I mentioned crossovers and what they are used for not what they consist of. You are never to old to learn and anyone who thinks they know it all is a moron. You are always learning.

Another day begins, I'll keep you posted.

Good luck man

Got the driverside Polk door & dash speakers and Dynamat Extreme in (now that I've done the passenger door the driver's door was a no-brainer), mounted both crossovers and reinstalled both kick panels. The center stack trims and head unit are still out pending troubleshooting of the ipod interface cable by Crutchfield on Tuesday. So I guess I'll be chillin' till then.

Nice work, how did you identify the stock speaker wires?

If you look at the old speaker and alight the harness up the speakers should say what it + and -

I figured that would have been the case. When I do my doors there will be no use of factory wiring so it won't matter for me, for anyone using factory wiring could you confirm that GD?

As best I could determine the factory speakers had no polairty markings. I did discover that the color codes on the passenger speaker leads were violet w/silver & light green w/silver and on the drivers speaker the leads were violet w/silver & blue w/silver. So I took a leap of faith and proceeded on the basis that the violet w/silver was the hot lead (+) and completed the installation accordingly. Since the speakers are above ground reversing the polarity wouldn't short the system out and as long as they aren' out of phase with one another the sound should be ok unless the crossover has a problem with it. Anyway it sounds better than stock and I can always use them as the basis for future (if any) upgades. Just got off the phone with the ipod interface people and they say that their adapter won't work with the stock radio. If I can't find a suitable cable (know of any?) I may end up shoping for a new head unit. Wouldn't need nav, AM/FM/CD/ipod interface maybe a screen and back up camera compatibility. Amazon's always sending me info on sale items. Any thoughts?

I wondered if that was the case, seemed to odvious for you to be asking which was which. The reason for the polarity on the speakers is so that the positive part of the sine wave is heading to all the speakers at the same time and then the negative part of the sine wave in the opposite direction. If you have polarity reversed then the motor will be driving opposite to the other speakers, or out of phase.

You could try the battery pop test to determine polarity.
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-v2Mrand...ech/kb478.html

Oh... I think you meant sine wave not sign wave

^^ wat mike said. i was just about to post the battery test. :D

The polarity of the Polk speakers and crossovers was clearly marked, the problem was that the old speakers and factory source cables (remember I'm using the factory head unit and cables to feed the new Polk speakers) were unmarked making it difficult to know which factory wire was positive and which was negative. In my last post I explained how I "decided" which was positive and which was negative.

Am interested in your thoughts as to a possible affordable ($200-$400) head unit replacement. AM/FM/CD for sure. Navigation is nice but probably not worth the money, I don't need a multi disc CD changer but would need ipod or iphone interface or some sort or the ability to store song files in the head unit or maybe in a thumb drive or a system that functions similar to an ipod/iphone interface for storing music. Essentially I want have lots of music stored in the system. I want to keep functional steering wheel audio controls. Back up camera compatibility, DVD player, touch screen, super high powered audio output, and whatever else is out there are nice but not that important.

i use the pioneer AVH-P3100DVD in my Z and i think those can be had in your price range. it's the earlier model to the P3200DVD. :) check amazon/ebay. i have a rearview camera hooked up on mine.

if you want to find the ground wire for your speakers you can also use your volt/ohm meter and measure between known ground and your speaker wire. your volt meter will tell you when you got continuity with ground... then the other wire is (+). :p

Are you saying one speaker wire is always touching the ground? Does that make sense?

Jueleous,

On many simple systems one of the speaker leads is a grounded (-) lead and one is a hot (+) lead so identifying the positive lead is as simple as using a multi meter to check voltage from each lead to ground, the one with voltage relative to ground is the positive. However since many (most?) newer factory speaker systems are customarily wired "above ground" the standard test can yield similar voltage on both leads. Note that aftermarket systems label all the inputs and outputs as + or - to allow the installer to properly install their components. The car manufacturer often doesn't label these connections because they design the OEM connectors such that they can't be installed incorrectly.

^^ yah....now that i think about it i think the HU speaker wire might be isolated ground...

Kenchan,

Your Pioneer system is at the top of my price range but looks really nice. Were the various adapters and install kits expensive? Do the steering wheel controls still function?

i only use the USB drive (the tiny one in my avatar) and rear view camera but the ipod cable can be had for $60 here:

Pioneer CD-IU50V USB iPod/iPhone Interface Cable for AVH-P3100DVD & DVH-P4100UB in Audio Connection Cables at JR.com

The camera $159

Pioneer ND-BC4 Universal Rear-View Camera in Car Video Devices at JR.com

The PAC-PS for steering wheel control button (yes it works) $40:

Amazon.com: SWI&PS - PAC Steering wheel control interface for Pioneer and Sony NEW Version 1.6.8 with Bluetooth: Electronics

and here are the eagletec USB drives if you want to use these.... smaller the better so that you dont accidentally bump the drive during your shifts (if you have MT). :p

eagletec usb items - Get great deals on Computers Networking items on eBay.com!

