Installation of Kenwood KSC-SW11 underseat sub

[TomAsh]

Evening all. 

 

I'm expecting delivery of a kenwood ksc-sw11 in the coming days. Will be installing myself (noob with some limited experience) in my mk3 Octavia (2016 pre-fl).

 

After reading through as many threads as I could find on here, I think I've managed to get my head around most of it. Just a couple of questions if anyone can assist. 

 

1. Tapping into the speaker wires for the sub input - I've seen all sorts of instruction about tapping into the wires at the back of the headunit/glove comp unit, however, would it be easier to tap into the rear speaker wires at floor level where they run to the doors? If so, what's the best way of accessing this? Is it hidden under the B pillar? 

My only reason for this is to try and limit too much of a rat's nest of wires behind the head unit, as I'm looking to later install and amp and upgrade the front door speakers as well.

If my idea is logical - any advice on removing the relevant trim to access said wires? 

 

2. The sub can be powered from the fuse box, with a permanent live and a ignition live, using fuse taps. I've ordered the taps, but was wondering if anyone has any advice on which fuses to tap into for each signal? 

 

I'm sure when the sub arrives, and I begin the install, I'll have a dozen more questions as I work through it, so any advice that you could give now will be greatfully received! 

 

Cheers all,

Tom. 

[MaxOrsiniVaraldo]

Ciao Tom,

I have just done the same work on my Kodiaq, with exactly the same subwoofer (you might have seen some questions of mine about the same in some old post).

1.  I have tapped the wires on the back of the head unit, but this took a lot of time (you must remove the glovebox as well, forget the idea it would be enough to extract the head unit only) and a lot of attention not to break any plastic mechanism; if I had to do it again it would take much less now, but it is definitely not straightforward the first time.

   
   Because to hide the wires going under the seat I had to remove anyway the plastic frame covering the door sill, I have eventually understood it would have been much easier to tap the wires directly from there, as the rear speakers wires are easily accessible; and this plastic frame comes out easily, just pushing it out, so no need to access Pillar B.
   
   In conclusion I strongly advise you to do this way.
    
2. In my Kodiaq I have managed to find fuse F48 in the internal fuse box that was free and connected (not all the ones you see free are actually connected). It was originally thought for the “Control unit for lane change assist -J769”, that I don’t have, and it is under ignition key, so perfect for me.

 

I have put the subwoofer in the passenger seat, on the front side. Unfortunately there is bar that splits the space in two parts, you cannot really use the full space under the seat; in all cases it disappears and it is not visible.

As final outcome the sound is definitely more “solid” on the lower frequencies, but don’t expect dramatic improvements, also considering the standard sound is quite decent, at least comparing it with my old Skoda Superb SW II.

 

I hope this helps.

 

Massimo

[Viperdt]

I've just installed the same subwoofer into my 2016 pre fl vrs 3 days ago. I have no experience at all with this kind of stuff and wasnt too bad.

 

I followed some advice on here and bought a soc t harness part number CT10SK03. I tapped into the rear speaker wires from that as I didnt want to mess with the original wiring. 

I de pinned lots of wires to make it easier to hide in the space available behind the headunit. It was a bit of a pain laying on my back in the footwell pushing wires as far back as possible.

 

 I Mounted the sub under the drivers seat and ran all the cables behind the dash and up behind the glovebox. 

 

The fuse taps part is where I struggled as I already used a switched live for my hard wired dash cam. This was fuse 47 for the rear window wiper. So I changed the normal blade fuse to a mini blade and used no 33. 

 

Crimped 2 normal blade fuse taps onto the remote blue cable and yellow battery cable. 

The remote fuse tap I used a switched live so it would turn on with the ignition. No 47 for the rear window wiper and the battery cable I used permanent live fuse 40 for 12v socket. There was plenty of places to put the earth. 

 

 

[StephenPalmer]

Hi @MaxOrsiniVaraldo,

I am in the process of fitting this sub in my Karoq. 

How do you know which wire is for which speaker? I can't find any schematics to figure out which to tap into

[TomAsh]

9 minutes ago, StephenPalmer said:

Hi @MaxOrsiniVaraldo,

I am in the process of fitting this sub in my Karoq. 

How do you know which wire is for which speaker? I can't find any schematics to figure out which to tap into

Hey pal, 

 

If the wiring is the same as the octavia, here is a wiring diagram I was given, and my interpretation of that diagram on the loom. It worked for me:

 

 

[MaxOrsiniVaraldo]

Hello Peter,

 

on top of the info provided by Tom, I used the schema below.

Though it is for the Kodiaq, I assume the colors are the same:

 

[Viperdt]

I bought another wire harness as I didn't want to tap into the original wires.  Each wire is labelled so couldnt go wrong.

[StephenPalmer]

Thanks @TomAsh @MaxOrsiniVaraldo and @Viperdt.

From the looks of it, the wires between your photo Tom and yours Max look to be different colours... I could be being stupid and wrong but skoda seem to make these things overly complicated. I'll try yours first Tom and see how I go... 

Thanks again 😀