Amp question

[Jab215]

I recently installed some new speakers in my 2003 nissan pathfinder. The stock stereo was the premium bose one. My question is how do i go about replacing the factory amps properly? What steps would be needed to rid the car of all bose amps (3 in total i think)?

[Towncivilian]

This post has instructions on bypassing the factory amps. I verified the wire colors are still correct for your 2003. Good luck!

[Jab215]

I thank you for the link to the other post. It was kind of helpful. My situation however is slightly different. I have a pioneer head unit, i now have pioneer speakers installed and the factory amps are still powering the speakers but they really dont sound anything at all close to the normal bass of the factory speakers with the same head unit. I suspect the amps are messing with the sound processing in some way and making the speakers only produce very low end (though not very loud) and almost miss a lot of the mid bass. I really hope that changing the amps will cure this.

[Towncivilian]

You should not have front amps at all, a rear perhaps but either way if you perform the wiring modification you will have bypassed all amp wiring completely. You may also have a line-output converter connected to your head unit; after bypassing the amp wiring, you will need to remove this for best possible sound.

[Jab215]

Im not sure about the line output converter on the head unit. Mostly because i never put one when i installed it, but maybe this is a stupid question. What are the two boxes on the front doors connected to the speakers for and where is the location of where i would do the wiring mod (Please)?

[Towncivilian]

The two boxes are indeed the stock Bose amps and are unnecessary with aftermarket speakers. You would perform the wiring modifications on the 6-pin connectors which are connected to those amps (if I recall correctly). The rear amp is found in the driver's side cargo area trim, which is secured by many clips. Be careful to avoid breaking them.

Alternately, you may wish to run new speaker wire to each door. This would be better since the stock wiring is rather thin.

[Jab215]

Well that certainly clears it up. You have been very helpful. I only have one question left. If i install an aftermarket amp (100 watts x 4 @ 4 ohms) in the rear for all speakers to use, would the wiring mod still be a good idea and can this even be done without running new wire?

[Towncivilian]

In my opinion, if you can afford the time to run new speaker wiring to each door, it will be worth it. Like I said, the stock wiring is thin and it'll be annoying to hack up the wiring just to get the speakers to work - I soldered mine, but that was a pain, especially with the rear wiring. If I were to do it over again, I would run new speaker wiring to each door.

If you choose to install an amp, all you should need to run from the head unit are 2 RCA cables (as far as I know). You'd also need to run a decent gauge power wire (not sure on the exact gauge, it's been a while since I've done any wiring) as well as a ground wire, though you could probably just run a ground into where the Bose amp used to be and ground it with a ring terminal on some metal there.

[Jab215]

I decided i am going to install new wire and a new amp. Do you know of anyone on this forum that knows how to get the wire into the front doors? It looks very difficult