I need some help to properly diagnose this.

A few months back, I installed a pioneer AVIC-D1 in the car, and I'm using the factory harness to push the sound the the car's speakers.
I read around saying there's a factory amp in the 01 CLS but when I removed my trunk kitt to run the wires for the subs and the amp, I didn't see anything.

Anyways, at low volume I hear a hissing from all the speakers, but as I turn the volume up, the music drowns it.

I'm not sure if there is such an amp, because the voice navigations with the volume 1/2 way up sounds just fine (not extremely loud).

Thanks in advance,
Phil

 

Hey Phil,

I just installed the same deck in my 03 CL. There is a amp, and you must simply by-pass it. The amp is located in the truck on the passenger side. Remove the back lining and you will see it by the jack.

1. Lookup the color codes for the wires. There are 8 going into the amp from the stock deck, and 8 coming back out to the speakers.

2. Unplug the wire harness from the amp.

3. Pull back the factory plastic covering to expose you wires.

4. Give yourself a good 3 to 4 inches on each side of the wires, and cut them.

5. Splice them together to bypass the amp. I would suggest solder and shrink wrap, but you don't have to.

6. Tuck it back into the plastic covering and use electrical tape to wrap it all up. DO NOT PLUG THIS BACK INTO THE AMP.

7. Ziptie the harness out of the way, so it want vibrate and make noise back there.

You can find the color codes in the DIY faq. I have them written down somewhere if you are having trouble matching them up.

For the record, I used the stock speakers and I think it sounds very good. Much better than the stock deck. I'm sure I will upgrade at some point, but good for now.

How did you go about covering the open space around the deck?

 

Thanks for the reply,

I thought this thread had gone in the no replies zone. haha.

I'll give that a shot this weekend, but before I do that. Is there a way I could avoid "cutting" the wires.
It's mainly because my CL is getting a little old, I find the pedal positions uncomfortable and I'm starting to think about a 4door car. So if/when I get rid of the CL, I'd much prefer to hook back the factory sound system and either keep my D1 or sell it separatly.

Any advice is welcome, if none, I'll just try to fiddle with it myself.
Thanks

 

Well, this would be very easy to undo, but there is another option.

The easiest would be to buy the wire hareness the Cruthfield makes for our car. It wires in RCA plugs and you would then just feed from you pre-amp outs. You are then just using the stock Bose amp. You could do the same by modifying the harness you allready have with a few male RCA plugs.

I went the other route, because I would rather use the higher powered amp built into the D1.

I added a half-din DVD player to mine yesturday, I now don't want to leave me car.

 

Like you said, I'd rather use the D1 as the amp. I guess I'll do some ugly ass patch with lots of tape, short wires that go into the plugs and that run around the amp.. I'll open up the trunk to see what I'm dealing with. One thing I can guarantee is that it'll be ugly, but it'll work, I call it my Romanian Engineering skillz.

Hey, is there an intelligent way to pull the back seat out? or the rear interior pannels. right now I fished all of my lines to my amp and subs with 2 metal hangers. But I want to run my XM antenna on the other side and it was SUCH a pain to get that crap through. I really wished I had a 4door car, this was so easy in my Jeep and in my Maxima.

Oh, I forgot to answer your question about the space around the dash unit.. I bought it from a guy on the forum... and I managed to break the stupid little legs that hold that card/paper/pen/junk tray above the head unit.. so now that sucker just floats around up there haha, sweeeeet. [I'll send a photo if you want]

Tell you what, hooking all those wires for the D1 (reverse, speed sensor, all the subs, xm radio, antennas, etc..) it made mowing the grass feel like spring break. Did you do it all yourself too?
I like doing stuff myself, I know it's done with the worse quality possible, BUT it was cheap.

