i installed a amp for subs in my car, all i did was tap the rear speakers @ the amp (from the headunit signal) using wire taps, and quick disconnects..now i got 2 problems, 1, i get a strange noice out of the rear speakers (kinda like engine noise) and also my left channel doesn't seem to work anymore at all..does anyone know what could possibly be wrong? one thing i am thinking is because i tapped the ground also to use to ground my hi/low converter...one more thing, which wire is the wire that i can use for remote? it's the white/yellow right? but it doesn't seem to turn off the amp when the radio is off, i still get lights on my amp..any ideas?
Thanks!

 

These are just a few "You don't have to, but should to keep things neat and easy to understand and troubleshoot" things to try. 1) You will usually have better results and less power drops to speakers if you dont share ground wires. 2) Don't share remote wires for the same reason. These things may or may not help, but even if they don't its good practice to obey these rules.

 

so what are you supposed to use for remote then?

 

Run a wire to your fuse box and push the wire in with a fuse that is only on when your key is turned the the Accessory position. Works like a charm

 

any other ideas? thats like too much work..i need to know exactly which wire on the stock amp it is, because it's comming from the stock headunit so that should be a OK wire to tap...but is it the yellow/white or the white/yellow, and how the hell do you tell them appart?

 

I don't know which it is from the colors alone. I would just test the port the wires go into with a voltmeter. Whichever one is ~12V when the key isn't in the ignition is the hot wire. The one that is dead when the key isn't in is the remote.

 

If you check out Silverknight's audio setup link (check out the very first post in the a/v=electronics section) and it will give you a color code wiring diagram of the stock amp in the 2001-. I tapped into the power wire from there and my amps does just fine. I have also wired stuff into the fuse box like the previous post suggested and that works just fine as well.

What wires did you tap your converter into? And are you keeping your stock rears?

 

i taped the green, red, orange, and white wires, as well as the black (ground) and white/yellow for remote..were those the right ones to do? also i am keeping my rear speakers as the bose ones..
thanks!

 

What brand of amp do you have? Have the manual?

With some amps, the trigger(remote) input draws little or no current and only serves to turn the amplifier on or off.

Other amps use the trigger input to supply logic circuitry with low current 12 volts. Voltage dips in the trigger can interrupt the normal logic signal and cause poor sound or damage.


If you are using the signal from the head unit (low level), what is the High/Low converter for?

 

accually the wires i am using go into the high/low, then rcas come out and go into the amp. the amp i am using is a performace technique, i'm 99% sure no one here has heard of them because there is only like 2 distributers on the west coast but basiclly what they are is PPI amps with a little diffrent case...

 

The wht/yel wire is constant power, and the yel/wht wire is the radio switch. The latter is the one to tap into. If you check out the wiring diagram from Silverknight's post it tells you everything about the wiring of the amp.

I was told you could not tap into the pre-outs coming from the head unit to power an aftermarket amp. You had to catch the wires AFTER the stock Bose amp and use a LOC or speaker level inputs on your amp. The way I did mine was bought factory connects (available almost anywhere) that plugged into the stock speaker wires then ran that into speaker level inputs on a 4 channel amp. Then use your 4 channel amp to push the rear speakers and a sub. I was pushing the stock Bose 6x9's with the aftermarket amp (Alpine amp), but later replaced the 6x9's with Bostons. And I have no engine noise whatsoever and it sounds just fine. Plus I didn't have to cut any wires and everything can be re-wired to stock if I sell the car. All I clamped onto was the yellow/white wire for an amp turnon. My goal was simply to add a sub and a little better filler sound coming from the back and this was the easiest, not to mention most economical, way of doing just that. Hope this heps. Late.

