B.TL

Sorry if this is a dumb question, but seeing as how we are bypassing the factory EQ, do we even need to have it plugged in?

B.TL

2003 TL w/o navigation.
Kenwood X395
Blue and white wire from the aftermarket HU to blue wire on Metra harness.

jay0016

Is it neccasary to splice into the two wires for the sub all the way up at the green plug into the EQ, isn't this the same two wires that run to the small plug in the back of the factory radio? so you could just splice into it there

GratefulLaz

I am about to install a new HU and want to make sure I understand this.

So the only wires I need to connect from the disconnected eq green plug are Bass+ blu/grn and the Bass - orn/blu ( why not use the woofer speaker + and the wooofer speaker on the green eq plug - just curious) to the split RCA.

and then the blue wire from the Metra harness 70-1721 to the RTO (either the amp turn on or the antennae turn on) to the HU

No constant power or remote power needs to be connected to the Green EQ plug to provide power to the AMP

B.TL

It isn't necessary.
For your second question, I would guess no.
In the pics for the small plug you mention, it says that B4 is Common Input. B9 is Right Input. That doesn't seem to match B3 and B10 on the EQ harness.

keirstrw

JByron’s post #77 is outstanding and worked perfectly withmy Pioneer AVH-3400BH. I just wish I wasgetting a little more out of the sub.

keirstrw

Special thanks to JByron, economys, Garrote, dro_15 and StreetEffectz!

JByron

glad it helped! you could also try lowering the crossover so nothing above 50 or 60hz goes to your sub, also try changing the phase (0 or 180 degrees) in the settings.

Naija'sTL

Just did this mod yesterday using EQ wiring behind head unit! Special thanks to everyone contributing to this very old, yet informative thread!

Word of warning to those looking to try this: The EQ wires are very small and fragile, and I had a heck of a time splicing with my big ol' fingers, but being able to control the factory sub (which sounds great with my HU), is a great reward!

Josue Montoya

Sorry but can someone direct me to someone who has done this, possibly with pictures??? I've tried doing this two ways with no luck.... need help

Naija'sTL

What problems are you having? Taking the car apart? HU help? I used most of the posts in this thread to finish my setup behind the aftermarket HU, specifically the posts by DRO_15 (#45), GARROTE (#32), and JBYRON (#77) which are pics/illustrations. I didn't do the rear seat removal option, so I can't help you there. Sorry about that.

Meatball

So, I know this is a pretty old thread, but it does still have some activity and I wanted to thank all you guys for the awesome thread/information. My stock head unit finally called it quits recently so I decided to swap it out for a new one. I didn't need anything fancy and basically just wanted radio, CD and an aux jack. I ended up picking up all the following.

• Kenwood KDC-152 CD-Receiver Head Unit
• Metra 70-1721 Honda Wiring Harness
• Scosche AA1574B Installation Kit
• GE Red/White pair of RCA Cables

Between the great directions here a few looks at my Haynes auto repair manual I was able to have the center console and everything including the old head unit pulled out in an hour or so. (Also gave me a good chance to clean out all the crud that's collected in there over years


I wired things as follows between the Kenwood Harness and the Metra Harness

• KW White <> Met White
• KW White/Black <> Met White/Black
• KW Gray <> Met Gray
• KW Gray/Black <> Met Gray Black
• KW Green <> Met Green
• KW Green/Black <> Met Green/Black
• KW Purple <> Met Purple
• KW Purple/Black <> Met Purple/Black
• KW Blue (Antenna Control) | Taped Off
• KW Blue/White (Power Control) <> Metra Blue/White
• KW Brown (Mute Control) | Taped Off
• KW Red <> Metra Red
• KW Yellow <> Metra Yellow
• KW Black <> Metra Black
• Metra Orange (Illumination) | Taped Off
• Metra Blue (Power Antenna) | Taped Off
• Metra Orange/White (Dimmer) | Taped Off

Then I also pulled apart my RCA and connected it as follows.

• RCA White/Red Center Wires Together <> Green Amp Plug Blue/Green Stripe Wire.
• RCA White/Red Shielding Wires Together <> Green Amp Plug Orange/Blue Stripe Wire

I plugged everything in and everything fired up like a champ and appears to be working correctly, but I have run into two minor things that I just want to run by you guys and make sure I've got everything wired right and the car isn't going to catch on fire.


