Subwoofer box Disected - make your stock steath box boom.
 

I have been doing car audio for about 18 years. I have always been facinated with car audio since my brothers car first played some crazy low bass in the early 90s with just a single 12" American made pyramid (back when they were good). This setup is no different, I have had as many as 6 subs in my cars and as few as 1. With the car being light and turbo charged, I dont want to weigh it down with tons of subs and MDF boxes. This project is to make a light but loud and clear low octave coverage. I also wanted to give some dimensions to help you pick your favorite sub and get it to fit. With my pics you can find that just about any subwoofer can fit in the box with little modification.

With these dimensions you can find and choose your own subwoofer for your box.

The 3 depths are for mounting depth from under the lip of the subwoofer known as mounting depth. With cuts in the box you can get as deep as 5-1/2 inch subwoofer in this box.

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At this link Pioneer Electronics and Chevy Cobalt Team Up! they tell us the enclosure is 18 litres. That is awesome for most sealed 10's. The stock system is one of the best OEM systems that I have seen, especially for a sport compact. In its own right the subwoofer is very stout, the surround is very nice butyl rubber and is a really nice driver overall. But it lacks excursion and output.

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The enclosure is very stealthy and has very good depth. I even found it to be held togehter with long screws and the depth of the entire enclosure can be adjusted by sandwiching material between the two halves if so desired.

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To remove the subwoofer, pull the screws, take off the grille, flip the sub over remove the small bolt at the back of the enclosure and pull the plug. You will also need to desolder the connections and save the harness as shown below.

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I will have more on my driver choice and the amplifier that is going to make this setup go low and loud. I had a ported 10" subwoofer that made more sound and was clearer from blocks away with just 400 watt rms, than the 12's I had as a kid. I want to take this stock sub box with its stealthy placement in the car and take it to the next level.

Much more to come.

In.

Don't even own ss/tc or any car that would have this and im in! love to see cool builds and stuff for the future.

def sounds interesting, love the sound of our stock system but better is always good without picking up weight.

small amp to speakers, small amp to sub....awesome!

the enclosure fits in our base models too, could easily do this same thing.

already have 2 12's and never use my trunk. But ive been looking at HHR SS's lately and theres no room for stroller + subs in those so I would capitalize the stock unit.

In....I have 2 10s in the back and the box is huge. Weigh too damn much too.

i remember my 12" T1s i had in the back of my cavalier..........talk about a big box lol. only problem with fosgate speakers, is they reccommend such a large amount of space. but damn do they hit hard and sound amazing. but im out of the stereo crap.......too much weight. lol.

Nice load toad...sub'd. Can't wait to see the finished product ..I have a Memphis dvc I want to throw in there

I understand the stroller thing, that is what the suburban is for. Even then it fills up quick with other stuff and doesnt get good gas mileage.

I wanted to keep things light and still have room to throw my pubs, helmet, flight gear, work stuff back there. I like that our sub is kind of similar to a JL audio stealth box. Its form fitting and out of the way. The stock box is just over 18 litres or .635 cu ft, this is too small to port but its a perfect for a sealed sub. Adding a 1 inch spacer in the center of the two halves would give you .765 using my box builder software. This would also allow a deeper mounting depth, but unless a find a sub that needs this I may or may not do the spacer.

So in a ported sub box you get louder bass due to the port. Its the equivalent of adding 3db or doubling your wattage! So that is how you can get a single ported 10 to sound like two 12's.

This box will have to stay sealed, I just figured with .6 or .7 that the port would be way too long to get the tuned frequency down to a proper level. Dont port this box.

We can make up for bass with good power and xmax in the subwoofer. So we are looking for a sub with a good sealed volume of .6-.7

ive got the polk mm1040 in the box with a 1" spacer.

good info though, interested in where this is going.

I have it narrowed down to two or three subs.

The Sundown SD-2 10D4 is 4.75 deep and 9.25 in the cutout. So small changes will need to be made.


The Dayton Audio Reference HO 10 is 5.0 deep the cutout is 9.25 cutout. Small changes, however wants a bit bigger box. Would need possibly 2 inches added to sandwich the box halves.
Dayton Audio RSS265HO-44 10" Reference HO DVC Subwoofer 295-463

Another viable option and is a straight up drop in is the Kicker Comp RT, new for 2013 at CES Show this year. May need a bit of finess around the cutout of the stock enclosure, but should be a very easy fit. The enclosure is 9" opening and this sub wants 9-1/8, very easy to fix with just sanding or a file.
Kicker 40CWRT101 CompRT shallow-mount 10" subwoofer with dual 1-ohm voice coils at Crutchfield.com

There are many other choices of subwoofers but I felt these were all subs that will hand the 600+ watts RMS that I was looking for, this translates into tons of excursion. The Sundown being rated at only 500 is a very low estimate. That subwoofer will handle much more than that and I have an 800 watt RMS SQL amp I plan on running, more on that amp when I get the sub.

All the above subs are going to be in the same range for the most part of output but what it comes down to is how low will they play. I think my winner here is the Sundown for both SQ, clarity at loud volumes, and most of all little to get it to fit in the stock box.

Would it be possible to fit one 10 squared sub?

I dont believe it would be worth the effort for the minimal gain.

Looking forward to seeing results! Just wish there was a better way to show people, any type of video is really never going to show off how good/clear a subwoofer is.

Im still curious on how to wire an amp to it and to the speakers as well, but that's a whole different thing.

i will cover all the wiring.

awesome! even though I don't have it I just love to have the knowledge, I will get an HHR SS next summer when my fiancés lease is up and it will be put to good use!

:twothumbs x2

Nice writeup dude! Ill post my experience with the stock box.

I got a polk audio mm1040. Its a shallow mount, 350w (iirc) sub

Someone had posted that the volume of the stock enclosure and the sub i got calls for about the same.

Only issue was the ribs and cone poking into the middle of the rear of the sub enclusior. So i simply cut that shit off, taped the crap out of it with ducttape, squeezed the sub in, (REAL tight fit) and it sounds great.

I never pump the bass since the interior rattles, but once i do some sound deadening its gonna really sound good.

P.s. Though, i had to drill new holes for this sub but had sealed the old ones, and the grille doesnt work on this sub. Idk if they make a grille.for this one or not

Attachment 36464

I'm sorry if i missed it, but do you plan on running a separate amp to the subwoofer in conjunction with the factory amp, or are you replacing your factory amp all together?

If i recall correctly, the stock amp from the headunit or something up there feeds all the way to the sub. But the stock sub doesnt put out much power so you need to add a new amp for the new sub. Theres a little wire harness that you use to get the signal from located right near the box, and you feed it to a converter which then goes to the amp.

nice setup riceburner.

The stock amp is behind the dash in the top left corner just under the a pillar. Its under the boost gauge area of the dash.

The stock amp although more powerful than a stock headunit is way under powered for the 600 watts RMS I am looking to move with this subwoofer.

I have an amp, new in the box, I will get into that more later.

Subd :)

here are the four bolts that need to be removed, you need an extension, very easy.

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