Radio Wiring and Amp Bypass

[agent]

I
Unless I missed something, the only instructions I've seen in this thread with regard to bypassing the amp have involved running new wires to the front speakers.

I don't believe that's the case. The factory amp has speaker level inputs. What most folks are doing (and what I did) is replacing the factory amp with an aftermarket amp and running RCAs from the deck to the aftermarket amp. The speaker-level inputs to the factory amp are not used, though the speaker wires from the (factory) amp are.

[6670charger]

Yes, you can do that, but if you are going to bypass, it is easier in your case to run new wires to the front speakers and "re-purpose" the wires to the rear, using all 4 positive amp input wires to run the rear speakers.

That way you only have to take apart your kickpanels, no seat pulling required.

Is it not possible to use the existing speaker wiring from the amp to the speakers? I need to bypass my amp also to eliminate crackling and spitting at higher volumes, but I don't have the time to do all this re-wiring. Can't you simply unplug the incoming and outgoing amp wiring and connect the incoming speaker wiring (to the amp) to the wires going out to the speakers (from the amp)? Unless I missed something, the only instructions I've seen in this thread with regard to bypassing the amp have involved running new wires to the front speakers. Can't believe the existing front speaker wiring can't be used on an unhacked harness.

[6670charger]

Soon as you connect the rest of the deck including the white wires, you should be up and running

Connected everything up today and it works great! Thanks for the great instructions. Took me about 20 min once I finally worked up the nerve to start cutting the factory wires. Only issue I had for a few minutes initially was that I didn't have any sound. I wasn't exactly sure how to connect both the white wires as one was amp and the other the antenna. I had connected the antenna wire, and decided to try touching the other white wire to the screw top on the connector; that kicked in the factory amp and also the sound. Balance and fader all work fine, and a lot better sound quality with the EQ settings on the new deck.

Thanks again everyone!

[StereoInstaller1]

I just registered to thank you for this thread!

It helped me out tremendously. Although, I ended up with 1 issue. Now every time I unlock my doors, my hazards go off for about a couple minutes. I believe it is the factory radio alarm going off. But I am not sure.

You are in some kind of lockout mode from your OBC, I would read the manual on it.

[6670charger]

OK, first, cut all your wires off that fader plug and buy a blank pate, it is gone forever.

Second, unwrap the harness (I think you already did!) to the point where all the wires are the same length and one at a time, cut them all the same.

Now, use blue/red and blue/black, yellow/red and yellow/black as speaker positives, connect them to the decks speaker positives...DO NOT CONNECT THE DECKS NEGATIVES AT ALL...just tape up the ends of the 4 x/black wires.

Soon as you connect the rest of the deck including the white wires, you should be up and running

Sounds great! I hope to get to this tomorrow, and will let you know how things went.

[Jsahmad]

Ha ha ha Jsahmad! I'm sorry to laugh but it must be funny waiting for the flashing to stop.
Welcome to the forum.

It is a little funny, but now I just leave my headlights on so the flashing doesn't show.

[dogsbark26]

Ha ha ha Jsahmad! I'm sorry to laugh but it must be funny waiting for the flashing to stop.
Welcome to the forum.

[Jsahmad]

I just registered to thank you for this thread!

It helped me out tremendously. Although, I ended up with 1 issue. Now every time I unlock my doors, my hazards go off for about a couple minutes. I believe it is the factory radio alarm going off. But I am not sure.

[StereoInstaller1]

OK, first, cut all your wires off that fader plug and buy a blank pate, it is gone forever.

Second, unwrap the harness (I think you already did!) to the point where all the wires are the same length and one at a time, cut them all the same.

Now, use blue/red and blue/black, yellow/red and yellow/black as speaker positives, connect them to the decks speaker positives...DO NOT CONNECT THE DECKS NEGATIVES AT ALL...just tape up the ends of the 4 x/black wires.

Soon as you connect the rest of the deck including the white wires, you should be up and running

[6670charger]

You have a special case, I have seen this before.

