Sub Install Guide Is200

[Andrew - D]

I know there will be other guides on here but i just thought i would share my knowledge what there is of it from installing a sub. I have always thought the IS had a good sound system but just lacked a bit of bass so i decided i wanted a sub. However i wanted to keep the OEM head unit because i like the way it looks and i didnt want to spoil the look of the dash. I know many of you will disagree and say that aftermarket ones look and sound better but i really do like the car to have a uniform look.

Anyway first thing was to find a sub with an amp i didnt want to get a driver then a box and an amp far to complicated for me i mean i dont really know that much about it. So anyway i went to hlafords to have a look and i found one there that had an amp and could take a hi input which means that i could take the amplifed feed from the current speakers in the car and use that as the line in for the amp. This is far easier as you will see as it means you do not need to fit cross overs and stuff like that. Also it ment no alterations were needed to the stereo the car, just what i wanted. Its a vibe sub and is 1200 watts which is more than enough for me.

First thing is first i needed to get a live feed from the Battery so i needed to find a way for the cable from the boot the the cabin. Luckly i found a hole at the top left of the boot, this goes through to just behind the back seat. Luckly you can just get to the hole without removing the back seats. as shown below.

Also i needed to feed a smaller switch wire down here aswell this is to switch the amp on an off with the ignition so that it will not drain the batt when the car is off. You can see i have used an earth cable and you may think this to be madness but there is method and it has a good power rating more than enough for the sub. I then fed this wire underneath the trim on the sills of the doors as shown here.

Then i needed to take the front corrner panel under the dash off. The first thing to do is to take the fuse cover plate off of it. You just need to pull it off from the top.

Then there is a final plastic bolt on the firewall that holds it this should twist and pull off also you must make sure that the sill trim is off aswell to remove it.

Next thing to do was take the smaller switch wire to the cig lighter as i knew this was switched with the ignition from installing a parrot kit and a road angle. Anyway i took the wire up through the dash behind the glove box and you can see i have cabled tied it to another loom to keep it out of the way.

I used a splice to connect it to the pink wire on the cig lighter but excuse my photo its not very good as i have so manny devices using this supply. Do not overload this and do not power the sub from this as it is only a 15amp supply.

The next task was the one i was dreading getting the power cable through the firewall into the engine bay. As it turns out it wasnt so bad and this is where the madness of using an earth cable comes in. The earth cable is stiff and made it far easier to push through. Anyway i found the rubber grommet where loads of other wires on the car come through. To get the cable through i taped the cable to an old wire coat hangger which i cut into a rod. I forced this trough the rubber grommet and by doing this it makes a great tight seal around the wire so no water can get in. This is quite a fiddely job so be paitent. I have taken the best photos i could but tricky in these spaces.

After doing this i just wedged it behind the batt and round to the positive terminal. I used a c clip to attach to the terminal. I would advised you that if you use an earth cable it is a good idea to wrap it in red tape at either end which yes i still have to do.

I then needed to take the source for the sub from the rear speakers. Luckly the are very easy to get to in the boot as the are on the parcel shelf. I had to cut away some of the sleeve around the wires as i needed the splice both of them as shown in the pic. Make sure you keep note on the polarity it must be correct for the sub to work.

As you can see i have tapped up all the wires just trying to make it neat and i dont want them hanging down and getting caught in the boot hinges. I did this for both speakers.

I now had all the wires sorted appart from the negative supply which i will get onto later. Anyway i connected it all to the right places as stated on the amp. I used velcro patches to hold the sub in place and it has stayed even though belive me i do chuck the car into the corners. well you have to with a car like the is hehe.

After its all connected listen to your efforts making sure it is all working and you have the levels right then go ahead a velcro it all down.

And as you can see all is normal inside!

Going back to the negative or earth supply i used the chassis as it is all earthed (connected to the negative terminal on the batt ). I connected the lead again using a c clip on a bolt in the boot that holds the sat nav drive in place but i think this is where i have goone wrong. I dont think it is a good earth as when you really turn it up the lights dim with the music. I think i will try running an earth cable directly to the negative terminal on the Battery maybe this will help.

Anyway i hope this little guide helped i know its not the best and i dont really know what im doing but i just thought i would share what i have learnt. And all you guys are great on here i always read through the stuff on here which is so helpful and i wanted to contribute to it.

