Fordication

Ok, so now that I got the other items straightened out I need to talk about car stereos. The factory radio had a capacitor that split and leaked all over the mother board. I am having it repaired because the radio looks brand new. The guy is charging me $125 which I can live with. I found new factory radios on Ebay for $169 and when I bought the car the dealer lowered the price $1000 to cover things like the radio so I am good. My question is that I know that there are factory radios that are upgraded to accept Bluetooth and Input cables for phones. I suspect that a new stereo is probably the better way to go. I will keep the factory radio so that when I sell the car in the future it sells like it came from the factory. I like the 2Din stereos from Soundstream, the VRCP-65 to be exact. I know that I will have to buy a new Bezel which is not the issue. My car came with the Amp and all of the wiring for the speakers go thru it. What is the proper way to bypass the Amp so that I can use the Amp in the stereo. BTW, what do you guys think of my choices on this matter?

Injuneer

To give accurate responses, people need to know the specifics of your car. We suggest that you add a "Signature":

https://www.camaroz28.com/forums/lt1...nature-879835/

There are options for audio systems, so the RPO code for the audio system your car left the factory with would be helpful to include in this thread.

GaryDoug

For the 2002 Camaro: Unless your are talking about megawatts of power, one way to go is to make a jumper set to go from the input pins on the amp cable connector to the output pins on the same connector. Use the service manual to match them. I would get a Delphi mating connector and a bunch of pins for it. Now if you are using a high powered head unit with high power speakers, that might create too much resistance and make for some excess distortion. The alternative is to run new wires to the speaker of higher power. Personally I would make the jumper. I have seen a topic with the jumper/adapter the OP made on one of the F-car web sites:
https://ls1tech.com/forums/stereo-el...ss-wiring.html

By the way, none of the 4 tweeters use the amp (doors and hatch area), the wires for those go direct from the head unit to the speakers.

DrewHMS97SS

My first question is what are you looking to accomplish with the stereo? The factory stereo (when not equipped with the Bose option) was not great in my opinion. If you just want to play a bit of music, and are not an audiophile, then power off an aftermarket deck should be fine. If you go that route, I would still recommend aftermarket speakers, as the factory speakers are known to sound terrible and blow using aftermarket deck amps. I am not as familiar with the factory amp system, so Gary's link would be a good place to look.

The hardest part of re-wiring the speakers is getting wire into the doors, which still isn't that bad. In either case (audiophile or not) I would run new wire and leave the factory wire for your later resale.

If you were unaware, you can get the double din bezel from Crutchfield for around $80 if you also buy the stereo from them.

If you do want an amazing stereo, let me know and I will put together some things to look at. Aftermarket decks like to show 45 or 50 watts by 4 speakers, but they are advertising peak power, not RMS, which is usually between 6 and 8 watts. Will it work? Sure. Are you under delivering power to even inexpensive speakers? Yes.

GaryDoug

I don't think there was a Bose option after 97. From 98 and on, there was only the base stereo (no amp) and the Monsoon stereo with an amplifier in the passenger-side hatch area. That amplifier drives all speakers except the 4 tweeters.

Fordication

Ok I am in Africa for a few weeks so the trip to the internet are getting difficult. It is slow up here in the Sahara. I did my signature but that will probably not make much difference. Yes, this is the monsoon stereo with the 200 watt amp from the factory. As I said I will not be cutting any factory wires to upgrade the system. I have a radio selected that I like that will allow for Bluetooth, Phone, GPS, Backup Camera, 300 watt amp, Touch Screen, USB, MP3, Aux In and a few more things. My concern is I will have to bypass the amp to get sound to the speakers. Thank you for the information on the tweeters. I was not aware that they received their own signal so when I have the radio installed I will make sure my radio guy knows that. When you do research on the factory stereo you can find a few companies out there that upgrade them for you so that you can use Bluetooth and Aux In cables. That way you keep your factory radio and you have a small cable coming out of the side of the console for your music source. I was just curious if any of you had gone this route or aftermarket with the amp in how you bypassed that amp.

GaryDoug

I am not aware of any Bluetooth mod, but I have done a modification to add an Aux socket. It involves cutting 4 wires from the main circuit board in the head unit to the CD drive. You route those wires to an external jack. The jack normally routes signals from the drive if nothing is plugged in. The only real problem is that you have to keep a CD in the drive playing all the time while you hear audio from the Aux jack.
I know there is a kit that involves connecting to the cable to the external cd changer in the hatch area to do the same thing. At the time I did my mod, I did not have the external drive. That method has the same drawback with having to have a CD playing in the changer to use it. With both methods, that is because the head unit will not use those wires unless there is a CD playing.

DrewHMS97SS

What deck did you select (I'd like to look up the specs)? 300 watt sounds like 75 watts per channel peak, which will still only net 10ish watts RMS.