Hi all
This is my first post on here so hello to all fellow Mk5 owners.
I’ve finally changed my MK3 16v Golf GTI after 6 years of ownership. It was a good reliable and fast car (chipped, lowered, exhaust etc), however as it was getting on for 17 years old it was starting to need quite a bit of money spent on it. I’ve replaced it with a black 05 MK5 GTI which i am really enjoying. i can also confirm that technology has moved on a lot since the heydays of the Mk3! My old car did not care whether it was running out of petrol or whether I had my seat belts on, whereas this one sure does let you know!
I took my old install (see details below) out of my old car before selling it (as you do) and will at some point be looking to install it into the Mk5. I’ll be looking to do this over the summer and am now getting together the info and bits I will need to do the install. I’ve always installed my system in my car myself as I find it more satisfying to do so.
In comparison to the MK3, I would have to say that the standard fit system in the MK5 is not really too bad, at least as far as standard systems go. The area where it really surpasses the MK3 is with regards to the solid mounting of the midbass speakers. In the MK3, the midbass speakers were attached to the door cards, which meant that you had hardly any midbass at all. In the MK 5 they are solidly mounted to the doors and even though I’ve been running the standard system without a sub for a few weeks now, I do not feel the same lack of bass as I would have done in the MK3 without a sub.
The positioning of the midbass in the MK5, however leaves a lot to be desired as it’s placed so far back in the door as to practically be firing at your bum. I’ll get round this problem somewhat by going 3-way active using my KEC 600 crossover. The midbasses will only be running from approx 50hz to 250hz so will be as "non-directional" as possible.
My plans for my install are as follows:
- I have 4 gauge wiring which I’ll run from the battery to the boot and I have all the associated fused distribution blocks, RCA cables and other accessories which I took out of my old car.
- However, I will need to buy a Volkswagen double to single din adapter in order to install my P77MP
- I will also need a CAN-BUS adaptor which will create the speed pulse signal, ignition wire, illumination wire and reverse gear wire (it’s £50 ouch!) but will save me having to cut into the original wiring harness for switched ignition.
- I understand from research that I will also need to drill a hole in the “molex” through which the speaker wires pass from the cabin to the door as the existing holes are not big enough to accept more speaker wires. That should not be too much of a problem as I did something similar on my old golf and I have seen guides online on how to do this.
With regards to speakers my Mk5 has a 6.8 midbass, a 4 inch midrange in each front door and a standard size tweeter in the mirror casing. I also have a midbass and tweeter in each rear door.
I’m thinking about leaving the standard 6.8 midbass speakers in place and, for now, only changing the midrange and tweeter. Of course I have the JL XR 650 midbass speaker, but I’ve never been particularly impressed with its midbass capabilities (although I think it’s got very good midrange). Of course the lack of midbass punch from the JL’s might be more to do with the less than solid midbass mounting positions in the MK3. However, I’m not sure that the effort I would face in order to remove the standard 6.8 midbass speakers (which are riveted in place!) would be worth the hassle just to install slightly smaller JL speakers. So for now i think i’ll stick with the standard midbass speakers and change the midrange and tweeters.
I will be running the midbass actively from approx 50hz to 250hz with the bulk of the vocals being handled above this by the 4inch midrange and tweeter.
I understand that I am quite limited with regards to choice of 4 inch midrange because the Mk5 golf has a very shallow mounting depth for the midrange. This means that I will need a midrange with less than 40mm mounting depth. So I’m considering going for either of the Focal 100VRS or 100KRS 10cm 2 way component sets. There are hardly any other 4 inch midranges that I could see which are as shallow. I would then integrate this 10cm component set with my standard midbass driver.
This means that there will be no place in my system for the Vifa XT25TG tweeters (which are huge at 4inches!) and the JL midbass speakers. I’ll be selling those to fund my requirement for a two channel amp to run the midbass speakers (they’ll soon be appearing in the classifieds and on ebay). I will need two extra channels as I will be running active and the e4300 is only 4 channels. I actually have a bit of flexibility here as I can instead get a dedicated sub-amp and use my T420 (which has 2 channels) to run the midbass speakers.
I’ll be running the rear speakers off the head unit, as I have always done, keeping them faded low.
With regards to the head unit, I would have preferred to keep the OEM look. However, I can’t really justify driving around with the OEM RCD 300 player whilst my P77 gathers dust in the storeroom. The RCD distorts on anything more than half-volume!
I’d be grateful for any thoughts on what else I need to consider for my install.
There is one particular issue that has been bugging me. On my old car, the stereo switched off once the key was taken out of the ignition and would not play without the key in the ignition. In the MK5, the stereo does switch off when the key is taken out of the ignition. However, it will play again when it is switched on, even without the key inserted into the ignition. I wondered whether this was usual or whether it indicates that at some point in the past, some of the wiring could have been tampered with, possibly as a result of an aftermarket install by the previous owner. I am getting the CAN-BUS adapter and no doubt all will be revealed when I take the car apart. However, I thought some prior advice would be helpful.
Thanks
Stealth
Old install
Formerly Golf GTI 16v Mk3 [Equipment below to be transferred into 5 door MK5 Golf GTI
Pioneer DEH-P77MP.
Midrange amp - JL Audio e4300 running JL XR 650 CSI mids in doors and Vifa XT25TG tweeters in kickwells
Sub amp-Alpine MRV -T420 running Infinity Kappa Perfect 12.1 (340Wx1 RMS). All run actively with Kenwood KEC 600 Crossover.
