Thats what I was afraid of, I figured it would be some crazy computer thing involved with it. So lets say I have power to the aftermarket head unit, is there a way I can bypass the facotry amp and power the speakers with the stock head unit? I dont think there are rear speakers, just speakers in the doors, possibly a front and a rear in the door?
The answer is yes with large *****asterisks.
In order to do what you are asking, you will have completely skip using any of the factory wires for the original head unit.
Run your - & + wires from a dedicated accessory like a power port or cigarette lighter or if equipped on one of the multiple fuse boxes your car has, from a accessory terminal, and then run new wires to the speakers because you can't trust what any of them might be linked into.
Good luck figuring out the speaker ohms rating and which pin in the factory speaker connector is + or -.
That still doesn't solve the problems created by opens in the CAN system circuit resulting from the missing factory head unit.
You also want to completely unplug the factory amp so it doesn't start sending garbage info down the CAN system line which means another component will be removed from the can system.
If you get past all that and everything else still works (wipers, power door locks, windows, etc...) then you lucked out because many components share the same pathways.
It also means that you probably didn't zap any other modules.
When you're all done, go have the car scanned for codes to make sure everything else is still communicating.
Lots of fun that I get to deal with everyday.
Bret
PPI-ART COLLECTOR
