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I bought a 2012 Kia Sorento SX a month ago and it finally warmed up enough for me to give it a thorough vacuuming. Well along with 2 umbrellas, a cellphone, a dollar, and a stick on window shade under the third row, I also found some wires that are obviously after market. I am almost certain they are for an aftermarket sub (because this car could use the bass and they come from under the panel in the tail gate that houses the OEM woofer). It appears to have a connecter and a power cord. Well here are the wires, am I right?:
These are the wires that come from under the side panel. The wire then branches into 2 wire groupings, 1 is the red and white plugs shown here. These are the other wires that come off that main bundle.
If you look under your hood, you should see a thick cable coming off your battery... and aftermarket cable. It's been a loooong time since I've dealt with an aftermarket stereo but those cables do look vaguely familiar
Soooo what are you asking lol? Yes those are for a sub and amp.
Originally Posted by TacoBello
If you look under your hood, you should see a thick cable coming off your battery... and aftermarket cable. It's been a loooong time since I've dealt with an aftermarket stereo but those cables do look vaguely familiar
Lmao I am asking if I am right?! I literally have no idea about anything audio or electronic related. I assumed it was that just based on where it comes from, but wasn't sure. But I did look under the hood and you are right! There is a wire coming off the battery, I wondered what the hell that was when I bought it. I thought it was for the remote start or something.
The Sorento has a factory JBL amp, so why would they also add an amp, is it possible to just add a sub without an external amp?
By the way thank you so much, I really appreciate it.
The power cable runs from your battery all the way to the end of the car, so if you check under your doorsills/side carpet, you will see the entire length.
Factory Amp is for your stock head unit/speakers, it does not have enough power to support any kind of aftermarket woofer. Basically useless.
Unless you have some kind of self powered woofer like the Infinity something (it has been too long since i cared about bass), then you dont need an Amp.
Bascially if you have a "normal" aftermakret woofer, you have to have an aftermarket Amp and those are the wires.
If you are not planning to add any kind of aftermakret audio, i would suggest you to remove all those wires. It is just unnecessary risk to me to have exposed wires that you dont need, especially it sounds that the power cable is still connected to your battery.
Last edited by oonowindoo; 03-29-2017 at 06:23 PM.
The power cable runs from your battery all the way to the end of the car, so if you check under your doorsills/side carpet, you will see the entire length.
Factory Amp is for your stock head unit/speakers, it does not have enough power to support any kind of aftermarket woofer. Basically useless.
Unless you have some kind of self powered woofer like the Infinity something (it has been too long since i cared about bass), then you dont need an Amp.
Bascially if you have a "normal" aftermakret woofer, you have to have an aftermarket Amp and those are the wires.
If you are not planning to add any kind of aftermakret audio, i would suggest you to remove all those wires. It is just unnecessary risk to me to have exposed wires that you dont need, especially it sounds that the power cable is still connected to your battery.
Haha I am sorry guys, I don't know how I completely forgot to put the question in!
I would like to add a small sub if it's easy, I don't know much about this stuff so it's over my head and I know that. The wiring looks super thick and like they did a quality job on it, I just don't know much about it.
I might drop by a local audio shop and see what they think, I think a local acurazine member (jbond) works for a local audio installer.
With the amount of cables there it appears they ran a box with two subs. You have a power wire (most likely the thick blue), ground (most likely the thick grey), remote app turn on the small blue, and two pairs of speaker wire for two subs. It should save you some money already having those in place to hook up a sub. The other issue would be is do these get their signal from an aftermarket headunit or the factory one.
With the amount of cables there it appears they ran a box with two subs. You have a power wire (most likely the thick blue), ground (most likely the thick grey), remote app turn on the small blue, and two pairs of speaker wire for two subs. It should save you some money already having those in place to hook up a sub. The other issue would be is do these get their signal from an aftermarket headunit or the factory one.
There lies my biggest issue with it, I don't know how it was setup to work. So I am leaning towards possibly just removing it and forgetting about it, I don't want to set my car on fire or have something blow my speakers out.
while audio can become super complicated but a simple woofer setup is as straight forward as it gets.
