2006 Factory Amp Subwoofer Wiring Diagram Help

2006 Explorer Eddie Bauer with Premium/Audiophile Audio, Navigation, Rear DVD Entertainment. Factory Amp and Subwoofer.

I want to replace the amp and sub, but keep the factory subwoofer enclosure. I have read for hours online about people installing various aftermarket items. What I can't find, though, is any help on the factory wiring harness that exists.

I have everything torn apart, subwoofer box removed, panels removed. No big deal on all of that stuff and it's documents online.

However, when disconnecting the factory amplifier, there is a harness with 5 wires. This harness goes into the factory amp and another harness comes out with the four speaker wires for the dual voice coil factory subwoofer.

The harness can be seen in another post. It has has an image showing how the user tapped into the harness, but no specifics given. It's also for a 3rd gen, I believe, so the wire colors don't align with what I see.



I tried to find an image of what the connector looks like on the terminal end. It's similar to the image below in that it's a 10-pin layout with 6 across the top, 2 in the lower left, and 2 in the lower right.



Using the numbers in the above image, the harness in my 2006 goes like this:

1. Purple with green stripe
2. Green with white stripe
3. ---
4. ---
5. Pink (light purple) with red stripe
6. Black with blue stripe (thick wire)
7. ---
8. ---
9. ---
10. Grey with red stripe (thick wire)

I'm 99.9999% certain that the Black/blue thick wire is ground. I also think that the thick Grey/red wire is the constant power. I assume that Pink/red is the remote on/off signal.

That would leave the Green/white and Purple/green wires to be the +/- speaker signals to the subwoofer.

But, I cannot find ANYTHING online about this harness. I plan to run speaker level inputs to my amp, but I have no idea how to discern positive from negative on the speaker wires. Thus, I can't move forward with my project.

I'm at my wit's end at trying to figure this out.

Does anyone have a wiring diagram or a text description of what the 5 wires are?

Thanks.

If you want to use speaker level inputs I think you are going to have to get them from behind the headunit. I am pretty sure the source going into the factory amp is not speaker level and is just a mono signal. You are going to want to run new Power and Ground wires for the new amp anyways so running signal wires should not be that much more work.

Thanks for the reply, but I'm not entirely sure I understand your response. For an amp you either have line-level (RCA plugs) or speaker-level (speaker wires carrying the actual audio signal). Factory radios never have (or had, maybe newer ones do) line-level outputs. So, you either need a line output converter or an amp that accepts speaker-level inputs.

There are definitely 2 wires carrying the subwoofer channel to the factory amplifier ... and, since it's a subwoofer, it is, of course, a mono signal (rather than stereo).

Anyway, I apparently figured it out ... or maybe it doesn't matter ... or maybe I have my sub out of phase.

Either way, I randomly chose one of the wires to be + and the other to be -. I then wired it all up and it sounds great. Ultimately, I still find/found it to be very frustrating that I can't find a good wiring diagram for the factory audio with the factory amp/subwoofer option.

I was using a PAC TR-4 to run a proper remote signal turn-on signal to the amp. The factory uses a non-standard 5 V signal that reportedly isn't enough juice for after-market amps ... which look for a 12 V signal. My assumptions above held, in terms of which wire was which.

Running the factory head unit to preserve the navigation system and rear DVD system.

Replaced the 4 door speakers with Kicker 40CS684 6x8 speakers. Blown away at how well these sound with the factory HU. $100 total.

Replaced the factory 8" subwoofer with a Kicker 40CWRT81 8" shallow-mount subwoofer with dual voice coils at 1 Ohm, wired for a 2 Ohm load. $100.

Replaced the factory amp with Kicker 12CX300.1 driving 349 RMS Watts at 2 Ohms (300 W is the nominal rating, Kicker actually prints a cert for the actual amp's output). $100

Very loud now. Won't win any competitions with a single 8" sub, but that wasn't the goal.

