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100% better sound for $10

E

enduro

CEG'er
Joined
Sep 26, 2005
Messages
364
Location
Calgary, AB
I finally got around to removing the OEM Ford amplifier from my car and the improvement in sound was incredible .The sound is not only clearer but my subwoofer is much louder now.

The Ford amp is truly a wretched POS. Even worse is Fords decision to use speaker output wiring as an input to the amp instead of low level RCA inputs. Kudos to Ford for making the speaker inputs and output wires and completely different colors too - idiots.

Anyhow, I removed all the Ford speaker wiring from the H.U. to the amp and threw it (+ amp) away. I hard wired everything together , not bothering to buy the bypass harness.

Total cost was around $10 (2 types of connectors, zip ties, 16g speaker wire and heatshrink). Best money I've ever spent on the 'tour
 
enduro said:
Even worse is Fords decision to use speaker output wiring as an input to the amp instead of low level RCA inputs. Kudos to Ford for making the speaker inputs and output wires and completely different colors too - idiots.
Click to expand...

Umm, thats how it was designed to work. The oem radio had low level outputs and the amplifier umm.. amplified them. Who's the idiot for wiring an aftermarket amplified headunit to an amplifier??
Agreed, the wiring is a pain, Car mfg's use their own codes and sometimes it even varies veh to veh. Aftermarket radios use an industry wide standard for wire codes now. (It wasnt that way a few years ago and a real pain!).
 
CarpePoon said:
Umm, thats how it was designed to work. The oem radio had low level outputs and the amplifier umm.. amplified them. Who's the idiot for wiring an aftermarket amplified headunit to an amplifier??
Agreed, the wiring is a pain, Car mfg's use their own codes and sometimes it even varies veh to veh. Aftermarket radios use an industry wide standard for wire codes now. (It wasnt that way a few years ago and a real pain!).
Click to expand...

Thats how it was wired when I got the car, so I guess the previous owner was an idiot also. I would have got rid of all the Ford garbage at the time if I'd put the unit in myself.

I never even realized my car still used the stock amp as i had no reason to look behind my radio. I just assumed my HU wasnt that good. I discovered the amp when I installed an XM adapter/ tuner to my system.

I didnt at the time bother replacing the amp, reasoning to myself how bad could it really be? The answer is, its incredibly bad - worse than I thought possible.

As for the wiring - inexcusable. There is a system in place, so WTF cant Ford (and other OEM's) use it? The wiring was easy using my haynes manual. But, I still had to shake my head at the Ford mess of wires .

Ummmmm...... and congratulations Todras on another informative and insightful post . Your 1000's of ummmmm.... and LMAO posts add a lot to the CEG community.
 
enduro said:
I finally got around to removing the OEM Ford amplifier from my car and the improvement in sound was incredible .The sound is not only clearer but my subwoofer is much louder now.

The Ford amp is truly a wretched POS. Even worse is Fords decision to use speaker output wiring as an input to the amp instead of low level RCA inputs. Kudos to Ford for making the speaker inputs and output wires and completely different colors too - idiots.

Anyhow, I removed all the Ford speaker wiring from the H.U. to the amp and threw it (+ amp) away. I hard wired everything together , not bothering to buy the bypass harness.

Total cost was around $10 (2 types of connectors, zip ties, 16g speaker wire and heatshrink). Best money I've ever spent on the 'tour
Click to expand...

I like to keep going back to factory an option... but to each his own...

enduro said:
The Ford amp is truly a wretched POS. Even worse is Fords decision to use speaker output wiring as an input to the amp instead of low level RCA inputs. Kudos to Ford for making the speaker inputs and output wires and completely different colors too - idiots.
Click to expand...

Umm.... Have you ever done car audio.... the input amp wires never match the output wires on OEM amps.... rofl...
 
enduro said:
Ummmmm...... and congratulations Todras on another informative and insightful post . Your 1000's of ummmmm.... and LMAO posts add a lot to the CEG community.
Click to expand...

well congrats to you for telling us something we already knew about the stock stereo.
 
I just went out to mine and my Alpine HU runs through the factory amp first. Thank you guy I bought it from. Looks like I have a new thing to do.
 
enduro said:
As for the wiring - inexcusable. There is a system in place, so WTF cant Ford (and other OEM's) use it? The wiring was easy using my haynes manual. But, I still had to shake my head at the Ford mess of wires .
Click to expand...
My bypass how-to in the audio FAQ section is much easier than the Haynes manual.
As for the wiring, well, your talking about low level and high level as well as power wires. If Ford used the standard wiring code they they would have idiots not knowing the difference making the mysterious blue smoke and burnt popcorn smell when they tried to bypass it. Now, why ford used a crappy radio with a seperate crappy amp is the real question. Why couldnt they just use an all in one crappy system??? Either way your better off than alot of the GM cars with onstar and integrated door chime. Ask an installer how well he likes replacing a radio in one of those and you'll likely get a kick in the balls. We actually don't have it that bad.
 
CarpePoon said:
My bypass how-to in the audio FAQ section is much easier than the Haynes manual.
As for the wiring, well, your talking about low level and high level as well as power wires. If Ford used the standard wiring code they they would have idiots not knowing the difference making the mysterious blue smoke and burnt popcorn smell when they tried to bypass it. Now, why ford used a crappy radio with a seperate crappy amp is the real question. Why couldnt they just use an all in one crappy system??? Either way your better off than alot of the GM cars with onstar and integrated door chime. Ask an installer how well he likes replacing a radio in one of those and you'll likely get a kick in the balls. We actually don't have it that bad.
Click to expand...

Okay you've asked an installer... there not that hard... We use the replacement data harness with integrated door chime, it comes in different flavors for those cars with or without BOSE and with or without OnStar.... worst case you sell them a non-data harness, they lose door chime, RAP, an have possible reset issues with oil life and what not, and you charge extra to re-wire for an accessory wire. I've heard of there being issues, but I've personally never seen any... Not really all that hard IMO especially if you use the expensive data harness, makes life wayyyy easier..... Now if you were to have asked how hard is it to do like a Cadillac DeVille DeElegance edition with BOSE for a new radio... then you'd get a kick in the balls... especially if your car audio department quoted only $50 labor for a new radio install... Cadillac's are a PITA usually...
 
I got my head unit from Crutchfield (the little extra money I paid was worth gold in the quality and service I got from them)

The deck came with a small adapter and a amp bypass kit that included a factory plug and about 21 feet of color coded and laser etched with with names and poloraties on them.

100% plug and play this way - remove factory deck, unplug speaker outputs from factory amp into the bypass kit and then wire it to the HU and you are done. The instructions that came with Crutchfield on how to remove the factory deck also included a wire color diagram and their bypass kit matched every single wire in my car.
 
enduro said:
As for the wiring - inexcusable. There is a system in place, so WTF cant Ford (and other OEM's) use it? The wiring was easy using my haynes manual. But, I still had to shake my head at the Ford mess of wires
Click to expand...

omega "THE BOOK V" wiring bible

best thing you could ever own for messing with your interior electronics.

I'll post a pic of the pages for 98 contour in a second
 
I fail to see why you "had" to drill ANYTHING...

Running a cable from your headlights to your taillights can be done with no power tools and only a screwdriver (to remove the cowl)
 
KAOS_2.5M said:
um, dont you have to pull the wiper arms? thats what stopped me there. I know the hole your talking about.
Click to expand...

LMAO, even if you did, its not like pulling the wiper arms off requires tools, or any significant effort whatsoever.
 
I remembered reading someplace on here that it required a wiper arm puller

at any rate, I did it the way I did, which saved wire and made things easier anyways.
 
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