[kriscoleman]

I purchased a used Jeep Grand Cherokee this past week, and I love it. I was driving a Jeep Cherokee previously, and I love this JGC even more. The Full time 4X4 is awesome for the coming winter, and the interior is ballin. It also came with a nice new JVC audio deck already installed...

However, tomorrow I'm installing my audio system, and while I had it all open, I was wondering what I need to check to make sure the deck is also plugged into the infinity amp for the remote speakers.

I had a toyota celica that came with a similar amp, and you had to do a little rerouting to get it to mate up with the new deck, considering that I feel the sound could be a lot better in my Jeep, I came to the conclusion that possibly it's not connected right.

by the way, on the first page of this forum, i already found the easiest way for me to run my sub-amp positive wire tomorrow. thanks guys

 

[Jaydubya2003]

All you need is a harness from any audio shop if you want a clean and easy install (as long as you have a 93-98 Grand that is) because it doesn't need anything special. Just make sure you wire up everything that is present in the "car side" harness and the deck harness and you will be golden. BTW...if you have sound there isn't much that can be wrong with the current wiring.

 

[kriscoleman]

Thanks!

I tore out the audio deck and they had spliced the deck in, but i saw the remote wire was hooked up properly. after installing my Subwoofer Amp I adjusted some of the audio settings. It sounds way better! Probably the best sounding system I've had in a vehicle, very balanced


thanks for the quick reply!

 

[Mudfrog]

Just a heads up.. the decks built in amp should blow away the factory infinity amp. I bypassed mine and the sound was quite a bit better.

 

[712Crew]

Just a heads up.. the decks built in amp should blow away the factory infinity amp. I bypassed mine and the sound was quite a bit better.

Is it possible to just take the infinity amp out and get better sound from your own system? I blew my factory speakers, blew some cheap speakers i got from a friend and now i have JL audio speakers and they dont sound like they should. Is this because my infinity amp maybe?

 

[Jaydubya2003]

Is it possible to just take the infinity amp out and get better sound from your own system? I blew my factory speakers, blew some cheap speakers i got from a friend and now i have JL audio speakers and they dont sound like they should. Is this because my infinity amp maybe?

The JL Audio speakers you have need a lot more "constant" power than your Deck or factory amp can deliver that's probably why they don't sound as good as they should. Most decent aftermarket speakers require a good 50 watts of constant power (RMS) for decent sound. Some need more. If you want to run speakers like that it would be better to install a 4 channel amp that puts out at least 50 watts RMS per channel. If you keep blowing speakers you might want to look at how you use the system more than what kind of speakers and such you have goin on. I ran cheap Best Buy brand speakers on my 4ch amp for quite a long time and it sounded just fine. Now I am also running an Alpine deck (with both the HPF and LPF on, as well as the EQ set for the best sound possible) with very clean sound and 4 volt outputs to the amp (which makes a bigger difference than you think).

 

[712Crew]

alright. i have an alpine deck as well and used to have complete rockford fosgate sub system untill it got stolen. And since then i have gotten a 4 channel amp. Im not sure how much it puts out but if it does put out enough power.. Your saying 50 watts per channel.....Do i then disconnect the infinity amp?

 

[Jaydubya2003]

alright. i have an alpine deck as well and used to have complete rockford fosgate sub system untill it got stolen. And since then i have gotten a 4 channel amp. Im not sure how much it puts out but if it does put out enough power.. Your saying 50 watts per channel.....Do i then disconnect the infinity amp?

Yes if you're running a 4ch to take care of the speakers, then you need to "unhook" (just stop it from sending sound to the speakers, or interrupting the signal from the aftermarket amp) the factory amp and possibly run new speaker wire directly from the amp to the appropriate speaker (or just tap into your factory wiring)

 

[712Crew]

cool thanks

 

[panathemaju]

The Infiniti system is more trouble than it's worth...

I also installed a new head unit in my 94 ZJ with the Infiniti system, and since it puts out 200W power, I should probably try and bypass the 180W factory installed amp. I really have no idea how to do it, though. I used a model/year specific wiring harness for the head unit, but I'm pretty much a rookie when it comes to audio setup. Can anybody link me in the right direction for wiring around the Infiniti amp?

