21 Sport Audio Upgrade

Thank you to everyone who came before me and shared the pinouts and other troubles with their builds. I honestly wouldn't have bought the Ridgeline if you all had not shared the info I needed. I was hesitant to buy a Ridgeline after I'd looked at Crutchfield and they say I can't swap out the head unit. But I liked them enough that I dug further and found this forum through Reddit and figured a difficult stereo install would be worth it to give the Ridgeline a shot. @CentexG2 , @bhom920 , @supersuk I had your pages bookmarked before I even test drove the Ridgeline.

Seems like the most helpful build threads are professionals or very well experienced installers. I've done a lot of basic installs just speakers, amps, subs, and head unit. This is my first time not having plug and play stuff available. First time chopping up a new car's wiring harness. First time using a DSP. I know a little of what I'm doing but not much. I'm not an audiophile, but I can't stand factory stereos. There also doesn't seem to be many/any build threads with the base sport model. The stuff I learned from the higher trim builds applied also to the sport. Wire/pin colors/slots are the same.

Parts used:
JL 10TW3 subs x 2
Kicker CXA800
JBL DSP4086
JL C1 650 for the fronts
Rockford 3 ways for the rears
2 pairs 16pin connectors
6 conductor cable
4 awg power/ground

Seat out, removed the factory sub and added some knockoff dynamat to the rear of the cab. Brought my wires back there and reinstalled the seat. 9 bolts, some plastic trim and it lifted out easily.



Glovebox out to disconnect the ANC module and fished the power wire through the harness grommet behind the fan box. Dropped the console to get 12v switched off the cigarette lighter. Didn't realize there's open fuse spots with a switched power in the driver's footwell until after I was done with tapping the lighter.



Threw in a trailer brake controller while I was already playing contortionist under the dash.



Door panels come off so nicely on newer cars. I broke only one tab doing all 4 doors. Put knockoff dynamat inside the doors and installed the new speakers.



Built a sub box and wrapped it in the closest matching black carpet I could find. I wanted to do a ported box but I'd have to make an amp rack behind the seat and lift the seat about an inch for the volumes to work easily - I could've taken some volume from behind the seat instead of lifting the seat. Anyway I went simple and built a sealed 1.04 cu ft enclosure (JL calls for 0.5 per)





Running with the stock amp the speakers/dynamat/foam rings were a huge difference. The tweeters were insanely sharp I had to turn that way down, have to run the sub at the lowest it will go, and bass turned down to almost minimum. Made it tolerable but not great.

Started on the scary part this morning. Did not want to do anything I couldn't quickly return to stock. But I can't go to the junkyard and cut harness plugs off of anything this new. Did find a few factory amps with chopped harness ends but for $200+ and no guarantee they'd fit the ridgeline so I just bubba'd up my own. Opened the connectors this morning to find 16 pins, but only 4 colors. No lines/letters/numbers on the wires to differentiate, so I used a label maker and colored shrinkwrap. I bought 6 conductor cable hoping it would lay flatter under the carpet than a 16 conductor cable.



Plug the two ends together and it works like stock.



Then I made the harness that puts the DSP/amp between those plugs.



I was hoping to test tomorrow but I need to run power to the DSP and the leftovers from the mono amp was supposed to be enough but my original plan was to bring it through on the driver's side. Ate up a good 5 ft because I thought the passenger side seemed easier so I don't have enough to reach the DSP under the passenger seat. I just ordered some 8awg wire but it won't be here till the end of the week so now I wait.