Confused about changing Factory HU

[sonic007]

So lets rule out the simple. Did you hook up a bass knob? Is the bass knob turned up? Is the gain on the side turned up?

More difficult. Is there a switch between high and low levels on the box? Did the unit come with a harness for high level? Any pics of what you have done so far?

 

[Wakadaka]

there is a remote, but i haven't hooked it up. i assumed since it wasn't plugged in that it would just use the bass level on the unit. good suggestion, and i feel stupid for not trying that out.

bass has been turned up on the head unit, the gain has been turned up, fader turned all the way to the back. everything i could think of to crank the volume and no signal.

There is not a switch between high and lo level inputs, but there is a switch to change how it is turned on. has the option of audio, remote wire and something else, can't remember but i can check.

the box only came with one harness that had female rca inputs, but the manual said to cut them to connect speaker wire.

what pictures would be helpful? The only thing i can think of would be of the wires behind the kick panel, but basically i spliced into only the green and green/black (supposed to be rear drivers side speaker) with vampire clips.

I appreciate the help.

 

[sonic007]

How did you tap in the rcas? There should be 2 wires per rca. So 2 neg and 2 positives.

 

[River_Rat]

I have the exact same setup, installed the same way. You do not need the bass level remote plugged in. It does the same thing as the bass adjustment on the unit. I would double check your "vampire" splices, as that is where I had my difficulty. Pretty much the same thing you're going through. Sub turned on but no sound because it wasn't getting signal due to a faulty splice. If you have the signal wires tapped correctly and the remote set to high level input, then the blue remote light will come on without connecting a separate remote wire.

 

[Wakadaka]

from the wiring harness there are 2 cords coming off to a white and red rca cables. so technically 4 pieces of copper wiring. i only cut two of them, 1 negative and 1 positive, so one of the two stereo signals. i thought that might be the problem, or i just didn't get good splices from the vampire clips. I think i saw some pictures that you posted River Rat where you had tapped into both the right and left rear speakers for the input. is that necessary in order to give the subwoofer signal?

i have been thinking that the clips just didn't get a good connection and that was my problem. i have heard that they are unreliable. i did the work at my parents house since i don't have the tools or space to do it, so thats why i haven't been able to just try to fix it.


Sonic007- will best buy work by the hour? i am willing to pay to have the job finished, and i am wondering if i can just pay a shop to finish the job for me basically. don't know if shops will do that or not.

if this site had some sort of points that i could give you guys i would haha. you have been a lot of help.

 

[River_Rat]

I tapped left and right, but I really don't think that it is necessary. I'm still leaning to a bad splice. Do you have any other source that you could plug your remaining RCA cable up to for troubleshooting purposes? You could pick up a 3.5mm headphone jack to RCA cable at Walmart and hook an mp3 player or your phone up and see if giving it a known signal makes sound.

 

[sonic007]

Yea they do work by the hour.

I would hook up all 4 to that one speaker. Hook the 2 neg from the sub to the neg speaker wire, then the 2 pos to the positive of the speaker wire should work fine as long as it is turning on properly.

 

[Wakadaka]

Yea they do work by the hour.

I would hook up all 4 to that one speaker. Hook the 2 neg from the sub to the neg speaker wire, then the 2 pos to the positive of the speaker wire should work fine as long as it is turning on properly.

just to make sure I have the right idea, I can take the speaker wire that I already have plugged into the back of the speaker, and just splice a short piece of wire into the other side and it should work? so basically splitting the rear left speaker in to two signals that will run into the unit?

it won't cause any issues having two things spliced in to the same speaker out put? that sounds like a very good idea if not, and will be very easy to fix without taking anything apart (will look messy though).

I went in to Best Buy a couple minutes ago, and they said that in order to work on it I would either have to uninstall everything and they could re install for 100, or they could uninstall/ reinstall for 120. They said they are required to warranty all of their work

I figured that might be the case. I might check out some other stores to see if they can do the work, but I will try your solution first. I'm wishing I had waited and just paid them to do it first, but money was tight at the time.

 

[Wakadaka]

also, i tried running the subwoofer with a signal going in to the one remaining rca input and the other with the tapped wire from the car. So basically there should have been two signals entering the subwoofer, even though they were both sending completely different music. it didn't play anything, so that has me thinking either the subwoofer doesn't work, the vampire clips i used to tap into the rear speaker wire was not a good connection, or for some reason it won't play something if it has two vastly differnet signals coming in (that last one doesn't make any sense to me).

any advice? the more i am thinking about it the more I am leaning towards just paying best buy to redo the whole thing.


