear Speakers, I would stick with the Focal in the same range to keep things homogenous.

So today I got a chance in the evening to use the multimeter to calibrate the amplifiers and Speakers. I bought it from Woodies and kinda annoyed that the battery supplied with it was out of date and dead. Thankfully I had a spare one at home.

IMAG2413_1_zpsoslwb927.jpg

Used the multimeter as directed off a Youtube video to set the gains for my 2 amplifiers. The JL Audio JX250/1 needed 26.5V and the Rockford Fosgate P100X4D required 24.5V. Whole process took me about 30min as it was dark and taking out the wires connected to the speakers was fiddly.

The results are discernable to my ear. I can push the volume louder without the whole system distorting and as a result the sound is clearer. Also, I realised that the amp gain was too high for both the JL Audio and the Rockford Fosgate and in the long term might damage them.

Overall, I am quite happy to have spent the time to get it tuned properly. I have a 2-3hr round trip tomorrow and will report back with the results.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the info Lenny. With regards to speakers, if I were to get rear speakers, I would stick with the Focal in the same range to keep things homogenous.

So today I got a chance in the evening to use the multimeter to calibrate the amplifiers and speakers. I bought it from Woodies and kinda annoyed that the battery supplied with it was out of date and dead. Thankfully I had a spare one at home.

IMAG2413_1_zpsoslwb927.jpg

Used the multimeter as directed off a Youtube video to set the gains for my 2 amplifiers. The JL Audio JX250/1 needed 26.5V and the Rockford Fosgate P100X4D required 24.5V. Whole process took me about 30min as it was dark and taking out the wires connected to the speakers was fiddly.

The results are discernable to my ear. I can push the volume louder without the whole system distorting and as a result the sound is clearer. Also, I realised that the amp gain was too high for both the JL Audio and the Rockford Fosgate and in the long term might damage them.

Overall, I am quite happy to have spent the time to get it tuned properly. I have a 2-3hr round trip tomorrow and will report back with the results.

It is amazing the difference calibration makes aswell as safety it provides knowing the Ohm's are matching the Speakers.

Well worth the fumble mate ;)

Can now safely get maximum output from your Speakers without distortion or popping.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Agreed Lenny. It's good to know that I am getting the most out of the Speakers.

Today had a 2-3hr round trip mostly motorway and listened to all sorts of music off the system. Definite difference in the sound levels. Previously I could barely put it past Vol 10 as it was too loud and the max Vol would be 23-24. Now on the motorway, Vol is 12-13 comfortably and max Vol is 30. No distortion at all off these levels. The max Vol level the headunit goes is 40 but anything past 30 it starts to distort. I think that's a decent result now.

In other news, I been reading up a lot about sound quality for installs and the option of adding a sound processor and going active with the Speakers as a result of this. Sound processor being considered is the Audison Bit Ten to make the most of the amp and front Speakers. With this proposed setup, the rear speakers would be ditched totally and according to the little bit of reading I have done, the quality of the whole setup would be brought a step up. Just something I was thinking of doing down the line after finishing up with the rest of the sound deadening. Found the Audison Bit Ten for £176, which is a bit of a bargain!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Small update: Tomorrow getting a new rear bumper fitted. Just a standard one to replace the one that was bashed in the recent incident. Hopefully won't take too long and it's 20min away.

Link to comment
Share on other sites


Agreed Lenny. It's good to know that I am getting the most out of the speakers.

Today had a 2-3hr round trip mostly motorway and listened to all sorts of music off the system. Definite difference in the sound levels. Previously I could barely put it past Vol 10 as it was too loud and the max Vol would be 23-24. Now on the motorway, Vol is 12-13 comfortably and max Vol is 30. No distortion at all off these levels. The max Vol level the headunit goes is 40 but anything past 30 it starts to distort. I think that's a decent result now.

