Testing a Bose Amp without speakers
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 164
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From: Groton MA
Testing a Bose Amp without speakers
I bought a C5 in April knowing that it had a problem of no bass on the audio. Nothing at all out of the woofers. I finally got time to look into it today after fixing other problems, and I just about got sick when I pulled the door panel off. Some moron hacked the speakers apart and tried to connect another woofer. The midrange is gone, replaced by a tweeter in the door handle and there's some kind of wirewound resistor or inductor there that makes no sense. Luckily all the mods(?) were done on the speaker side of the connector so it looks like the harness back to the radio is untouched.
I'll be ordering new (used) speakers and I was wondering if anyone knows a way to test the Bose signal processor without speakers. If this hack job damaged that I'll have to order one of those as well.
I'll be ordering new (used) speakers and I was wondering if anyone knows a way to test the Bose signal processor without speakers. If this hack job damaged that I'll have to order one of those as well.
Tech Contributor
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 7,036
Likes: 135
From: North Augusta, SC
C5 prints are HERE
Use the prints to figure out which wires are which in the door plug and test them with a meter. Power wire should have 12vDC, Twiddler wires probably 10v or so AC, and Sub audio would be low single digits AC.
Unless you can find some take-offs for cheap it may be cheaper (and would definitely sound better) if you just do an aftermarket upgrade. You should be able to do a good sounding budget build with a sub in the trunk (center tub), components in the doors (tweets in door handle can be reused), and a 4-channel amp (mount on rear vertical wall) for about $500. Call Dennis at DoubleDmods.com for one stop shopping and great customer service.
If you do go back to all stock, at least replace the 3.5" door speakers with some aftermarket 2-ways
Use the prints to figure out which wires are which in the door plug and test them with a meter. Power wire should have 12vDC, Twiddler wires probably 10v or so AC, and Sub audio would be low single digits AC.
Unless you can find some take-offs for cheap it may be cheaper (and would definitely sound better) if you just do an aftermarket upgrade. You should be able to do a good sounding budget build with a sub in the trunk (center tub), components in the doors (tweets in door handle can be reused), and a 4-channel amp (mount on rear vertical wall) for about $500. Call Dennis at DoubleDmods.com for one stop shopping and great customer service.
If you do go back to all stock, at least replace the 3.5" door speakers with some aftermarket 2-ways
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 164
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From: Groton MA
Thanks for the reply. For now I did find a cheap set of take-offs so I'll be trying them first.
I do get 12v at the connectors and the tweeters were wired with the twiddler output, so I know that's working. What I wasn't sure about was what the sub audio should look like.
Thanks for the advice. If this turns into anything but a simple swap I will be calling Dennis and upgrading.
I do get 12v at the connectors and the tweeters were wired with the twiddler output, so I know that's working. What I wasn't sure about was what the sub audio should look like.
Thanks for the advice. If this turns into anything but a simple swap I will be calling Dennis and upgrading.
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Jun 2008
Posts: 164
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From: Groton MA
The new speakers came in today and I just finished installing them. I got lucky and everything is working.
The sad part is that whoever hacked these speakers up probably spent more for parts than I did for a pair of take-offs ($65 including shipping) and mine actually work.
The sad part is that whoever hacked these speakers up probably spent more for parts than I did for a pair of take-offs ($65 including shipping) and mine actually work.
1st Gear
Joined: May 2020
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I have a C8 and my wife accidentally hit the trunk button when it was raining. The trunk area got wet damaging the Bose amp as nothing on the stereo was working not even GPS. I replaced the Bose amp with a new factory Bose amp. Now everything works on the stereo but only the left driver door speaker works, I tried the balance and fade which all is correct. I called the company where I bought the amp and the told me that I needed to take the car into the dealership so they can program the amp to the stereo. Is there a way that I can do it?
