Car Stereos: 2003 CTS Replacing factory amp with an aftermarkt, brown rf, speaker wires

Question
QUESTION: Hi Justin,
I have replaced my stereo with an aftermarket touch screen, replaced the interior speakers and now I would like to replace the factory amp.  Can I use the speaker wires running to the factory amp to the aftermarket or do I need to run wires from each speaker to the aftermarket amp.  If I can use the wires from the factory amp, can I remove the factory amp.  Thanks for your time.

ANSWER: Hi Randon,

I'd run new wires.  Usually in factory systems, the lowlevel signal is carried across standard wires and into a loom without the use of RCAs.  So even if you were to splice and make an RCA out of them, you'd make a mess of things, the joint wouldn't be nearly as good, and uninstalling it down the road would be a nightmare.

Your best bet is just to run some fresh RCAs/power/ground/remote to a new aftermarket amp.  It is more work, but definitely worth it in the long run.

Justin

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Yes, I have done so.  I have ran the power/RCAs/ground and remote wires to the aftermarket amp.  What my question was, Can I use the speaker wires running to the factory amp to hook up to the aftermarket amp.

Answer
Hi Randon,

Oops, first sentence was a bit misleading.

The short answer then, is yes.  You can reuse the wires.  You'd have to cut them (leave enough length for reattachment if you need/want to later), and then connect them to your new amp.

For what it's worth, I wouldn't do that.  With fresh wire, you can know exactly where what is, and handle all of that, and there's no uninstall to worry about.

Only remove the factory amplifier if you're sure you've cut all power to it.  Having a live loom just hanging there would be bad.

That said, if you want to reuse the wires, here's some info:

If the speaker wires coming off the amp follow GM's standard wire colours, then the wires will be:

RR- - light blue
RR+ - dark blue

LR- - yellow
LR+ - brown

RF- - light green
RF+ - dark green

LF- - light grey
LF+ - tan

But you should test first to make sure.  To find each speaker, take a pair of wires, and a multimeter. Set the multimeter to DC Volts.  Touch each wire to each lead off the multimeter.  Ensure there is no voltage there.  If it reads so, then switch the multimeter to impedance.  Check the reading.  If you get ~4ohms, you've found a speaker.  Once you've done that, take a double A battery, and touch each end of the speaker wire to each end of the battery, and run your finger along the battery.  This will tell you which speaker it is you've found.  Then hook it up to your amplifier accordingly.

Justin