FatFreeVW

THE PROBLEM:
The speakers work, but you have to turn the head unit up all the way(which of course sounds distorted) to hear a barely "normal" volume from the speakers.

CAUSE:
? well I dont know and that's what I am trying to figure out. I think it's the amplifier not turning on, please read for the diagnostics.

DIAGNOSTICS:
I DONT HAVE THE FUNDS OR THE TIME TO ORDER A TERMINAL KIT, plus i shouldn't need one. I have male pins going into the female stock 20pin bose harness. (category I on the picture below) and the wires from the Pioneer unit are preout RCA's spliced to the their respective channel all going into CATEGORY I per channel (RF, RR, LF, LR)

I am using the stock harness pinout that comes with the stock Symphony radio as seen here.


I have the typical aftermarket VW/Audi harness going into III which controls the BATTERT + and switched POWER and also the ground.

When I turn the key on, the radio turns on (it literally has to be in the full ON position, not just in the ignition, like stock). The problem is, it's not very loud.

6 (in the I category) is going to 12v switched power and COM #3 is going to a common ground (don't know if it supposed to or not). Maybe I have these two backwards? I have tested for +12v on 6 pin and it is getting the juice.

What am i missing here. I have searched and search and without any luck. Am I right in assuming that the BOSE AMP isn't turning on? Am i missing the common ground per channel? Right now i have each RCA + and - being wrapped onto itself and terminating at the 1 pin going into the CATEGORY 1 female speaker channel pin.

--------- NOT RELEVANT TO THE POST, BELOW -----------

I am not taping into the bose ampilifier and I am going to keep as much stock as possible but shoudl someone else search this, here is the pinout of the bose amp, from what i have found online.

COMPUTEK::WMS

When I installed my Pioneer AVIC-D4 and Pioneer F700-BT I used the standard speaker cables coming out of the Pioneer harness to wire into the Audi harness side (Did not use the RCA connections as they are designed for aftermarket amplifiers).

FatFreeVW

right but then you are over amping/watting. because the head unit amps the signal which then goes to the bose, which amps the signal, which you risk damagint the wiring of the whole system.