Sound System Upgrade.

[Didin]

there is a hole in the bulkhead.

there is no remote trigger from the headunit

So the amp is switched on from the ignition?

If thats the case, should the key be in the ignition and the stereo switched off, the amp would be slowly draining the Battery

[Monster-Mat]

the amp, headunit is integral with the cars electronics, it is connected into the multiplex by plugs it is controled from the security and hifi ecu

its not comparable to a "normal" ice setup, the amp will not work without the headunit, and the headunit will not work without the amp.

all headunit controles are not actually done in the headunit, there done within the amp.....volume,bass,treble,fade etc etc....the headunit is just an interface

[Dumbass]

hi... ive have just unscrewed the amp from its brackets.. im trying to pull it out so i can make it easy for myself to cut open the cabel housing and identify the line level cables, power,ground etc etc...

firstly.. its allmost impossible to actually get the amp out of the glove compartment area - i have the cuts on my hand to prove it.. and secondly ive noticed, even if i DID pull it out slightly, it still would not come out enough (due to the shortness of the cables/cable housing) to easily access the cables on the other side.

so im wondering, what am i supposed to do?

getting access to the cables is simply too difficult..

please help guys!!

Many thanks!!

Paul

[Didin]

Hi all,

I had a go at this over the weekend.

Basically, I managed to locate a remove the amp behind the glove compartment.

The back of the amp had 2 connectors with loads of wires.

I got the multi tester out to check which ones were carrying power. I found 2, one was conitnuous live and the other on the ignition. I failed to find a remote one when the Headunit was switched on.

I then progressed to try to find the line outputs from the headunit.

I did this by running an RCA lead to an amp in my car, rigged the amps so they would stay on and touch the other open end of the RCA lead to the connections of the plugs going into the amp.

I found some wire carrying sound but it was very loud and distorted. I failed to find any thing that was undistorted and balanced.

My guess is that as was mentions by Supracharged, the headunit is just an interface to a whole load of processing within the amp/unit, therefore no standard type line ins/out are going between the 2.

So in conclusion, I failed to acheive what I wanted thru this way.

My next attempt would either try some line level converters and take a feed from the rear 6x9s, I guess in the process diabling them completely to drive subs instead. I'm assuming the rears have a tweeter or mid mounted on top of the 6x9, and is high passed coming out of the amp. This would allow me to run the subs and still have some high frequencies to create some rear fill. OR I could run a second small amp to drive the 6x9s thus not changing the sound at the back of the car at all.

Another option is to go aftermarket completely and replace the stock system, run one 4 channel amp thru passive crossovers to the stock speakers, and another amp to run the subs. This will mean I would have to run new wires from the crossovers to each speaker .... pain in the butt.

How have people here gone about installing an after market Headunit?

[andyhart21]

Hi Didin, I tried the line level convertor from the 6x9 woofer to feed my subs and it sounded awful (Mat can vouch for that :( )

You could try fitting an EQ such as the AudioControl EQS, that takes speaker level inputs and gives an RCA output. You would also have an EQ to play around with then.....

[Monster-Mat]

so not wanting to sound an ***** or anything, but if peeps had listened then it would of saved you all some time :P

to remove the amp and associated loom corectly you need to remove the full dash board

[Dumbass]

ARRRRRRRGH!!!!!!

All i want is BASS...

Grrrr.... i HATE Lexus!!! - ( <- didn't mean that folks... moment of rage)

[Didin]

so not wanting to sound an ***** or anything, but if peeps had listened then it would of saved you all some time :P

to remove the amp and associated loom corectly you need to remove the full dash board

Yep, should've listened

But it was a good learning experience on tinkering with the car :D

So is there some sort of mounting plate available for a standard DIN sized headunit? Has anyone gone this route?

[Monster-Mat]

yep there is a replacement facia plate available, i know simon skippy has one , if you do a search for "facia plates" it should chuck out the posts involved........

mat