[Sillence]

Hey there, I just purchased my 07 Titan a week ago and have been trying to replace the factory stereo system with something a little more modern. I've done successful stereo replacements multiple times in the past, but those cars did not have amps and instead relied on the built-in pre-amps in the HU.

So, I wired up the new stereo, using the metra harness which has 4 RCA cables coming out for the speakers. I plugged these RCA cables directly into the back of the stereo as it has RCA ports that it indicates should be used if using an amplifier. It also had regular stereo wires coming out, but I believe those would bypass the trucks amp? Anyways, this didn't work. I am getting sound out of the speaker, but it is so minute that I have to have my ears up to the speaker to hear it when put at full volume.. basically it is completely un-amplified. My factory stereo had no problems so I don't believe the amp is bad..

My question is, what am I missing here? Do i wire the speaker outputs straight to the amp and skip the harness? Is there another harness I can just splice into that has the lines going to the amp? I can't figure it out! Please help.

 

[reeakes]

You apparently have the Rockford system with the external amp. In my opinion the best way to wire an aftermarket HU in this situation is to bypass the factory amp as the aftermarket HU will deliver more useable power than the factory amp.

I posted on this site a method to do this back in 2004/5 when I had my original Titan (user name was Eakes, search for amp bypass). Following my procedure you lose the center channel speaker and the under-seat subwoofer. you use the speaker outputs from the new HU but do not have to run new speaker wiring to the speakers. The sound was much better than using the original Rockford system.

Basically, you use the Nissan harness for a non-rockford system between the in-dash wiring and the new HU. At the factory amp (located on the firewall behind the brake pedal) disconnect the large connector. Using short jumpers made from speaker wire and pins that will fit into the sockets on the plug you 'wire around' the amp. I used a crossover network when wiring the front door speakers and the left/right dash tweeters. My post of 2004 includes a pin-out diagram of that connector.

For your present configuration you need to use the speaker outputs from the HU to feed the Nissan amp, not the RCA connections from the new HU. The Nissan factory system uses balanced wiring between HU and amp, using the unbalanced RCA connections effectively grounds one side of the line which reduces the possible output from the amp. Get the wiring harness for the non-rockford system.