Volvo Forums - Volvo Enthusiasts Forum - S60 audio upgrade, notes and information

I spent a great deal of time researching stereo/audio upgrade options for my 2007 S60, but ran into missing, confusing and contradictory information everywhere I looked.

I have both a 2001 and a 2007 S60 with the basic HU-650 sound system. I also had an 2005 S40 I purchased new with the premium (Dolby Surround) sound system, so I am familiar with that, as well.
After a lot of research, experimenting (on the older car, first) and putting a lot of hours into this project, I have summarized my notes below.

There is a wonderful S60 wiring diagram (100+ pages) in PDF form available at

http://www.matthewsvolvosite.com/dow...ng_diagram.pdf

This is very handy.

Model Years:

I can confirm that everything in the stereo/audio system is virtually identical between 2001 and 2007. I have both with the HU-650 and no amp. The only audio difference between my two cars is the front door speakers: My 2007 had the basic system (mid-woofer down below and tweeter in the pull handle). My 2001 has three speaker openings in the door panel (an extra mid-range opening down below, ala Premium sound system). I did replace one of the woofers but
honestly don't recall if this third opening is populated or not. So, I think my 2001 had an upgraded door panel. Other than that, these audio systems are identical.

Door panel removal:
Door Panels - There are a couple web-page write-ups on removing the door panels. One note: do not rotate the expansion plugs to remove them. Instead simply make sure the pin-insert is pushed in fully. Then the expansion plugs can be pulled straight out. Using a small straight tool (tiny philips screwdriver, blunted awl, very small punch) push the center of the expansion plug IN. It is camoflauged and you can't see it easily. Push right in the center. The pin will pop in. Push it as far in as you can. Then the expansion plug will pull out. Now,
reach in with a pair of tweezers and collect the pin you pushed in in the previous step. Repeat for all plugs around the door. Thenm pull the door off gently and the inner black cone sleeve will come with the door. Pop these out by hand. Remember, the black sleeves go OVER the doorskin not under it. For this job, I had a hooked awl with a broken tip. It was a perfect tool for this job - it pushed the pin-inserts in nicely and had a little hook left on the end to grab and pull the plugs out with.

Use the smallest flat-blade screwdriver you can find to remove the screw covers. Push this tiny screwdriver in firmly. Do not be overly-gentle (that's counter-intuitive I know but if you do not push the screwdriver in fully it will mar the edge of the plastic screw cover).

Remove the door panels fully by gently levering the door-latch cable off - its rather easy and just takes a second to do.

Each electrical connector has a release tab. The green one is on the underside so its hard to feel for.

All panels must be connected for that door to work. So, if you remove the passenger door-panel, you cannot open/close the passenger window from the driver door. Do all work with the windows UP before starting.

Rear deck panel removal:
This is a pain to figure out. Its very easy to remove once you figure it out (like a puzzle).

1) release the seat backs and lower seat backs down.
2) remove the trunk side liners (these have rectangular clips - reach behind and squeeze them to release)
3) now, next to the seat back is a vertical cushion - this needs to be moved. Its held in with two clips.
3a) To release the first clip (which is really just a J-shaped plastic hook), push the cusion in toward the trunk, then slightly to the outside wall - you will feel the J-hook release.
3b) Behind the cushion (in the trunk) you will see a square post, with a square hole in it and foam rubber inside the square. Reach in there. You can feel the clip that holds this. Squeeze this to release.
3c) now this cushion will come away. Pull it outside gently since it still guides the seatbelt. Repeat for other side.
4) lift the deck cover VERY HIGH - over the car-seat anchors. You will see two guide "posts". Lift it high enough to clear these, then slideout. You may have to reach in gently and lift over the speaker area too. If you begin to hear a tearing sound - its probably the guide posts not out of the guide hole (so lift higher).

Speakers :
All speakers have an integral plastic mounting bracket. The speakers almost look like its one-piece but the speaker itself is removable from the bracket which mounts to the door/deck.

To remove the speaker from the plastic bracket:
looking down on the speaker place a flat blade screwdriver in the outer-most edge and turn the blade so it gently pries the outer plastic wall out a little. This will cause the glue underneath to crack. Just do a little each time and move about 1-2 inches around the circumference and repeat. The speaker is placed in the bracket, then rotated so three tabs hold it in place. These tabs have glue under them also, but its very weak glue. Pry gently with a screwdriver. Once yoiu've gone all the way around, you can turn the speaker over and look at the back, then rotate the speaker to disengage the locking tabs. The speaker wires will snap off the solder posts. That's ok, we don't want them connected anyway. Mine snapped off cleanly. Once the bracket is empty, you can place a 6.5" speaker in there and with small #8-size screws and nuts screw this to the bracket. Turn the speaker until there is a convenient place to drop a nut in from behind. In one case drilled a hole in the plastic bracket.

Volvo is weird with their speakers and it took me a long time to get to the bottom of this. The basic system is comprised of:

2 rear deck ('Parcel shelf') 7" 8-ohm coaxial two-way speakers
2 rear door 6.5" 4-ohm full-range speakers
2 front door 4-ohm component speakers with 6.5" mid-woofer and 1.5" tweeter with crossover

For both door mountings, I put a run of 3/8wide X 3/16 tall adhesive foam insulating tape around the door opening so the speaker had a nice cushioned and sealed mount.

Rear Deck Speakers:
The rear deck speakers are an oddball size. The deck opening is just over 6.5" so 6.5 will NOT fit unless you rig up some sort of adaptor bracketry. The opening is larger and the integral mounting bracket holds the speaker above the deck by about 1" The rear deck speakers and the rear door speakers are wired in parallel! This is not standard and took a while to sort out. The 8-ohm read deck and 4-ohm rear door speaker is wired in parallel so the head-unit sees 2.67-ohm impedance on the rear channels. The parallel branching happens up front in the forward passenger compartment, sending individual wire-pairs to the speakers.