[Asi]

good guide mate

[aztecbandit1]

Good job matey :)

One of the things that you will need to do though mate, is fit a fuse block on the power cable coming from the Battery to protect the system? (unless you allready have?) Always FUSE and PROTECT any wiring system :)

I used one of the silver D clips on the boot floor for my ground/earth wire and seems to give a good earthing point but will be going direct to the Battery when i re-do mine?

You can get a RCA convertor from Halfords so that you can use the RCA imputs on the amp, It basicly wires in the same way as you have it coming from the rear speakers but lets you plug in RCA leads which is how i did it on mine, and is another way of getting sound to your sub :D

Will be hopefully fitting some of my system this weekend as i now have a few more bits to fit, just bought a new double din headunit and some more speakers B)

VIBE SEK 60 6.5" 345w -115 WRMS 2 way COMPONENT SPEAKERS (front doors)

Vibe SEK-6x9 575w - 175 WRMS 3-way Speakers (rear shelf)

Vibe QB 6x9 3-way 600W - 200WRMS Rectangular Speakers (ski hatch)

Fli 2 x 12" 2000w amplified sub box (will be changing this to a Twin 12" VIBE box soon)

Just got to sort out some amps and sound proofing and then get it all fitted :)

[DJ Wozza]

Good work, and some nice pictures too :D

As Aztec says, a Fuse is desperately needed in the engine bay, before the cable goes through the firewall.

It should be within 12"-18" of the Battery Positive+ Terminal, or at the very least before the power cable

goes through the bulkhead. Also I would have suggested using slightly thicker cable like an 8AWG. For not

much cash 5 metres would have been ample to do the job, the black earth cable looks fine.

The lights dimming shows you how much power the Amp wants, and a better power cable will help get as

much as your charging system/battery will allow through to the Active Sub.

Whatever you decide to do, get that fuse in the engine bay NOW !!!!!! The reason being, if the cable gets exposed

anywhere along it's lenght, the full power from the Battery could earth out, and that could well start a fire :o :tsktsk:

Also maybe thinking about a better way to secure the Active Subwoofer, and maybe a grill to protect the

Subwoofer cone/face against damage from objects in the boot ?

The 'D' rings are fine when removed (then replaced after scraping off some paint to ensure a good connection)

to use as an earth point. Plus of course this way the cable can easily be hidden under the boot lining. Also behind

the left boot lining cover you will find a vertical spar that has a few spare holes that can be used, again you will

need to scrape off some paint to ensure a good connection. The spar is about level with the top edge of the boot

opening.

You can by all means run a negative cable back to the Battery, but with your system, unless you are going to

upgrade further, I don't think it is needed.

The Vibe active stuff is all pretty good, and has a lot of bang for your buck, good choice ! If you get a chance

I would suggest replacing the scotchlocks with soldered connections. Also just 1 small thing that you can do

will take you about 30-40 minutes to do and will help you get more bass in the car. The Ski hatch can be removed

in one single piece, it simply unbolts (8x 12mm from what I remember), and all you need to do is take out the

Rear Seat. This is easily done but does require 2 people to do, or 1 with much difficulty.

CLICK HERE to see how.

If you keep your backseat armrest up so no one will know, but it is suprising how much more bass will come through.

Keep us posted :D (but get a fuse in the engine bay asap !!!!!)

[redz_UK]

good guide but please change that cableing!!

it looks way to thin and if it is, it will get hot and the plastic sheath could melt or catch fire!!

the lights dimming is prob down to the earthing as you say.. its best to drill into the chassis and give its own feed, if you dont fancy this then there is a good point in the corner where the jack mounts. think this is the same one wozza mentioned.

Off topic: nice car kit too, i had one of these. did you wire it into the speakers or use a seperate one?

removeing the ski hatch will make a world of diff. at the moment you are losing all the volume in the boot and bass will take the path of least resistance, this being your 6x9 speakers and will prob end of making them either distort or blow!

[Andrew - D]

Good work, and some nice pictures too :D

As Aztec says, a Fuse is desperately needed in the engine bay, before the cable goes through the firewall.

