What is the best method of adding an amp to the existing 2002 HU - without cutting wires?

Is there an adapter that takes the HU output and passes everything but the speaker connections on to the factory harness? Another connector would likely be needed to pass the signal from the add on amp thru the factory wiring to the speakers.

I'm new to car audio and would like to leave the existing wiring as close to factory perfect as possible.

 

I've been trying to find out the same thing in hopes that I can keep the OEM deck & I've come to the conclusion that you will have to cut the factory wires.

 

I'm facing the same problem. Here's what I'm going to try...

Sosche sells reverse harnesses for many factory HUs. They're listed under the R-series on their web site. I've ordered both a reverse and standard harness. I'm thinking I can use the two to wire in an external amp and self-powered sub without cutting into the factory harness. I'll let you know how it works out...

-Chris

 

you would have to look at the speakers and see the color of the speaker wires, then you go behind the head unit and get those same color wires, and these are the wires you will be takeing your signal off of .. then you have to route this wire from the radio(signal) to the amp , and then you turn around take the amp speaker wires and send them to the speakers, .. this is really the only way I can think to do this , and if you are puting the amp in the rear you will just have to route the wires directluy to the back speaksers, this will enable fading from the radio

another way to do it ,is to take the signal of a one of the rear speakers and use this as the input signal,. then you can run the speaker output wires to the speaker, only problem with this is you won't have any fading
Bruce

 

In my case my amp had only RCA inputs. I had to add an inline high/low adapter which converts signal from direct speaker output to an amplified RCA out. You can fit it in behing the existing HU, although mine now sticks out a little farther than before. Not really noticeable though...

The adapters usually run around $40-50, and make sure you get a high quality one to eliminate ground loop.

 

I'm doing the same thing as ChrisL exactly. With the two harness adapters from Scosche (wiring harness adapter and deck adapter (reverse)), you will be able to pick off all the signals you need, and hook the rest up straight through. I will be adding in line converters on the speaker outputs from the deck to my amp, then the speaker outputs from my amp back to the harness to the door speakers. No wire cutting should be involved. Plus, my amp has line outs that I am putting into a powered sub. I will have 4 channels amping the door speakers, with the fader still intact, and a sub with it's own level control.

Now all I need is the time to do it.....

Dale.

 

I'm really curious how the reverse and standard wire harness setup works out. I'd seen these, but the web site doesn't give much information.

Please post back with results. I'd like to try amping the standard speakers in my Pro and add a sub. If the wire harness technique works out, I'd probably use them to amp the front and sub, while using the deck for the rears.

Later on, I'll likely upgrade at least the front speakers, which will really require an amp to do justice. If I go whole hog and replace the rears as well, I'd likely add a dedicated sub amp and amp all 4 speakers.

Thanks for responding to the post. I like the factory look of the standard cd player/radio. If I can upgrade the other parts of the system to get decent sound, I'd be a happy camper.

 

I got everything wired up over the weekend. The dual harness trick worked out great. I was a little concerned about having enough room behind the HU for all the wiring. It turns out there is plenty of room back there. Now I can easily tap into line level output without mucking up the factory harness.

-Chris

 

Hey chris where did you get your reverse harness. I got the adapters and the regular harness on order from sound domain but they don't appear to have the reverse harness. Local car audio places are of no help they all just want to install for you and charge you an arm and a leg for nothing.

Tony

 

I ordered both harnesses from Scosche - www.scosche.com

-Chris