Bypassing factory amps.

 Has anyone ever used the exsisting wiring on a Nissan (Clarion) two factory amplifiers, but bypassed the amps by  removing the plugs and connecting the wires together ? The amp for the front speakers is shot  and I am trying to get around running new wire in this situation.

 Also should I leave the rear speakers amp inline or could that harm the head units electronics?

The problem with bypassing the factory amps and still using the factory speakers is that usually they are made to work with each other and each other only.  This is almost always the case when it's a bose system, and any attempt to power the speakers directly from an aftermarket head unit will eventually fry its amplifier.

Infinity systems usually use 4 ohm speakers and are thus easier to integrate with aftermarket components, which is why Powerslave0 was able to wire up his stuff that way without any problems.

Best thing for you to do in my opinion is replace the entire system with aftermarket head unit and speakers and eliminate the factory amps and speakers.  But that would end up costing quite a bit of money.

Another option would be to get the front stock amp repaired at a place like this, and then use an amp integration harness to connect an aftermarket deck to the stock amps and speakers.  But you probably will have to spend at least $150 for the repair.

Are you absolutely sure that it's the amplifier and not the speakers that has gone bad?

This link has a lot of good additional info on the clarion/bose systems:

http://canuck.audioguy.net/bose.html

If both speakers were out or intermittent I would say that yes it's definitely the amp, but if one of them works fine all the time, you might wanna consider a bad speaker as well.  Turning the bass up and then the volume until it starts distorting might be causing a blown voice coil to realign itself temporarily, or maybe one of the connectors or speaker leads is loose and the vibration is intermittently causing contact between two wires...i dunno.

Have you tried testing the front left speaker for resistance?  Sometimes you can just test the wires going to the speakers, but the most reliable way is to physically place DMM leads on the speaker terminals themselves and you should get between 1.3 and 4 ohms.  If it reads anything else, like 0.2 ohms or it keeps fluctuating, then it's blown.  Also, if you push the cone in and out while the leads are hooked to the terminals, and once you push it hard enough on it you get the proper ohms reading, this also indicates a blown speaker.

I don't know what kind of vehicle you have so I don't know how you're gonna have to get access to the left front speaker, but that Web site www.carstereohelp.com should have the proper removal instructions.

 Thanks Again ESmith69.

I will check that speaker. The vehicle I am working on is a '95 Pathfinder xe with the Clarion sound system.

If you have a DMM you might want to double check that speaker just for the heck of it.  But if you've already tried to use a test speaker and it didn't work either then chances are there's a problem with the amplifier.

I don't know if you know how to do the following things or not, but for the benefit of all who may read this post I'll go ahead and post these instructions....

As far as figuring out which speaker wires are which for the ones coming OUT of the factory amplifier, the only way to do it is really to use a speaker popper.  9 volt battery wired to leads for negative and positive.  Touch each wire from the battery to whichever wire you think may be part of a speaker pair.  If you hear a popping sound then you know you've got a pair of wires for whichever speaker made the popping noise.  Repeat this process til you find all four pairs of speaker wires.

To determine the correct polarity, a DMM connected to the corresponding positive wire on the factory amp output will show positive voltage with the system turned on, and negative voltage with the negative wire.  It is also possible to look at the speaker cone and if it pops inward then you've got the polarity reversed. If it pops outward (i.e. normal cone movement) then you have the correct polarity.  Only problem with this method is that you may not be able to actually see the speaker.  Up to you which method you decide to use.

Make sure you're connecting your 9volt battery to the wires going directly to the speakers, not the wires going in to the amp, as you can damage the amplifier this way.

Any other questions feel free to ask away.  And let us know how everything turns out.

 Well I figured out the wiring and bypassed the front amp.It sounds good although there is not alot of bass up front.Probably the 2.4 ohm speakers.I will probably try some higher impedance speakers and see what that sounds like. The Jensen head units manual states that speakers from 2 to 8 ohms are acceptable.No smoke yet.

 Thanks All for all the help,