gleep52
Junior Member
I put in a Kenwood carplay head unit years ago and it's worked fine. I have the JBL system and I use a Metra TYTO-01 JBL Amplifier Interface Harness to go from high level speaker outputs on the kenwood HU to the Metra harness which then goes to the factory radio harness and feeds into the factory amp under the passenger front seat. I also have the idatalink maestro RR for steering wheel controls, etc.
I'm looking to upgrade my headunit again - trying to decide between a Pioneer and Kenwood head unit with wireless carplay - and perhaps upgrade the factory amp and bypass the Metra harness/factory amp. I want to get rid of the metra harness because I've gone through two already - they work great for a year and eventually start cutting out sound on random speakers unless I shake the adapter box and then the speakers will start working again. I'm assuming this is a known issue because each time I replace the box (don't mess with any wires, just unplug and plug in the harnesses to the box) it works great for a year. I think it's the massive temp changes that eventually wear these little 40-50 dollar boxes out. Anyway - I figured a nice 4 channel amp would probably fit under the passenger seat and I can remove the factory amp - and just use RCAs straight from the head unit to the new 4 channel amp. But I have no idea which wires go to which speaker on the factory amp, etc... Is the box under the passenger seat MORE than just a factory amp - or can I completely remove it and use that space for a new 4 channel amp?
The factory amp has three large wire harness connectors with a lot of wires... I believe my car has some crazy number of speakers - so I'd have to combine say the left tweeter and woofer into a single channel on the new amp. Just hoping someone had some instructions or documentations on which wire is which to see if this was even possible, and if I can remove the factory amp - or if it is somehow needed for something silly like the factory head unit (which is relocated to my trunk so my climate controls still work).
Thanks in advance!
I'm looking to upgrade my headunit again - trying to decide between a Pioneer and Kenwood head unit with wireless carplay - and perhaps upgrade the factory amp and bypass the Metra harness/factory amp. I want to get rid of the metra harness because I've gone through two already - they work great for a year and eventually start cutting out sound on random speakers unless I shake the adapter box and then the speakers will start working again. I'm assuming this is a known issue because each time I replace the box (don't mess with any wires, just unplug and plug in the harnesses to the box) it works great for a year. I think it's the massive temp changes that eventually wear these little 40-50 dollar boxes out. Anyway - I figured a nice 4 channel amp would probably fit under the passenger seat and I can remove the factory amp - and just use RCAs straight from the head unit to the new 4 channel amp. But I have no idea which wires go to which speaker on the factory amp, etc... Is the box under the passenger seat MORE than just a factory amp - or can I completely remove it and use that space for a new 4 channel amp?
The factory amp has three large wire harness connectors with a lot of wires... I believe my car has some crazy number of speakers - so I'd have to combine say the left tweeter and woofer into a single channel on the new amp. Just hoping someone had some instructions or documentations on which wire is which to see if this was even possible, and if I can remove the factory amp - or if it is somehow needed for something silly like the factory head unit (which is relocated to my trunk so my climate controls still work).
Thanks in advance!
