Corvette Don

Just put a aftermarket radio in, its all wired up and is working great and the speakers work but the factory Bose subs are not on, the metra bose adapter's red "on" light wont come on to turn the subs on, any ideas? I did the whole 30 sec thing. Like I said stereo works great otherwise. XSVI-2004.

markcz

Without knowing how you connected everything....

The same 'switched' wire that you used to power the trigger wire of the new HU needs to be connected to the DARK GREEN wire at pin #8 of the original black C1 plug behind the radio (to power the subs up). You also need to have the line level outputs from the HU somehow connected to the original bose wires (usually done by the interface adapter?).

Click here for the C5 radio schematics.

P.S. What's the "whole 30 sec thing" ?

Corvette Don

Ok sounds like i have done someting wrong. I thought this this was plug and play for the most part, I will look into it later today, thanks.

markcz

It depends which adapter you used and how it's wired, but something needs to supply trigger voltage to turn on the subs, and that's done by putting 12v on the dark green wire.

Corvette Don

On the seperate box ((the chrome one thats getting no power), there are 2 boxes one black, one chrome), anyways the chrome box has NO wires for me to tap into its straight plug and play via 2 connectors that route from the bose adapter harness into the chrome box, the out of the chrome box into the factory harness, there are no power wires for this box from what it looks like. The black box has 3 or 4 wires that I had to wire in. ground, hot and ign, there is a ilum wire thats orange that I did not do anything with. everthing else is for the speakers is wired in already.....

markcz

The C5 is not a 'normal' radio setup. The radio has an internal amp that directly feeds the four twiddler speakers, but not until after the line level signal has gone through the bose signal processor and then back to the radio. The signal processor also sends the low frequencies of that line level signal to the door subs for them to amplify. The subs aren't powered directly from the radio, but they do need a 12v trigger coming from it.

The interface adapter will power up your new HU and pass the speaker signals on through the OEM harness to the speakers, but it isn't designed to power up or supply the subs.

To get the subs working the 'external amp' trigger wire coming out of the new HU (probably blue/white) is what should really be connected to the OEM wire at pin 8 to power up the subs. You also need to connect the line level source coming out of the radio to the subs.

I've never actually done it, but I do know that others have made it work.

Corvette Don

Thanks a lot! I connected the remote amp wire from the head unit into pin 8 and now the subs in the door work. The power light is not on but I can still adjust ***** on the box and hear a difference. You saved me a ton of time cause I wanted to get this done especially since Crutchfield's tech support is closed due to the storm up there.

fireman591

Those metra instructions were a joke!!!

I gave up and bought a powered sub and 4 new speakers.
Anyone have pics of the plug and pin #8?

Corvette Don

I thought about taking pics but I got too excited and put it back together!

fireman591

No problem. I will be pulling out the door speakers soon anyway.
That powered sub I put in is 1000 times better at the lows then the Bose ever was so I guess I should thank Metra for crappy directions

markcz

It's not a picture, but here's the pinout. C1 is the black plug. All of the C5 schematics and pinouts can be found here.

Corvette Don

I thought about swapping out the speakers BUT the new sony head unit I have has a feature called "Dynamic Soundstage Organizer" that makes it sound like the speakers are right next to your ears rather than down in the door, 100 times better than the stock unit so I will most likely keep the stock speakers.

fireman591

Awesome!!! Thanks again

Jonny mc

did same thing, new head unit, also added additional amp, rear 6x9s and sub. only issue is my stock bose speakers sound crappy now after adding the axxess interface (which was told is required?)..my question is on the pin 8 thing..are you saying the blue and white power on wire from HU should not run to interface but rather directly to green wire (pin 8)?..or split and run to interface and pin 8?.and has anyone got pix of the plug where pin 8 is yet??s really want my bose bass back!! thnx

K9Leader

Okay, I have the same problem and hope someone here can help. I'm not getting any power to the Metra digital line converter (the power light does not light up) and no bass from the door subwoofers.

