Component Amp Installation

[JMEngineer]

I read on another thread that hooking up an amp for the door speakers is as easy as plugging into the RCA pre outs. Either that's not right, or I'm missing something.

I have a really nice amp from one of my other cars that I was planning to put in my 6. I got everything taken apart only to find that THERE ARE NO RCA OUTPUTS ON THE HEAD UNIT.

Am I missing something?

 

[JMEngineer]

If I have to do something custom I plan to buy another harness and splice my own RCA connectors into the pre out signals.

For going from the amp to the speakers, I could either go into the BOSE amp outputs or I could splice back into the harness behind the head unit and put jumpers in the BOSE amp harness. Either way it's going to be a pain in the ass.

 

[nolongerinu]

I read on another thread that hooking up an amp for the door speakers is as easy as plugging into the RCA pre outs. Either that's not right, or I'm missing something.

I have a really nice amp from one of my other cars that I was planning to put in my 6. I got everything taken apart only to find that THERE ARE NO RCA OUTPUTS ON THE HEAD UNIT.

Am I missing something?

A Factory radio NEVER has RCAs. They dont exist. You need to use a simple "line out convertor" Basically it taps into the speaker leads off the radio, and drops the signal down to a low level RCA signal, and the RCAs plug into the line out.

 

[nolongerinu]

If I have to do something custom I plan to buy another harness and splice my own RCA connectors into the pre out signals.

For going from the amp to the speakers, I could either go into the BOSE amp outputs or I could splice back into the harness behind the head unit and put jumpers in the BOSE amp harness. Either way it's going to be a pain in the ass.

The post your refferring to is about grabbing the signal from a factory system that is amplified. If you grab the SIGNAL (before the amp) it will be a low level signal and you can tap into it and use it as a low level (RCA) otherwise if you get the signal from the speaker side of the amp, it's the high level, thus needing the Line out I spoke of earlier.

 

[JMEngineer]

Yeah, that's pretty much what I've figured out.

I would have had everything done by now, but for some reason my remote turn on wire is dead. The head unit works fine and is putting out a signal to the amp, but the amp isn't turning on. I checked all the fuses and nothing is wrong there. Any ideas what would cause that?

 

[MR_X]

Where are you tapping for a remote turn on?

 

[JMEngineer]

I tested the lines at the main amp under the seat and at the sub amp in the trunk.

I believe it should be a constant DC voltage, so I checked that first. When everything came back zero, I tested for AC voltage as well and still got nothing.

 

[JMEngineer]

*Update*

The head unit outputs are working fine - as I increase the 'volume' up to max the AC output increases up to around 1.8 or 1.9V, which is exactly what a 2V preamp signal should do.

Using the Blaupunkt 'plug n play' wiring harness I bought, I wired up everything except the remote turn-on.

Today I will finish the install. I'll first test the remote turn-on wire at the head unit to see if I can use that. If not, I'll either wire it to the ignition so the amp is always on when the car is on, or I'll wire in a switch and just turn it on and off myself.

 

[JMEngineer]

I wired the amp to the ignition which isn't really ideal, but I'm going to leave it like that until summer.