It should be within 12"-18" of the battery Positive+ Terminal, or at the very least before the power cable

goes through the bulkhead. Also I would have suggested using slightly thicker cable like an 8AWG. For not

much cash 5 metres would have been ample to do the job, the black earth cable looks fine.

The lights dimming shows you how much power the Amp wants, and a better power cable will help get as

much as your charging system/battery will allow through to the Active Sub.

Whatever you decide to do, get that fuse in the engine bay NOW !!!!!! The reason being, if the cable gets exposed

anywhere along it's lenght, the full power from the battery could earth out, and that could well start a fire :o :tsktsk:

Also maybe thinking about a better way to secure the Active Subwoofer, and maybe a grill to protect the

Subwoofer cone/face against damage from objects in the boot ?

The 'D' rings are fine when removed (then replaced after scraping off some paint to ensure a good connection)

to use as an earth point. Plus of course this way the cable can easily be hidden under the boot lining. Also behind

the left boot lining cover you will find a vertical spar that has a few spare holes that can be used, again you will

need to scrape off some paint to ensure a good connection. The spar is about level with the top edge of the boot

opening.

You can by all means run a negative cable back to the battery, but with your system, unless you are going to

upgrade further, I don't think it is needed.

The Vibe active stuff is all pretty good, and has a lot of bang for your buck, good choice ! If you get a chance

I would suggest replacing the scotchlocks with soldered connections. Also just 1 small thing that you can do

will take you about 30-40 minutes to do and will help you get more bass in the car. The Ski hatch can be removed

in one single piece, it simply unbolts (8x 12mm from what I remember), and all you need to do is take out the

Rear Seat. This is easily done but does require 2 people to do, or 1 with much difficulty.

CLICK HERE to see how.

If you keep your backseat armrest up so no one will know, but it is suprising how much more bass will come through.

Keep us posted :D (but get a fuse in the engine bay asap !!!!!)

Yes i see your point i obviously have one on the amp but not in the engine bay thanks for the advice will do asap!

[Andrew - D]

I will have to try scraping some paint off arround the connection to see if that helps i am sure it will and also it sounds like removing the ski hatch maybe a great idea today i had the arm rest down in the back and even that made a huge difference let alone removing the ski hatch. Just a bit worried about removing the back seats i would hate to damage anything its such a lovely car.

Thanks for the coment about my car kit. Its great i wired it up and it comes through all the front speakers and sounds good. People have no troble hearing me over then phone when i am using it whcih is a good thing. Its a parrot as you can see. Its the 3200 LS colour and it only cost me £80 from amazon at the time. It has been good and hasnt stopped working although i did have to update the software on it to work with my Iphone but that was easily done using a Bluetooth laptop.

[lexus 200]

hey all

ive been looing at putting a sub in the is200 but as like most salon cars can u hear it what subs would u recomend ?

i was thinking 2x 12 but carnt seem to find 1 to fit

any advice would be great

[lexus_newbie]

I know there will be other guides on here but i just thought i would share my knowledge what there is of it from installing a sub. I have always thought the IS had a good sound system but just lacked a bit of bass so i decided i wanted a sub. However i wanted to keep the OEM head unit because i like the way it looks and i didnt want to spoil the look of the dash. I know many of you will disagree and say that aftermarket ones look and sound better but i really do like the car to have a uniform look.

Anyway first thing was to find a sub with an amp i didnt want to get a driver then a box and an amp far to complicated for me i mean i dont really know that much about it. So anyway i went to hlafords to have a look and i found one there that had an amp and could take a hi input which means that i could take the amplifed feed from the current speakers in the car and use that as the line in for the amp. This is far easier as you will see as it means you do not need to fit cross overs and stuff like that. Also it ment no alterations were needed to the stereo the car, just what i wanted. Its a vibe sub and is 1200 watts which is more than enough for me.

First thing is first i needed to get a live feed from the battery so i needed to find a way for the cable from the boot the the cabin. Luckly i found a hole at the top left of the boot, this goes through to just behind the back seat. Luckly you can just get to the hole without removing the back seats. as shown below.

Also i needed to feed a smaller switch wire down here aswell this is to switch the amp on an off with the ignition so that it will not drain the batt when the car is off. You can see i have used an earth cable and you may think this to be madness but there is method and it has a good power rating more than enough for the sub. I then fed this wire underneath the trim on the sills of the doors as shown here.