 

actually, you can solder some rca connectors to the wires coming out of the head unit and go straight to an after market amp. better yet...as i had posted earlier, you can purchase a cable link harness from www.linkmeup.com... part no. that i used is CLAB98R for acura 98 and up. baically all it is are some rcas soldered to the wires coming out of the head unit with out you having to do all the hard work of soldering. it's basically plug and play.all you do is connect one end of this harness to the stock radio, connect the other end to the harness from the car. then, the rcas coming out of this cable link harness, connect some RCA barrel conenctors (available at radio shack for $3) then connect these to the rca wires going to your aftermarket amp completely bypassing the bose amp. the only wire i had to cut was the steering wheel remote wire from the car harness which i soldered directly to the cable link harness mentioned above. i think the only thing difficult with this set up was accessing/removing the head unit....average 20-30 minutes. now it takes me less then 10 minutes cuz i've done it so many times. this set up will benefit you if you want to completely bypass the bose amp and add an aftermarket amp and speakers. if you're just gonna add a sub, just tap inot the rear speaker wires...no need to take the head unit out.

i did what you mentioned, yerffej, before. but after doing the set-up i just mentioned above, i got a much cleaner sound, better stereo imaging, no noise, no popping when i turn the radio on or off. so now, the only thing i have stock is the head unit. i am currently running boston pro series in the front, alpine 6X9 in the rear all powered by a jl300/4. the funny thing too is i don't have to raise the gain of the jl amp all the way up, as compared to when iwas getting the signal from the bose amp. it just showed me how much the bose amp restricts the signal outputs. i do have an mtx12 inch sub (8000 series) powered by an mtx amp. it gives me sufficient base for the kind of music that i listen too. what impresses me is the cleaner signal and better stereo imaging i got with my set up above....specially after changing the fronts to bostons and completely removing the stcok bose amp.

one thing i need to mention is i do get very minimal hiss when i have the volume set to very low. not sure if you call it pink or white noise. but i don't hear it when i'm playing my music or when i'm driving. i beleive i will be able able to get rid of this hiss ONLY if i replace the head unit with an aftermarket one that has real rca outputs. but with the stock head unit the way it is now, i am content.

 

Wouldn't it be easier to unplug the input harness at the Bose amp, and have a harness (that plugs into the Bose input/output from the headunit) to provide the RCAs and remote in the trunk? A singled ended harness would be needed.

It looks like the harness at the headunit has to pass more wires between the 2 harnesses to provide RCAs and a remote/trigger. BTW, what are the other 2 wires? A ground and constant?

pic

http://www.linkmeup.com/images/clab98r.jpg

 

it would be easier to do all the connections at the amp side of the system. but i don't think there's a company that makes a harness for the bose amp connector. if you wanted to do this you would need to cut or tap into the head unit outs at the amp side and solder some rcas. several people have done this and have been successful. i have tried this in the very beginning when i first purchased the car and i got a lot of noise. maybe i didn't connect the wires good enough or maybe i was just unlucky. with the cabe link hanress, i had to cut only one wire. you folks with navi sys might need to cut more. i don't have a navi sys so i cannot speak for you guys.

the other wires on the cable link harness are not needed. basically the wires used on the cable link harness are the power, remote turn, and ground and all the connections are provided for you so you don't need to cut any wires except the steering wheel control wire which is the green/red and solder that to the corressponding wire on the cable link harness. in your picture, the blue part connects to the radio, the white part connects to the original harness that comes with your car. the rcas go to your aftermarket amp but you need barrel connectors to connect these to the rcas going to your aftermarket amp.

there are 3 extra wires that you see, blue, black, and yellow (right next to the green rca). you don't need these but if you are running an eq or sound processor, you would use these to power that device up. blue for remote, yellow for power(12v) and black for ground. see, this cable link harness is currently being sold to be used in conjuction with the PD4 or PD2 and those three wires are supposed to power up the PD4/PD2. but in my experience, you don't need the PD4 or PD2....just get a more powerful amp and forgo the line driver(PD4 or PD2).

NOTE: my system does not have a navi so i cannot speak for you folks that have a navi system. you may need to cut more wires than just the steering wheel controls. i have the wire layout if anyone needs them.

 

So the Bose male/female harness are not available. Now it makes sense to have the harness at the headunit.


I took a look at the website, this is the description for the harness "These harness are needed to Keep Your Bose Factory Radio and Change the Factory Bose Amplified Speakers"

When this harness is used, the Bose amp does not receive input, remote, or power? Or must the bose amp be unplugged. Thanks for you help.

 

to be honest, i'm not sure if the bose amp is still receiving power when using the cable link harness. i didn't try it. i just totally removed the bose amp but i kept the harness intact just in case i was to sell the car. i can put everything back the way it was. also, i still needed to tap into the yellow/white wire from that harness for the remote turn on of my jl amp. this being the case, i would think the bose would still power up if you had it connected to the harness.