67L48 said:

Thanks for the reply, but I'm not entirely sure I understand your response. For an amp you either have line-level (RCA plugs) or speaker-level (speaker wires carrying the actual audio signal). Factory radios never have (or had, maybe newer ones do) line-level outputs. So, you either need a line output converter or an amp that accepts speaker-level inputs.

Click to expand...

Are you sure about that? I know in order to use an aftermarket head unit with the factory sub/amp, you use the RCA (line-level) sub output from the aftermarket headunit connected to the factory sub harness behind the headunit to send a signal to the factory amp. Knowing that, I just assumed that the factory head unit was also sending a line-level signal to the sub.

Here is what you need to use the factory sub with an aftermarket headunit.



Notice the RCA's and the smaller harness? That is what the sub uses for it's signal.

No, I'm not sure. I'm not entirely sure about any of it without a good wiring diagram.

I'm going to have to do more work, anyway, because the amp is powered on all the time ... the remote wire isn't working. Dead battery today ... but it's not my daily driver, so it will sit until Saturday.

This weekend, I'll fiddle around with the Line-Level vs Speaker-Level. However, I have the amp set to speaker-level right now and it seems to work as expected. If the HU was sending Line Level and I had the Amp set to accept Speaker Level, wouldn't the sound be very muted?

Looks like I have some more reading to do ...

06 stereo amp

have an 06 wiring book for sale 10 pl sh

waxman said:

have an 06 wiring book for sale 10 pl sh

Click to expand...

Good for you. Sounds like you need to go to eBay or craigslist.

Thanks, Tahoe for pushing the issue. You were correct. The sub hits even harder now that I switched it over to Line-Level from Speaker-Level.

Now for the bad news. The PAC TR-4 is sending constant power to the amp and it appears that it's a bad TR-4.

TR-4 is just a relay. It's needed because Ford and others send a 4-5 V turn-on signal to the factory amp. Aftermarket amps look for a 12V turn-on (remote) signal.

TR-4 uses the 12V constant power to the factory amp and converts it to a remote turn-on signal. It has 3 inputs: ground, 12 V battery, and whatever your low volt signal from the radio/speakers. Then, it outputs the 12V to the amp (or whatever).

My TR-4 passes the 12V on without the trigger input connected at all. Grrr.

In addition to the input trigger wire being apparently unused, the ground wire also doesn't seem to have any impact.

12 V Battery input connected.
12 V remote output connected.
Ground and trigger input wires disconnected, floating free in the air.

11 V detected on the output wire. Power just flows through it. It just ignores the ground and trigger

Shouldn't be rocket science. I just need a 12 V relay with a 5 V trigger. That's what the PAC TR-4 was supposed to be. And, I can't just walk down to the store to try a different one ... auto parts stores only have 12 V relays with 12 V triggers because, well, these are 12 V electrical systems. WTF Ford? Why not just send a 12 V trigger to your factory amps?!

Figured I'd tie this up for posterity.

I ordered an NVX XTRI1 Remote Turn-on Module/Trigger from Amazon. It's the same thing as the PAC TR-4. Once I connected the NVX module, things worked as expected. It takes the Ford factory 5 VDC turn-on (remote) signal to the factory amp and uses that as the signal to pass the 12 VDC over to the aftermarket amp as the turn-on (remote) signal.

So, my recommendation is to go with the NVX and ignore the crap PAC offering.

Just to be clear, I'll outline what I was accomplishing.

The factory amplifier has a 5 VDC turn-on (remote) wire from the factory HU. It has a constant 12 VDC wire supplying the power. It has a ground wire. It has the line-level output from the HU.

If you run the factory 5 VDC remote signal to an aftermarket amplifier, it won't work. The aftermarket amp is looking for a 12 VDC signal to turn on. 5 VDC isn't enough juice to trip the amp's internal relay to accept the 12 VDC power you ran from your battery.