 

[Jaydubya2003]

I also installed a new head unit in my 94 ZJ with the Infiniti system, and since it puts out 200W power, I should probably try and bypass the 180W factory installed amp. I really have no idea how to do it, though. I used a model/year specific wiring harness for the head unit, but I'm pretty much a rookie when it comes to audio setup. Can anybody link me in the right direction for wiring around the Infiniti amp?

Your deck doesn't put out 200w, and the factory amp doesn't put out 180w. Those are PEAK wattage, your deck puts out about 18-20 watts a channel and the factory amp is more like 8-10 watts per channel RMS (or constant power).

To "bypass" the amp all ya need to do is run new speaker wire from the deck directly to the speakers (that would be the best way but not the easiest) once you've run all the wire you just need to clip the outputs from the deck and connect them there, and unhook the "remote turn on" wire at the connection on the harness you've installed from the factory amp (that way the amp isn't turning on and sending power to nothing).

There are other ways to do this, and you would need to test wires, look up colors and what they change to, so on and so forth. This is the best way IMO because it puts better quality wire from the source to the speakers (hopefully if you buy decent wire) and it is more direct in terms of what needs to be done.

 

[ejschultz]

I tried every possible combination after testing the wires to tap into the stock wiring for my system in my Jeep. I don't think there's an easy way to do it. I ended up just running new wiring from my crossover to the speakers. Now, I don't know if using my passive crossovers had anything to do with it. I installed a set of components up front and put the tweeters in the stock tweeter location. If you're going to do that, you're probably better off running new wiring instead of trying to tap into the factory wiring because I don't think there's a way to do it properly. With every wire, impedances are all over the place. I'm assuming there's a factory passive crossover somewhere up front but I couldn't find it. I didn't look too hard for it though either...

 

[Jaydubya2003]

panathemaju - you have to also remember, the factory amp splits the signal for your front tweeters and woofers. So you either need to put a bass blocker on the wires going from your deck to the fronts for the tweeter. Or pick up a set of cheap crossovers to use for the front (the better option) so you don't have high's coming out (trying to come out) of the woofer, and lows coming out (trying to come out) of the tweeter. Not doing this is a sure fire way to blow the speakers.

 

[panathemaju]

I know the front outputs are split between components and tweeters on the dash, but everything I've found (mainly crutchfield.com) tells me that there's no easy after-market installs for those guys, so I was going to just disconnect them and run 3-ways in the front and back doors, and eventually get a separate amp and sub. Since that's my plan, should I run new wiring directly to the speakers, or should I try and accommodate for the amp I want to put in? Would it be worth it to rewire for it, or could I somehow use the wiring setup in place for the factory amp?

 

[Jaydubya2003]

I know the front outputs are split between components and tweeters on the dash, but everything I've found (mainly crutchfield.com) tells me that there's no easy after-market installs for those guys, so I was going to just disconnect them and run 3-ways in the front and back doors, and eventually get a separate amp and sub. Since that's my plan, should I run new wiring directly to the speakers, or should I try and accommodate for the amp I want to put in? Would it be worth it to rewire for it, or could I somehow use the wiring setup in place for the factory amp?

I'm not quite understanding what you're asking really. I get the adding an amp and sub (as we all should)

But I don't get what you're saying about using the wiring in place for the factory amp.

So I'll tell ya what I did with my ZJ, I installed my deck and used the factory amp for the factory speakers. I then (with the HPF/LPF turned to about 80 hertz) I installed my mono block amp and Alpine Type-R in there. Now with some tuning of the EQ and messing with the gain on my sub amp I was able to get it sounding pretty good. Now my plan for later was to run all new wire from the deck to the speakers, and this accomplishes two things. One it will give me the deck power to the speakers giving me more power. But it also sets things up for later when I install a 4ch amp for the speakers I can just run the channels up to the deck harness and the rest of the work is already done for me.

If I were in your shoes I would rewire the system so the deck is providing the power to the speakers and just put a low freq blocker on the factory tweeter and a high freq blocker on the woofer (just a resistor you wire into the speaker wire)

And just an FYI, there is no reason to buy a 3-way door speaker. They are just a two way speaker with another tweeter...you don't gain anything from adding a 3-way over a 2-way.

