Replacing the Bose Head Unit

So I had been planning on getting a DVD player or navigation head unit for my Intrigue. I wound up getting a Sony XAV-W1 for $250 brand new, which is a steal for such a nice unit. I figured, well, this is a GM car with Bose, so I know installation won't be straight forward. And I was right. Installation has taken me 3 days (and it's still not done) and is a nightmare.

The harness I got worked ok, but was not designed for the Bose system. The Bose system was also designed to use the preamp outputs from the head unit, not the speaker level outputs. After much frustration (and $24 for Alldatadiy) I managed to get the wire hookup all figured out. Apparently GM used a common ground for all 4 channels, which is sent over the right rear negative wire. All other channels have only a positive, low level signal wire. After getting all this right, EACH CHANNEL IS PROPERLY SEPERATED AND CAN BE BALANCED AND FADED PERFECTLY. If you don't wire it up properly, your rear and front rights will be mixed up and one will sound much louder than the rest of the speakers. You will also not be able to balance and fade properly and you can kill the amp by giving it a high level signal when it expects a low level (and you'll kill the HU amp because of the common grounding, which most newer systems dont support).

I had no problem removing the tab from inside the dash, but I still can't get everything to go all the way in - so , note that there is not much depth to play with. I will need to carefully channel all the wires in proper directions so I can get the unit all the way in. Finally, I had to cut the radio/HVAC trim piece because the corners interferred with the screen when it tilted to eject a DVD.

These are just some of my observations for those of you who ever plan on upgrading the damned BOSE system in your Intrigue. PM me if you need wiring diagrams or pinouts.

I will post a pic soon

I hooked my alpine h/u up direct to the bose amp last summer (just wired the speakers up normally with the harness i ordered off the net...same harness you get from any stereo shop) All 4 speakers had a (+) and a (-) hook up on my harness. I needed to provide the amp with a ground and a remote turn-on lead from the headunit (also, included in the new harness labelled as "amp ground" and "amp signal +12v")....once all is said and done all 4 speakers sound the same, nice and clear, but i DID loose my balance/fading abilities...i played a test track to make sure I still had full stereo sound and i do, I just cant balance or fade anywhere off center. No problem, I want my sound centered anyway. Essentially the amp will be getting a low signal from the new headunit because it is SUPER sensitive now (my alpine headunit is LOUD at volume level 6 where as it would be equally as loud at about level 18 if it was not hooked up tp the bose amp) Only downfall is the lowest volume setting (1) is a bit louder than usual, but not bad. You need to get a headunit with a higher pre-out voltage and a subwoofer volume control if you want subs hooked up with your system this way, because if you dont then you will never get your subs loud enough to match up with the speakers. My sub vol is high on the headunit and my amp gain is at 90%. Been this way since last summer with no ill effects...sounds insane with the bose system

My preamps are 4V, so I dont have a volume problem. I can get the front paper bose speakers beyond their usable range, but I think the subs could push a little harder. However, it still sounds really good. I have a set of Sony 12" Xplods in my trunk that will be hooked up very soon with a 400 W amp (as soon as I have a day to go thru the damned firewall) which will be hooked up to my sub out on the HU. Can't wait for that.

My harness that I purchased also had wires that were supposed to be + and - for each speaker, but like I said, it is wrong. There is a common ground used for all four channels and it is not safe to run a high power head unit through that unless the specifications say so. The thing that I think is also screwing you up with balancing is that there is a pin for audio drain, but on a typical harness, is used for a negative wire for a speaker, which throws things off. That wire should not be connected to anything. Plus, like I said, the Bose amp is supposed to get a low level signal and too much power could kill it.