new amp w/ subs for our car.

[MRGRIMM]

My girl Stephanie drives a 00 grand am gt. She has a pair of JBL 10" subs she wanted to put in it so I went and bought an 800w sony explode amp and a wiring kit. I started to install the equipment, but no RCA plugins are on the factory headunit. I do not want to buy a new head unit because this vehicle has steering wheel controls for the audio which she loves, and I think that feature would be lost if a new unit was installed. The factory system is a MONSOON system that does have a factory amp. Such things as an in-line convertor for the RCA's to run from the rear speakers to the amp have been suggested to me, along with just tapping into the ports on the plug in on the factory amp...I am kind of lost here, I guess I need to keep the factory amp and just use the new amp to power the subs? I have little experience in car audio, any help or suggestions would be great because she has been looking foward to using these subwoofers for a while now, and now the time comes and it's not as straight foward of an install as I assumed it would be.

[black90lx]

you can buy an adapter from meijer that lets you splice into the factory speaker wire and it has converts it to RCA out puts. i have never used them so i dont know how they work. i think it is only like $15 or $20

[MRGRIMM]

thanks, I guess I will try that...seems to be what others do as well

[ibstrokin]

If your amp has hi level inputs,you dont need the adapter. If you do buy the adapter,Best Buy sells quality units,I beleive the part # is sni35.

[black90lx]

If your amp has hi level inputs,you dont need the adapter. If you do buy the adapter,Best Buy sells quality units,I beleive the part # is sni35.

i completely forgot about them :HYF:

[PKFIRE]

you can buy an adapter from meijer that lets you splice into the factory speaker wire and it has converts it to RCA out puts. i have never used them so i dont know how they work. i think it is only like $15 or $20

They work fine. There should be an adjustable gain on it to match your input voltage rating to your RCA inputs to your amp.

[MRGRIMM]

hmmm, still having problems. I found the bass channels on the rear speakers so I tapped into them with the wires coming from the input on the SCHOSCHE adapter I ended up getting cause it was all crap-mart had. Then ran the RCA's from the adpater to the amp and got just bass coming from the subs, ok sweet I thought. So I started to screw around with the gains and got it to sound OK ( I found out that the JBL subs are shot by the way, coming apart and rattling unless I push on them). Anyways, just to check everything I turned the car off and back on again...no pop or anything, but now the speakers do not put out any sound, and the amp is still getting power. Either the SCHOSCHE adapter box is junk (fried?) or I messed up the wiring in the car some how...the abs and brake and battery light came on temporarily until I turned the ignition off and then re-started the car!? I am done with this until I take it to a place and pay to have them install it all.

[MRGRIMM]

edit...Factory speakers still get sound, the subs are just not working because that adapter I think?