Topic: HELP PLEASE!!! Installing new head unit (have problem) & FOUND EXTRA equipment

[KentuckyKeith]

I NEED HELP FROM PEOPLE WHO KNOW FOR SURE WHAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT.  WHILE I APPRECIATE THE "JUST GUESSERS", THIS IS MY DD AND WITH THE CURRENT PANDEMIC CAN'T AFFORD TO FRY MY CAR.

I will include as many pictures as I can to help with understanding what I am looking at.  I have a 2006 Sol NA

First I have to start with the extra equipment that I found installed.  When I removed the boomerang panel, i found two relays and wiring sitting on top of the factory radio.  I have no clue what this stuff is, so of course i start tracing wires.  They have tapped into constant power, acc power, and acc ground.  The constant power tap has an inline fuse installed.  Those wires are spliced into the relays and wires on top of the radio.  I trace the wires and at one end I find a black box that has been installed in a void up close to the windshield and behind the instrument display (see pics).  The black box lists no manufacturer and when I google the P/N (see pics) on it, google returns no results.  There appears to be a "hole" in one side of the black box that has what look like copper  contacts at the back of the hole (see pics).  To include as much info as possible, I also have hand written the print that is on the wire attache top the black box.  I then traced the two wires then went behind the dash and they snake around and through the firewall before being spliced into a yellow wire right at the connector on the ECU.  It appears the cut a wire right near the connector and on each leg of the wire, have spliced in a yellow and a black wire (see pics).  Does anyone have any idea what this is or what to do with it?

Second problem, as I am soldering wires between harnesses preparing to install the new stereo/head unit, I figured out that my new head unit does NOT have a AMPLIFIER power wire.  The new head unit is a JVC KW-V830BT.  I do have the Monsoon option on my car.  The new head unit I am installing has an option to run as a Two-Way or Three-Way System.  It also has pre-outs for SUB, MID, and HIGH.  I'm thinking I need to run a connection from the pre-outs to the Monsoon amp, then select the Three-Way System and follow the wiring diagram for hooking up to a three way system (basically instead of Left Front, Left Rear, etc it uses Left High, Left Mid, Right High, and Right Mid for wiring).  But that begs the next question, is the car wired for a three way system?  Is the Monsoon amp isolated to only the sub behind the passenger seat?  Should I be using pre-outs on all three ranges and not just the subs?  Also included in the install is an AXXESS GMOS-LAN-04 (mainly to retain chimes etc because I do not have OnStar) and an AXXESS ASWC-1 (retain steering wheel controls).  There are of course the usual, dash mounting kit, antenna adapter, microphone, etc stuff going in too, but for the electronics, its the JVC KW-V830BT, AXXESS GMOS-LAN-04, and AXXESS ASWC-1 (I am going to try to provide links to each of those manuals in an effort to provide as much data as possible).

JVC KW-V830BT Manual  http://www33.jvckenwood.com/pdfs/B5A-1733-00_KWV-K_EN.pdf

AXXESS GMOS-LAN-04 Manual  https://metra-static.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/INSTGMOS-LAN-04_web.pdf

AXXESS ASWC-1 Manual  https://metra-static.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/ASWC-1_General_Instructions.pdf

I don't know how to upload pics on this site yet, so here is a link to my google drive where there are 9 pictures that might help with the black box fiasco.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1YIERsW7GF07rudSA1bAQ8urKQpnpYwC7?usp=sharing


Any help you all can give is much appreciated.  I'm pretty handy, pretty confident, and as my ex liked to say "a world class tinker", but I'm stuck in both areas and really need some help.

Thank you everyone and have a safe and Happy Easter

[Sol Asylum]

Was your car a rental car at one point?

That LMU looks to be a tracking device. 

https://omnim2m.com/product/calamp-lmu-300-series/

You might contact that Calamp and see if they can tell you what it is and what it does, maybe get a wire diagram and then remove it if you want.

I know a few years ago loan companies were installing things like this to make sure they got paid if not they could turn off the car and track it for repo.

Sorry I can't help much with the radio other than to say yes our cars, some, did have a low med and high speaker system.  If you have the monsoon then you have the three ranges.

[Sly Bob]

I'd agree with Sol Asylum. The added unit DOES look like a telematic device and FCC certification on a device is usually a clue. Should be pretty easy to remove and put everything back to the way it should be. The numbers on the wire are generic and don't say anything other than wire gauge and other ratings, could come from any manufacturer.

https://www.calamp.com/products/telematics-devices/

There are lots of stereo install threads and perhaps someone else will chime in but if you aren't familiar with stereo installs and you purchased the equipment from Crutchfield they are VERY good at providing installation help. They would be able to answer all your questions. You need to use the pre-outs on the

I found the colour codes in the harness pretty straight forward when wiring everything to the radio. With the exception of the RCA connectors that I had to chop off the rear of the Kenwood and splice to the new harness it was white to white, pink to pink, blue to blue and so on.

I had a lot of trouble with my Axxess steering wheel module after it was installed. It just wouldn't program no matter what I did. I called Axxess tech support and they literally spent hours on the phone helping to troubleshoot. They eventually decided that the interface was bad and they sent me another. No issues at all after I installed it and 5 minutes later it was running great. Be sure to solder everything to make sure it will continue to run well into the future.

