For those of you wondering if you can upgrade your stereo system and keep your factory head unit, I recently installed upgraded speakers in front and back....and a few days ago added two amps & a sub.
It can be done rather easily, if you have patience and a little electronic know how.
First of all, you have to keep the stock amp in its place, as well as the Navi unit...because they use common ground wires, etc.... When I putting my stuff back together, I left the wiring harness unplugged from the factory amp and my dash lights went ape$hit. My center diff lock engaged, traction control disengaged, etc etc. So, you need to leave many of the factory wires in place on the amp & nav.
I read somewhere else on here that someone put an amp under the driver's seat...this is impossible on my 03 because there's some sort of a small turbine looking thing there with metal tubing around it.
Anyway, in a nutshell, I cut 6 wires from the head unit (4 "+" speaker leads, the common speaker "-", and the remote turn on wire for the input to the new amp, then cut eight output wires from the amp & wired them into the new amp on the outgoing side. Everything else was left in place. Of interest is that on my FSM it lists the + and - leads on the rear speaker wires the exact opposite as what they were when I put new speakers in, thus they were reversed.
The amp I bought is an Alpine MRP-F300. This amp allows "speaker level inputs" (ie: speaker wires from the deck) and also has a "non-fading pre-out", which basically allows you to run an RCA output from this amp to your sub amp.
I used the "remote turn on wire" from the deck to turn on both amps, wired an 8 gauge wire directly from the battery to a distribution block, then 8 gauge wire to both amps. I used two different grounding points.
Right now, the amp butts up against the rear of the factory nav unit under the passenger seat & sticks out severa inches. It's not the best location, but I can always move it to a more hidden location.
Anyway, I have no engine noise or "hiss"& it sounds very good. The only complaint I have I have to turn my amp "gains" up pretty high to get good volume out of it as using speaker level inputs is not the best way to transfer sound signal to an amp. In any event, it's far better than stock.
For those of you who are not bass freaks (unlike me)...I would highly suggest just to retrofit all the factory speakers to very efficient, quality speakers, including the sub & just utilize it's stock location and leave the factory amp in place. It does a very nice job and with a nicer sub, would satisfy most people wanting better sound.
Being that I like to turn the bass up on certain songs, I mounted a simple RCA signal knob between my front amp and my bass amp...this way, I can quickly shut down the bass with a turn of the knob. I mounted my bass amp on my sub box and have it in the rear. If I need this room, I can take out the box/amp in 30 seconds & just cap off the 12v hot.
Sorry if this is confusing, I just wanted to let you all know it can be done & it's not that hard to add amp(s) and a sub(s) without engine noise.
I will try & post pics of this soon.
It can be done rather easily, if you have patience and a little electronic know how.
First of all, you have to keep the stock amp in its place, as well as the Navi unit...because they use common ground wires, etc.... When I putting my stuff back together, I left the wiring harness unplugged from the factory amp and my dash lights went ape$hit. My center diff lock engaged, traction control disengaged, etc etc. So, you need to leave many of the factory wires in place on the amp & nav.
I read somewhere else on here that someone put an amp under the driver's seat...this is impossible on my 03 because there's some sort of a small turbine looking thing there with metal tubing around it.
Anyway, in a nutshell, I cut 6 wires from the head unit (4 "+" speaker leads, the common speaker "-", and the remote turn on wire for the input to the new amp, then cut eight output wires from the amp & wired them into the new amp on the outgoing side. Everything else was left in place. Of interest is that on my FSM it lists the + and - leads on the rear speaker wires the exact opposite as what they were when I put new speakers in, thus they were reversed.
The amp I bought is an Alpine MRP-F300. This amp allows "speaker level inputs" (ie: speaker wires from the deck) and also has a "non-fading pre-out", which basically allows you to run an RCA output from this amp to your sub amp.
I used the "remote turn on wire" from the deck to turn on both amps, wired an 8 gauge wire directly from the battery to a distribution block, then 8 gauge wire to both amps. I used two different grounding points.
Right now, the amp butts up against the rear of the factory nav unit under the passenger seat & sticks out severa inches. It's not the best location, but I can always move it to a more hidden location.
Anyway, I have no engine noise or "hiss"& it sounds very good. The only complaint I have I have to turn my amp "gains" up pretty high to get good volume out of it as using speaker level inputs is not the best way to transfer sound signal to an amp. In any event, it's far better than stock.
For those of you who are not bass freaks (unlike me)...I would highly suggest just to retrofit all the factory speakers to very efficient, quality speakers, including the sub & just utilize it's stock location and leave the factory amp in place. It does a very nice job and with a nicer sub, would satisfy most people wanting better sound.
Being that I like to turn the bass up on certain songs, I mounted a simple RCA signal knob between my front amp and my bass amp...this way, I can quickly shut down the bass with a turn of the knob. I mounted my bass amp on my sub box and have it in the rear. If I need this room, I can take out the box/amp in 30 seconds & just cap off the 12v hot.
Sorry if this is confusing, I just wanted to let you all know it can be done & it's not that hard to add amp(s) and a sub(s) without engine noise.
I will try & post pics of this soon.