One other thing: the best buy installer said that it is best to splice into the speaker wire right behind the head unit instead of at the kick panel. do you guys agree with that? or is there any reason to do that other than convenience?

 

[sonic007]

just to make sure I have the right idea, I can take the speaker wire that I already have plugged into the back of the speaker, and just splice a short piece of wire into the other side and it should work? so basically splitting the rear left speaker in to two signals that will run into the unit?



it won't cause any issues having two things spliced in to the same speaker out put? that sounds like a very good idea if not, and will be very easy to fix without taking anything apart (will look messy though).



I went in to Best Buy a couple minutes ago, and they said that in order to work on it I would either have to uninstall everything and they could re install for 100, or they could uninstall/ reinstall for 120. They said they are required to warranty all of their work



I figured that might be the case. I might check out some other stores to see if they can do the work, but I will try your solution first. I'm wishing I had waited and just paid them to do it first, but money was tight at the time.

No we dont have to uninstall everything. Thats what troubleshooting fees are for. We charge 100 to wire everything from stock. I charge 40 if we are doing just the loc.

 

[sonic007]

also, i tried running the subwoofer with a signal going in to the one remaining rca input and the other with the tapped wire from the car. So basically there should have been two signals entering the subwoofer, even though they were both sending completely different music. it didn't play anything, so that has me thinking either the subwoofer doesn't work, the vampire clips i used to tap into the rear speaker wire was not a good connection, or for some reason it won't play something if it has two vastly differnet signals coming in (that last one doesn't make any sense to me).



any advice? the more i am thinking about it the more I am leaning towards just paying best buy to redo the whole thing.





One other thing: the best buy installer said that it is best to splice into the speaker wire right behind the head unit instead of at the kick panel. do you guys agree with that? or is there any reason to do that other than convenience?

It doesnt matter where you do it in this vehicle. Its only an issue on amplified systems.

Not sure what you mean for your wiring.

 

[Wakadaka]

Took it into a different best buy, and paid 40 bucks for troubleshooting. turns out the subwoofer is broken. just processed the return with amazon.

I need to figure out what i want to get to replace it.

 

[sbeppel]

I installed a Kenwood DPX501bt in my Sonic. Got everything from Crutchfield. Cost me $285 I did it myself. Took about an hour and I worked at a leisurely pace. I should call my Sonic "McDonalds" cause I'm lovin it!

 

[Camaroboi13]

I installed a Kenwood DPX501bt in my Sonic. Got everything from Crutchfield. Cost me $285 I did it myself. Took about an hour and I worked at a leisurely pace. I should call my Sonic "McDonalds" cause I'm lovin it!

Holy cow I hope that's not USD currency...those are 139 shipped all over the place!

I got the Pioneer FHX720BT for mine and love it. Pandora app, MixTrax, hands free bluetooth, USB, all kinds of cool stuff. I think I paid 122 shipped from sonicelectronix and would do it again in a heartbeat.

 

[sbeppel]

Yeah its USD. I know Crutchfield was alittle high on the Kenwood. It has bluetooth i jeart rafio pandora and all that stuff Radio was 159.00 The Scosche harness and chime box kit and dash face was 125.t00 I'm happy with it. Thanks to this forum I was able to
do it myself.

 

[shorebreeze]

I'm looking at a related problem; last year I had an installer put in Alpine SPS-610 speakers in my LT, and while the front set was a night-and-day improvement the rear set aggravated an already notable problem, namely the way in which the Sonic HU feeds little more than fill to the rear speakers. There are two problems. First, GM has set up the system in the Sonic (as well as the Cruze) to provide a miserable signal to the rear door speakers. The second is that compared to, say, the modest 30 or so watt speakers recommended for the Sonic LT on Crutchfield's website, the Alpines are a little too much speaker for the headunit. As the Alpines push enough bass even on the weak signal they're getting, I'm not interested in a subwoofer, but I'm very interested in an amp that would even out the bass (right now digitally-recorded music from about the last 20 years has too much bass and has annoying spikes, and analog records from before the early 1990s are at least even but tend to have too little bass) and also finally get proper use out of the rear speakers. Any suggestions?