adding subs to factory hu

[IFlyLow]

i have the monsoon system w/cassette...blah(i know) my question is, can i splice into my rear speaker wires or do i need to splice right at the hu...also it seems to be two harnesses on the back...what is the harness with the red clip for?

[JVT007]

I just did it today.. I spliced into the rears.. expect a major drop in power if you do this though.. having an amp is good for this.

[Fusion]

Just like JVT007 said you definitely need an amp your gonna drain power like crazy. Still it will give you a little bump. Yet to achieve full "Bump in the Trunk" you need an amp [img]smile.gif[/img] So what tapes you got...sorry had to [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[TokFan]

If you want to splice into the wires in the back I would suggest you do it _before_ the monsoon amp, that way you wont include the added noice from that amp and amplify it again with your sub-amp. also in the back where the monsoon amp is there is no amp turn-on signal, the monsoon senses voltage on the speaker inputs to turn it on.

If you splice into the wires by the HU you can use the output from pin 8 (power antenna) to turn on the amp. I hooked mine up that way yesterday. I bought two wiring harneses at the car audio place, one to go into the hu and one to go into the factory wiring harness. Then I just connected the two and did my splicing in the middle. That way I didn't have to cut into the exising wires.
And you also need the new harnes that plugs into the radio to get the power antenna lead since the factory plug has no connection there.

Or you can buy a PAC OEM-1 that plugs in the same way and gives you line level rca outs and an amp turn-on lead. But it costs like $80.

[Dewey]

I've heard that if you don't have the Monsoon system, you still have the Monsoon amp wiring. Can this be used for a regular amp? Don't mean to piggy-back the post, but why waste space on a similar topic?

[TokFan]

I don't know about that, maybe partially. The location of the monsoon amp is by the passenger rear wheel well behind the spare wheel, look for wires in there.

I think that for the standard system the wires to the speakers goes directly from the HU to the speakers; for the monsoon it goes to the amp in the back and then to the speakers.

So even if you have the wiring from the HU to where the amp would be, you probably don't have the wiring from the amp to the speakers.
But still that's half the work. And it's a pretty good location for an amp.

Another problem is that the monsoon amp does not have a turn-on lead from the HU, it relies on sensing input on the speaker wires to turn itself on. Most aftermarket amps need the turn-on signal so you would still have to wire that.

[Riles]

There is another option. Im not sure what it is called, but it is this little box that splices the rear speaker wires and it converts them into rca's. Ive been using it for almost a year, and I love it.

Since my amp is in my trunk, I just used a clip on wire tap on the power antenna lead to turn the amp on. Aside from the crappy head units, I felt like our cars are easier to wire than most (also because the body panels fit together so poorly, its easy to snake wires through them)

[Dewey]

Yeah, a line output converter. I used it on my gf's setup, and so far, so good (well over a yr. now). But that's just one more thing you have to stash somewhere. I'll play around w/ the monsoon wiring to figure something out.