My Build Thread: I added some LEDs to the interior. The make a nice white light....looks blue in the picture compared to the incandescent bulb of my garage opener. I decided to mod the rear trunk light. Many folks have said that it is insufficient. I added a LED and took it a step further by adding aluminum backing to act as a reflector. First, install the LED buld and check the polarity. I am using 3M adhesive backed aluminum tape. Cut a small peice of electrical tape to prevent the alunimum from shorting the circut: Add the tape to the back and sides: Nice and bright! Pop it back in place....looking good. I added some LED "eyebrow" lights. these are the parking lights above the low beams. I accessed them by popping the hood and removing the felt peices on the left and right just above the wheel wells along the inner fender. Pics: This is the parking lamp removed. You can see the hole on the triangle peice where the fender felt clips on to just above the negative terminal of the battery. Be careful not to drop a clip when removing them. I had one fall in between the battey and fuse box and took me a while to fish it out with some long needle nose pliers. Out with the old... (jeez the old lamp almost looks brown in this pic!) In with the new! EDIT: these eyebrow lights suck! They are failing and the individual SMDs blink sometimes. Don't buy them! I am getting some new ones from Superbrightleds.com, as I have never had bad stuff from them.
Polk Speaker install & sound deadening First I filled the spacers with caulk and smoothed it out and let it dry. Then I added weather stripping since they spacers do not fully seal against the door metal. Finished taping up the seams... Added the spacer ring... Added some ensolite foam to further deaden the sound... all done. test fit the polk- need to see how much wiring and how the mounting would work. All good. cut the stock harness and added my own connections. Stripped, soldered, and shrink wrapped. POLK DXI650 INSTALLED PRO STYLE.
Ok passenger side time: Sealed up and speaker ring installed. Wires spliced. nice foam gasket around the speaker ring Polk Speaker installed and foam added to door Very important to know where the clip goes in the door panel. I was cutting out a hole in the wrong place. The arrow shows where the hole should be. I found this out by a test fit of the door skin and noticed the indentation of the foam. I covered the incorrect hole (the square below the arrow).
fog lights Nokya Hi-power PSX24W LED Fog Light Bulb - Hyper Lime Yellow Install Link: Nokya Hi-power PSX24W LED Fog Light Bulb - Hyper Lime Yellow : Amazon.com : Automotive I have really been wanting to see these in action. So I put on the coveralls and laid down on my back and slid under the front of the XV and got to work... The LEDs are packaged very well. They include a built in resistor and waterproof connections. They are plug and play with the XV's fog light harness. Slide under the front and start popping out the plastic rivets. I didnt realize it at the time but you do not need to pop out the the ones for the little air deflector in front of the tire (located upper right). There is one phillips head screw you must remove. Then just pull the plastic downward until you have access. There is plenty of space up in there. No need to fully remove the plastic from the wheel well. Remove the harness from the stock bulb, then remove the cheapo bulb. Then follow the instructions included with the LED kit: Plug LED bulb to resistor, use resistor wires to determine polarity. I stuck the pins in the XV's harness plug. Dang thats bright! My eyes! Now that you know polarity (black wire on the kit went to the black wire on the car, makes sense) you can assemble the waterproof plug. Insert the pins in the bottom of the plug and pull them until they snap into place. Use needle nose pliers. I had to pull hard. Snap the bulb into the fog lamp assembly. Snap your newly created plug into the XV Fog light harness. Use wire ties to attach the extra wire and resistor up and out of the way. passenger's driver's- dont attach to the bottom hole on the right like I did. It is exposed when you put the plastic back on. I changed it later but no pic. They look nice, the fog lamp is clear at at angle but yellow from head on. Done. I would say that these are really bright, but the color is not for everyone. They are called Hyper Lime Yellow for a reason. There is definitly a hint of green, but not so much that I dont like them. The quality is great on these and the heatsink on the back of the bulb is real metal and functional. They have a 2 year warranty and are rated for 50,000+ hours. much brighter than stock and designed for fog lamps so they use the stock reflector pattern. See the difference? this pic of my freezer show the nice cutoff just like a fog lamp should.
