stereo install questions.. attn. audiophiles..
 

OK, used the hell out of the search button, and found allot of useful info leading me to this. I installed an after market stereo in my 1990 4runner, it has the 6 speaker stock system in it but i installed 6.5" kenwoods in the back. bypassed the factory amps using the black and red wires off of it, my question is am i supposed to use the other color wires. because now when i turn on the stereo it works fine unless i turn it up too loud ,adjust the bass to high or when turn the ignition off and turn it back on (every time im done driving it). it goes in standby mode when it shuts down. my first thought was the speakers were drawing to much power from the head unit, but i ruled that out when i connected the same speakers to the front wires and they worked fine. also i put the factory 5" speakers in the front and i can turn it up as loud as i want as long as the fade is set to the front, if i try to adjust the fade to the back it will allow 80/20 split before going into standby.. without starting to re wire the rear speaker completely, is their something im missing in the factory amp bypass..

I'll be waiting for an answer too, as I will be working on the audio soon enough.

Repo

this is a big PITA for sure...

Are you using a separate power amp or the amp in the new head unit?

Run new high quality wire from the amp's speaker outputs straight to your Kenwood 6.5's. You can still use the factory speaker enclosures without any of the existing wiring, which also bypasses the amps built into the enclosures. It is a pita to pull the wires under the carpet, but simplifies the electronic aspects of the installation.

Out of curiousity, are you running all 6 speakers? If so, how have you got them all wired?

Good advice. I wouldn't use the stock wiring, especially if you plan on hooking up an amp to the speakers. I'm interested in what enclosure you're using. Is it the stock box, no box, etc?

i cut out the rear panel (i know, i know, but it was cracked anyways and now looks pretty clean) and had the back of the 6.5' going into the stock box with a spacer to seal the gap. im just gonna run new wire. i just remembered that its 20 year old wire in their now.. and im gonna be running a 300watt amp to the 4 rear speakers and running the front 4" dash mounts with the head unit. no sub for me..

I agree I always run wiring from head unit to amp then amp to speakers that way you get no issue like you are having. Also run your power wire with a in line fuse direct to the head unit from the battery same with the negative minus the in line fuse of course and theres no reason not to add the sub/s then your remote power to the amp(light blue wire) boda boom boda bing your jammin

Yeah, it sounds like the combination of the higher amp pull from the aftermarket head unit and the stock wiring is creating too much resistance at the head unit. This is common and you should fix ASAP. Continual running of it like that will overheat and burn out the amp. This is just my best guess as without a wiring diagram for what you did exactly it is hard to say for sure. When you hooked up the kenwood 6.5 to the front channel did you hook up the speaker that was hooked to the front channel in the rear? If you didn't this is why the problem went away, because the system no longer had to drive that 4th speaker.

Good Luck

it only happens at the rear (not tweeter) speaker output, i think i have a apeaker wire grounding out somewhere.. time to pull some panels..

well new problem popped up, I was driving home today and decided to use the A/C, remember my stereo is in standby, but when turned my A/C on my stereo started working!! then cut out as usual. turned the a/c back off and on and the stereo turns on, then goes back to standby... my a/c switch was already messed up, the fan works on the two medium settings only. please, somebody tell me whats going on... im almost about to strip it down and trail rig it...

bump.

Direct wire the stereo to the battery

FIXED... after running my own ground, constant power and switched power, no change. ran new monster cable speaker wire to all the speakers and it went away!! sounds 10x better then it did before (when it did work).. now for the amp and two upper rear tweeters..

Sweet, glad to hear it worked out.

me too, i was getting pretty upset and started thinking my new head unit was no good..

Yes. good to hear you got it. So I guess it was either an overload of the stock gauge wiring, or some kind of ground issue? Just out of curiousity how many watts were going to each channel?