My aftermarket stereo install

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Heavy hitter
Posts: 26
Joined: Sun Dec 30, 2018 3:37 pm

My aftermarket stereo install

Postby Heavy hitter » Sun Dec 30, 2018 3:43 pm

So I’m new here and I figured I should start off by contributing. I’ve seen lots of threads on stereo installs and I thought I’d share my experience and the things I learned while doing this. I replaced the factory Bose head unit in my 2001 Qx4 along with both sets of door speakers as well as adding a blaupunkt integrally powered sub. I decided not to run all new wiring since reading through other threads people have seemed to be frustrated by trying to get it through the door grommets. For the head unit....I used a scoche wiring harness for the head unit and all the colors matched up just fine.

For the dash kit....I used an asc which said it was for a 2001 pathfinder or qx4, however, it is not an exact fit. There is a large gap along both sides and on the bottom. I have a metra dash kit on the way that will fit. I should have checked this first but you know what they say about hind sight.

Next up for the front door speakers. What I did was remove the guts from the factory amps....but I left the shells on the door so I wouldn’t need new bezels to mount the speakers. I took the wires going into the amp, and attached speaker connectors to them and connected the speakers and wired them in.

For the rear speakers this took a little figuring out how to do with the factory wiring. I started by removing the amp and cutting off the wiring harness. I then jumped the wires going into the amp with the ones headed to the door speakers. Here’s the colors for those so you know what to connect.

Left speaker: connect pink wire to green for positive. Blue wire to black and green for negative.
Right speaker: connect light green and orange for positive. Connect violet and black/pink for negative.
When you get to the speakers, orange is positive wire and black/pink is negative

The sub I used is an 300 watt amp/sub combo from blaupunkt. Not super loud, but plenty of bass for what I wanted. To power it....I used the green/white wire for 12v power. Black for ground. And I ran the remote from the head unit as well as rca cables. I ran the sub control knob under the carpet from the rear up to the arm rest console and mounted the knob inside.

Pretty happy with how it turned out. It was a pain and took me two days all told to figure out all the wires and everything. But it’s all buttoned up and sounds great now. Hopefully this could help someone else who wants to upgrade....but doesn’t want to have to run all new wires to everything in order to bypass the crappy Bose factory amps.


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underworld1001
Posts: 328
Joined: Sun Nov 27, 2016 9:05 pm
Location: Austin, TX

Postby underworld1001 » Sun Dec 30, 2018 10:31 pm

Thanks for this. I have a friend who is selling a 97 4x2 that I'm looking at. His stereo is kinda jacked so now I know which wires do what if I buy and decide to replace.

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palmerwmd
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Postby palmerwmd » Mon Dec 31, 2018 9:23 am

Heavy Hitter:

Welcome to the Path and thank you for an excellent first post!! :D

Heavy hitter
Posts: 26
Joined: Sun Dec 30, 2018 3:37 pm

Postby Heavy hitter » Mon Dec 31, 2018 11:35 am

palmerwmd wrote:Heavy Hitter:

Welcome to the Path and thank you for an excellent first post!! :D
Thanks. Im happy to be here and have this resource and ill try to contribute as much as i can. I picked up this qx4 about 3 months ago and am just starting to do some modifying on it and im having a lot of fun. Already did the throttle body coolant bypass. Modified my airbox for additional airflow, and am probably gonna remove the butterfly from the throttle body soon. Im also throwing an p0430 code and have an o2 sensor spacer on the way that im pretty sure is gonna clean that up. Got new intake manifold gaskets that ill be replacing soon to try and clear up a cylinder 3 leak into the spark plug tube thats also blowing some oil on the engine. And a new oil cooler gasket set as well to try and stop a small leak on the driveway

Heavy hitter
Posts: 26
Joined: Sun Dec 30, 2018 3:37 pm

Postby Heavy hitter » Mon Dec 31, 2018 11:37 am

underworld1001 wrote:Thanks for this. I have a friend who is selling a 97 4x2 that I'm looking at. His stereo is kinda jacked so now I know which wires do what if I buy and decide to replace.
It was definitely worth it. And after looking at the door grommets i feel like it would be a nightmare to run new wires when theres perfectly good ones already in the door


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