My 03 radio bass control does nothing. Everything sounds tinny and all treble. Anybody run into this? I haven't checked any relays or fuses yet?

 

Not sure if it is a fuse, and if so, not sure which one...what I do know is that sounds like your not getting any power to factory AMP. Test it with either a volt meter, or a light meter will do. It should be the green wire in pin #8 on the harness.

 

Good advice.

I'm not an expert and it'd be worth posting in the audio section. The speakers have individual amplifiers at the speaker. I know this because you have to fit a Soundgate harness (fitted with a potentiometer) to allow you to use the Bose speakers with an aftermarket head unit. Without that you get exactly the same issue - poor bass response.

I took a look at the wiring diagrams and the individual speakers are not fused. The only fuses are #24 for the antenna "RDO/Ant" and #5 for the CD "RDO/CD". If both are tinny it seems like the problem has to be at the head unit.

Can't really help but I'd start by pulling the connector at the head unit and cleaning up all the contacts and reseating the connectors. I'd also check the connectors and wiring in the rubber gaiter in the door hinge. Sometimes the wiring chafes and may cause a bad ground/short.

 

I had the same problem and since I had bought it off a dealer 3 hours away they paid a local dealer to swap out radios... and guess what? Still no bass with a different radio. I took the car home and fixed it myself...there is a dedicated fuse that controls the amplified speakers which provide the bass. Fuse number 28 labeled Bose(20amp) is probably blown.

 

I'm not sure if we have the same problem, but my radio has absolutely no bass, but CDs sound fine... anyone encounter this issue?

 

 

Well ck'd the Bose fuse it was blown replaced it it didn't blow but radio sounds the same . Ck'd and swapped the bose realay no difference either. Still no bass adjustment. Next step guess is pull the radio and ck wiring. I think they had an aftermarket radio in it and it was removed and the stock re-installed when the car was sold. Any hints?

 

You never mentioned that the car originally had an aftermarket stereo You have to disclose everything in order to get the best advice....

Before you start tearing everything apart, double check to see if you have ANY adjustment for bass. Fade the speakers to back and turn the bass up to see if you get anything. Fade the speakers to front and do the same thing. Then triple check by fading left to right...I'll get to why you do this in a second.

Start by checking to see if your getting power from the amp. First thing is to remove the factory stereo. Once removed, with key in on position, and the without disconnecting the factory radio from the harness, use a light tester to check for power. Pierce the green wire ON THE HARNESS SIDE (pin#8, see below) and see if the test light comes on. If it does, then test the wiring harness from the factory stereo that connects to pin#8. If it doesn't come on then there is a problem with the radio. It would be hard pressed if they both tested positive....SO, if it doesn't come on from the harness side, then it could be that AMP has been cooked, or the previous owner did some cutting of wires. Crazy as it sounds, visually inspect to see if the AMP is still in there. It should be noted (if I'm not mistaken) there is also amps in the doors. I say this because if the previous owner changed out the factory speakers and amp, he could have removed the AMPs.

This is just a starting point before moving on to other suggestions. Keep in mind I'm not an expert but after I recently installed my aftermarket stereo, with the Metra unit to retain factory speakers/amp, I still had the same problem as you...it turned out in my case that I blew up a transistor or fuse in my aftermarket HU, so when I tested pin#8 from the harness side, it had power, but when I checked from the HU, no power! I had to reroute some wires to get the AMP to work...anyways, test it out and if nothing works, come back and post. Then go from there.