My point was to receive a continuity beep you must have a direct short to ground, and you must have no power going through circuit to test that. On any modern amplifier you would not find a direct path to ground, there are many components between the speaker - terminal and actual ground. This would not allow you to show continuity as the semiconductors would not allow the path to be there.

Now going back way way back I remember connecting only one speaker wire and the other side to the ground, but this is going back like 20 years ago. Modern amps have isolated grounding systems.

Common Ground is what you are refering to, and it hasn't been used in the OEM for about 30 years. Not a problem anymore. I have a '79 pontiac that has a + and - even.

Now see, that's my problem, I've been working on cars for 49 years, obviously much history there. Oh well. Unfortunately the stock components have no identifiable markings. Never mind, I've moved on. Everything is back in the car and works fine except the SERVICE ENGINE SOON (SES) light is on. Apparently, at some point I connected the battery and one or more connectors were not in place. When I started the car the SES came on. I then rechecked all the connectors and restarted the engine no SES. On the next start up the SES was back on. Does anyone know if the SES resets after a certain number of restart cycles? Otherwise I need to get a code read.

hey GD- did you check out the links i posted? :icon14:


SES resets after 5 re-starts usually but in your case sounds like you got intermittent connection somewhere. you are referring to SES, not SRS (airbag DTC) correct?

49 yrs working on cars and you dont have a OBD2 scanner??!! :D

Does the sun rise in the east and set in the west? Yes, I have a code reader! But for some reason it won't link with the Z, all I get is an error message. In shopping for a possible replacement noticed that the new readers state that they are compatible with the OBDII revisions that occurred around 2002-3 and my reader is from the 90's.

My experience with cars started when I helped my dad change shocks and water pumps. Most of my engine experience is with 260/289 Fords and to a lesser extent LS1 GM engines. My more recent projects were a 1999 Camaro SS M6 and a 2004 GTO M6. Most of the work was mechanical and neither car was touchy about throwing SES codes. The LoFi audio system in the Z has got me working in an area of the car that I haven't had to do much with in a long time.

Yea, I looked at the links, nice stuff too, but a little big for my current budget. Looks like a nice system though.

I'll run some more start stop cycles and see if the SES clears. Thanks for the help, it's very much appreciated.

I'm just kidding around. :p

Yah, OBD2 is current. I have an Acron one. Works great.

You can go to autozone and have them pull the code for you. You might need to go through a "drive cycle" before it'll clear. GL

Yea, AutoZone is on my to-do list if the code doesn't clear soon.

The Polk speakers are way, way better than stock. Highs and lows that the OEM speakers don't even know exist. An under seat self powered sub wouldn't hurt, but thats for the future, maybe.

Been looking at affordable head units. The Boss BV9155B has possibilities, DVD, USB, Bluetooth and more for about $280.00 with install kit and rearview camera. Any thoughts?

never heard of them.... nor tried.

when you say Boss i think of Boss guitar pedals by Roland. :D

:bowrofl: Now I know you spend too much time in the music room.

Maybe this will help.

There are power outputs from base HU, just need 4 1mm female connectors, here's couple pictures. Now that I have hu pre-wired, just waiting for db351. Ready for future up-grades(new HU, & amps ).

Thanx, Badzx! Exactly the info I (and the OP!) was looking for. I know everyone says to just go with an aftermarket HU, but not in the cards for me right now. I want those rear outputs (or at least one of them) to drive my "DIY spare tire subwoofer" amp. That way the fader control can be used to balance the sub volume vs. the rest of the system. Dynamat, do the sub, upgrade the front speakers, and live with it until I get the Typhoon sold and generate some cash.

Good idea for the rears to run threw a LOC and into your sub. Jut be careful I have seen some not send a full signal to the back like they do the fronts.

As an electronics engineer, I can promise that a low or high pass audio filter can be made with a simple RC circuit. Thats a circuit with a capacitor and resistor.

What!?

Sorry was using a phone.

You have to connect the new boxes that are called crossovers to the stock speaker wires that are coming from the factory head unit. Than from the other side of the crossover run new wire to the tweeter and woofer. Unless you are running new speaker wire from a amp to the speakers.

Cool, thanks man.