-Phil

 

Well, for me I am a Systems Engineer. I do most everything myself. Unfortunatly I have found it seems if I don't, shit always gets done half assed. Perfect example is the audio shop I went to for the deck plate. I have no artistic ability, so I figured to hell with it, I will pay a pro. Charged me like $150 in labor and the mounting was pretty ghetto. Nobody see's that, so not a big deal I guess. The plate though wasn't cut properly, gaps and edges the weren't straight. I took it back and told them if I wanted it done half assed I could have done it myself. I can't beleive a professional would actually claim to be, and then produce work like that. After a while he was like, "Well what do you want me to do, remake it?" YUP Its not totaly perfect now, small inconstant gab on one side, but I'm not a total dick.

Cutting those wires in the back really is cake. Hell, cut them, splice them together and wrap the shit out of it with electrical tape. You will never see it behind the interior anyways.

The trick to the interior is actually knowing how it comes apart!!! I didn't, but figured it out after a while. The back seat cushions just pop up. Get in the back of the car and just pull straight up on the front of the cushion. There are just two clips in the front the hold it down. There are then 4 bolts holding in the center console. After that it is cake. The bitch was getting the wires under the carpet. Just long enough and tight enough to make it a pain. I ran my 4 gauge power wire down the drivers side of the car. Didn't even need to take the panels off, just push it under. Ran my RCA cable, brake light sensor, Navi receiver and XM modual all through the center of the car. Navi sensor just sits in the back window. The XM receiver got tucked under the dash, up through the door seal, under the roof, and out the sunroof. Only thing you see is the square inch on the roof.

Just incase you didn't know, the brake sensor gets grounded out. The speed one I didn't hook up, maybe I will get motivated as some point. If you haven't already, there is one empty spot in the wire harness on the D1. Add pin and wire, ground it out, no more safety feature crap!

Oh, I also added a half din dvd player. Very cool for another 150 or so.

 

Ya, I have my ground wire rigged so I can use the thing while I'm driving. It's a good thing, there are too many pedestrians in Florida anyways, time to mow some down.

I'll have to give that a shot with the back seat.. I pulled like a big moron on them and I decided to give up before I rip them off. I'll have to look into the clip situation. Is it in the center of the seat? (btw your car is a CL not a TL right? )
As far as the antenas, I did a pretty cool setup with mine.. I bought some magnetic strips and put them below my 3rd break light on the back window, and the antenas stick to the magnetic strip. They are not that visible, and the reception is fantastic. I'll take some photos if you want and post them. Both my xml antena and my navi antena are right next to eachother in the back.

Like you I ran all my wires on the driver side below the door under the karpet.. It was a pain in my ass because for some reason the damn things kept getting stuck. I did hookup the reverse light to the driver side reverse bulb, and I took my dash appart to hookup the speed sensor behind the instrument pannel. The only ghetto thing about my setup, is I didn't receive my xml receiver till later and I just hooked the box up and threw it under the from passenger's floor mat.. ran the wire for the antena on the outside of the carpet but under the center console, behind the driver seat, and under the carpet behind the driver's door to the trunk.
That's the only thing that's super ugly about my setup. (that and my D1 doesn't wanna close by itself anymore.. it needs some motivation)

Oh, man that sounds cool about that dvd thing, I'm not getting that, I'll mow down more than just pedestrians..

Tell me more where you put your XM receiver unit. I have the NavTraffic one. (NavTraffic is acutally pretty cool, except that the updates are as frequent as seeing hot chicks at StarTrek conventions. ) The 1 thing that's fairly accurate is the speed sensors on the highway. But the accidents and lanes blocked etc.. not much luck with that. This morning I drove to work, pretty big road, 2 lanes blocked one of the cars was already towed away.. nothing on the screen. Other times, there's a big fat chunky wreck.. when I get there, there isn't even any glass left on the pavement. Honestly the accuracy of the speed sensors on the highway i'd say is about 80% good. (they have a 20-30minute delay i estimated) But the accidents and road hazards, the accuracy is less than 20%.

-Phil