Originally Posted by bigaudiofanatic

Ok OP here you go.

There are numerous problems here.

First off unless your system is bose this just got ten times harder and than there is simply the question of why in the world are you putting yourself threw all this for a bose sub?

The bose systems has basically a processor than analyzes and cuts out everything their little speakers can not handle. So unless your head unit has low end outputs and you can find which ones in the bose harness are the low input ones, it will not work. Also you will have to run power wire from your battery to it and a signal wire to the bose amp as well to tell it to turn on. "Same stuff you have to do for a normal amp" Also bose amps do not have gain controls so they look to the head unit from bose to have control over that and also the signal processor to cut and control how much the sub gets. Simply put unless you have the rest of the system to put signal to the bose amp I would throw the stuff away and start over.

By the time you get everything done and are all excited when you power it up for the first time. You will be sitting there thinking why in the world does it sound so muddy and why is there no real bass.

I do not mean to come on strong just giving you the facts.

If you want to do something nice weather it is keeping your stock system or whatever you have in your car, a slim line kenwood sub would do better than the bose sub. Anything would really, start with a bazooka tube or go buy a z enclosures sub box and install whatever you want. There are endless choices.

Originally Posted by Paul350Z

The Bose headend controls the "amplifier" - that little tiny tinnie wienie pack-of-cigarettes sized thing.



Page AV-15 of the service manual covers the wiring of the Bose sub-woofer amplifier.

The inputs are pins 1 (+) and 2 (-) fed from the headend.
Pin 6 is the amplifier "on" signal.
Pin 8 is labeled "back up" - what the heck is that?
The outputs are pin 4 (+) and pin 3 (-).
Pin 7 is ground.

Here ya' go - I put the woofer connector pin out in the bottom right corner for ya'

Originally Posted by Paul350Z

The Bose headend controls the "amplifier" - that little tiny tinnie wienie pack-of-cigarettes sized thing.

Page AV-15 of the service manual covers the wiring of the Bose sub-woofer amplifier.

The inputs are pins 1 (+) and 2 (-) fed from the headend.
Pin 6 is the amplifier "on" signal.
Pin 8 is labeled "back up" - what the heck is that?
The outputs are pin 4 (+) and pin 3 (-).
Pin 7 is ground.

Here ya' go - I put the woofer connector pin out in the bottom right corner for ya'

Originally Posted by richcity

[…] I bought a stock Bose sub and amp off of a forum member and when I installed it, it didn't work. He says it worked up to the day he removed it and id like to take his word for it. <br>
Now I have an aftermarket head unit and my sub hasn't worked in years so I want to make sure Im getting the voltage I need to the amp. […]

Originally Posted by Spike100

Let me get this straight

1. You installed an aftermarket H/U, and the original OEM Bose SubW and its amp stopped working. Do I have this right?
   
   
2. Then you swapped out the original OEM Bose SubW and its amp with a different OEM Bose SubW and amp? And, that doesn’t work.
   
   
3. You are connecting your aftermarket H/U to the stock OEM Bose harness.

If I have this right, two different OEM Bose SubWs and its amps are not working with your aftermarket H/U when you connect the H/U using the stock Bose harness.

Question: Are you using any type of aftermarket adapter to mate your aftermarket H/U to the proprietary and finicky Bose amp and its speakers?

--Spike

Originally Posted by richcity

Those are pretty much the facts Spike, although my sub went out way before I replaced the head unit. I don't even know what caused it to go out and never bothered to find out till recently. I Tried the amp trick with the relay and that didn't work so i looked for an OEM replacement.
To answer your question about the aftermarket adapter, no, I'm not even sure what that is honestly. All Ive done so far is verify that the harness was receiving power to the amp as listed before.

Originally Posted by Spike100

Thanks for the reply.

OK… I think we may be moving towards a solution for your problem.

Here is what I think might be the problem: The Z’s OEM Bose SubW and its proprietary amp will not work with the SubW feature/control in non-Bose aftermarket H/U’s. I believe there is “protective” circuitry in the Bose amp that “kills” a signal from the aftermarket H/U.

I think you need to connect an adapter between your H/U and the OEM Bose harness.

Check this site for solutions: http://www.pac-audio.com

And... If I missed answering your question, I hope my posting will attract someone with the right answer. I know how frustrating this type of problem can be.

--Spike