1) I've noticed a barely audible hum/whine coming through the speakers. I've also noticed the hum/whine gets higher pitched as I accelerate and lowers in pitch when I let off the gas. It's not a major deal and if I turn the volume up a bit, it drowns out the hum pretty quick, but I just wanted to see if you guys had any thoughts on that. That was not happening with the original head unit.



2) I completely forgot about the volume up/down and the station change on the steering column and they don't seem to work. Don't know if that's just my head unit not recognizing them and it's not possible to use them with other units, or maybe did I just forget to connect/wire something else?


To be honest, neither of those two really seem worth it to me to rip apart the whole center console and pull everything back out, but wanted to see what the experts thought about them and double check on all my wiring.


Thanks in advance!

MehrdadTL

What a fantastic thread! for your second question, yes u have missed a steering wheel adapter which connects your steering wheel wires to new head unit. Im going to instal a Pioneer FH-X700BT to my 03TL w/o navi. I have a question here: so far, I know hot to hook up signal wires from speakers (color by color) and also I know how to connect RCA cable from Head Unit to that blue/green and orange/blue wires. But I am totally confused by what others telling about power amp wire, remote amp wire, and other wiring. one of them is what is written in post #32 above the last image: "Finally, you'll need to get radio-switched power to the factory sub amp. On the wiring harness that I received (from Crutchfield), this was an orange wire. I connected the power antenna lead from my head unit to this wire. This energizes the sub amp any time the radio is on. Don't forget this connection or the sub amp won't work." I have no clue what is he talking about! Can anybody help me please?!

mtuck

I just used this for a similar setup in my 2000 TL. The new HU is a Kenwood DDX470. Sub is not overpowering but it's better than the just the 4 door speakers.

Thanks.

chunkydaddy

Hi, I recently bought an 02 acura tl that had an aftermarket hu pioneer brand. Anyway I took it all apart and notice that the old wiring harness has been cut and was wondering can I tap into one of these wire in the green eq connector to poer the sub. I know pin 3 and 10 is for the negative and positive of the sub but can I use one of these other wire to power it to the hu remote/amp on wire. Thanks for all the help.

commando

Okay, I've been at this forever now, I connected RCA jacks to the back of my HU, connected the center and outer conductors of RCA cables to the appropriate blue/w green stripe, and orange /w blue stripe wire, connected the system remote( blue/ white wire) from new Hu to amplifier remote (blue) on metra harness.
Then, turned on HU, Turned on Sub ctrl( on HU), my back speakers take the place of my sub, INSTEAD of the sub working. When HU is powered on&off I can hear the amp turn on&off, no noise from sub. I've followed the instructions but no noise from sub, can anybody/ will anybody help? I'm trying to do this behind eq, if that's possible.

commando

ok yeah, the eq thing is a big fucking lie. I have been connecting andvreconnecting wires for over four gdamn days, every way all of you said, each time check sub output was on, it was, tried both sets of blue/ green wires at eq with remote turn on connected, still nothing. If anyone actually has ever done this, I don't believe anyone has, please for the love of god post accurate full pictures. Not pictures of half of it, not a half ass description, the whole thing. Please, thus far the majority of everything I've read on this site has been wrong, and I've been working on my stereo total for 3 weeks. Maybe it wouldn't be so confusing if A.) there were definitive directions, for each way of getting sub to work, with pictures, and clear concise words,B) if everyone didn't explain a completely different way of doing it, c) if any of you even know what your talking about, how come so many unanswered questions on this site? How come when someone doesn't understand, its common practice here to tell them, its so easy, we already explained it, search for it, a whole lot of help this has been. So if anyone on this site gives a crap about helping people, how about some clear concise answers.please

2003_Type_S

Sorry about your frustrations, it does work. I had similar difficulty and traced the problem to splicing the wrong orange/blue striped wire. Yes, there are more than one and if you tap the wrong one, it does not work.

I don't have pictures and I can't solve your problems for you. Heck I couldn't even diagnose your problem if I tried, there is not enough useful information in your post. Keep in mind this thread originated over 7 years ago.

Re-read the multiple threads, take notes on what applies to your situation and discard what doesn't, then double check everything you've done. It is not the forum's responsibility to fix it for you, and lashing out certainly isn't going to solicit someone to take valuable time of their own to help you. Good luck. It does work.

slowboat

Some great information here. I'm checking out head units from Crutchfield and doing all of my homework by reading this thread.

My wife's car is a '99 TL with factory navigation. With an aftermarket head unit, do you lose the voice prompts on navigation? This is certainly not a dealbreaker- but just wondering how or if the factory nav connects to the audio.