Rear Door Speakers:
Standard 6.5" speakers fit here perfectly. Drill out the rivets, remove the old assembly and drill new mounting holes. Do this location first since its the easiest and you will get the hang of it a little bit. You could mount using the integrated platsic Volvo mounting bracket but you do not need to, so it's easier to screw the new speakers directly to the door.

Front Door Speakers:
You will need to use the integrated platsic Volvo mounting bracket here to hold 6.5" speakers. Once you drill out the rivets and unplug the speaker, you can remove it from the door. There is a qdhesive foam
gasket holding it in place so you may need to gently pry the bracket up from the door until the gaskets lets go.

Center speaker:
Removing this cover is tricky. There is a web write-up here

http://www.volvoxc.com/resources/how...ll-removal.pdf

but it is mis-leading. The S60 speaker grill/cover is held in with pressure clips in the middle - not by the edge. Be careful not to pry or you may mar your dash (I caused a little wrinkle in my dash material doing this wrong). Put a tool in like the write-up says but it does not release a tab, rather, use it to pull straight up on the grill. Make sure the hooked tool is firmly under the plastic. The standard system has no center speaker. The speaker mount and wire is there. I couldn't find the input end of this wire anywhere so I simply ran an extra wire for future use. This appears to be about a 6.5" size bracket. The bracket has a spot for an integrated tweeter, very much like the rear speakers.

What my upgrade entailed:
I shopped and researched a lot. I wanted a system that was very reasonably priced, but which was the least invasive to the vehicle and which could be further upgraded in the future.

I kept the HU-605. I like the integrated data features and the stock look. With all the other improvements it sounds great, anyway.
I added a Sony 600W 4-channel Xplod-series amp ($99). I mounted this in the trunk on the left side behind the truink liner. I had to drill mounting holes and tilt it on an angle but it fits great and is very secure. I did start with a mail-order clearance Hitron amp but it was defective out of the box. Since the car was torn apart already I ran to the store and bought the Sony amp. For power, I ran an 8-Ga with ring terminal right over the RCM power in screw - simply put ring terminal and new nut right over existing one. This ran to a Lightening Audio 50-Amp inline fuse holder, then to my amp. Total distance about 16". For ground, I ran up the left side and to one of the two ground studs under the back seat. Total distance about 30". ($20)

I built a custom cable with 6-pin DIN connector to accept pre-amp outputs ($10). I bought a connector like this one:

http://www.thefinalclick.com/Cables-...e_p_74158.html

I got mine from here, though

http://shop.ebay.com/nkc_store/m.html

and soldered up all four channels plus the remote on. The only tricky part was connecting all four channels to one ground pin, so I soldered a single wire then connected all four grounds to it (like a mini bus-bar). I made four sets of twisted pair and sheathed the 9-wires inside a cheap wire wrap. It works great. Frankly, I would reccomend spending $29 and buying 9-conductor "speed-wire" from *HERE*. Without the ribs, it's easier to pull too.

I built a custom speaker cable to run back from the amp outputs to the original Volvo speaker harness ($10). This made wiring so much easier. I soldered 18-Ga speaker wire to a harness adaptor connector. I stuffed all this into another wire wrap, along with one extra speaker wire for the (future) center. Be careful buying this connector! Make sure you get the one that connects into the existing wiring harness, not
the one that connects into the radio.

I ran my wires from back to front as follows:
Along left quarter-panel inside trunk, behind trunk liner.
Into square hole in square post between of trunk and rear seat.
Out of trunk and down, behind the left cushion next to seat ack.
Under the lower door trim, under the carpet. It will fit but is tight.
Forward along left edge, past B-pillar and under driver door molding.
Halfway to split in carpet.
Turn, under driver seat, behind frame bump, under heat duct.
Here there is a step in the carpet and can go up into the console.
Once inside, turn forward along left edge of console.
Into congested space under dash.
Stay low on floor of console until fully under dash.
Where two heat ducts diverge under dash turn up to behind head-unit.
Extra center speaker wire fishes straight up.

I retained the rear deck speakers, for now.

I replaced the rear door speakers with Sony 50W 6.5" 4-way Xplod-series speakers ($50).

I replaced the front door speakers with Sony 6.5" Xplod-series component speakers ($60). These included a 1.5" tweeter.
I wrapped these in 3/8 adhesive-backed foam insulting "tape" to make the outside a little wider and squeeze them into place. Then I added a light bracket to the back and screwed it into the door-panel backing plastic. This worked perfectly. Frankly, the fit of these tweeters was the hardest part to work out, and this became the foundation of my whole system (hence the Sony Xplod-series everywhere). The Sony wires reverse marking. Volvo puts a stripe on positive and solids for negative. Sony speakers use a stripe for negative. Just be aware.

My future upgrades:

Replace rear deck ("parcel shelf") speakers with something 4-ohm that will fit nicely ($65). Still shopping for those.
Add a speaker-level 2-channel amp that will fit ($70) . Tap into front channel speaker outs from Sony amp and into inputs of new amp. Bridge new amp, set low pass filter on and connect to center speaker wire. Run leftover power wires ($5).
Add Kicker 6.5" low profile subwoofer at center speaker ($60)

So, my project so far cost me $200 (amp+2speaker+2speaker+wiring)
My, next upgrade will cost me $200 (2speaker+subwoofer).

When all done, this will be a $400 system with 9 speakers and two amps, including subwoofer and component tweeters for staging.

(sorry for the messy formatting - I'm copy-pasting)