In other news, I been reading up a lot about sound quality for installs and the option of adding a sound processor and going active with the speakers as a result of this. Sound processor being considered is the Audison Bit Ten to make the most of the amp and front speakers. With this proposed setup, the rear speakers would be ditched totally and according to the little bit of reading I have done, the quality of the whole setup would be brought a step up. Just something I was thinking of doing down the line after finishing up with the rest of the sound deadening. Found the Audison Bit Ten for £176, which is a bit of a bargain!

The Pioneer AVH8600BT has a digital sound processor built in,

I researched these before and discovered they are primarily designed for situations where the stock headunit is being used to feed some aftermarket amps,

The sound processor unit would allow equaliser control as most stock headunit's have a limited ability in regards to what sounds go where.

However on an aftermarket headunit which already has full equaliser control, high and low pass filters aswell as individual volume levelling of each speaker i don't see any need for a sound processor.

The amplifiers themselves also have adjustable frequency inputs for the sub, front and rear Speakers,

This enables various tones to be sent only to sub, front or rear Speakers,

Just putting the information out there for other potential followers aswell.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the info and it does make sense. The Audison would be used to it full potential with the stock headunit. My own headunit doesn't have DSP built in I think. It does have some of the features you listed above.

From the little bit of research I did, the Audison takes sound customisation futher. e.g it has a 31 band eq while my own headunit has 7! Also, it maximises the power from the amp by only feeding the amp the frequencies it has to amplify e.g subwoofer amp gets only fed the subwoofer frequencies you choose. I think it's an elegant solution for people who want to retain their stock headunit and with an aftermarket headunit, gives another level of tweaking that takes the whole system to another level. Been watching a good few videos about it and I am still tempted lol

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Got the new bumper fitted today. Took about 2hr for the guys to do it as the bolts were all rusted and gave a lot of grief. Excellent job though as it looks spot on. Some pictures

Bumper off. The metal bar is badly rusted there and I couldn't believe how bad it was for a nearly 5 year old car!
IMAG2415_zpsvmeziktw.jpg

New bumper being prepped to be fitted:

IMAG2416_zpsqtuqueub.jpg

New bumper fitted:

IMAG2421_zpsoqysn2dd_edit_1430830854033_

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

In other news, I have been researching the option of going active on my current Speakers and ditching the rear Speakers completely. The general plan would be to get the Audison Bit Ten and then use the Rockford Fosgate amp to drive the 2 tweeters and 2 mids at the front of the car in an active setup.

I reckon with the above in place, that will extract the best sound quality from the whole system. Only problem is that I reckon the Audison Bit Ten is not easy to setup and I don't have any experience with it. Along with that, if I were to bring it to a car audio installer, they would need to be familiar with it to make full use of it's capabilities and maybe they would need to have a rTA for fine tuning. Finding it difficult to find any installer around here that would be familiar with it.

Any thoughts or is this not worth the money/hassle?

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Got the new bumper fitted today. Took about 2hr for the guys to do it as the bolts were all rusted and gave a lot of grief. Excellent job though as it looks spot on. Some pictures

Bumper off. The metal bar is badly rusted there and I couldn't believe how bad it was for a nearly 5 year old car!IMAG2415_zpsvmeziktw.jpg

Your crash bar is an aftermarket one with removable tow bar,

Judging by the corner welds and rust id say it was custom made to be fair,

The original crash barrier is powder coated black and doesn't have welds as its designed to absorb impact or of course a tow bar centre,

Image1907.jpg

As saw in my guide here:

http://www.fordownersclub.com/forums/topic/32690-reduce-reuse-and-recycle/

If concerned you could always have it sandblast and powder coated at ecoblast.ie

IMG_20150312_141534_zpsntnieize.jpg

IMG_20150312_110824_zpsr1g8piqb_edit_142

In other news, I have been researching the option of going active on my current speakers and ditching the rear speakers completely. The general plan would be to get the Audison Bit Ten and then use the Rockford Fosgate amp to drive the 2 tweeters and 2 mids at the front of the car in an active setup.

