if anyone is familiar with the stock stereos in 2004 GM midsize SUV's, please step in

[lubetek 10+ year member]

Hi everyone,

I recently bought a 2004 Buick Rainier CXL. (two nights ago)

The system that I have in my other car is in the sig. I would like to keep the factory deck in the SUV and was wondering if anyone knew if these double din BOSE factory decks have any preouts in the rear of them?? I'd love to hook up my amps to the factory deck to power my comps and sub. Here is a pic of the deck thats in my SUV that I found online.

if not, what is the best way to hook up two amps to a deck with no pre-outs? As much as I love my Kenwood X889 I just don't think installing it in my Rainier is what I want. Eventually I will buy a double din touch-screen DVD/stereo but that wont be till atleast tax return time or later. I have two car payments and one motorcycle payment so money is not abundant.

Thanks for any help!

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[thatkidbob 10+ year member]

uhhh... factory radios don't have pre-outs.

you'll need a cleansweep. or use a regular ol LOC.

if you need something for auxiliary input like an ipod, check my FS thread //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/biggrin.gif.d71a5d36fcbab170f2364c9f2e3946cb.gif

 

[lubetek 10+ year member]

I doubted it would but hoped I was wrong. thanks man.

what is Cleansweep or LOC?

 

[thatkidbob 10+ year member]

An LOC is a line out converter...

Its whole job in life is to take the speaker level output your HU puts out and drop it down to pre-out level so you can send it to your amps. The JL clean-sweep is a souped up 400 dollar LOC that EQ's your HU's output to eliminate any pre-processing it might have and ouputs clean signal at a nice high voltage. It has quite a few other features that i can't think of right now.

Your local walmart carries a 20 dollar Scosche 4 channel LOC that'll do the job just fine for 19.99 or so. If you can wait, pick up a Navonne LOC... a bit pricier, but better all the way around.

 

[lubetek 10+ year member]

sweet thanks. One more question. If I use one of these LOC units can I say do this to get me by for a bit?

leave the front speaker lines alone and running to the front door speakers, then splice into the rear speaker L/R channel with the LOC and run lines to the rear door speakers and to one single amp to power a sub? I'm thinking about just running my Directed amp and sub with the stock system just until i can save up for a double-din touch screen stereo? This would be ideal. I don't need this sytem to be bumpen untill I get a good deck and since I do not want to install my Kenwood X889 I figure just installing one amp and sub would get me by a bit.

What do you think? Thanks!

 

[thatkidbob 10+ year member]

yessir, thats a perfectly valid option.

just grab some scotchlock tap in connectors from your local radioshack, tap in to one of your 6x9's and connect that to your LOC. From there you know what to do //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

 

[lubetek 10+ year member]

wouldn't I want to tap into both right and left channels? And thanks for the input! Now I don't even have to pull my deck out. I'm just going to run a line from both right and left speakers and then both of those to the LOC and then to my amp. With any luck it will work decent enough.

Course I have to run power and grounds for the amp. Looks like I'm going to be doing the big3 this weekend.//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/yumyum.gif.0556df42231b304b9c995aefd13928a8.gif

 

[DoobieBrother 10+ year member]

First, that pic is not of a Bose head unit. They look similar, but that's not it.

Now, any of the 2003+ head units can be programmed for whatever application you wish (non-bose, Bose, Bose lux). If you reprogram your non-Bose head unit to Bose, it will change the outputs to a flat clean unmessed-around with signal. It will be at low level (not speaker level like the non-bose programming). You can hook up the aftermarket amp and speakers to the bose-programmed head unit with a PAC AOEM-GM24.

As for the programming, the dealer can do this. Most probably don't know what to do about it. I got this info from a guy on one of the truck forums that is in the know. He knows the specifics of what programming changes need to be made. He's on gmfullsize.com and his alias is DURAtotheMAX.

 

[ravendarat 10+ year member]

As for the other question about hooking up to both the left and right, its not nessasary if your just doing a sub. Just take the left and right channels of your LOC and hook it up to one pair of speaker wires and it will work fine and get you by until you buy your head unit.

 

[lubetek 10+ year member]

Thanks for the help guys.

I bought a 2/4 way output converter by Scosche. Its the only thing I could find locally. I plan to hook this up to just the rear speaker line and get my sub working tomorrow. This unit also will allow me to run all the speaker lines (front/rear) from the deck to the LOC and then both sets of RCA's to my orion 8004 to power the door speakers, then I will daisy chain my Directed 1500D off the Orion to power my RLp15. I of course will have to install better comps in the doors to handle the power of the Orion amp.

I think I could hook up the Orion and run new speaker lines to each FACTORY door speaker and not blow them if I turn the gain down low. I couldn't care less if I damage the door speakers because i need better ones any way. We'll see.

My only problem right now is I think my factory HU has a separate factory AMP powering the speakers. if thats the case I'm not sure if I should hook up the LOC at the head unit or after the factory amp. I'm not even positive if it uses a factory amp located elsewhere in the car. I'll be digging around tomorrow for sure.

Here is a pic of the HU in my truck. I just ran out and snapped it.

 

[ray@ss 10+ year member]

The "normal" loc will not work correctly in your car. If you go behind the radio the signal will all ready be low level, and you will just turn it down some more. If you go after the factory amp, the signal will be a processed bose signal, "bandpassed"....

The first thing you need to do is figure out if the signal coming from the deck is "fixed" audio out or not. If it is the you must buy the adapter by periferal.

If it changes with the vol. knob, than you have an option. You can cut the heads off rca's on one side and tag them behind the radio, since it is all ready low level this works like a dream.

From the sound of it, I would say stop what you are doing right now.. If taking the deck out is an issue, you are about to get in real deep..

Sorry, but this inst a honda civic. Take it to a respectable shop and be ready to pay around 200 for the rca install.. Then you can finish the rest of your amp install.. or just have them do it all..

Now im sure your prob. just gonna not listen to everything I just said......... Thats fine, After you hook up your loc at the speakers and fire up your amp, and everything works and you start laughing at me ................ o keep laughing son.. try to play something with low bass.... You will hear the woofers fall off very soon... don't fret, there is nothing wrong with your sub.... thats called a bad signal..

well I hope everything worx for you.

 

[lubetek 10+ year member]

So I do have a Bose deck then? I thought the other guy said mine wasn't a Bose.

Here I was all excited to get working on the truck and I wake up to this post. lol

What adapter by periferal are you talking about? can you link to it? Thanks.

 

[ray@ss 10+ year member]

your the one that said you had bose in the first post..

 

[lubetek 10+ year member]

your the one that said you had bose in the first post..

Thats because I thought it was standard on this car. I thought the standard deck was BOSE and that they had a better BOSE sytem to upgrade to as well.

I wasn't sure what I had so I went online and saw this guy on ebay selling his BOSE factory deck and it looked just like mine. I posted a pic of his up top. Then later in this thread someone pointed out that the first pic I posted is not a BOSE HU. Since my deck (2nd pic posted) is the same as the other guys I figured I don't have a BOSE then.

Well I took your advice anyway and will hold off installing the LOC. Unitil I know for sure what is in my car.

 

[ray@ss 10+ year member]

if it does not say bose that you are good.. just grab the speaker level leads and hook them to you loc.. l&r rear.. right is +dark blue - is light blue.. left + is brown and - is yellow.

for an amp turn on you can use heavy gauge brown or orange at the ignition harnness