KyleT

Ok I have a 02 tl-s with nav. Im looking to ditch the stock radio for a double din touchscreen. I know how to wire everything up with the harness just a little confused with the sub.

So does the subwoofer signal go like this?
radio->bose eq->bose amp->subwooofer.

What Im getting as is I see people just splicing the sub outputs into the harness. But its better to bypass the bose eq right? So do I just run the rca for the sub all the way to the trunk right to the amp?

nats007

This worked flawlessly!!! Thanks a million!!!

KyleT

Anyone chime in? Im hoping to get everything wired up this week.

peer2peer

That's what I did with a good result. Just get a long RCA wire and strip the subwoofer amp end so you can splice into the harness that connects to the subwoofer amp. Once you make the right connection, your only remaining concern will be getting the amp to power on. There are earlier posts that address that issue. Good luck!!

KyleT

Can I use something like this to connect the rca's to the amp speaker wire? http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_...e-RFIF2SW.html

Rca's are low level input and speaker wire is high level input. High level is used to power speakers, but low level is used for rca's and amps. Does it matter if its low level or high level input into the factory subwoofer amp? Thats all I can seem to find for rca adapters.

KyleT

Im in the middle of wiring up my Kenwood ddx370. Im running rca's from the subwoofer output on the back of the receiver to the bose amp behind the seat. Spliced into the org/blu and blu/grn wires.

The subwoofer works, only thing is that the sound is completely flat. I sounds just like another speaker. Ive tried adjusting my settings on the radio, changing subwoofer level, but it still sounds bad. It doesn't even sound half as good as it did with the stock radio.

KyleT

Ok heres what Ive got, Im not sure why the sub sounds so much weaker compared to the stock radio.

RCA's coming out the sub output on the reciever


Then I bought this to convert the rca wires to speaker wires to tap into the harness. http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_...e-RFIF2SW.html Im not sure if this is whats causing the problem or not?


And Ive spliced them into the orange/blue and blue/green wires from the connector going into the amp.

KyleT

Think I got it figured out.. Seems like it was a combination of the rear seat being out and the sub not dialed in on the radio that made it sound weak. Played around with the crossover and levels and it sounds pretty good now.

Jff_fu

Just finished installing pioneer AVIC X940BT! Got the factory amp and subwoofer working as well as the steering wheel controls! Sounds Awesome! Trust me folks! Save your money and do it yourself! Not complicated but you do need the right tools!

tl_CE

I have a '99 Acura TL and I have a HU coming in the next few days. I have read through all 13 pages of this forum, but I am not sure what other supplies are need other than the harness and the HU. Are there any other supplies/tools that I needed to have other than the standard screwdriver?

2002TL-Type-S

A set of RCA cables you can destroy.
Some sort of wire cutters or crimping tool.

I just did this today and used Scotch locks to tap into the equalizer harness. You leave the equalizer harness disconnected. It works perfectly!

UA4Project702

Does anyone know what color wires it is I need to splice with on the amp in the trunk for a 1999 Acura 3.2TL? Is it blue? Going to be finishing up my install tomorrow and can't find a diagram with a link that isn't broken thanks I appreciate the help

pstomps

Here are a couple photos of how I made the connections for anyone having trouble: http://imgur.com/a/FJaty

I spent about 5-6 hours tearing up my dash and trying to get the sub working earlier this summer and just couldn't get it working. You can see in the photos where I tried to use T-taps and almost snipped the wires. I eventually gave up and just settled for losing my sub. I had a couple hours of free time this weekend, so I took another shot at it. Luckily past me was smart enough to leave some RCA cables plugged in in case I ever wanted to give it another go, so I only had to take the top dash/AC control piece out.

The EQ is accessible if you take just the top dash part out like I did. You won't be able to remove the EQ this way, but you will be able to get to the green wiring harness. I bought a JL Audio XD-CLRAIC2-SW (Crutchfield Link.....Image) so I wouldn't have to mess with stripping RCA cables. (This isn't necessary but it made my life easier. If you can't find it, don't worry--just strip down your RCA cables and follow the previous instructions for connecting them.) It came with two female-female adapters so I was able to connect it to the RCA cables that were plugged into the back of my stereo to extend the reach and not have such a tight fit and worry about strain on my wires/stereo connections. I soldered both positive wires and both negative wires of the JL Audio thing. Then I soldered a 1-inch piece of paper clip to each end. I'm sure that probably wasn't the best way to do it, but it works for me. Make sure you wrap them in electrical tape or cover them with liquid electrical tape so they don't touch.

