Q45 Bose Replacement

[Qmike]

I have a 1992 Q45 and don't want to pay for repairs of the squeeling speaker amps. Is it possible/advisable to replace the original Bose system with an aftermarket receiver and speakers and use the existing wiring for the non-amplified speakers?

[Simmsled]

Possible, yes... advisable... could be argued either way. I usually wire the new head unit to the aftermarket harness and then run new speaker cable from the cd deck to the new speakers. However you want to do it will work fine.

[Qmike]

Thanks for the response. If I were not so lazy, I would run new speaker wire but... I was just wondering if the existing wire was good enough for medium grade non-amplified aftermarket speakers. Sounds like, no pun intened, they will do just fine.

[andykruser]

I just purchased a 1990 infinity Q45, and I want to replace the stock receiver with one with a cd player. s there any way to purchase new bose car recievers, or do I need to get it used? If I do, I was curious what other models would work. I know that the 1993/1994 J30 has a cd/tape player in it. WOuld that fit easily? Or what about the newer models? 1995-1997? If anybody has some info that would be great!thanks

Andy

[Simmsled]

Any Infiniti pre-1996 head unit will work. If you try to buy a new unit from the dealer, you would have to mortgage your home to afford it. The 96+ units will not work as Nissan changed the connection plugs. I know you can find them on the net... search the other Q45 threads in the car audio section for a link. This is a popular subject. Good luck!!

[andykruser]

thank you so much. I am stoked! So is that any pre 1996 nissan too, or only infinity. Also, 2 of my amps are starting to go out, and I got it priced at $75 each to fix, do you know of any other solution? Thanks again.

Andy[email protected]

[Simmsled]

I would stick to the Infiniti only decks, however the pre 95 Maxima decks that are BOSE will work as well. Where did you get the quote for 75 each on the amps?

[Rex]

<shameless plug>

I have the Sony 10 disc changer for the 93 and earlier Q, that won't "hook-up" in my car, if you'd be interested??

<pics in my gallery>

[andykruser]

on a different website, a company called willmans electronics (http://www.willmanselectronics.com) were highly recommended for the job of replacing bose speaker amps...but they quoted it at $85 each, and said I should have all of them done. I guess I jut would rather not spend that much to rebuild them if I don't have to. But they do warranty them for a year. So, any pre 1996 infinity or maxima bose deck would work. Do I have the preout for the 10 cd changer that someone was talking about? Maybe that would solve my cd problem more easily. Thanks for all your time and help, guys. I am still trying to figure all of this out. :-)

Andy

[Rex]

Andy, might be worth calling Bose (searched and couldn't find the number, but I know it's here), they may honor the recall.

<there was a recall for the rear speakers or amps for 90-91's>

[Qmike]

Relating to the original question. I replaced my Bose system with an older Alpine Head with CD. circa 1996, and new Kenwood 6969ie speakers -- using the factory speaker wiring -- in the rear only. There is no comparison in the sound quality IMHO. The Bose system is not in the same league as this aftermarket combination. The biggest improvement is probably the speakers; the Bose speakers look cheap compared to the Kenwoods. I will soon add 5.25" Kenwood speakers in the front doors (as soon as they arrive from the store) and I hope the results will be even better.

[andykruser]

well, I ended up finding a great sale at a circuit city that was closing, so I bought a new receiver, 6 X 9's and 4" speakers. Now all I have to do is install them. I saw from a previous posting that it is okay to use the existing wiring to connect the new speakers and reciiver( though that is not the popular opinion at some of the installation places) Well, I bought a wiring harness that should set me up pretty well, I was just wondering if someone was familiar with the wiring diagram of the bose receiver. I don't know what any of the colors correspond to, or which ones i need to use. Though I have a wiring harness, there are 4 wires going into each speaker. I also wanted to see if someone would confirm that if I hook up the wiring harness, then I just cut the wires going into the crossover and amps/speakers, and connect them to the new speakers. (ie: connect the existing wires to the new speakers before they go into anything.) Thanks everybody, any info would be much appreciated and very helpful.

Andy

[Qmike]

The speaker wires for the Bose system appear to be shielded from the schematic that I have and they are a reasonably heavy gauge. They should make excellent speaker wires (my personal experience is that they work great). It's a peice of cake to hook the thing up. Just cut the speaker leads and splice in your speaker wire with terminals that came with your speakers. The speaker wires with small terminals and solid colors are positive(+) polarity. Just match the colors from your receiver harness with the colors of the Infiniti harness. I used small wire nuts to splice the wires together. I would also suggest cable ties and electrical tape to tidy up the installation.

I am using the notation in my Q45 manual for the wire colors. I am noting the speaker terminal polarity (+) or (-) per wire.

Left Front: W(+), B(-). Note, the heavier gauge B wire is one of the power leads so don't cut it.

Right Front: W/G(+), B/W(-)

Left Rear: W/L(+), B/L(-)

Right Rear: W/R(+), B/R(-)

Let me know how your 4" speakers fit into the plastic housing. I had to do some modifications for door speakers.

[andykruser]

thank you so much for your help Qmike. I was wondering if you could clarify slightly about the left front speaker...you say don't cut the black wire, but if I am replacing the speaker, don't I need to cut the wire? Or am I thinking about somehting else. What does the power lead do? I glanced at the colors of the rear two speakers (the only ones i could see without tearing my car apart). There were four wires going into the crossover(?) and then four wires going from that to the speaker itself. Just to clarify...I cut right before the wores go into the crossover(?) right? Here is another question; the wire colors you described matched my rear right speaker, but not my rear left speaker. When I looked, the wire colors going into the crossovers were:

rear right: red/white (assuming pos)blue/yellowblack/red (assuming neg)black

rear left:blackblue/yellowblue/white (assuming pos)blue/black (assuming neg)

so if I jsut connect those wires directly to the new speakers, I don't need to do anything with the black and blue/yellow wires, right?Oh and another question was if I am using a wiring harness to connect all of these, it will ignore those blue/yellow, and black wires, right? Thankks again for all your help.

andy

[Qmike]

My post was contingent upon you having the Bose system with active speakers. That is, each speaker has it's own amplifier which requires four wires for each. One pair of wires is the power supply leads and are the heavier gauge wires. The second pair are the speaker lead wires. In the case of the left front speaker, there are two solid black wires. The heavier gauge black wire is one of the power leads and does not need to be cut for splicing but the lighter gauge black wire is one of the speaker leads and will need to be cut. While we are on the subject, be sure to disconnect the wiring connector from your speaker encolsures in the doors -- you don't want the amplifiers powered if you aren't using them.

As far as the colors for the right rear speaker, they do match if "L" is interpretted as blue. I will have to double check my manual tonight to verify the interpretation but I think that's correct. It also looks like you have your polarity correct.

I would recommend cutting the speaker leads from the connectors about two inches above the conncector just in case you want to reinstall the old system again. Again there is no point in cutting the power leads if you don't need to. Just be sure to not leave the connector plugged in.