Does your 2000 Impala stereo suck???

I did a search and didn't see that this has been covered, but my stereo in my 2000 LS has always sucked. No bass at all. I was surfing the web and found www.impalahq.com and it had a fix for it. The amp in the 2000's is crap and there is a way to bypass it. I did it in about 10 minutes with 14ga solid wire and holy crap! It's like a night and day difference. I only have the bass set to the middle notch and I'm bumpin'. Wish I would have found out about this 4 years ago.

Ummm i always thought i had a pretty good sound system in my 2000 crisp clear sound and a decent amount of bass. Tell me what you did cause im intrigued :)

You bypass the factory amp that is mounted in the trunk between the rear speakers. Unplug the wiring harness and insert jumper wires into the harness, not the amp.

http://home.mchsi.com/~j.guenther/AmpPlug.gif


A1-A9, A2-A10, A3-A11, A4-A12
B1-B9, B2-B10, B3-B11, B4-B12



Use eight 3-4 inch pieces of 14ga solid wire. I used my Dremel to sharpen the ends of the wire so they would insert easily into the harness. Once you do that, take duct tape and wrap it up so the wires don't move.

If you think it sounds good now, you won't believe your ears after. There's a section on radio questions at www.impalahq.com in the how-to section under the picture of a stereo with ????? on it. GM made the correction around production date of 12/00. The bad amp model number starts with 104 and the corrected amp starts with 103. You might want to check before you go through the trouble. Then go to the bottom right picture in the hot-to which shows you the bypass and has a link to:

http://townhall-talk2.edmunds.com/WebX?14@123.7dA3ahnJbHr^5@.ee9e67f/0

There are 56 pages of talk about it. It's simple to do and well worth the $0.40 worth of wire from Home Depot.

do all impalas come stock with amp. If this is a dumb question excuse it cause i dont know jack about sound systems. Also where would this number for the possible bad amp be?

Not all have amps. Look between your rear speakers in the trunk. The amp should be there.

Not all have amps. Look between your rear speakers in the trunk. The amp should be there.

Yeah, my 03 has one in there, but the sound is top notch in that car, my 00 never had the amp, I assume police cars had no use for such things ;)

Pretty weak amp though, judging by size.

tell you what go out and take a 01 buick century out with the monsoon system thats what the impalas should have had we have one at our shop thats wrecked before the insurance company picks it up im pulling the rear speakers out and the monsoon amp might do the door speakers and then fabracate them to fit in my impala that system is hands down 10 times better then any impala system from the factory i have herd with or with out the bypass BTW doing the bypass could cause other problems with the amp or if the bass is to high your speakers

tell you what go out and take a 01 buick century out with the monsoon system thats what the impalas should have had we have one at our shop thats wrecked before the insurance company picks it up im pulling the rear speakers out and the monsoon amp might do the door speakers and then fabracate them to fit in my impala that system is hands down 10 times better then any impala system from the factory i have herd with or with out the bypass BTW doing the bypass could cause other problems with the amp or if the bass is to high your speakers

There's no way to hurt the amp if it is disconnected from the power source and speaker harness. It's like it's sitting on a shelf. If the bass is distorted, you turn it down. Tell me what good stereo doesn't have that problem. User error will cause failure, not the bypass.

Yeah, my 03 has one in there, but the sound is top notch in that car, my 00 never had the amp, I assume police cars had no use for such things ;)

Pretty weak amp though, judging by size.

From everything I have read, the only amp that is crap is the one they put in the 2000 with the serial number starting with 104.

From everything I have read, the only amp that is crap is the one they put in the 2000 with the serial number starting with 104.

Well thats good to know, the 2003 I have sounds just fine.

From everything I have read, the only amp that is crap is the one they put in the 2000 with the serial number starting with 104.

Is there another amp you can put in to replace the 104? Maybe get a newer amp from a wrecking yard??
If anyone knows... I'd like to hear back from you!

I like my Bose in my GrandPrix. A monsoon in a Century? do they put them in Regals to

I realized that there was a lack of bass in my '00 impala compared to say, a Honda Civic or a Pontiac Grand Prix. But I also noticed that it was clearer and crisper.

Naturally, midrange frequencies cut through better, and i noticed that the system has a lot of upper-mids which enables it to be clearer and more crisp. Which basically results in you being able to hear music clearly through any road, wind, or engine noise at high speeds.

I will try this mod though, I always thought the bass was lacking.

Btw, I'm new here - nice to meet you all. :licka: :p

i have a 2002 and the amplifier issue was definitely resolved before that year, people ask me if i have a sub lol.