Please help me with hooking up my amp to the stock bose system!

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08SPEED3Veteran

Member
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08 Mazdaspeed 3 GT
ok look i can hook up the sub to the amp, the cap to the amp, but how the hell do i wire all that to the stock bose system??? I have an adjustable line output convertor to plug my RCA cables into. what wires do i hook the 4 input wires on the convertor to? on the convertor there is white, white with black, gray, and gray with black. Please someone break this s*** down barney style for me!
 
Where are you located?

the line output converter that you bought should have some instructions that came with it as far as what color wire goes to what.

You are going to have to get to the back of the Headunit. Find the wire for the front left (positive and negative) and front right (positive and negative.)
Then you just splice the line level converter accordingly.

(I think it was purple with a white stripe and green with a white stripe.)

As far as an accessory wire for the amp, I used one of the fuses that only turns on with the radio.
 
Oh, my apologies...

If the stock bose system has a factory subwoofer, i would just tap into the leads from that, it will be much easier than going from the head unit. I tapped into the speaker wires from the head unit using a wire tap, and believe me it was a pain the balls. Trying to get everything to sit nicely back there is another story...

If you have any questions about wiring the stuff up, shoot me a PM. Ive done about 24 systems in my day, both with a line out converter and not...
 
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Bose amp

{barney style} LOL killing me dude!

Well, let me know what you come up with, cause I am about to do the same... now, I heard you can just connect to the amp output for the Bose subwoofer. If you have a HI-to-LOW LOC then it should not be a problem.

I have been scanning these forums to see what I can find on these audio installs, but there is very little to go off of. My last plan of actions is to just cut the wires off/near the Bose sub and just splice them too my LOC.

There are a lot of posters bragging about their sweet system installation being completed, but no DOG-BONES on how they did it. (@#$*Q@^@#).

For those after me... I will go into details w/pics {barney style} on my AMP-CAP-SUB install to ease the pain of new inquirers
 
Nuffflavor said:
{barney style} LOL killing me dude!

Well, let me know what you come up with, cause I am about to do the same... now, I heard you can just connect to the amp output for the Bose subwoofer. If you have a HI-to-LOW LOC then it should not be a problem.

I have been scanning these forums to see what I can find on these audio installs, but there is very little to go off of. My last plan of actions is to just cut the wires off/near the Bose sub and just splice them too my LOC.

There are a lot of posters bragging about their sweet system installation being completed, but no DOG-BONES on how they did it. (@#$*Q@^@#).

For those after me... I will go into details w/pics {barney style} on my AMP-CAP-SUB install to ease the pain of new inquirers
Click to expand...


Also, not sure how many channels you are using, but I will only need (1) for my 1 12" sub.... hence only 2 of the 4 wires of my LOC will be used. If you are using more than (1) channel then, so I have been reading in the other forums, you will have to tap into the lines going into the amp from the radio...
not sure 100% sure about those wires, but I have read the Bose amp solid blue wire is the amp turn on wire.
 
Installing sound system

Nuffflavor,

I'm actually located out of Suffolk and will be attempting a sound installation on my 08 MP3 today/tomorrow. If you have done your installation, then maybe you could give me a few pointers on the best spot to run then amp power wire through the firewall and a couple of other questions I have. If you haven't done your install yet, then we could probably help each other out. Ive heard of several spots to run the amp power wire through. One being behind the glove box, but I don't see how thats necessarily the best way to go unless you have a long power wire? Anyway.. just figured I'd drop a line since we're probably not that far away.
 
justinpj said:
Nuffflavor,

I'm actually located out of Suffolk and will be attempting a sound installation on my 08 MP3 today/tomorrow. If you have done your installation, then maybe you could give me a few pointers on the best spot to run then amp power wire through the firewall and a couple of other questions I have. If you haven't done your install yet, then we could probably help each other out. Ive heard of several spots to run the amp power wire through. One being behind the glove box, but I don't see how thats necessarily the best way to go unless you have a long power wire? Anyway.. just figured I'd drop a line since we're probably not that far away.
Click to expand...

FYI, I have a 17 ft. power wire and it was MORE than enough to reach the hatch area with extra to spare. Also FYI, run it BEHIND the heat shielding in the engine bay in flex loom tubing if you go down the passenger side. I know this seems obvious, but ya never know. Now, my Grand Prix was a different story. It barely made it running down the opposite side of the car from the battery. Put it this way, unless you are planning on running speaker/RCA cables down the passenger side, it will work just fine. I ran those wires down the driver side and turn-on lead went down passenger side as well. All worked great, but I have the Sport, non-Bose system.
 
Prob next weekend justinpj... with the power and audio line running. I will do all the mounting and stuff this week (my time is limited on weekends... alot of stuff on the plate).

Yeah Ecniemann, I am trying wait a couple of more days to see if any other posters routed their amp power line a different way. That behind the glove box then accross the engine compartment looks/seems to be a Motha install. On my Nissan Spec V I took off the drivers side tire & coverings and routed power cable through cable-way. Another thing.... dam MS3 has an air tight engine compartment... you almost need a mouse/hamster or something to help route power line.

Ahhhh.. well ITS GOT TO HAPPEN regardless ;-)

*Subwoofer box custom made: ZEnclosures
*Amp Crunch 2000 watt MONO
*3 Farad cap

Doing easy stuff 1st

*Edit: 24MAR09* Note: Anything added to trunk (my subwoofer box) will keep you from accessing your spare tire! Ecniemann's system config (Bazooka in trunk) seems to be the best IF you want to get to your spare tire without much hassle. I would have to drop my backseats down and pull sub-box forward / onto folded rear seats to allow myself spare tire access.
 