Did you ever figure out how to wire the amp wire (blue/white) from the head unit to the interface? Does it go directly into the OEM harness at Pin #8/dark green wire or into one of the wires in the interface harness, which appears to be the blue/white wire. I have already used this wire to connect to the power antenna wire (blue) from the head unit - can the blue antenna wire and the blue/white amp wire from the HU be spliced together and connected to the blue/white wire in the interface harness? I also tried the amp wire from the HU directly into the back of the OEM harness at Pin #8 - not sure if contact was made - I didn't get any power to digital line converter (the one referred to as the silver or chrome box in other posts, although in mine it is slightly different from the pics I've seen and it is black, probably just the newest model/redesign).

Even when I try the various connections I asked about above, I'm not getting anything. I was hoping you had figured this one out and could share the secret.

Thanks for any help you can provide . . .

K9Leader
1999 C5 Convertible

STALION

-Did you disconnect the battery before the install? This is a must!

-Once everything is connected, did you engage the metra unit? You do this by hooking the battery back up, then turn the key into the "on" position, wait 30 seconds to a minute, turn the key back to off and now the box should have power...if you messed up you may have to start from scratch and disconnect the battery. Disconnect the HU from the harness of the metra, wait about 5 minutes then start the process over again. Connect the battery, harness, turn the key to on, wait, then see if it works.

-You mentioned you have a new metra box (not the silver one). On the silver one the power indicator light never came on no matter what so you can't gauge power by the light. This was a known problem so not sure if it is the same for your unit.

My experience:

I had the same problem as yours. My HU was from China (forgot what brand) and had a lot of great features. Because I didn't disconnect the battery I had actually burnt a fuse that was inside the HU. I only figured this out by testing the wire from the HU to the amp with a volt meter. Once I saw no power, the only way to get power was to route the metra blue/white wire to the HU red wire for power. This solved my problem.

So start with the basics first, and if that doesn't work hook a volt meter to your amp wire (on the HU) to see if it's getting power. If not you can try a bypass like I did.

K9Leader

Stalion:

I spliced the blue/white amp wire from the HU to the blue/white wire in the Metra harness (which also is connected to the blue power antenna wire from the HU) and followed your procedure and success . . . sort of. I got bass and it was great while the HU was hanging out the front but when I went to push all the wiring back into the cavity and lift the HU into place, the base went away. I have decided that it is a faulty harness on the Metra and am putting in a call to Crutchfield.

I have spent the better part of two days trying to figure this out. Frankly, if Metra is going to have such poor documentation then Crutchfield should take it upon themselves to supplement it.

Thanks for your help - I would still be flailing away otherwise.

K9Leader

STALION

I hear you loud and clear on Metra's documentation. I had to call their support line a couple of times to get some advice. I also had to return the first unit I bought as the base adjustment controls came loose and were rattling in the box. Once you get it to work it will work great.

I'm glad it worked out...well for the most part at leaset!

whitehooptie

Easiest thing, connect the "remote wire" from the headunit and solder it to the "Amp turn on" wire on the Metra adapter. Both wires are blue with a white stripe. This is for the new style one I got today. XSVI-2004. Funny thing is, the box said it was for a Nissan. I didn't use the instructions and just soldered everything to the same color wire between the two. I didn't even do the 30 second thing. All speakers work. I have bass and treble and the pots for the gain work fine. And my "Trigger" light does not come on either.

K9Leader

Well, I did get it all working properly. One issue that I wonder about:

Will I have to do the initializing of the Metra unit every time the battery is disconnected?

I don't mind reprogramming radio presets but the initialization process that has worked for me involved disconnecting the head unit from the Metra unit, initializing, then reconnecting. I do not want to have to take out the waterfall, console, and bezel every time the battery is disconnected for whatever reason. If that is the case, I may opt to just forgo the RAP function much of the the time.

Or would one of those memory retaining devices (either one purchased or one that I build myself) solve that problem?

I disconnected last night to install a CTEK charger and now need to go fuss with it to get the RAP working again.

K9Leader