Alternate wiring for Kicker sub with Bose system. (DO THIS)

Goodtill · August 29, 2021

System fully installed. I did keep switch 1 on the on position. Was getting a vibration from the sub that i traced to the mounting bolt for the lug nut bag. This was fixed with a separate bolt and washer to secure the sub separately of the large wingnut assembly . Mounted the bass knob in my console with in easy reach of my hand.

Goodtill · August 29, 2021

Thomas Rodriguez · September 14, 2021

Any chance anyone wants to share a little video on where the sub wires are and how you got to them? I think this could make install much easier for most.

Teamnextgenchris · September 14, 2021

13 minutes ago, Thomas Rodriguez said:

Any chance anyone wants to share a little video on where the sub wires are and how you got to them? I think this could make install much easier for most.

I will if I ever get time to actually do it. I've been so happy with the performance of the sub since getting the gain set up right that I haven't been too motivated to change anything.

kodiakdenali · September 16, 2021

For the Bose sub wiring, which is positive and which is negative?

And did I read correctly in this thread that its actually a line level signal at that point? The wires shown in the pictures on the first post?

Thomas Rodriguez · September 22, 2021

I managed to get it all wired up today and took some video that will hopefully help. I do need to run the amp harness under the carpet and then plug it in and adjust eq and put the fuse in and then I am live. Hoping I will find time to finish it up. If all works okay, I will then get the videos up. For the time being I plugged the green wire into the green with black stripe wire and the brown wire of the harness into the blue wire with silver stripe.

Thomas Rodriguez · September 22, 2021

Alright…. Now I’m frustrated. So I felt like I have not gotten hardly any extra bump and what found is once I start to get it up loud enough to do anything the sub stops moving. The amp power led is still green but sub will stop moving until I turn it down enough again. My door speakers are out performing the subs with the bass setting at zero. I tried adjusting the bass knob, removed the bass knob, changed the dip switch settings to see if I can find something that works with the gain and nothing. I started with 1, 4,5,6 on and then tried just 4,5,6 on. When neither produced good results I tried all sorts of combos and got nothing. Any ideas?

Thomas Rodriguez · September 22, 2021

Decided to move it to the yellow wires for the rear passenger door and now it works fine. I think there may be a flaw in using the sub wires. Anyone else want to test putting your fingers on the surround have someone turn it up and see if sun stops moving until volume goes back down?

Thomas Rodriguez · September 23, 2021

Sigh…….. spoke too soon. Same thing happens no matter where I plug the inputs in. It seems to be able to give a little more output on yellow wires, but ultimately does the same thing. Bass knob does very little for sound. I can feel it cause more excursion but sound output is pretty minimal. Now I have to wonder if this is a phase thing. Still running 1,4,5,6 on for the dip switches.

anyone have any thoughts? I’m so disappointed I hope there is a fix and this isn’t just really poor output.

Tjeli · September 23, 2021

Sounds like your amp is faulty. Phase would have nothing to do with it. Mine never cuts out.

Edited September 23, 2021 by Tjeli

Teamnextgenchris · September 23, 2021

10 hours ago, Thomas Rodriguez said:

Sigh…….. spoke too soon. Same thing happens no matter where I plug the inputs in. It seems to be able to give a little more output on yellow wires, but ultimately does the same thing. Bass knob does very little for sound. I can feel it cause more excursion but sound output is pretty minimal. Now I have to wonder if this is a phase thing. Still running 1,4,5,6 on for the dip switches.

anyone have any thoughts? I’m so disappointed I hope there is a fix and this isn’t just really poor output.

What trim level is your truck? Do you have the Bose system? Are you sure you were connected to the correct wires for the inputs? Do you have your head unit Fader/Balance/Basd adjusted in an extreme way(start them all at 0 until you've isolated this problem)that may be under/overdriving the speaker that the amp is getting input from?

Switches 4-6 should all be in the Up position. Start with switches 1-3 also in the up position, without the control knob connected. This should give you tons of output from the sub, and be overpowering. You can then turn switches 1-3 down, up to having all three down to decrease the gain setting, and/or connect the control knob to adjust gain.

Being that this is all plug & play, other than the speaker level inputs, I'd be suspect of them the most. If you do suspect it's out of phase, swap the two input wires, but that shouldn't result in a total lack of output.

Thomas Rodriguez · September 23, 2021

4 hours ago, Teamnextgenchris said:

What trim level is your truck? Do you have the Bose system? Are you sure you were connected to the correct wires for the inputs? Do you have your head unit Fader/Balance/Basd adjusted in an extreme way(start them all at 0 until you've isolated this problem)that may be under/overdriving the speaker that the amp is getting input from?

Switches 4-6 should all be in the Up position. Start with switches 1-3 also in the up position, without the control knob connected. This should give you tons of output from the sub, and be overpowering. You can then turn switches 1-3 down, up to having all three down to decrease the gain setting, and/or connect the control knob to adjust gain.

Being that this is all plug & play, other than the speaker level inputs, I'd be suspect of them the most. If you do suspect it's out of phase, swap the two input wires, but that shouldn't result in a total lack of output.

Sierra Denali
Has Bose
Fade/Balance was/is Centered
- Tried adjusting it and same result. Once you go far enough in any direction it will eventually just cut out as well
4-6 all up. I have tried 1-3 all up as well.
I have swapped the leads thinking that should fix phase also and nothing...
I am beginning to think the amp is faulty as well. Going to try and call kicker today. My only fear is there is some protection kicking in and it doesn't seem to take much for it to get there. Im pretty sure door speakers should not overpower the sub

Thomas Rodriguez · September 23, 2021

4 hours ago, Tjeli said:

Sounds like your amp is faulty. Phase would have nothing to do with it. Mine never cuts out.

yeah.... thats what I am afraid of. I am going to call Kicker today and see what they think and go from there.

Teamnextgenchris · September 23, 2021

1 hour ago, Thomas Rodriguez said:

Sierra Denali

Has Bose

Fade/Balance was/is Centered

Tried adjusting it and same result. Once you go far enough in any direction it will eventually just cut out as well

4-6 all up. I have tried 1-3 all up as well.

I have swapped the leads thinking that should fix phase also and nothing...

I am beginning to think the amp is faulty as well. Going to try and call kicker today. My only fear is there is some protection kicking in and it doesn't seem to take much for it to get there. Im pretty sure door speakers should not overpower the sub

Yes, this sub, with the gain all the way up, way overpowers the rest of the speakers. It sounds like you've covered everything, and there is an issue with the amp. Please keep us updated on what you find.

Brunsk13 · September 25, 2021

Just curious, I'm getting ready to rewire my Kicker sub but looking at the original photos and then reading the wire color configurations, there looks to be a mismatch. The photo shows the Kicker green wire connected to a white wire that is then connected to the blue wire but it was stated that green connects to green? Just need some clarification before I dig into this. Also, does it take much to take the console apart?