Then i needed to take the front corrner panel under the dash off. The first thing to do is to take the fuse cover plate off of it. You just need to pull it off from the top.

Then there is a final plastic bolt on the firewall that holds it this should twist and pull off also you must make sure that the sill trim is off aswell to remove it.

Next thing to do was take the smaller switch wire to the cig lighter as i knew this was switched with the ignition from installing a parrot kit and a road angle. Anyway i took the wire up through the dash behind the glove box and you can see i have cabled tied it to another loom to keep it out of the way.

I used a splice to connect it to the pink wire on the cig lighter but excuse my photo its not very good as i have so manny devices using this supply. Do not overload this and do not power the sub from this as it is only a 15amp supply.

The next task was the one i was dreading getting the power cable through the firewall into the engine bay. As it turns out it wasnt so bad and this is where the madness of using an earth cable comes in. The earth cable is stiff and made it far easier to push through. Anyway i found the rubber grommet where loads of other wires on the car come through. To get the cable through i taped the cable to an old wire coat hangger which i cut into a rod. I forced this trough the rubber grommet and by doing this it makes a great tight seal around the wire so no water can get in. This is quite a fiddely job so be paitent. I have taken the best photos i could but tricky in these spaces.

After doing this i just wedged it behind the batt and round to the positive terminal. I used a c clip to attach to the terminal. I would advised you that if you use an earth cable it is a good idea to wrap it in red tape at either end which yes i still have to do.

I then needed to take the source for the sub from the rear speakers. Luckly the are very easy to get to in the boot as the are on the parcel shelf. I had to cut away some of the sleeve around the wires as i needed the splice both of them as shown in the pic. Make sure you keep note on the polarity it must be correct for the sub to work.

As you can see i have tapped up all the wires just trying to make it neat and i dont want them hanging down and getting caught in the boot hinges. I did this for both speakers.

I now had all the wires sorted appart from the negative supply which i will get onto later. Anyway i connected it all to the right places as stated on the amp. I used velcro patches to hold the sub in place and it has stayed even though belive me i do chuck the car into the corners. well you have to with a car like the is hehe.

After its all connected listen to your efforts making sure it is all working and you have the levels right then go ahead a velcro it all down.

And as you can see all is normal inside!

Going back to the negative or earth supply i used the chassis as it is all earthed (connected to the negative terminal on the batt ). I connected the lead again using a c clip on a bolt in the boot that holds the sat nav drive in place but i think this is where i have goone wrong. I dont think it is a good earth as when you really turn it up the lights dim with the music. I think i will try running an earth cable directly to the negative terminal on the battery maybe this will help.

Anyway i hope this little guide helped i know its not the best and i dont really know what im doing but i just thought i would share what i have learnt. And all you guys are great on here i always read through the stuff on here which is so helpful and i wanted to contribute to it.

Hi Andrew,

Maybe a silly question but I'm not the most handy of persons.

I'm trying to do the same (ie add a sub) but cant figure out how to gain access to the cigarette lighter pink wire? Do you have have to remove any of the facia bits? You say you ran the smaller wire up through the dash behind the glove box.... but from there I am lost as I see no way of getting to the lighte insides without removing bits of facia or center console.

Any tips welcome.

[Mbay]

why do you have to mess with the cigarette lighter?

I want to do the same also. I thought I would have to put a live power feed from the Battery to the boot for the amp, earth the amp to the chassis. connect the on/off cable that goes from the amp to the stereo, and connect the RCA from the amp the the stereo.

Then connect the amp to the sub, switch on and enjoy.

What I dont get is, I wan to keep the oem head unit, but theres an amp in the glovebox that I've got to get round.

What do I do now?

[boulton111]

Brilliant guide and very helpful...

One question, when wiring the "remote" wire to the lighter is that just one cable from the positive to the amp?

[DaBoI]

Thanks for this guide man! Really helpful. I had problems running the power cable to sub, but this solved the problem.

[Ryan93]

Hey guys I’m trying to install sub as stated in thread. How do you get the sub working every time I hook up my parcel shelf speakers is puts the amp into protection mode, but if there not in the sub won’t have a input to play off. And help please guys much appreciated