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Nuffflavor said:
Prob next weekend justinpj... with the power and audio line running. I will do all the mounting and stuff this week (my time is limited on weekends... alot of stuff on the plate).

Yeah Ecniemann, I am trying wait a couple of more days to see if any other posters routed their amp power line a different way. That behind the glove box then accross the engine compartment looks/seems to be a Motha install. On my Nissan Spec V I took off the drivers side tire & coverings and routed power cable through cable-way. Another thing.... dam MS3 has an air tight engine compartment... you almost need a mouse/hamster or something to help route power line.

Ahhhh.. well ITS GOT TO HAPPEN regardless ;-)

*Subwoofer box custom made: ZEnclosures
*Amp Crunch 2000 watt MONO
*3 Farad cap

Doing easy stuff 1st
Click to expand...

Check out this post, I think it will help. There are cabin and engine bay aspect pictures which give a good visual.

http://www.mazdas247.com/forum/showthread.php?t=123705194

The power wire was VERY easy after reading the how-to's on this forum, probably one of the easiest aspects of my install.
 
Running power wire on this car is just plain retarded!! To run it through the passenger side is an ordeal and a half and you have to basically remover the whole wiper panel, truly unnessary. I just ran it through the driver side wheel well.
 
Is it possible to replace the BOSE amp completely and reuse all the cables that run to it? It must have a remote lead, power, and some kind of x-level inputs. Or does it have sheeite running from that amp to additional speakers?

Figure if you can yank that thing and re-use the wires you don't even need to run anything at all other than speaker wire to the boot.
 
Youll need to either tap the wires coming out of the back of the HU, or at the Bose amp under the drivers seat. I had the bose amp completely removed, tapped the signal wires under the drivers seat to an LOC and back to my two amps in the cargo area. Then from the 4ch amp back up under the drivers seat to tap back into the speaker wires.

It all seemed nice and easy, but in reality it was a huge pain in my ass, and I never got it working perfectly. There are some wire color guides floating around here or the other forum for the bose setup, but the wires are so short it still sucks. Plus I had an alternator whine that I never was able to get rid of no matter what I tried (ran 4 ga power 2 diff routes, 4 ground locations, noise filters etc, nothing worked). Could have just been my combination of amps or something, but I think the stock HU was the culprit, because if I ran an MP3 player directly into the amps inputs the alternator noise went away.

Now I have the bose amp back in running the door speakers, and tapped into the bose sub wiring to the LOC to the cargo area into a sub amp, which runs an 8" JL in a stealth box. Not great, but better than stock, and no alternator noise :p
 
Amp +power route

DublinDapper said:
Running power wire on this car is just plain retarded!! To run it through the passenger side is an ordeal and a half and you have to basically remover the whole wiper panel, truly unnessary. I just ran it through the driver side wheel well.
Click to expand...

Just the reply I was looking for !

I did the same routing (Drivers wheel well) on my 2003 Nissan Spec V, and was going to remove the drivers side tire and try the same procedure with my 2008 Speed3. Like you said that behind the glove box / remove entire wiper assembly is RE - TARD - ED!

Another poster said there was an access on driver's side but it was hard to get too and the heat shield had to be remove.

DublinDapper, Did you start routing the power from wheel well location?
How difficult was it to find the batt end of cable in engine compartment..since you need a hamster with a flashlight to get any real indication that something is moving around inside that compartment.

I will prob route mine this weekend.... and being of my word....I will take pics and post them for new/current members to see & soak up my efforts.
 
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Nuffflavor said:
Just the reply I was looking for !

I did the same routing (Drivers wheel well) on my 2003 Nissan Spec V, and was going to remove the drivers side tire and try the same procedure with my 2008 Speed3. Like you said that behind the glove box / remove entire wiper assembly is RE - TARD - ED!

Another poster said there was an access on driver's side but it was hard to get too and the heat shield had to be remove.

DublinDapper, Did you start routing the power from wheel well location?
How difficult was it to find the batt end of cable in engine compartment..since you need a hamster with a flashlight to get any real indication that something is moving around inside that compartment.

I will prob route mine this weekend.... and being of my word....I will take pics and post them for new/current members to see & soak up my efforts.
Click to expand...

Seriously, this was REALLY not that hard. It took maybe 15 minutes total with a friend to grab the cable on the other side. Once in the engine bay, the heat shield needs to be removed with the 2 plastic gray caps. Then it is very easy to locate the grommet and wire coming through. Route it behind the shield, using zip ties to attach it to various points. I used flex-zoom to protect the wire form heat/sharp objects. The power wire then pops out just around the brake fluid reservoir. You do not need to remove the wiper assembly. You run it around the outside aspect of the battery box and enter it under the front/R corner.
 
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Install

Did my install this past Saturday. Took about 7 hours total time (tried every way possible to get the power wire through the car before attempting going through the glove box). Ended up having to go through the glove box anyway as its the only way to do it easily without taking too much apart (only have to remove the glove box which is two screws). Everything is wired and works great now. One problem I have however is since i'm using the stock radio the bass that is going through my line converter is the very high level base. I'm going to need to purcahse an equalizer in the future to filter out the higher level stuff and boost the lower level's. One other thing that we did by accident was break the light to the center console (doesn't light up at night time now). Going to have to get a replacement bulb and figure out where the heck that thing goes (bang). One other thing... I was able to fit a 4 gauge wire through the glovebox (did have to use a little oil to get it through easier).
 
Cool, glad it worked out! Yeah, I forgot to mention you usually have to lube the wire a bit to get it to slide nicely (water soluable of course, right!).
 
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