Bose Amplifier Location

[rlee6462]

Does anybody know where the Bose amp is located in a B6 S4? Whoever owned the car before me plugged ever speaker into an after market amp, and now that amp is going out. Not sure why he did this, but I would like to hook the speakers back up to the Bose amp.

[aaaaaahhhhhhhhh]

above the passenger side wheel well in the trunk, you'll have to remove the interior lining thing, I'll post pictures once I find them.


Edit: flickr is being weird with uploading photos, hopefully these give you an idea. These were taken in april when I put my system in.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/3019301...n/photostream/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/30193014@N02/5084541155/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/3019301...n/photostream/

[rlee6462]

Thanks!

[rlee6462]

It's still in there!!!!! That is going to save me some money that's for sure!

[aaaaaahhhhhhhhh]

Thanks!

yupp anytime, glad to know I could help.

[earthtodan]

What is going wrong with the aftermarket amp? Are you sure it's not just faulty wiring? What kind of amp is it?

[rlee6462]

It is a a/d/s 8 channel amp. The bonehead before me decided to wire every speaker in the car to it. Hard to explain what it is doing. Anybody know how many channel amp the bose amp is?

[earthtodan]

He wasn't necessarily a bonehead. That's how many speaker channels you have (four tweeters plus four midranges), so he was running one driver off each channel, probably in an active setup with each one crossed over at the appropriate frequencies. If done properly it should have sounded great. If you've removed that amp I'd like to see some pics, and I can probably tell you if this made sense. If there were speaker wires going in, then it was probably sourced from the factory head unit; if there were RCAs, then there's probably some other aftermarket component buried somewhere.

[rlee6462]

I know that you typically wire all speakers to the amp, but why did he replace the bose system with this??? I'll go take some pics of it in my trunk now. I believe I have both RCAs and speaker wire from the looks of it. My guess is the RCA's were for the the 5 1/4 speakers and the speaker wire for the tweeter or vise versa. Either way, I'm looking to hook these back up to the Bose amp, but I'm not sure it is possible with the way it is currently wired. Any help?

[rlee6462]

[earthtodan]

Can you take a photo of the other side? Are there any wires going into the other side? How about a model number? The more info you can dig up the better.

The reason he ditched the Bose amp is because it's a piece. As a rule, any factory upgrade stereo, even if it's Bose, HK, etc. is junk and not worth the paper it's made out of. I don't think there are RCA outs on the factory deck, which is why I suspect there is something else going on, like a line driver or a line output converter. I'm sure you will lose sound quality when you hook it back up.

[rlee6462]

I don't have any sound quality as of now, so I have to get it fixed asap! The amp is a a/d/s p850.2. There are no other wires on the other side. Those are RCAs though right? Where the purple ones plug in, each plug is labeled channel 1, channel 2, etc. White one is for the sub. Could I hook these speakers as they are wired now back up to the Bose amp?

[earthtodan]

That amp is discontinued and it's hard to find specs for it online, but it doesn't appear to have a sub channel. However, the red and blue wires might be running your sub, which might explain why it's failing. Or it could be done properly; it's hard to say without specs on the factory system and seeing exactly how it's wired, or without being there.

The RCAs are the signal input and the speaker wires are the outputs. RCAs are not used for speakers in car audio. I just got my car and I haven't had a chance to dig out the Bose amp yet, but when I do I'll help you figure out how it works.

[earthtodan]

I looked under my trunk panel and the Bose amp was gone (no surprise there, a previous owner installed some audiophile stuff and ditched the Bose amp long ago), but the wiring harness was still there. so I can see that it is one big plug. There are no RCAs. I am willing to bet there is a line output converter buried somewhere under your trunk panels. Either that or the RCAs are spliced directly onto the deck outputs. When you get a chance, dig in there, take some pics of what you find, and send them my way.

If your previous owner cut part of the wiring harness off, see if you can splice it all back together. If it's totally gone, you may have to buy someone's off the forum and have a big reconnecting job on your hands.

[drew]

sounds like he bypassed all the bose wiring to go to the aftermarket stuff. that is the right way to do it but it's going to be an epic rewiring job to go back...

[rlee6462]

The amp says sub input on it and that is where the white wire is plugged into, so I'm assuming it is the sub plugged in. Looks like a whole audio system since 8 channel amps are not available anymore. I'm not happy about it. I can take more pics tomorrow.

[earthtodan]

Make sure to remove the fuses before you start working on it. There should be a large fuse in a separate holder right next to the battery + terminal that the previous owner installed with the power wire. Also, I believe the radio fuse supplies power to the bose amp. This way you won't blow anything if you touch a live wire to ground.

[rlee6462]

This is going to require the use of a professional, b/c there is to much going on with this.

[earthtodan]

It's not that complicated, just start doing it and before you know it, it will be done. Let us know what you find when you pull back the trunk panel.

[jpo]

This is going to require the use of a professional, b/c there is to much going on with this.

I am going through the exact same thing and fixing it ain't going to be free. One shop quoted me 6 hours @ 70.00 per hour to get it back to stock. My sub amp keeps blowing fuses and I kind of want my trunk space back anyway. I am doing most of the removal to save a bit on the labour. Pulling crap out? sure I can do that. Hooking it all back up and rescuing connections from behind the dash? not so much.

[aaaaaahhhhhhhhh]

If he wired everything to one amp, and it appears as if he had SOME knowledge with car audio(or paid to have it done), you might be in luck; he could have ran his own wiring through the car and left the stock wiring as is. IF he used the stock wiring and massacred the bose amp wiring harness, you're looking at a major p.i.t.a. to get your system back to stock. Is the Bose amp connected? Can you see where the wires from the aftermarket amp go? Is the stock headunit still in?

[rlee6462]

I brought it in today, and found out it was a bad relay near the battery, so it should be only a $100 fix!!! Well see how Thurs. goes (That's when i go back to figure it out)