Hey yall, I'm new to this forum and Z cars in general but have done my share of audio installs.

I'm real confused on this topic. I have an 04 with the bose system, bose sub, and an aftermarket headunit. Lately the speakers have been cutting out. By that I mean I could be driving for a while, and all of a sudden, no more sound. The headunit stays on, but no music from the speakers. I bought the car with the aftermarket JVC headunit already installed, and have read many posts about the crappy bose amp in these cars. I'm thinking the PO installed the radio without the PAC wiring interface so the factory amp is getting an already amplified signal, overheating, and shutting down.

My question is, can I bypass the factory amp by running some speed wire from behind the JVC headunit, to the speaker outputs of the factory amp in the rear? As in I disconnect the output plug from the amp, snip the wires that run the all 4 speakers, and connect the speed wire to those speakers? Ultimately, I'd like to get of all the blose stuff. Would the factory sub still work for now?

I've searched and searched to see if anyone has done this, but no luck.

Thanks for any help.

 

This is how I ran my speakers on my car. I took the speaker wires and spliced the connector in the trunk.
I never had a bose subwoofer, so I am unsure what will happen to that

 

You mentioned the PAC-ROEM, that's good. The problem with the Bose setup running from an aftermarket head unit is one of impedance mismatches (which the PAC is supposed to fix but I don't buy it.)

I don't know what the Bose amp's output looks like but the sub is something odd like 0.5ohm and I think the satellites are 2ohm. So, even with the PAC-ROEM, these speakers are still not going to sound good. What's standard advice on the Z33 is replace all four satellites with "off-shelf" 4-ohm 6.5s and either run them direct off the back of the head unit (if there's sufficient power) as you alluded to OR install a new amp, feed it with RCA from head then out to your new speakers. (And/or 5-channel amp or 5ch+Sub amp running a dedicated sub) IOW, "toss Bose, replace with a decent system." Doesn't have to be expensive either. Since you already have the JVC, all you need are the amps and speakers.

 

I have a spare bose amp so I was going to start with taking the radio out and seeing if the pac unit was installed to begin with. I ordered a new one just incase it isn't, just waiting for it to come in. I'd rather not run power, ground, RCAs, and a remote wire if I can get away with keeping it factory. Thanks for your help!