Alright everyone:
Through all of the guidance that you guys have been patiently providing me I am at the end of my aftermarket stereo install of a pioneer double din head unit with all new speakers. I might add that I have a 2007 base cayman with no factory amp. Here are the steps I have taken and when I turned everything on I got barely any sound from the components I put in the door and getting a bunch of sound out of the speakers in my dash, which I thought I eliminated. Here are my steps:
1. Ordered a Metro Harness and married all of the colored wires to the pioneer harness before even going to the car.
2. So as to not cut any of the wires in my factory harness, I cut the speaker wires between the metro harness and the pioneer harness and then ran speaker wires for my fronts, rears and sub from the cut metro harness wires directly to the JL Audio 5 channel amp I installed. So, I eliminated the head unit from powering the speakers and now having the power coming from the amp.
3. I ran new wires from the sub directly to the amp and did the same for the rear 4 ohm speakers I installed in the rear cabinet.
HOWEVER I DID NOT RUN NEW WIRES FROM MY DOOR TO THE CROSSOVER AND NEW SPEAKERS IN THE DOOR BUT USED THE FACTORY DOOR SPEAKER WIRES
3. Connected the plugs in the to the output of the Pioneer headhunt.
4. Turned everything on and getting sound out of subs and rears but barely getting aut I thought I eliminated those when I cut the white and gray wires at the metro harness and sent those wires directly to the amp.
I called Crutchfield and they told me that when I connected the Metro white and gray front wires to wires going to the amp I was still using the factory speakers but now just with them being powered by the amp. They said the only way to bypass the factory speakers in the dash is to run new wires from the new crossover, tweeter, and woofer in the doors directly to the amp. But from everything I read was to use the factory speaker wires from the door and not run new wires for those door speakers.
I am so confused. Perhaps the wires for my original speakers run up to the factory harness and then to the metro harness to where I can intercept the wires at that point. But I thought that is what I did
I am at a quandary and any help that can be provided will be greatly appreciated.
C
Ok just so I'm clear on how you have this wired: you have the output of your amplifier running to the speaker wires behind the radio which go out to the doors, new wiring to the rear speakers and sub. Where in the chain are your crossovers for the door speakers or are they coaxial speakers (tweeter and woofer combined)? If I remember correctly the Bose system had both the door midrange and dash tweeter wired together with a filter directly on the tweeter to reduce it's output frequency range. Most likely you're getting a ton of sound out of your dash because those wires are connected on the base system as well and the factory tweeter is getting about 10x it's normal power. An easy way to test this is to 'pop' your speakers with a 9v battery, from the output side of your the door speaker crossover (or whatever wires are directly connected to the speaker) touch the wires to the + and - terminals of the battery and see which speakers pop, if you hear both your door speaker and dash at the same time then you'll know you need to disconnect those dash speakers, disconnecting is going to be way less of a pain in the *** then running new door wires.
E30if:
I had been waiting for you to weigh in because your guidance has been more than helpful throughout this ordeal.
To answer your questions, I have a base system with no bose. All I have is a woofer in the doors and tweeters in the dash. I had no factory amp.
I installed a 5 channel JL Audio amp and ran new wires from the sub and added new rear speakers, with the new wires running straight to the amp.
I then placed Pioneer components in the door consisting of a woofer, tweeter and crossover, all placed in both doors. I wired all of the door components into the factory wiring for the doors. I ran the factory door wiring from the metro harness at the head unit to the amp.
When I went to play everything, I was barely getting any sound out of the components in the doors with most of the sound coming from the factory speakers in the dash that I thought I had bypassed (which I later found I had not).
I did an experiment and did a temporary run of wires from the components in the doors directly to the amp, while disconnecting ALL wires between the metro harness and the head unit. The door speakers sounded great with nothing coming out of the dash. SSearchVT had been working with me via private message and he suspected by my using the factory door wires to hook up the new components and crossovers in the door I was having a single wire system trying to support the new crossover and speakers with the dash speakers and factory crossover. He believed the clash and conflict was too much. So, I spent an ENTIRE DAY running new wires through the doors to the amp and disconnecting entirely the factory front speaker wires from the amp (metro harness).
I was os exhausted from running all new door wires that I have been too tired and afraid to turn on the system to see if I am on point
But that is where I am at with all of this and do you believe I am now on the right track
If you've already run new wiring then you shouldn't have anything to worry about, switch the system on and see what happens. If your worried about it just confirm your outputs on the crossovers to make sure the woofer and tweeter are hooked up correctly then turn everything on and tune it, do some quick research on amp tuning if you're new to it and go from there. I would agree with SSearchVT's assessment in that the base system probably uses a common wire setup and just filters out the frequencies with a cap on the tweeter, makes everything easy from the factory but a bit more annoying for the aftermarket. I used the factory wires for my door woofers and midrange but ran new wires for the tweeters since they were a common wire with the midrange in the door from the factory.
Thanks e30if:
I think I am well on my way. My next endeavor is to do as you suggest and do research on how to tune in the system via the amp programs. But I am happy that I have gotten past the actual wiring and hookup phases, which for a newbie was a nightmare. But now that I have done it once it seems like a piece of cake