Connect the JL Audio adapter (or RCA cables, whichever you're using) to the sub outs on the stereo, then stick the paper clip ends directly into the wiring harness holes. I did this so I could test my connections without having to strip wires and then end up having messed up wires and still no sub.

Negative paper clip end goes into the orange/blue hole. This is the top row, left side and the hole is 4th from the left.

Positive paper clip end goes into the blue/green hole. This is the bottom row, right side and the hole is 2nd from the right (the middle of 3 holes on the bottom left side).

Make sure you're plugging into the smaller holes, not the larger ones.

That'll get the sub playing as long as you have the appropriate remote turn-on wires connected on your stereo's harness. I repeat: you HAVE to have the REMOTE TURN-ON wires connected on your stereo's wiring harness.

I think I forgot to connect the ground wire from the EQ harness, so I have a slight hum from the sub, but it gets drown out when I play music. So make sure you connect your ground! I'll be getting back into the dash pretty soon, so I'll just fix it later. This should be enough to at least get your sub putting out sound so you can stop being frustrated with those stupid colored wires. No stripping, no accidentally snipped wires, no taking the back seat out or getting under the kick panels. If you make the wrong connections, just pull the paper clip/wire out and plug into another hole until you get it right.

I used electrical tape (I know, I know...not the best idea but I was short on time and supplies) to tape up the EQ harness like crazy so my sub wires wouldn't slide out. Then I tucked the whole thing behind the EQ so everything would fit just like it did before.

Rob24

iTrader: (1)

hi i just solder the paperclips onto the RCA cables. I have attached some images below to make sure its the right type of wire that I am using and if they paperclip looks good. Also I have a Pioneer AVH-P2400BT and I'm not sure where to connect the RCA cable into. But I am guessing its SWL and SWR. Also how do I know which wire is positive and negative? Or it doesn't matter?. I will also include an image of the rear of my HU.

Rob24

iTrader: (1)

Sorry for the double post but I connected both the wires together and then soldered them onto the paperclip. Was I suppose to do that or just use the white wire only? Also same question goes for the other wire.

pstomps

Hey Rob! You're correct that the RCA cables should be plugged into SWL and SWR.

However, it looks like you connected the wrong wires.

- Each RCA cable has an inner wire (looks like the white wire from your second reply) and a bare shielding wire. When you strip everything down, you'll have a total of 4 wires to work with (white and bare/shield from the red RCA, and a white and bare/shield from the white RCA)
- Solder together both white inner wires (one from red RCA and one from white RCA) and attach a paper clip
- Solder together both bare/shield wires (one from red RCA, one from white RCA) and attach a paper clip

So basically: connect the two inner white wires together, then connect the two bare wires together (here's your photo with green brackets showing which wires to connect). Now your two connected white wires need to have a paper clip attached, and your two connected shield wires need to have a paper clip attached.

Once that's all soldered, plug the paper clip that is attached to the connected white wires into the + (blue/green) hole on the harness. Then plug the paper clip that is attached to the connected bare/shield wires into the - (orange/blue) hole on the harness. Refer to my previous post for the exact location of those holes.

If you have everything soldered correctly but don't get any sound, try plugging the paper clips into the opposite holes. If you still don't have sound, make sure you have the remote turn-on wires on your harness connected. If your sub is giving a funny whine/hum sound but you're not getting audio, check your stereo settings and make sure it isn't muted or turned down to 0 under the sub level/volume.

Hope that helps! Sorry that I don't have additional pictures to clarify. If I confused you let me know and I'll try to find some extra RCA cables to destroy so I can give you a better image of how to solder them.

Rob24

iTrader: (1)

I'm pretty sure I got it right this time? Btw thanks for replying, really appreciate it.

pstomps

Looks right to me. Good luck! If you connect the ground wire, let me know if you have humming or not. The cold weather came in quickly, so I don't know if I'll get around to it until Spring.

Rob24

iTrader: (1)

Hey I got the chance to tear the dash apart again. I installed the RCA cables but it still seems like it's not working but I do hear a humming sound like unlike before. I don't know why the sub is working even though I can hear a humming sound. I'm not sure what to do now.

JByron

my image had disappeared from post #77, reuploaded it.

thenickksterr

Hey guys, I recently made an account so that I could add these photos in for those of you who are still having trouble. I'm still working on hooking up my speakers, and I will get back to you guys soon.