The easy thing for you to do is use the stock amp.

It will sound just fine, feed it the 4 speaker positives and make sure to ground the brown/black, plus make sure both white wires are used, unless you don't care about the antenna.

If I understand you correctly, it sounds like I should be able to just connect the 4 speaker positives to the speaker pos/neg wires from the JVC deck. I'm not sure what you mean by grounding the brown/black wire. I have what appears to be three of them. One is thicker, and what I believe to be the main ground wire. The other runs from the deck to the fader, and the third from the fader out to the harness and runs along with the speaker wires. It may just be an extension of the fader to deck wire.

Also, I have two white wires. One is thinner and plugs directly into the radio via a tiny prong connector. The second is thicker and runs independently of any of the other wires. If memory serves, it connects inside of a thick rubber sleeve to a second white wire coming out of the deck somewhere. Are they both to the antenna? If so, do they both connect to the blue antenna wire from the JVC?

Thanks.

[StereoInstaller1]

Well, I stripped the harness tape off of the wiring behind the deck all the way up to the gauge cluster (pic below). So far, I have single wires all that way back up as far as I can see and feel. If there are twisted pairs on this harness, they're behind the gauges, and I'm not tearing the entire dashboard apart to do this. That's just insane.

I still question whether I have twisted pairs or not. I believe I have premium sound. I have speakers and tweeters in the doors. The pic below is of the stock deck itself if that tips anyone off.

Guess my question from above still stands. If I eliminate the amp in the trunk and rewire back there as shown in MrDomino's pic, will this ground the four colored speaker wires in the dash so all I have to do is connect them to the new deck?

Thanks.

Don't, just use the amp.

[6670charger]

Well, I stripped the harness tape off of the wiring behind the deck all the way up to the gauge cluster (pic below). So far, I have single wires all that way back up as far as I can see and feel. If there are twisted pairs on this harness, they're behind the gauges, and I'm not tearing the entire dashboard apart to do this. That's just insane.

I still question whether I have twisted pairs or not. I believe I have premium sound. I have speakers and tweeters in the doors. The pic below is of the stock deck itself if that tips anyone off.

Guess my question from above still stands. If I eliminate the amp in the trunk and rewire back there as shown in MrDomino's pic, will this ground the four colored speaker wires in the dash so all I have to do is connect them to the new deck?

Thanks.

[StereoInstaller1]

I'll give that a shot, however, just looking at what's exposed through the tape as it goes back, it doesn't look like the wiring changes any for quite a ways. I hope it doesn't turn to twisted pairs way up inside the dash or I'll never get my hands in there to work on the wiring.

Also, I don't plan on disconnecting the amp at the back right now. Guess I'll have to wait and see how things sound before I decide for sure.

You have a special case, I have seen this before.

The easy thing for you to do is use the stock amp.

It will sound just fine, feed it the 4 speaker positives and make sure to ground the brown/black, plus make sure both white wires are used, unless you don't care about the antenna.

[6670charger]

Yeah they all need to be grounded. You're going to take the amp out and then splice the rear speaker wires (two positives, two grounds) in the trunk to the two sets of wires that run to the front of the car already which are yellow/red, yellow/black, blue/red, and blue/black. Check out the picture I posted. It shows what color wires to connect.

It's going to be about a week but if you're willing to wait I'll eventually have pictures showing how I wired stuff up in the trunk.

OK, think I can figure that out from your pic. I'm going to check out the dash harness in a few minutes and see if it actually does have the twisted pairs or not. If not, what do I connect at the dash? Do the yellow/red, yellow/black, blue/red, and blue/black wires become grounded because I rewired in the trunk? I guess that's what I don't get for sure. If rewiring in the trunk as you did grounds the four colored dash wires so that all I have to do is connect them to the correct colored pairs of wires coming from the new deck, that should be easy enough.

[CB-M3]

just scrap the stock amp. the new head unit should have amp integrated.