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Old 07-06-2020, 07:54 PM   #1
Wintermute
 
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No factory amp. Where is the wiring harness for the stereo?

My Camaro has no factory amp installed. I want to hook up an amp and would like to tap into the factory wiring harness so that I don't have to run a bunch of new cable. It's a small amp and I was thinking I could hide it in the dead space between the driver and passenger foot wells, under the dash. I figured if the stock stereos harness was down there somewhere I could save myself some trouble and just hijack the existing speaker cable there where it's all colected. Does anyone know where it's at?
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Old 07-07-2020, 08:02 PM   #2
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The speaker outputs come out of the "A11" radio unit that is on the far right passenger side in the dash, to the right of the glovebox as you sit in the car. In the first pic below, it's #2 (the view for this pic is from the front of the car, staring through the firewall).
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Name:  A11 Radio location.jpg
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Here's a video where they show you how to access it, starting at 6:23...


Your 2020 Camaro has different connectors and whole different communication strategy than the 2017 they are working on in that video, and there is no DSP interface you can plug into ours like they're doing...at least not yet. Maybe someday. I've asked Gen5DIY.com to make a breakout harness to plug in between radio unit and the two main connectors from it, so we break into the speaker outputs without cutting any factory wires. I'm hoping they'll have that ready in a month or so. If you don't want to wait, you'll have to tap into or cut the factory speaker wires.

Like your car, my 1LE has no factory amp at all and just gets power from the chip inside that radio unit. I'm also hoping that I can install the little Kicker Key amp I got somewhere up in the dash. I am thinking that maybe it can mount to that big "Multiuse Module Bracket" that is held in with four 7mm screws and has the other modules attached to it (6:36 in the video).
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Old 07-07-2020, 10:39 PM   #3
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Msquared View Post
The speaker outputs come out of the "A11" radio unit that is on the far right passenger side in the dash, to the right of the glovebox as you sit in the car. In the first pic below, it's #2 (the view for this pic is from the front of the car, staring through the firewall).
Attachment 1037388

Attachment 1037389

Here's a video where they show you how to access it, starting at 6


Your 2020 Camaro has different connectors and whole different communication strategy than the 2017 they are working on in that video, and there is no DSP interface you can plug into ours like they're doing...at least not yet. Maybe someday. I've asked Gen5DIY.com to make a breakout harness to plug in between radio unit and the two main connectors from it, so we break into the speaker outputs without cutting any factory wires. I'm hoping they'll have that ready in a month or so. If you don't want to wait, you'll have to tap into or cut the factory speaker wires.

Like your car, my 1LE has no factory amp at all and just gets power from the chip inside that radio unit. I'm also hoping that I can install the little Kicker Key amp I got somewhere up in the dash. I am thinking that maybe it can mount to that big "Multiuse Module Bracket" that is held in with four 7mm screws and has the other modules attached to it (6:36 in the video).
Kicker key is what I have as well. How are you planning on installing it? I'm considering tapping either the fronts or backs for the amp input and then just running new cables all around to be done with it......
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Old 07-08-2020, 05:19 AM   #4
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"If you don't want to wait, you'll have to tap into or cut the factory speaker wires."

Any idea where I can find a wiring diagram?
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Old 07-08-2020, 08:15 AM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Wintermute View Post
Kicker key is what I have as well. How are you planning on installing it? I'm considering tapping either the fronts or backs for the amp input and then just running new cables all around to be done with it......
You want to tap the fronts, because the rear speakers do not get a full-range signal.

Quote:
Any idea where I can find a wiring diagram?
Oh, I might have an idea...
Name:  Speaker wiring diagram for 2020 1SS 1LE.jpg
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A11 in that diagram is the radio/receiver module that we've been discussing. On our cars (2019+), the two connectors in question are X1 and X2, which look like the picture below. As you can see on the diagram, all but one speaker wire come from X2. I'm hoping to get the breakout harness to go between the radio module and those two connectors.

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If you go through with this before I do, I'd love if you would share where you end up mounting the amp!
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Old 07-09-2020, 04:22 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Wintermute View Post
Kicker key is what I have as well. How are you planning on installing it? I'm considering tapping either the fronts or backs for the amp input and then just running new cables all around to be done with it......
I meant to follow up on this. If you plan to amplify the fronts and rears as a traditional 4-channel setup (and like the factory setup), then I would just use the factory speaker wiring. There's no need to pull all the panels off to run new wires to three pairs of speakers (dash, door, and rear panels). You can cut the front and rear outputs where they come out of the radio module and use those for the high-level amp inputs, and then send the amp's outputs into the other end of the cut speaker wires. That is a very straightforward installation: you're literally just inserting the amp in line with the speaker lines.