Thabk you very much for your help man. I'll watch that video and see if I can do it myself. My car comes with a 10 speaker infinity audio system (made by JBL) and a sub and factory amp. But it really makes no bass at all unless I turn it up high and then it gets uncomfortably loud. However the audio clarity is really pretty damn good.
Thanks again man.
EDIT: I am most definitely not looking to wake the neighbourhood up by the way lol, have you ever been in a german or even american vehicle and heard the bass? That is what I want, factory level acceptable base. Not 2 gigantic 25" subs lmao. Honestly maybe just 1 12" sub.
There lies my biggest issue with it, I don't know how it was setup to work. So I am leaning towards possibly just removing it and forgetting about it, I don't want to set my car on fire or have something blow my speakers out.
Well if it was connected to the factory radio then it has to be using a line output converter to convert a set of the factory speaker lines to that RCA cable you found laying around to input to the amp.
You can tell if the power cables are still hooked up at the battery easily. I would think it should be rather easy to reuse the cables honestly.
Back in the days, i had 2 12" Kickers that would shatter windows. But nowadays...... anyways.
I think 1 12" sub is probably too much based on what you are looking for.
this is what something i would suggest, I have never used it but they have been around for decades. I think this will fit your need. And it is cheap and self powered.
Well if it was connected to the factory radio then it has to be using a line output converter to convert a set of the factory speaker lines to that RCA cable you found laying around to input to the amp.
You can tell if the power cables are still hooked up at the battery easily. I would think it should be rather easy to reuse the cables honestly.
This.
If they were hooked up to a LOC, usually they are tapping the signal from the rear speakers because they are close to where the amp would be. The way that looks, they are running signal cables from the front to the back which is strange though not stupid. Also, there should be another pair of RCA connectors back there based on the first pic. Where do the wires go under the steering wheel? Where in the car is the first pic taken?
Well if it was connected to the factory radio then it has to be using a line output converter to convert a set of the factory speaker lines to that RCA cable you found laying around to input to the amp.
You can tell if the power cables are still hooked up at the battery easily. I would think it should be rather easy to reuse the cables honestly.
I did some minor research and I think it is a LOC. It is hooked up, I can see the cable under the hood connected to the battery. I am hoping it will be easy to reuse.
Originally Posted by oonowindoo
Back in the days, i had 2 12" Kickers that would shatter windows. But nowadays...... anyways.
I think 1 12" sub is probably too much based on what you are looking for.
this is what something i would suggest, I have never used it but they have been around for decades. I think this will fit your need. And it is cheap and self powered.
Thank you for the link it is very much appreciated. I didn't know they came smaller than 12" (you can see how much of a noob I am). It is also an infinity brand sub so that's nice to have a matching set lmao. Yeah I don't want crazy bass, just some mild punch, my factory system is severly lacking.
Originally Posted by SamDoe1
This.
If they were hooked up to a LOC, usually they are tapping the signal from the rear speakers because they are close to where the amp would be. The way that looks, they are running signal cables from the front to the back which is strange though not stupid. Also, there should be another pair of RCA connectors back there based on the first pic. Where do the wires go under the steering wheel? Where in the car is the first pic taken?
The factory amp is located under the front passenger seat, but there is a factory subwoofer in the trunk built into the wall of the trunk on the driver side. Sorry my pics are kind of shitty, in that first pic those wires are all coming out from under the side panel in the trunk right from under where the factory sub is located. I don't see where the wires exit, I'm assuming it all goes from under the sills and possibly hidden by the side panels and out to the firewall area and then out to the hood.
I'll go out and take better pics so you guys have some idea on the location of everything.
Thank you guys all very much, I really really appreciate it.
So here is a pic showing where the wires are coming from (as you can see I had to remove a panel in the underfloor storage to reveal them). This is what the end of the wires look like, I also understand what Sam meant when he said it looks like there should be another pair of RCA cables, I just realized it goes in as 2 pairs of RCA wires and comes out as 1 pair of RCA's. There is the factory sub I was talking about, the one over the wheel well, not the ones near the floor on the botttom. Here is the factory amp under the front passenger seat This is the wire connected to the battery I was talking about. Closer look.
03-29-2017, 06:04 PM
