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      07-11-2017, 01:39 AM   #99
fmorelli
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Drives: Atacama Yellow 35i
Join Date: Mar 2016
Location: VA

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Well with most things being replaced while maintaining stock harness / location / etc, I decided I'd take a look at the rear firewall woofers while stuff is coming in and I'm taking the car apart.

First of all, for those that haven't found it, a very good tutorial on how to get to the rear firewall speakers. According to this guy, just going in and doing some sound deadening work improved the sound of the stock speakers. Combined with this Bavsound tutorial, one can pretty much get to most of the speakers (just note that driver door is slightly different, with screws under the armrest).

I'm using Noico 80 mil material, which seems to be cost effective and work well. There is sufficient material in the 18 sq ft package to do much of the car.

That said, if I'm going to go to the effort of pulling all that rear packaging apart (and I have to pull the trunk apart as well, for the amp that is going in), I want to look at woofer replacement options. There are a couple stock-fit solutions. The tricky part is cross-compatibility as often the E89 Z4 is not listed as a fitment, though it may work. Such is the case here, as I understand it. We share the same speaker as the F30 (and maybe E90) under seat woofers. Rockford Fosgate has a direct bolt-in replacement, T3-BMW-SUB, but it is a bit more than i had in mind. Digging around some more, I found that the Jehnert XE200R with BMW bracket that is a direct bolt-in. Lots of very positive reviews, both for this brand and this particular woofer. Also positive reviews when using the bimmertech amp I plan to install. In the USA, the importer is Unexpected Creations, whose owner has a good rep in the BMW community. So I have a note in to get a price on a pair of woofers. I think the pair may come in around $300, but we'll see. FWIW, the Hertz 165.1's were $225 shipped to the USA from Germany, which is a good price. The bimmertech amp was $850 with a coupon. I got a steal on the Bav Sound Stage 1 pre-order. Figure about $1600 all in and some reasonable elbow grease, the car should not only sound great, but all the sound deadening should drop the NVH and just make life better all around.

I'll post more info as things come apart and go back together. It has been a bit of a bear to find information out about these cars. I will add, for those looking to spend little money, I suspect just buying the sound deadening and spending some time doing that, will improve sound quality and reduce the general resonance in the various panels. I'm expecting easier conversations in the car, and clearer sounds from the actual car (exhaust, engine). We'll see ...

Filippo
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2011 35i MT Atacama ... lots of bits. Full Öhlins TTX custom suspension. Build thread.
Build sheet. Currently finishing suspension, fuel, ignition system with Barry Battle @ 3DMMotorsport.

Last edited by fmorelli; 07-11-2017 at 01:44 AM..
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