I've got a '96 Camaro with the factory bose and the deck has died on me. I've got a new HU ready to go, I tried hooking it up directly to the GM wiring harness - no sound this way. I've read that I'm supposed to look for a pink wire to go with the blue/white wire on my harness for the amp remote but I don't see a pink wire anywhere. Does anyone have any photos of how I'm supposed to hack this together? Other than the sound the HU turns on and off and works fine when connected this way.

I've also read that I need to buy some expensive little box to reduce the output to the bose amp. Frankly I don't care at all about the bose amp or stock sound system and if it blows then I'll replace it. However, *I don't want to risk burning up my new HU* will hacking the wiring harness risk ruining my new HU?

The new HU comes with 3 sets of pre-outs. If hacking the harness is bad, then should I just hack the power wires to power the HU and then get some RCAs, hook up one end to the HU and cut the other end off and splice those wires into the factory speaker wires? Even if I do this I think I still need to find that pink wire...

As many threads as there are on this subject there are surprisingly few that provide clear answers and none that provide photos. There also isn't a help guide on shoebox's site...
Any advice you can give me would be much appreciated

 

Ok, so I went ahead and used the pre-outs. Stripping RCA wires was a PITA. I also found that pink wire. The radio works fine, however, I now have a new problem.

I have a thump. It's there whenever I advance a track, switch radio stations, change sources, etc. My first guess was a bad ground but when I test it with a multimeter (red on the battery constant wire and black on the black wire in the factory harness) I get 12.28v.

I'm thinking that the radio turns off the signal whenever I'm doing these things to avoid a hiss but whenever the radio powers off and on then the stupid bose amp pops/thumps. I could deal with a thump on turn on and turn off but this is too much.

Is there any way to fix this? It's annoying as hell...

 

Trying to tie into the Bose System is really a pain. It's got separate amps at every speaker... Sounds like an aftermarket Head-Unit. If so your best bet at this point is running new wires from the HU Connections to the the speakers. But be advised the Bose speakers are 2 ohm (IIRC) not the usual 4 ohm. So basically it may sound like crap, some folks say no, but others think pitchy high sounding music is fine... If you think the sound is bad, next is new speakers all the way around...

Screw Bose Units.. I did away with mine after 1 month...

 

I'm not so sure the wiring has anything to do with this. What makes you think that new wires would solve the thump problem?

I agree though that the bose system is poorly designed given its incompatibility with any aftermarket upgrades. I would consider four new speakers but for them to sound as good as the stock bose system I'd need a 4 channel amp to go with them - that's more time and money than I've got at this point.

I think I'll try wiring a capacitor into the amp remote line so that the amp doesn't switch off and on whenever the new HU powers the signal off momentarily for a source change or track advance. I'll report back as to how this goes.

Somebody really needs to do a writeup on this subject...

 

The thump is coming from he fact that you are sending amplified signals into amplifiers on the speakers.

Also keep in mind that most head-units are 22-25 Watts RMS, which should be fine for new speakers, so if you're thinking about replacing the speakers and amp is not required, although it certainly doesn't hurt

I suppose you could locate the amps which are buried, and simply eliminates them from the wiring, but that's probably just as hard as re-wiring completely

 

I'm not sending the amps an amplified signal. The signal is coming from the preouts (the rcas) which are unamplified (and no I'm not using the pre-outs for the a subwoofer).

A capacitor accomplishes nothing, the problem is NOT, as I had thought, that the unit is turning the signal on and off when switching sources and thus causing a thump. I tried wiring the amp turn on wire in the harness to the switched power on the harness (a jumper from the pink amp remote wire to the red wire). The jumper makes the amp stay on whenever the ignition is on, regardless of what the head unit is doing. Even with the bose amp hardwired to on it still thumps when switching sources or advancing a track.

It's gotta be either something that the headunit is doing (like a current jump that the amps interpret as a signal) OR a problem with the common ground (the back speakers use one ground and the front speakers use a separate ground). I tried unhooking the front speakers from the HU (unplugging the rca cables) to isolate the potential ground problem but I still get the thump. I get the thump even with all speakers but one unhooked.

If it's a problem with the headunit then it's out of my control. If it's a problem with the common ground wiring then that's over my head. I guess I'll try buying one of those wiring harnesses with the line adjuster in it and see what happens.

I hope this thread is of use to someone in the future.... as for me I'll never buy a bose home audio product... I hate you bose, I hope you burn in hell!

 

jsut wondering is new radio a pioneer

 

No, it's actually a sony cdx gt720. Ordinarily I'd never buy sony car audio (especially the xplod speakers) but this is a brand new model t that was priced right and had all the right features... it's one of sony's top units.

Today I'm going to track down a wiring harness with the line out gain adjust and wire it up using the amplified outputs from the HU.. if this doesn't solve the problem then the unit goes back to sony..