21ce

I've searched this forum non- stop so please do not just tell me to look something up (i search all the time); because of a great writeup i was able to hook up my aftermarket headunit just fine, https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...=radio+install, but just like that write up says at the end, my stock sub no longer works and i have an aftermarket sub with an aftermarket sub amp . Now since only one of the old harnesses hook up to the new head unit i was wondering how i am supossed to go about installing a new sub and sub amp.

-Do i use the same schematics and tap into the stock amp for the sub

-Do I have to completely remove my old amp or can it run in tandem with the new amp

- with the unused harnesses on the back of the head unit, should i tap into the sub connectors on those too and hook them up to the sub connector on my head unit?

-Will i need ANOTHER 12v going to the battery or can I use the power off the old nak. 5 channel amplifier to power the sub amp

right now, that writeup only explains how to get the stock speakers up and running off of the single harness... any help would be greatly appreciated

21ce

no one has any idea? i thought some sc owner had done this before...

dentpusher

You can wire in the factory sub amp. You need to wire a male RCA end into the sub harness and run it through sub out on the radio or any low level on the head unit will work.

Its the smaller harness toward the top of the factory unit. Black wire is pos and the white wire is neg. To make sure you get the right harness there is a red with black stripe and a blue with white stripe in the same harness.

If your going to use the aftermarket sub and amp just use a amp kit and wire up your power, remote turn on and RCA's like normal and your set. No need to worry about the stock sub at this point.

21ce

Thanks! i really do appreciate the reply!

21ce

i was able to get the system running finally... could not use the factory amp and i could not figure out why... here are the things we considered for trouble shooting:

-The new head unit only uses the A harness, which controls the main functions of the head unit (including the signal/power for the amp).
-----The only problem was getting the negatives of the speakers to the back of the car, https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...=radio+install - that link worked great for doing that, he simply routed the negatives through the cd changer harness of the head unit.(in turn, making the cd changer non-functional).
i connected the sub lines on the receiver to a rca jack like instructed, and connected it to the mono out of my head unit(L)

now the amplifier was the confusing part, the sub connection has its own 12v source, signal and its own ground so i figured just plugging that one into the amp would work... well the voltage goes to the amp with no problem but i could not get the sub to speak. since the input plug A(coming from the radio) also had its own 12V and its own ground, i figured that may need to be connected to at least get the amp to work. i cut all the speaker wire feeds going to the "IN" plug on the amp and connected directly to their respective "OUTS" on the out harness of the amp.
To better exlain, i pretty much pulled all the speaker feeds from the harnesses so they only had the power wires hooked up to them, Then i plugged them in. bass was now getting power(because of a quick hum when starting the car), but when the harnesses were plugged in i was getting no sound from the speakers or sub.

When i removed the plugs from the amp, except the subwoofer plug, the speakers would work but the sub and amp would not ... this seemed weird to me because the speakers were not even involved in the connections anymore.. they were connected straight from the head unit, but would not work when the harnesses were plugged into the receiver....

so i had to buy an aftermarket amp (4-channel) and hook up all my speakers and sub that way, (i was able to use the power and feeds from the old amp so i did not need to run any new lines, just rewired the old one)...

everything is good to go now, but i'm wondering why the stock amp would not work with the sub?... anyone have any ideas? with "dentpusher" being the only responder i am figuring a lot of sc owners just have someone do the work for them? thanks again for the contribution "dentpusher"!

dentpusher

On the sub amp make sure the Grey wire is getting power when the car is on. Its the acc wire (turn on wire). Also make sure nothing is hooked up to the red with black stripe. That is the mute wire and will not allow the amps to output anything.