3g Infinity Stereo remove and replace

Hello all, I am a 53 year old guy that has had and installed lot's of Alpine and other componet style sytems during the 70's and 80's but has really limited expeinece in these newer cars and all their electronic systems.
My daughter has a 03 GTS with Infinity system.
I want to know what will be affected if anything when I disconnect the head unit. I just want to replace the entire sytem except for the speakers themselves and add a sub amp and sub's. Will be using all my new wiring with none of the OEM.
I guess my real qusetion is can the infinity HU be removed and the wiring harnesses just left open and disconnected. Will this adversley affect any of the security or other systems.
If others systems are affected by this what is simplest way to add a sub amp and subwoofer to the existing Infinity system.
Searched the 1000+ threads and saw nothing specific to this.
Thanks for any help from you guys.

Well, what do you mean when you say the harness will just be sitting there? You are going to have to use tha factory harness when you put your new deck in. And if you are still going to use the factory amp to power the front speakers then you will need those wires as well. Simply disconecting the HU should do nothing with the car as far as security goes...and if you have everything you need you should be able to get it all put back in within 10 minutes. I am sure you know this already but make sure you get the DIN insert for the new deck, and the wireing harness adapter thing that you splice to your new deck. If anything crazy happens let us know.

No I didn't plan on using the factory wiring or harness at all. Not using any of the infinity system amps or any part of it but the speakers. Just want to install whole other system icluding HU, power amps and string new wiring to existing speakers. So that is how I could leave the factory plugs just hanging, taped up to protect from any shorts. Will wire in new power supply wiring for HU and additional Alpine and Pioneer amps she has. She did get the DIN mount and a wiring adadpter but hadn't planned on using the adapter as not wanting to use the existing Infinity amps. Could I use wiring adapter just for the power supply and not hook the wires that go to the Infinity amps?
Do you forsee any problems with that?
I guess her main concern is installing the sub amp and pair of 12" Fosgates she has. Do you think that is possible with the exsisting Infinity sytem, there are no preamp outs for a sub, correct.

Well, I would say use the factory harness for the power because it would be a pain in the ass and not even worth while to hook up a new power source. As for the amps it shouldnt be a problem. If you dont plan on using the factory infinity amp to run the mid speakers then you can just leave those RCA hookups dangling back there, or you can take out the factory amp (under the passenger seat). If you are going to be running 2 12" woofers, you will probably want to upgrade your mids and tweets as well...the factory speakers just cant handle it. You shouldnt run into any problems if you are using new amps and whatnot because that all has to be rewired anyway...but I would use the factory main power harness for your HU.

OK great. Thanks for your input.
A couple more questions. Does the infinity system use RCA outs or is the Infinity HU hard wired to the Infinity amps.
If they are not RCA out from HU are they high or preamp level out.

Haven't torn into the Ecllipse yet, just want to get as much info as possible before breaking it all down so things will go somewhat smoothly.
Also looking on ebay I see their are a few OEM Infinity units for sale and they show back side. What does the DIN plug on reverse of Infinity HU go to. Do I need a converter harness for that DIN plug also to go to the replacement HU if I were to use all the infinity amps and just my Alpine for the sub's. Replacement unit has sub outs.
Just trying to figure the easiest way to get the sub's in there be it with either the Infinity system or with the aftermarket HU.

Im not too sure about what connection type the factory HU uses....I think they are RCA because before I switched to my Kicker component system up front I just used the factory amp and speakers, and dont remember having any problem with anything.

Alright. Thanks again rodbls. Will be getting in to it this week sometime. Will post what I find out works when I get it done so as to possibly help another with same type questions. Greg

No problem, As long as you have a general working knowledge about wireing you should have no problems. Message me if you run into anything weird...Ive got a pretty robust system in my car, so I probably will be able to help out.

Good Luck

Ross

if you are removing the infinity hu, you will need to do several things...and they're not easy. the headunit is connected to the infinity amp under the passenger seat using a special wire. for starters, you have to throw that out, oh, and btw, the speakers are connected to that amp using a special weird connector. so if you want to change the head unit, you have to buy a 4-channel amp to power the speakers. then you'll also have to reroute the speaker wires to whever your new amp will be since most amps do not fit under the seat. theres a whole lot of them and i don't remember the wire colors, i found out by basically getting to all the speakers and noting the wires leading to them. buy a head unit that has 3 sets of rca pre-outs, that'll make your life easier. if you're still interested, post back and i'll help you out.

They must have redesigned the audio system in the later years because my 2000 GT had no problems with anything. I was able to power my amp through my aftermarket HU no problem, and continue to run stock front speakers from the stock front amp. Thats crazy if they actually changed that shit. Because it sounds like they changed it from easy to hard.

yea...the 03 gts (what i have and so does the original post) comes with a 5 speaker system. the headunit uses a special cable (inside is has 1 power cable, one ground cable, and 4 signal cables) with a round head to connect to an amp under the passenger seat. when i tried installing my system, i wanted to leave the stock hu and add a sub amp and i tried tapping into those signal wires, but unfortunately, the signal on those wires is ridiculously weak. the speakers connect to the stock amp via a funny looking plastic connector. i ended up trashing the stock hu, the stock cable, and the stock amp and then i cut that funny head off the speaker cables. i took apart my interior and noted the wire colors leading to each speaker. each speaker has its own unique-color wires (note: the center speaker was apparently wired to the hu itself via the same connector that supplies power, signal, and ground to the hu.) i tested to see which was positive or negative using a 12v battery. if you connect the positive to the positive and the neg to the neg, the speaker should pop out (careful when doing this, you can blow the speaker) if you have it reversed, the speaker will go in. once i figured out which wire went to where and what polarity it was supposed to have, i went to radioshack and bought a spindle of red wire and a spindle of black wire and cut 8 foot long lengths of cable and made 6 pairs of equal length, put them in a small conduit and ran it to the trunk. i then connected to the pairs to a 4 chan amp (note: the amp has 4 chan, i had 6, i tied the two tweeters in with the front channels). you can probably just electrical tape the wire you built to each individual cable running to the speakers. me on the other hand, soddered 25-pin d-sub connectors to both ends (http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103240&cp=&kw=d-sub&parentPage=search) like the things on the back of your computer that way i could just connect or disconnect the entire system at will. to me, that was the cleanest and easiest method i could think of, i've heard of ppl that have completely rewired their cars. :screwy:

if you have any questions, just post here, i'll try to get pics if you really really really need them.