OTOH, I am planning to use the Kicker's biamp function and just amplify the front door and dash speakers using the amp to actively cross them over. I will fade out the rear speakers. If you do that and plan to retain the stock dash speakers, keep in mind that they have 68uF capacitors on them to serve as high-pass filters (not shown on the diagram - guess they are considered part of the P19H and P19V speakers). This will give a higher crossover frequency than the amp will try to use for its active crossover. You'll want to remove those caps, which is a bit of a pain because you'll have to remove each dash speaker to do that. Also, with this plan, you can still send one set of outputs to the stock door speaker wires, but you'll need to either cut into the dash speaker wires after they split off from the door speaker wires at junctions J207 and J208, or else just run new wires to the dash speakers. The latter will probably be easier since you have to pull the speakers out to ditch the capacitors anyway.
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Old 07-15-2020, 12:37 AM   #7
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I ended up tapping into the door speakers (from the door) for the line out, put the amp in my trunk in the spare tire cavity, and then ran new lines to the door speakers. The rear speakers are faded out for now until I have time to wire them into the amp (I ran out of speaker wire the first time )

I pulled the tuner model, but was not confident that I could find the wires I was looking for, so I just took the easy route.

The kicker key is great and it makes my Rockford fostage 6x9 put out 3x as much bass as they were before. I don't feel the need to install a sub anymore. The auto tune took some trouble shooting, but I figured out after 4 or 5 tries.
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Old 06-20-2021, 01:37 PM   #8
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I am reviving this thread as this is where I might find the answer to my question. I am planning to remove the kick panel in the passenger footwell in order to connect an accessory to the radio control module. I need this accessory to remain on for as long as the radio is on after I shut down the engine. I am trying to find a retained accessory power source, which is a wire that retains power after engine shutdown for about 10 mins or until a door is opened.

Can someone point me towards a wire, preferably in the passenger footwell that provides retained accessory power? Ideally I would like to tap on one of the wires on the harness plugs that go onto the radio control module, as I believe that one of them should definitely be a retained accessory power source. Anyone knows which wire I can use?
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Old 03-31-2022, 05:17 PM   #9
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Ohm load on front speakers

Quote:
Originally Posted by Msquared View Post
You want to tap the fronts, because the rear speakers do not get a full-range signal.


Oh, I might have an idea...
Attachment 1037449

A11 in that diagram is the radio/receiver module that we've been discussing. On our cars (2019+), the two connectors in question are X1 and X2, which look like the picture below. As you can see on the diagram, all but one speaker wire come from X2. I'm hoping to get the breakout harness to go between the radio module and those two connectors.

Attachment 1037450

If you go through with this before I do, I'd love if you would share where you end up mounting the amp!
Hi Msquared,

Do you know if the ohm resistance on the two wires going to the two fronts and the two tweeters are together a 4 ohm load or are they a 2 ohm load when wired as your diagram shows?

My car already has a pac lp7-2 loc with the front speakers as inputs to power a sub mono amp. I want to put in the key amp 200.4 and hookup the front speaker wires and the rears into the amp inputs. Kicker advised me to split the front speaker wires before the key amp to reuse them as inputs to the pac loc so I can keep my sub amp too. But I’m just wondering if the front speaker wires have a 4 ohm load or two ohms since the tweeters are there too. Thanks!
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Old 04-03-2022, 08:39 AM   #10
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rodrigo7x View Post
Hi Msquared,

Do you know if the ohm resistance on the two wires going to the two fronts and the two tweeters are together a 4 ohm load or are they a 2 ohm load when wired as your diagram shows?
Sorry for the delay. I've been traveling. In the factory setup the front dash and door speakers are wired in parallel and are nominally 4-ohm each. So, if the dash and door speakers were both full-range speakers without any crossover, the load presented to the amp would be nominally 2-ohm. However, the factory dash speakers have a 68-uF capacitor that functions as a high-pass filter and forms a very simple crossover. That will make the effective impedance more like 4ohm at frequencies below that high-pass point (I think it's about 600hz), and above that there is usually not a lot of power demand, so the load on the amp is closer to 4-ohm than 2-ohm. If you have aftermarket components in there with a more typical passive crossover, the load will be more like a true 4-ohm load as with any component set.

Quote:
My car already has a pac lp7-2 loc with the front speakers as inputs to power a sub mono amp. I want to put in the key amp 200.4 and hookup the front speaker wires and the rears into the amp inputs. Kicker advised me to split the front speaker wires before the key amp to reuse them as inputs to the pac loc so I can keep my sub amp too. But I’m just wondering if the front speaker wires have a 4 ohm load or two ohms since the tweeters are there too. Thanks!
I never really thought about that since I drove my four front speakers with the amp in "biamp" mode, so they are actively crossed over and each on their own channels (I didn't amplify my rear speakers with the Kicker at all). But per above, I think the amp would be fine because the fronts won't really be a 2-ohm load.
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