$20 tweeters OK, so I am a cheap ba$tard and I wanted new tweeters. So I give you the $20 tweeter upgrade! I started by looking at the stock tweeter and determined that it has an impedence of 6 ohms. Most aftermarket car audio tweeters are designed to be used with an amplifier and are 4 ohms. I replaced the stock door speakers with a 4 ohm Polk DXI650 and wanted to replace the tweeters with new ones with the same 6 ohm impedance to keep the draw on the stock head unit amp the same or close to stock. I dont know the stock door speaker impedance, so definitely didnt want to increase the load any further by using 4 ohm tweeters.. My reasoning: Polk DXI650 (4 Ohm load) + Polk DB1001 (4 ohm load) = 2 Ohm load at the amp. This MAY overdrive the amp and cause overheating or possibly failure....therefore... Polk DXI650 (4 ohm load) + Dayton Audio ND16FA-6 (6 ohm load) = less load or same as stock load at the amp when compared to all other 4 ohm tweeters. Armed with this info, I searched for tweeters with 6 ohm impedance, that had good reviews, and were CHEAP! I came up with the Daytons here... Dayton Audio ND16FA-6 5/8" Neodymium Dome Tweeter 275-025 Then I needed to block the lower frequency sound going to them with a simple inline crossover- a non polarized capacitor. This cap will cutoff the sound below approximately 4khz when placed inline on the positive lead (according to partsexpress tech forum- props to those guys and their audio knowledge) 6.8uF 100V Non-Polarized Capacitor 027-336 Total comes out to $20.46!! (plus shipping, of course) Here are the tweeters, caps, and the stock tweeter. close up of the dayton tweeter- It is a silk dome style and sounds way better than cheap paper cones. Now the install! Remove old tweet Give the new tweeter a test fire! Sounds good, time to make things permanent. I soldered the caps in-line on the positive lead. Then shrinkwrapped the connections. A little more for protection: Now I hacked up the old tweeter and stripped everything off of its metal frame. You basically pry off the magnet and all the other plastic peices. then I add some sound dampening material to the frame. This is not really necessary but then I thought of a way to use it as a mounting plate! stick some material to the frame, lay the tweeter on the FatMat and trace around it. Cut a hole with a razor blade. Press fit the tweeter. INSTALL!! I used spade connectors that I had to modify to fit the stock connector. here is the wiring I used. couldnt find anything on tweeter polarity so I used the leads with red as positive (makes sense but not sure if correct). The foam wraps around the plug and connections to help keep them secure and to eliminate rattles. Boom. How you like that? Too shiny, added foam for appearance. Snap the grill back in place and repeat the process for the other side. The passenger side had a red wire too so again I used that for positive. THESE SOUND GREAT! You can now actually hear sound from the tweeters. I had to dial the trebel to +5 and sometime +8 on the stock tweeters just so I could hear they were even playing. I have the trebel set flat to zero with the Dayton audio tweeters. There is a more airy sound and wider sound stage and stero image. You definitly know theres an upgrade there. They sound greatand more accurate to my ears, but might be a tad bright, so I may tweek the trebel settings. HUGE bang for the buck!!!
bumper plugs Dollar modification time---> Bumper Plugs! The holes in the front bumper were annoying me so I popped these in. I found them in the "hard to find" section in the nuts & bolts isle at Lowes. They match the paint enough that you dont notice. I may get some more and paint them if I ever get some Satin White Pearl touch up paint. I am happy that there are no visable holes in my bumber any more. Sweet.
window tint I got my front windows tinted ! Let get straight to the pics! before: The XV seems to have a slight yellow hue to the glass. its either factory "tint" or part of the temper or glazing process. The shop had a Lexus that had the yellowish glass too. Must be a Fuji Heavy Industries thing. During: All done. I love the look. Dark tint on a white car looks fantastic. It's the contrast between black trim and dark tint to the Satin White Pearl paint that just kills. Look at the Pearl! Look at that tint! Looks so hot! But I will stay cooler. I went with SunTek CXP at 35% (legal)- the latest in non-metal, nano-hybrid, Carbon technology- It blocks heat really well. Going darker with this tint type made the difference between the fronts and back too noticable so we stayed with legal 35% tint. It has a lifetime warranty and was installed by Caleb and Brian at Solar Control. Here is a picture this morning in the shade. You can see that it dosent quite match perfectly (a tiny bit lighter) but still looks really great.
race pedals They are Razo Competition Sport pedals. I have a better pedal feel and grip. I relly needed an gas pedal that had more width. The pedals are adjustable for heel/tow- not that I will use that. I did adjust the gas pedal out a little to increase the width. The gas pedal is taller now though so keep that in mind. The brake pedal was a cinch, but the accelerator was a little more involved. Closeup of the gas pedal base plate install.. The finished product! I love the bold racing look! ok finished up. the dead pedal wasn't as big as I would have liked but its installed. Completes the look. Edit: Initially i thought it was a shiny piece of aluminum.....it turns out the dead pedal is a great addition. It eliminates that hollow sound when you tap it and its actually more comfortable.
silblades OK all my Silblade windshield wipers have arrived. I put them on yesterday/today. The wipers are made of a patented silicone & graphite compound made by some former GE Silicone scientists determined to make the ultimate wiper blade. They a supposed to last years. I went with the Uni blade version because I think it looks cool!! They attach easily right out of the box. I didn't have to use any of the included adapters. Passenger side: The new one on the left, old on the right and all the included crap. passenger's Installed : Driver's side comparison: closeup on the way they attach- standard hook type wiper arm. View from inside the XV: The rear Silblade- identical to stock!
