I feel like since everything else on the HU is working (video/USB/backup camera), the issue either has to be with the amp or with the way I connected the speaker wires since I am installing them in the bridge setup.

1) I connected the yellow wire of the amp to the positive end of the battery and confirmed with the multimeter that it's receiving electricity. What else can I do to check for issues either at the amp or with the bridged speaker wires? I tried placing my multimeter on the speaker wires but wasn't able to measure any voltage - is that a problem?

2) I capped off the terminals of the other speaker wires that I'm not using since the amp is bridged. However, should I actually physically disconnect the rear speakers by prying off the rear deck panel or would that not matter?

3) Also I wonder if I connected the wires normally and didn't run the amp in bridge mode, if the sound would be restored. However, that would be a lot of work since I soldered and heat shrink for all of the connections.

 

the power at the speakers will be a/c voltage so you would have to switch you meter to the a/c side.

If everything is hooked up correctly then bridging isnt the problem. the rear speakers should not matter either.

My fist three thoughts are.
1. the amp is not grounded well.
2. did you hook up the remote wire from the HU to the amp?
3. do you have your rca's plugged into the correct out on the HU and the correct in on the amp?

and pulling the wire out of the other plug is for the amp turn on. I have done it in a civic before because we needed the signal, however, you shouldnt need the signal if your head unit is turning on. The wire they are pulling is the remote wire for the factory amp. your remote wire for your amp comes out of the back of your headunit.

thought 4. you may want to go through your settings and make sure there is not a setting to turn the amp or the preouts off. I know on some pioneer's you can turn the pre-outs off, which would kill the signal going through the RCAs

thought 5. are your speaker wires in the proper location on the crossovers?

Sorry I wasnt on earlier, Busy day.

 

I just thought about this. The speakers coming from the back of your headunit go through the factory amplifier.

the factory amp is not on which is why the speakers are not playing. You could pull that wire and turn the factory amp on when the HU comes on, but I am affraid that might burn up the factory amp. let me see if I can find the maximum input voltage for that amp. If the wattage is too high coming off of the Alpine, you may have to run new speaker wire and by pass the factory amp.

 

so the way I see it you have a few options.

you can 1 run new speaker wire from the alpine amp to your crossovers (this is what I would do because it causes the least modification to the car with the least amount of work)

or

you can 2 bypass the factory amp.
there are two ways you could to this.

1. the more permanent way. You would pull the factory amp, cut the wires going into the harnesses on the back of the amp match the wires (I would hope they would be the same color) and connect them.

2. you could make ( I searched and could not find one to buy) and by pass harness. you could get the two female ends to match your harnesses (maybe buy a busted factory amp off of ebay or go pull one at a junk yard) and then pin some new harnesses so that you create a harness that plugs in to each factory terminal and bypasses the amp. This is more work to do it this way, but IMO by far a lot better.

Out of all of those, my preferred method would just be new speaker wire, especially since its just to the front doors, that is a short easy run.

 

Thanks for the reply, don't worry about yesterday, I posted very late and didn't expect a reply so soon!

1) Ok so I tried re-grounding the Amp to a different location - I found a metal bolt in the center console instead. Someone colored the top of the bolt with a red sharp, would this be ok:



2) I have the HU's blue/white remote turn on wire attached to the amp's remote turn on. I even slightly stripped a part of the insulation close to the amp and confirmed using the multimeter that there is voltage running to it.

3) I double checked the RCAs and even plugged in 2 pairs of RCAs to both the HU's front and rear outputs as well as the amp's front and rear inputs.

4) I'll check the Pioneer headunit again when I get home, I thought about that briefly yesterday and tried to look but it has a pretty extensive settings menu and I wasn't able to find anything.

5) I forgot to mention that I only focused on installing the head unit and backup camera this weekend. I didn't install the new speakers since I wanted to sound deaden the doors as well and wouldn't have time to do all that. Also if I ran into any problems it would make it harder to identify if it was the HU or the speakers. So currently I have the exiting factory speakers. Is placing the amp in bridge mode too much for the current speakers and that may be why their not working?

6) If it's the factory amp that is the problem, I have no problem running new speaker wire to bypass the factory amp. So instead of having the alpine's speaker wires going to my Crux harness like we drew out before, I would have the wires run to their respective front door instead?

 

the two post were a few a while apart. the ones from 1 in the morning, while its worth checking out since its easy probably not the problem. That ground looks ok.

After getting some sleep and then giving it some thought. I am about 98% sure its the factory amp. it is possible to just turn the amp on too, but I really think that will damage it. I would just bypass it. That would be my next step.

 

Ok thanks, I'm surprised since I didn't even know that my car (non-nav, not premium audio) even came with a factory amp. Either way I can just pick up some speaker wire on my way home today and try it out.

So coming out of the amp, we are only using the Left Front Positive + Left Rear Negative and the Right Front Negative + Right Rear Positive.

So would I connect 4 new speaker wires to each one of those and then run the left pair to the left door and the right pair to the right door. Would the positive speaker wire go to the positive terminal on the crossover (even though that would mean that on the right the Right Rear Positive would be connected to the crossover's positive terminal)?

 

coming out of the amp you will use the same four wires you currently have connected to the amp. just cut them loose from the harness and re-solder them to the new wire.

I would do + to + on the crossovers. It doesnt really matter its just phasing thing. but either do them all positive to positive or all negative to positive. but again I would do them + to +

Edit: also make sure the switch on the power pack is set to two channel mode. if it isnt I would try that before I opened the wire. because if that fixes the issue then you can return the wire.

 

Ok, are there any issues with just having the crossover and component speakers sitting on my seats uninstalled and running the wires from the amp -> crossover -> woofer/tweeter. That way I can test to see if this solves the issue and wouldn't have to worry about opening the door panel just yet.

 

no problem with that as long as the cones are not hitting anything. just make sure they are free to move. I wouldnt even worry about the crossovers, just wire straight to the woofer to test. It can handle a full signal. the crossover is for sound quality and protects the tweeter.