 

[ejschultz]

Anything more than a 2 way is a marketing gimmick. Don't buy it. BTW, check out my build log for an easy way to get tweeters to fit into the factory location. It'll work for any ZJ, 93-98. They all have the same tweeters. Accessing them is just a little different. I went and got the tweeters out of a junk yard and I've got a couple of extra sets just in case I decide to swap my front speakers for something else and I need to re-cut the mounts.

http://www.nagca.com/forum/showthread.php?t=41826

 

[panathemaju]

ejschultz, the product specs online say that the door speakers you put in for your custom build are only 5 1/2", why did you choose those? Don't you have the same 6 3/4" bracket space that I do? I haven't taken a tape measure to it, but this is a stat I'm getting from a few different sources. Is it easier to mount a smaller speaker because of the extra space for mounting brackets?

 

[ejschultz]

The first set I put in there were the 5.25s. Later in my build, you'll see I replaced them with the 6.75s. The Scosche adapter you'll use doesn't want to fit 6.75s; you'll need to trim it. I used my dremel to trim them. I love that little tool. BTW, the Pioneer D series speakers get a huge thumbs up from me. They have incredible sound quality and midbass, especially considering their cost.

 

[PaperTowels]

I didn't feel a new thread was needed for my question so I hijacked this one

But For me I bought a Kenwood Excelon HU and a kenwood 4 ch amp and I got some POLK MM 6.5" speakers all around.

Well when I got the HU (used from CL) I put it in my jeep and it turned on no problem, so when I started redoing all of the speaker wiring to hook up the amp and all of that good stuff. Well when I went to test one side of the vehicles speakers to make sure everything is working I plugged in my HU and I guess my battery died, so i jumped it and when I started my grand the HU wont turn on anymore. My friend said that he heard a pop when I jumped it but I never heard it myself.

My battery is a POS if the lights are on in the vehicle the battery will have to be jumped to start it again (after 30 minutes) One thing that struck me as odd was that my battery has died before, but what was odd was that the fuse box in the front passenger side floor was making a constant clicking sound, sometimes it would stop but only for a couple seconds.

So i was wondering if anybody had any insight on what I should check I.E fuses etc etc?

Is there a way to test if the HU itself is bad? like a meter or whatnot?

And do any of you have a link for which fuses are which in a Grand? I dont have a owners manual and trying to find one online is damn near impossible.

 

[Jaydubya2003]

I didn't feel a new thread was needed for my question so I hijacked this one

But For me I bought a Kenwood Excelon HU and a kenwood 4 ch amp and I got some POLK MM 6.5" speakers all around.

Well when I got the HU (used from CL) I put it in my jeep and it turned on no problem, so when I started redoing all of the speaker wiring to hook up the amp and all of that good stuff. Well when I went to test one side of the vehicles speakers to make sure everything is working I plugged in my HU and I guess my battery died, so i jumped it and when I started my grand the HU wont turn on anymore. My friend said that he heard a pop when I jumped it but I never heard it myself.

My battery is a POS if the lights are on in the vehicle the battery will have to be jumped to start it again (after 30 minutes) One thing that struck me as odd was that my battery has died before, but what was odd was that the fuse box in the front passenger side floor was making a constant clicking sound, sometimes it would stop but only for a couple seconds.

So i was wondering if anybody had any insight on what I should check I.E fuses etc etc?

Is there a way to test if the HU itself is bad? like a meter or whatnot?

And do any of you have a link for which fuses are which in a Grand? I dont have a owners manual and trying to find one online is damn near impossible.

Well if you've got a multimeter, you can test each fuse with a continuity test simple as touching the leads to each metal "stud" showing through on the "top" of the fuse (the top that is showing has the "prongs" or "studs" showing through for this exact purpose...testing). This isn't a 100% true test as it can have a false positive every once and a while more like 99%...lol.

If you heard a "pop" that is more likely a fuse than anything else. You should have some kind of fuse on the deck as well that you can test but most of the time your fuses in the rig will blow before the deck fuse does (most of the time). The first thing once you find the blown fuse is to put a new one in (with the Jeep turned off) and try to see where you've got either the crossed wires, grounding issue, or mismatched wires in your harness. If you can't find an obvious solution, turn it all back on and see if it does it again. Then go from there...