rear speaks OK did the Polk DXi650 in the rear doors plus more dynamat sound deadening. Its been almost a year since I bought them! The goal is to provide a nearly sealed acoustic chamber for the speaker to increase bass, tightness, and provide full sound...and maybe reduce a little road noise. PICS: get the crap together. Extra thick weather stripping is needed for the rear, otherwise gaps will be present behind the rings. This gap will allow the sound to leak and not sound as good/tight/accurate.. First I did a test fit with the spacer rings I got on ebay plus the speaker. The total was shorter than stock, so we're good to go. test fit the dynamat. cut out notches for the doorcard clips and slits for the wires and doorhandle and lock cables. now that you got it sized and shaped, flip it over on a fresh piece to create a reverse template for the other door! Save time! mirror image of the first peice! do it again for the second half of the door. behind each speaker will be a 8x11 inch sheet of dynamat and a 8x8 inch square of ensolite foam to help break up the back wave of the speaker remember to install this stuff first before you start the door. I also had a nice triangle peice that fit nicely between the crash bars. Use your scraps! I like to wipe the door inside and out first w/ windex to remove dust and promote adhesion. now add the sound deadener and roll it on. Done. I slapped a piece of foam I had left over to help with sound/road noise. I like to tape the seams and anywhere thats not air tight to avoid chuffing noises and water intrusion. Water is also why I do the top first and over lap the bottom edge of dynamat by at least half inch...like roof shingles. Make sure it is bowed out in the area with no sheet metal so full contact is made. the roller helps seal it all up. the tape makes double sure. Other side goes on twice as fast because its already measured up, pre-cut and ready to go: I didnt really notice the rear speakers until now. The old ones were so muffled and muddy, these really add a lot of highs from the seperate tweets and to my surprise actually increase bass. I have the fader even between front and back now. really digging it. Its nice to have two notebook paper sized sheets of dynamat left after this install. I am gonna use them under the rear seats and the spare wheel well soon. ******* EDIT two months later: Looking back at this it really helped increase the bass since it is sealed up (except for the drain holes and window slit if you want to be technical). I get slightly more bass from the rear speaks because the air space behind the speaker is so much smaller than the front doors thus it is more "tuned" to a small speaker like a 6.5. How many home speakers have you bought that didn't have a solid enclosure? This is the best I can do in a car to create a proper enclosure. Its sounding great.
OK, latest mod is the addition of Nokya halogen hyper yellow high beams. The product- Installed. Looks nice. I gotta get my wife to drive my XV so I can see how they look as the DRLs. Turned on: I like the look. Really wan to see how the DRLs are though. Luckily these are like $15 to $20 including shipping depending on where you shop. Look at the original 9005 bulbs! They have a cruddy looking brown glaze. My guess is because they run as DRL at half power... Yuk, glad to be rid of them.
subwoofer SUBWOOFER! Hooray! Finally done. test fit...had to trim the climate control vents. Cut them with a Dremel multimax using the drywall blade. Kinda a shame that this side of the vehicle will be without foot heat/ac but I have to sacrifice that in the name of supreme sound! I dont have rear passengers that much anyway. Soldered up the wiring harness. It took forever to map this out in my head but I assembled it in a few minutes. LOL. Thanks to SVXdc for the breakout harness. I just cut an X in the carpet. Trying to keep it clean and simple. Ground is under the 'woofer to a chassis bolt. Power run all the way up to the batt. Remote turn on is part of the harness. It felt like a mess..but was pretty easy. All of the extra wires were bundled up under the console to keep them out of sight and out of the way. Power to the battery... Nice and clean with a fuse block close to the batt. I cut a notch in the red positive battery cover to accomodate the new power lead. Pretty slick...was may favorive part of the mod besides the incredible BASS!! I actually had to turn the gain way down. This woofer is pretty sweet. It was just above $100 on amazon and had great reviews so I pulled the trigger. All I can say is WOW!!
Looking to get a Gorilla light bar and some mud tires sooner or later. Hope you like my mods on my slow but capable XV. -Coletrain an offroad adventure... It was beautiful back in there and had some nice challenging spots... I guess I could install a hitch right here. The XV can handle it no problem.. Trout stream and waterfall... first water crossing... stopping for glamor shots! View from the cabin. I love the Georgia mountain habitat. The XV never slipped. Not even once. What a great day in the woods. Fresh mountain air, wildlife, offroading in my XV. Good times. Hope you enjoyed my little journey.
I haven't really gotten scientific with it but according to the car's MPG today it is 30.1MPG. Most agree the computer is a little optimistic so I'd say 28 is more realistic. Probably more like 23 to 27 in high traffic and hilly Atlanta terrain and how heavy your foot is. Mileage is much better than my old 4x4 truck and the XV will go anywhere that thing could so I am happy. When you first get one the mileage is average but as the motor breaks in it gets better. I've got about 18,XXX on it now.
I see rubber floor mats in your future. Very clean work you do... my hands are usually too dirty to even take pics when I'm going at it.
I got the all weather floormats. I love that offroad XV minus the strange camo. Even better is the 15" Method racing wheels plus mud tires which is the ultimate goal. PIC: now thats boss. I gotta have it. :bowdown: Just need mo $$ and method to make more. :naughty: