'08+ Factory Sub with Aftermarket HU
 

Had this posted in another thread, but it wasn't getting any attention, so I figured it warranted a new one.

I recently installed a Pioneer FH-8000BT head-unit into my '09 BRM. It looks and sounds great, but I wwas wondering if anyone has connected their under-floor factory subwoofer to an aftermarket head unit. I was thinking it should be possible to cut off the connector that went into the head-unit from the sub, crimp on some RCA terminals, connect the remote wire, and run power to the battery.... But I don't know the wiring of the connector.

If anyone has done this or has thoughts on my strategy, let me know please! Thanks.

DONT CUT ANYTHING!!!! okay the sub actually gets the signal from the front door speakers. so the only thing you need to do is shoot 12 volts ( acc ) to the amp turn on lead and your factory sub will work.
1. on your factory haness!!!!! before the aftermaket toyota harness that you should have used is a pink wire. if you take your amp turn on lead from aftermarket deck ( blue with white ) and splice that into the pink wire your sub will work just like it did from the factory.

I'll look into this, thanks Josh.

I was under the impression that one of the extra two plugs connected the sub and the other was the iPod/Aux connections in the armrest. If what you say is true, I wonder what the other is for. I'll give what you suggested a shot though, thanks again.

ive already done this a bunch of times, its easy and no cutting or major project. its simple....

So, I tried what you said, and it didn't have any effect. It doesn't really make sense when you think about it either, because that pink wire is the left-front speaker + line. On the two unused plugs, there are also pink wires. Was I supposed to tap one of those? Not sure what they were, so I didn't try it.

I was searching for the same thing too, and I came across this link:

https://www.scionlife.com/forums/vie...ight=subwoofer

I haven't tried it yet, but I am going to hopefully do it this week if I get time. I hope this helps, that is if you haven't already found an answer.

he nailed it

Nice! You are better at searching than I, thank you for that find.

No problem. I was going to do this so I could gain control of the factory sub with my aftermarket head unit. But since I heard that the factory subwoofer is run off the front speakers I guess that means all my sub controls will be bypassed. Let me know how it works for you; IE makes the subwoofer sound better and such. Because I do have a single 12" from my old set up ready to hook up, but it is a little too large for my tC.

Yeah, this doesn't allow head unit control of the sub. For that you'd have to remove the line that taps the front speakers and put them into the pre-outs for your sub. But since the amp is currently taking high level inputs, I'm not sure how they'd handle the pre-outs.

The sound quality is still the same as it was with the stock headunit, maybe marginally better. It's running off the improved signal from the new head unit, but still running through the same (crappy) amp to the same (crappy) sub.

At any rate, I'm glad to have it working again, and it will hold me off until I decide what I want my new setup to be. I'm trying to decide if I want to go stealth and have respectable bass, or toss in a single 12" and use a little trunk space.

I was looking at the ED Stealth sub too. I am not a big fan of anything small than 12" for a sub, but I just placed my 12" sub in my trunk to bring it to my new place and man did it take up a lot of space. So from last night alone, the ED Stealth sub is looking good even if it is a 10".
Sort of off topic, when you switched to your aftermarket head unit did your rear speakers sound any better? I swapped out all 4 of my speakers in my tC with the speakers from my old set up, and the rears sound like crap, no bass at all and quite. And I know they sounded better in my old car. I am hoping this would improve when I install my aftermarket head unit but I wasn't sure if Scion put in bass blocks on the back speakers or not.

acutaly, u dont have to modify any wiring... your wire harness adaport for the scion has a wire that feeds the factory sub - the power antenna line! I hooked mine up and just change the setting so the power antenna is always on.

(i noticed that sub was only working on FM)