Zeroflux

Finally got rid of the OEM POS rockford amp (keeping the stock NAV unit) and installed a JL Audio Slash 300/4 under the drivers seat and a JL Audio W6v2 in the trunk.

Let me start off by saying the install was a nightmare, i have no idea what mitsu was thinking then they came up with amp wire harness. I had to decifer the pins from a wiring schematic to find that the placement of the deck output and speaker outs to be random all over the wire harness.

But atleast its all done and sounds great. I will post some pics and a full brake down of the oem wire harness so no one else needs to go threw the confusion i did today. If i had know the layouts to start this would have been fairly easy to swap out the oem amp.

focalart

Can you post pics of the stock amp and its terminals?

I assume it is similar to changing out a stock deck, just knowing the speaker colors? I would just run a amp kit up to the stock location, and tapping off the speaker wires.

Or just bypassing the amp altogether and running new wires.

Arutha

excellent i have been waiting for someone to do this for ages. im sick of having to use an lc6 to go from my stock amp to my 2 aftermarkets.

champion effort mate

Zeroflux

Ok, I will try to get those picks up shortly.

Zeroflux

Ok, heres what i did to replace the OEM amp with a nice JL Amp under the driver seat.

1. Disconnect the power
2. Unplug all 4 connectors under the driver seat
3. Remove the bolt covers on the legs of the seat then un bolt it.
4. The driver seat comes out easy if you tilt it back and take it out rear driver side passanger door.

5. Now that the seat out its pretty straight foward to disconnect the OEM amp, 4 bolts hold it in place, just disconnect the wire harness and remove it.





So this is what it looks like under the seat with the amp pretty much unbolted. For my instalation I cut the AC duct above the amp to right were it come out of the carpet so there was enough room for the JL audio amp to sit in the nice grove that is under the seat.



Here is what it looked like after I got most of the wiring in place and was testing the ACC line that i tapped into off of the Nav system. The line out from the deck is a low level output so you just need solder on some RCAs and it will work with any Amplifier.



Here is the wiring cleaned up abit (still not done) but atleast in place for the new system.

The setup is running the front speakers on the front left channel threw a single crossover (for the tweeters, and mid range) and the rear spekers on the front right channel with the sub bridged on the rear amp channels.

On to some of the interesting things i learned while doing this. The Nav unit has no conecpt of balance, just fade but with this setup you don't even get that because the OEM amp only get the front low level input lines sent to it.

I think the rear output exists on the NAV unit but i haven't found any information on what pins they are so i can run new lines from the Nav unit to get the fade working so i can have a bit better sub control. (any info on this would be great)

I don't have a picture of the ACC line tap i added (should have but forgot) but it is a yellow wire (pin 20 which is the very first wire on top of the 20 pin harness, there only one 20 pin harness so its pretty easy to find) and will take a pick when i do some more work next week.

The power lines for the OEM amp are on a 30amp fuse but these power lines just don't have enough juice for a high powered amp with a sub. There should be enogh juice for the mid and high systems but a sub draws to much power. You will need to run a dedicated power line from the battery for this (I will take pictures of that too when i put one it next week)

On to the part i am sure most of you are interested in, that POS OEM wire harness and its layout. There are 1 or 2 pins i still don't know and i assume are the CAN-BUS lines but here is the general layou of all the pins.


I really hope this helps and if you have any question let me know and i may have an answer.

Spoonie

I want to do the same thing but I'm worried about loosing the Sub-Woofer control. Looks like you were able to retain it?

Zeroflux

You will lose it but at the end of the day it really wasn't a big deal. I have had sub control for 10+ years in my other cars and rarely ever change it once i have set it up( plus i do have a little control using the bass adjustment since all of the other speakers are on HP crossovers). If i can get the info needed to find the pins of the rear output from the nav unit then i would still have sub control but for the most part it would be nothing more than a guessing game because i don't have a pin layout for the nav system.

Arutha

you sir are a champion. cheers for this

Spoonie

Thanks for the info. I've rarely change the subwoofer settings but it would be good to retain that control. Oh well... I'm thinking about splitting the rear output via Y cable and then mount a separate adjustment knob for the sub input. I won’t be able to change the frequency setting but I should be able to control the volume level. Whatever I decide, the OEM amp has got to go.

I had my daughter and her friend in the car and this song came on the radio that they wanted to crank up. They told me to “turn it up” I told them that it was already up to the max. My daughter looked at me and told me that the stereo (factory) in her 2003 Honda Civic plays louder than that. I knew that already. I can’t tell you the amount of times a song came and I couldn’t even enjoy the song due to the weak output. 600 watts? More like 60watts.

I plan on getting the 5-channel Pioneer Amp. I’m praying that the existing power wire is thick enough (gauge wise) to handle the new amplifier.

Zeroflux

The 600w rockford setup isn't too bad, the prob with the setup is the fact that the amp auto levels the music so you can't blow any speakers. Thats was the main reason it had to go for me. If it didn't auto level it would get pretty loud.

The stock front and rears have held up alot better than i expected and actually sound pretty good now that i have a decent amount of power going threw them. The sub is just weak in general.

You can replace the oem amp with an amp that has sub control hook ups then mount the sub control in the center console but in my case the JL amp doesn't have this option.

DVDee

iTrader: (4)

Do you guys know if I can plug that stock amp in and get a noticeable boost on my car. I obviously didn't get SSS package on my car.

devinclfalcons

Do you have the Fosgate Package or just standard sterio? Im putting in a amp into my base MR and I wonder how hard it is to install...

Spoonie

I have the Rockford ($2,500) option stereo.

streetdreams552

iTrader: (2)

theres nothing in the amp that the stereo system savvy guys can do to turn off/bypass auto leveling?

Zeroflux

Nope, it is built into the amp so the only thing you can do is change amps (it's worth it)