removing amp and changing head unit question
 

hello

my s2k had a really old head unit and amp set up. i want to ditch that set up and just change to a newer head unit.

will i have to re-wire anything from speaker side or it will be a direct swap meaning remove the old head unit and amp, add new head unit and stereo harness to connect to the car, black electric tape on any unused wire to avoid short?

The answer, alas, is "it depends."
If everything, including the speaker wires from the amp, was run through the factory wiring with an
, it'll be pretty easy. If the installer hacked up the car's harness it'll be more difficult,
and in between is the possibility that the headunit and amp were hooked up cleanly, but they ran new
speaker wires from the amp straight into the doors (thus disconnecting the ones that come through the
headunit harness).
You don't mention why you want to pull the amp out, but be aware of the possibility that the car may also
have relatively inefficient aftermarket speakers installed which may not be sufficiently powered without an
external amp.

several reasons:
- both head unit and amp is quite old (looks like a set up from at least 5~6 yeas ago, came with the car when i bought it)
- not really that amazed by the sound quality, so i think any newer head unit will do, didnt really get the car for the stereo audio lol
- the amp just sits behind my stock passenger seat for now which i may go with a different seat

i will need to take off the center console and head unit to see how it was mounted, but when i did it a year ago, believe i did see a metra harness so hopefully everything was just through factory wiring.

i remember checking the door speaker as well, they were upgraded already to some alpine speaker.

so i guess if it's factory wiring, i can just go the plug and play route ? (get new head unit and wire it up to metra adapter then connect to factory harness and everything should work?)

Thanks for the reply man, i know it's not going to be straight forward unless someone sees the car because it's heavily depended on who and how they installed it

If the amp is behind the seat rather than in the trunk, it's doubtful they bothered to run new speaker wires into
the doors. It would be nice to figure out in advance how power is supplied to the amp - directly from the battery?
Be careful uninstalling the amp's power wire - if the (+) comes straight from the battery, disconnect at the battery
before doing anything else. As a general rule it's a good idea the disconnect the (+) battery terminal from the battery
before doing any electrical work.

amp is connected directly to battery and should be the only thing

i dont believe i see any new wires going to door speaker. only thing i saw was the aftermarket speaker and it's crossover so hopefully everything just through metra harness

found old pics when i took the door panels apart

https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.s2k...62b679ae71.jpg


https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.s2k...f569033446.jpg

It looks like you have something of a Frankenstein system there - the speakers appear to be
Alpine Type R coaxials - by trying to match pictures looks like the SPR-17LP - while the crossovers
appear to be Polk.
Those Alpines are not very efficient at 87 dB/w/m - if you're planning on going headunit power only,
I'd recommend something more efficient - every 3 dB increase in sensitivity reduces power required
for the same output by half

yea haha, previous owner put the HU, amp, and speakers in so kind of have no choice but to roll with them.

probably will change the speaker and crossover out as i swap the head unit too. but stereo audio aint exactly high on the priority list for me, just really wanted to ditch the amp and old head unit with a swap of a new head unit