It's been a while since I installed the stereo system in my car, the configuration was the same and I used the same Axxess units but with a Kenwood head unit. No need to run wires past the connection behind the radio, the connection at the Axxess unit has everything you need, it's pretty well described in the manuals for the units.

As I remember you need to use the pre-outs and not the separate speaker connections otherwise you are going to overdrive the amp. Let the Monsoon handle splitting the signal to the different speakers.

[KentuckyKeith]

You two are amazing!!!  I am definitely going to contact Calamp and see what they say.

As for the head unit, your last sentence was gold and the fact that you didn't run anything past the back of the head unit is everything I needed.  Of course a radio isn't a requirement for driveability, but it sure makes it more comfortable.  It's also funny that you mention soldering the connections, because I'm the same way.  Soldered all 8 channels out of the new head unit before I couldn't find the amp power wire and realized the situation I was in.

Thank you again gentlemen....truly appreciate your help!

[Sly Bob]

I, like you, ALWAYS solder connections and when I was troubleshooting the steering wheel interface that was the first thing that the tech on the phone asked me. A few folks have installed without soldering and it works for a while. The device is all about different resistances with the push of different buttons and if the connections aren't soldered and you get a little more resistance in a crimped connection you're pulling everything apart again. Without soldering, the connections aren't reliable and reliability is especially important on the steering wheel interface.
Glad you are on the right track.

[elff]

If we have learned anything from the GMPP 3 bar sensors
SOLDER SOLDER SOLDER

[TomatoSoup]

If we have learned anything from the GMPP 3 bar sensors
[...]

Really?  They never said *anything* to me.  I just must not be as personable as you

[DeepBlueGXP]

Really?  They never said *anything* to me.  I just must not be as personable as you

You're not close enough, come down to his level and you'll hear them whispering

[Sol Asylum]

Or just get the right crimpers and not those crappy hardware store crimpers most techs have in their tool boxes.

[scoobyless]

You two are amazing!!!  I am definitely going to contact Calamp and see what they say.

As for the head unit, your last sentence was gold and the fact that you didn't run anything past the back of the head unit is everything I needed.  Of course a radio isn't a requirement for driveability, but it sure makes it more comfortable.  It's also funny that you mention soldering the connections, because I'm the same way.  Soldered all 8 channels out of the new head unit before I couldn't find the amp power wire and realized the situation I was in.

Thank you again gentlemen....truly appreciate your help!

The amp power wire is usually blue/white and according to that manual you do have one, and you don’t need to run anything to the amp, that’s the purpose of the GMOS.  Wire it per the instructions and it’ll work, factory systems aren’t usually wired like aftermarket and that’s why interfaces are required when upgrading parts of a newer vehicles system unless you’re bypassing all of the factory equipment/wiring.

[KentuckyKeith]

Short Update, and primarily just to keep anyone from wasting any time with helping me (unless you of course are posting the info for someone to find in the future).  The new radio did have an amp power wire, I found it and soldered it correctly.  As a matter of fact, the above problems I was experiencing have all been solved, save for the steering wheel controls.  I think someone may have jinxed me, lol.  Seriously, the ASWC-1 is not detecting the car according to the LED Feedback light.  I have already double checked everything, so this weekend I am going to triple check all of the connections and wire harness orientation for using the directions about which pin to connect to.  If that doesnt fix the issue I guess I will be getting on the phone with tech support Monday morning.

[Sly Bob]

Glad you got things fixed up other than the steering wheel controls. You MIGHT have a bad steering wheel control module if my experience was any indication. Yeah tech support is great. It was the manufacturers tech support after exhaustive testing in the car that got to the bottom of my issue. As I remember a volt/ohm meter was required to check resistances as we went along.
Sure glad that you are heading in the right direction!   

[KentuckyKeith]

Welllllllllllllllllll, this whole thing went south quickly.  I'm hoping someone might know or have any ideas of what might cause the problem I am up against now.  With only the GMOS-LAN04 connected, and nothing else, the security light comes on and will not allow the vehicle to start.  Let me also say, after spending a couple hours on the phone with Axxess Integrations tech support, the tech said they have never seen this happen before.  Just a quick run down on our troubleshooting process.
1.  Reinstalled factory radio - everything functions normally.
2.  Connected interface wiring harness with factory wiring harness, but left the GMOS interface unplugged - everything functions normally.
3.  Connected GMOS interface, but left the ASWC-1 and aftermarket stereo unplugged - security light and car won't start.
4.  Disconnected wire harness from GMOS interface - everything functions normally.
5.  Verified all wires on both the factory harness connection and the GMOS interface connection are the correct color.
The tech was unable to find any info on this condition and said that they have never seen this happen.

So I am reaching out here to anyone who has seen this happen or maybe has any ideas on what could be causing this wild phenomenon.  The tech said he was going to continue searching and talk to a couple other people, and he would call me back when he comes up with something, probably not until tomorrow.  In the meantime, "just guessers" and experts alike.......I'm all ears!!!

[Sly Bob]

Maybe the module is bad and they need to send you a new one. Sounds like you have it covered otherwise.