ICE guide - GTI-Anniversary.com

A page of tips for upgrading the ICE in a MK4 Golf.


A few pictures of the standard speakers in a VW golf

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The standard OEM VW tweeter behind the 'sail'. With the door panel removed the riveted VW bass unit with built in plastic spacer can be seen.


Both units are pretty reasonable Philips speakers and easily show the benefits of a better head unit with more power. As i was going to run the DLS Amplifier I replaced mine with a set of Focal 165K2 component speakers.


Getting a decent power cable into the passenger compartment


This is the view behind the glovebox looking up from the passenger footwell. The power cable will run through alongside this loom which goes through the bulkhead and appears here in the engine bay behind the plastic cable carrier that goes behind then underneath the airbox. There is a rubber grommet here that has 4 additional cable nipples in it


With a bit of the sound insulation pulled away to show the grommett, carefully pierce the grommet. I used a straightened metal coat hanger and then taped the wire to it and pulled it through gently from the engine bay side. I removed the airbox as i wanted to run the cable in the plastic cable guide that runs under the airbox to the battery from the slam panel.


To keep the factory look i sheathed the power cable in black nylon braid to disguise it and to protect it. Remove the plastic panel exposing the pollen filter. This enables you to take off the top of the plastic cable guide.


Lay the braided cable into the cable guide and run it under the airbox to the battery. The cable then appears in the cable guide that runs up the rear of the battery tray.


The engine bay wiring finished, with the main fuse close to the +ve terminal and sat next to the other main fuses. The battery cover goes back on and the engine bay looks as VW intended.


ISO and Antenna Adapters


Replacing the standard VW headunit with an aftermarket one requires two adapters. The one on the left is the ISO adapter. This swaps the switched and unswitched power lines over and also ensures that no power is fed onto the K-Line. The VW antenna has an amplifier in its base that requires 12v. The standard VW headunit feeds 12v via the antenna coax cable. The Antenna adapter on the right will allow 12v to be fed to the antenna when using a non VW headunit. Connect the white wire to the blue wire (switched feed) on the ISO adapter.


Various pictures of my install


This is a JL Audio Stealthbox with its 10w3 driver. Its custom made to order from JL in California and costs around £650 depending on the exchange rate. It's the ulimate stealth solution and fits perfectly in the spare wheel well. Bass is tight and punchy from the slot loaded sealed enclosure.


The spare wheel fits on top of the Stealthbox. JL supply foam blocks to raise the floor by 2 inches. With the carpet back down it looks totally standard (although the DLS amp is less easy to hide ! )


A DLS Ultimate A4 powers the speakers. This is a 4 channel amplifier. The front channels run the Focal components, the rear channels are bridged to run the JL subwoofer. The Crossovers for the Focals are located in the boot side compartment.


The system front end - a Becker Mexico pro. No crappy flashing graphics just understated looks, sounds great and comes in VW blue to perfectly match the dash.