I reckon with the above in place, that will extract the best sound quality from the whole system. Only problem is that I reckon the Audison Bit Ten is not easy to setup and I don't have any experience with it. Along with that, if I were to bring it to a car audio installer, they would need to be familiar with it to make full use of it's capabilities and maybe they would need to have a rTA for fine tuning. Finding it difficult to find any installer around here that would be familiar with it.

Any thoughts or is this not worth the money/hassle?

I reckon its not worth the spend since your existing headunit already has an adjustable equaliser, fader and your amps have frequency input cut off filters,

Id spend 20-25 on the pioneer calibration mic,

IMG_20141122_083016_zpsptwlzrya.jpg

IMG_20141122_083006_zpsamnblvpc.jpg

IMG_20141018_185529_zpswl1ssria.jpg

IMG_20141018_185519_zps09umnmvg.jpg

This allows your compatable headunit to calibrate itself as best possible to suit the acoustic shape of the car,

The frequency inputs on the amps allow you to send anything below for example 50hz to the sub only,

Then another level to rear Speakers and the higher to front Speakers,

I think eliminating the rear Speakers completely is madness to be fair,

Fitting a highly adjustable equaliser and then eliminating two speakers goes against reason.

If the 4 channel amp frequency inputs are set correctly it enables categorisation of sounds,

Meaning the front speakers play one level of tones while rear speakers play a different level of tones and the sub doing the bass tones,

All coming together to create the overall track,

Just my view on it.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Funny how the rear bar is not the same in both our cars. Reckon mine was done after. Hopefully it wasn't crashed in the rear lol. Tbh, I can't be bothered with the sandblasting as it's not in view at all and it's not corroded to the point of being unsafe.

Interesting idea about the calibration mic. I am unsure if my headunit has that function built in to it. I will have to double check.

From the bit of research I have done on the subject, it seems that going active for the crossovers gives you the flexibility of picking the exact crossover points for the tweeters and mids. Also, passive crossover networks apparently use a lot of power and waste between 30-40% of the power going to the Speakers. Going active gives more dynamic range and extracts the full potential from the Speakers as the passive crossover networks are a one size fit all solution whereas the active one would be tailored to your individual car.

With regards to rear Speakers, I actually have the rear in my car barely on as I don't like how the rears muddy up the sound. It keeps the soundstage in the front which is what I prefer.

The Audison Bit Ten seems to be quite an exciting piece of kit and I reckon it's beyond my abilities to install and set it up. Any suggestions of a good car audio shop preferrably in Dublin that will be able to install and set it up for me along with making my speakers go active with my setup? Thanks

Still planning to add more sound deadening in the car over the summer and also, the rear anti roll bar should be delivered next week. Then will need to book the car in to get the parts fitted. Should be good fun :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Got the front brake discs, brake pads and the brake lines fitted today. Here are some pictures.

Front brake discs:

IMAG2423_zpsiy5hlt91.jpg

Front brake lines:

IMAG2425_zps4pdxv9wg.jpg

Rear brake lines:

IMAG2426_zpso46alpzg.jpg

So far, the pedal feel is improved slightly and the braking distance is definitely shorter. The car stops much quicker than before and driving the car, I feel much more confident on the brakes. Success on that front I think...and it also looks much better :)

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Also today, I had brought the rear anti-roll bar to the mechanics but it couldn't be fitted. He mentioned to me that it needs drop links. So, I went back onto the Demon Tweeks website to find some Whiteline drop links and there is a whole bunch of different dimensions. Anyone know which one is the right one for my car? I know that the diameter of the holes on the anti-roll bar is 10mm but I don't know how long I need them to be. Any ideas guys?

Some pictures of the anti-roll bar.

IMAG2427_zpseqav5rii.jpg

IMAG2428_zpscwjrgasu.jpg

IMAG2429_zpspkm7cqx3.jpg

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Btw, I was told this would fit on my car but I have never installed one before and I thought it was just a direct replacement. Kinda concerned if it doesn't fit :(

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share





×
×
  • Create New...

Forums


News


Membership