You can run a 12 VDC line from one of your accessories. But, this requires a longer length run and it turns on the amp with the vehicle, rather than with the radio. Since that 5 VDC remote wire is already there, why not use it? And, right next to that 5 VDC remote is a nice 12 VDC constant power and a ground. Everything you need for a relay is right there.

The problem is that it's really difficult to find a 5 VDC relay. Autoparts stores have relays, but they're all 12 VDC. Just like with the factory amp, the 12 VDC relays won't trip over with the weak 5 VDC signal.

The NVX (and PAC, theoretically) are variable relays. Connect 12 VDC constant power in and the 12 VDC output wire to the amplifier's remote IN. That's what will turn on and off the amp. The relay ensures that it's not always sending power to the amp. The 5 VDC factory remote serves as the trigger for the relay.

The problem I had with the PAC is that the relay didn't do anything. The 12 VDC constant power was sent through without any trigger. The NVX operated properly. HU comes on, sends 5 VDC to NVX, NVX allows 12 VDC remote signal to flow to amp, and the amp powers on. HU turns off, no more 5 VDC to NVX, NVX stops 12 VDC remote signal to the amp, and the amp powers down.

Very nice when you get components to work.

Thanks again to Tahoe for taking the time to suggest Line-level instead of speaker-level. It makes a huge difference. I can't believe how hard this little 8" Kicker sub hits with the Kicker amp. Great system. Couldn't be more pleased.

Can you let me know how you get the factory sub and amplifier removed? I have been trying to find some instructions but can't seem to find anything. The sub in our Explorer cuts in and out, not sure if it is the subwoofer or the amplifier, ideally the sub and I can find a cheap enough replacement. But I may end up replacing both if from what I understand the amplifier is just powering the sub and not the door speakers.

Thanks.

67L48 said:

Thanks for the reply, but I'm not entirely sure I understand your response. For an amp you either have line-level (RCA plugs) or speaker-level (speaker wires carrying the actual audio signal). Factory radios never have (or had, maybe newer ones do) line-level outputs. So, you either need a line output converter or an amp that accepts speaker-level inputs.

There are definitely 2 wires carrying the subwoofer channel to the factory amplifier ... and, since it's a subwoofer, it is, of course, a mono signal (rather than stereo).

Anyway, I apparently figured it out ... or maybe it doesn't matter ... or maybe I have my sub out of phase.

Either way, I randomly chose one of the wires to be + and the other to be -. I then wired it all up and it sounds great. Ultimately, I still find/found it to be very frustrating that I can't find a good wiring diagram for the factory audio with the factory amp/subwoofer option.

I was using a PAC TR-4 to run a proper remote signal turn-on signal to the amp. The factory uses a non-standard 5 V signal that reportedly isn't enough juice for after-market amps ... which look for a 12 V signal. My assumptions above held, in terms of which wire was which.

Running the factory head unit to preserve the navigation system and rear DVD system.

Replaced the 4 door speakers with Kicker 40CS684 6x8 speakers. Blown away at how well these sound with the factory HU. $100 total.

Replaced the factory 8" subwoofer with a Kicker 40CWRT81 8" shallow-mount subwoofer with dual voice coils at 1 Ohm, wired for a 2 Ohm load. $100.

Replaced the factory amp with Kicker 12CX300.1 driving 349 RMS Watts at 2 Ohms (300 W is the nominal rating, Kicker actually prints a cert for the actual amp's output). $100

Very loud now. Won't win any competitions with a single 8" sub, but that wasn't the goal.

Click to expand...

did you use the factory wiring or did you just end up running new wiring all together? sorry for bumping an old thread. just unsure of how to go about wiring. I bought a single coil 8" and new amp. Not sure if I can use the factory harness. which I'm hoping I can

All I need to know is which wire is the signal. I'm just going to run new wiring up to the head unit . however I would like to just use the signal wire that's already in the harness. Does anyone know which wire it is?