I've just installed a new stereo in my car, and I ran into a strange little problem. This was the first time I installed a deck. I bought a wiring harness and an antenna adaptor.

When I first hooked it all up, the deck wouldn't even turn on. There are two connectors for the stereo, a "big" one with most of the wiring, and a "small" one, which seems to be just the rear speaker wires. After some mucking around, I found that on the big connector, one wire was not used. But the unused wire on my car did not match up to the unused wire on my wiring harness - the unused connector and the ground connector were reversed, so I had to move the ground wire on the harness. That got my power going...

The next problem was that my rear speakers didn't work at all. After a lot of screwing around, I found that both rear speakers would work if I took one of the four rear speaker wires and connected it to my car's "Amp Signal" (my wiring harness didn't connect anything to the "Amp Signal"). Does this mean that there's an amp driving my rears that needs to be turned on before I can get any sound?

Anyway, right now my left rear speaker only has one wire running to it, cause the other is connected to the Amp Signal. Amazingly, both rears work properly, but I know the wiring isn't quite right. What should I be connecting to that Amp Signal wire?

-Rich

BTW, I found the label "Amp Signal" on the factory deck I took out. I couldn't find any pinout diagrams in my Haynes manual...

 

if you have a bose deck you have amps

you should just bypass all the bose amps the are crap and will break soon and sound like crap anyway

 

the spare wire might be for dimming control.
the rear speaker issue is likely caused because of the stock amp that's on the rear shelf. i ripped mine out because it was crappy and the amp on the cd deck is better than stock.
if you need help i'm in toronto as well...

 

Ok, I don't have the bose deck, and the speakers do not appear to have built-in amps. However, in front of the left rear spkr, there is some electronic unit, a Clarion EN-7091. I'm guessing this is an amp, but I haven't had a chance to check the wiring (which requires backseat removal). The deck was also made by Clarion. Anyone else have this?

 

Check out www.installdr.com - great wiring diagram for our cars. That round thing in the back is the factory amp - a whopping 25 watts I think. Disconnect it and use the amp built in to the head unit. Somewhere...someone has a info on how to disconnect this piece of crap... Here it is http://www.geocities.com/craigbrace/ Look under the 'how-to' section then 'replacing head unit and speaker wiring info' then scroll down to new speaker info.

 

What radio are you using? Some radios don't have a power antena lead, or a dimmer. If you don't have a power antena lead, you can hock this wire to your amp lead. The only thing is that it will be up as long as the radio is on.

 

I had the same problem. I just connected the amp turn on and the power ant. wire to the amp turn or wire from the deck and it has worked fine for almost a year.

 

Do you have to bypass the amp if you use a wiring harness because I am worrying about this when I do my install. I have a JVC and it does 19wx4 RMS 50x4 peak. Should I disconnect it or just leave it alone. Will keeping it hooked up fry me speakers?

 

nothings going to fry your front speakers

you should bypass the factory clarion amp

 

I had mine profesionaly installed. They used both wiring kits, but ran rca cables to the amp in the trunk. Then from the amp they ran speaker cable to the rear speakers. I was running an eclipse head unit,eclipse speakers, planet audio amp, and aluma pro subs (two 8 inch). But the head unit got broken when my car got broken into earlier this month.

 

Would it be the problem if I just bought a set of speaker wire harnesses from www.crutchfield.com. and kept the amp as is. I don't want to remove it if I don't have to. But If I have to then I will have to remove it. Is there any harm in keeping the amp as is. Someone already said that you couldn't harm you speakers by keeping the amp hooked up. Will the HU's amp turn off if the stock amp turn on?

 

you mean you just want to unplug the speakers from the factory amp and connect then to your aftermarket (not purchased from me) amp?

 

You sell amps? You have me wrong. These are the speaker harnesses I am talking about Click me unless you are......Never mind Click Here. I don't want to cut any wires. I want to leave everything stock looking. All I want to do is unplug the stock speakers and plug these into the stock speaker harness.

 

Yes, I sell amps, stereos, speakers, tvs, dvd players, computers , cars, trucks , vans, parts, accessories, alarms, remote starts, wheels, tires, mufflers, catalytic converters, neons, and way more than I care to list.

oh and installation is available as well.
[/sales pitch]

 

Just leave the original amp in and run the speaker wires fromit to your new speakers. It would make sense to remove the amp, but if you want it for the look or whatever just leave it. You already have an amped signal coming from your deck so there's no need to amp it again. Just bypass it. That should also take care of the strange wiring problem so the regular harness will work w/o rewiring anything.

(disclaimer* I only have experience working w/bose system. This just seems to make sense )

 

Ok, I've now bypassed my factory amp on my new deck, and guess what? The rear speakers are pretty darned quiet now. I was pretty surprised - if my aftermarket deck has 40W/channel, I would have thought all of the speakers would be approximately the same volume without the factory amp connected.

Anyway, my factory amp is screwed - it adds a lot of engine noise to my rear left speaker - so I'm going to leave it unhooked, and compensate for the quite rears using the Fader settings on the deck for now. Next time I happen to hit the junk yard I might see if I can grab one of those factory amps to bring the rears back up to normal levels, but it doesn't seem all that important now. Although I'd certainly be interested in hearing an explanation for the quiet rears given the built-in amp in my deck.

My new deck is a JVC KD SX-740.

And heres another question if there's an amp expert that wants to share some knowledge... If my old amp adds noise only to the left rear speaker, can it be easily repaired, or is it not worth the bother. There's a squeal that matches my RPMs, and I can also hear a click when my brake lights go on and off. Also, sometimes I hit a bump and all the noise goes away until I hit the next bump...

-Rich

 

u sell alarms? u sell just the remotes too?

 

Yes, and yes for some systems but not all

 

does anyone know if the front speakers on the non bose systems have amps to

that makes no sence that the rears would be alot quieter than the fronts

the only explanation is that the front speakers are rated at 4ohms and the rears are rarted at 10 or 12ohms that would mean that there 2 to 3 times the amount of power going to the front speakers. if this is the case just reaplce the rear speakers with new aftermarket 4ohm and alls will be well.

if you have a mutimeter test the rear speakers with the resistance/ohm function and if its higher than 4 replace them and your problem will most likly be solved

 

The only amp in the non bose is for the rears. I have non bose. I forgot that when my rears did work I had engine noise so I will splice my wires.