KickerCS Upgrade with Kicker Key amp Install Assistance

Thanks

 

So there are 2 ways you can do this. Neither really need the metra harness or a t-harness unless you want to avoid any splicing of factory wire. But in this scenario, it's minimal and not permanent.

1- forget about the LOC and ditch the RCA cables. Take your speaker wire and military splice it into the front left or right speaker channel behind the radio in the factory harness (you can use your metra harness to tell what wires line up. Going for white or grey, but the speaker wire you have looks grey so that's the one i'd go for.)
This will get you an audio signal from your front right speaker.
Run that speaker wire to your amp/sub location, and splice it to the matching grey wires on the little 4-pin input harness. That sub can take speaker-level inputs so no need in wiring up the LOC for this particular sub.
Oh, and splice the blue wire you have there into the wire that corresponds with one of the Metra blue wires and run it back with the speaker wire. This will be your remote turn-on.

2- Wire up the LOC (again, military splice) to power, ground, and front speaker channels (again, use metra harness to see what wires match up)
Run the RCA's and blue wire from LOC to the sub. Set amp to lo-level if necessary.


I personally would go for option 1. Less splicing, and those RCA cables that come in the BOSS/PowerAkoustic/Rockville/SoundBox kits are awful. I have a recycle bin full of them in the shop.

 

We typically tell people to leave the wire "in case" because lots of people won't bother to see if there is actually a corresponding wire in that pin location. Since you clearly are taking the time to do it right, I trust you to handle it No sense leaving a wire if it's not hooked up to anything, but also don't want to depin it and now your FM radio signal is crappy.

 

so will these options give me optimal performance of the subs and speaker capabilities or should I purchase some higher end rca line out converters and higher end rca wires? Auto zone I just realized here locally carries Metra brand everything you can think of nearly and I just realized they also carry boom mat and boom mat baffles that I picked up. I was waiting to see your response before buying anything else.. I definitely want to try and do this right the first time since I’ve spent all this money and am taking the time to do it I may as well do it the right way. I actually bought the Metra harness from Best Buy yesterday. I just bought the amp kit Amazon recommended for my setup and was kinda in a hurry to buy bc time was running out in order to get it delivered by today. I’m not opposed to buying a total different amp kit if this boss kit is really that terrible. They’ve got a scoushe kit and Metra kits here locally in town. Thanks again @destin_meeks

 

With the product on hand, option 1 will be the best bet. And for that sub, anything else will be overkill in my opinion. You will be sending the audio signal straight from the radio into the sub. With a factory head unit and the infinity sub, that's all you need. Keep it simple and jam on

 

I’ve also considered getting the audio control lci2 for this install as my line out converter btt was told that wasn’t really necessary for a small powered sub

 

I wouldn't worry about it if it was me

 

Military splice I’ll need to create a gap into the existing speaker wire insulation then take a pin tool to separate the two wires forming an “eye loop” then strip the wire I’m tying into it and insert into the eye loop and then splice that wire into the gray with or without white stripe of tiny sub harness? Then connect it to the sub/amp

 

spot on! do that splicing method at the factory wiring harness behind the radio. Then for the tiny 4-pin harness you can solder or use crimp caps or butt connectors or whatever other method of attaching the 2 wires you prefer.

 

Thanks a lot man! I think I’ve got this

 

Ok so I’ve taken everything apart and see how to tackle this but to be clear on the military splicing behind the head unit.. the gray wire is a very small wire coming from behind the head unit.. is this the wire that I’m supposed to “eye loop” or do I do the eye loop with the speaker wire bc it has two wires running side by side. I’m confused at how I’m supposed to military splice this wire either way. @destin_meeks sorry to keep bugging over this I’m just hesitant

 

Finally, I can't wait to see it!

 

Sorry, I should have clarified!
The wire colors I referred to are the colors on the Metra harness you have on hand. Plug it in (temporarily) so you can see what wires are what, using the standard wiring colors as reference.

On that harness you will use the wires that line up with
-Grey and grey/black (front right speaker)
-blue (remote turn-on / powered antenna)

 

Ok yeah they’re the same color wires on the Metra harness that I bought. I’m 99% sure I know which wire to use I’m just unsure how I’ll be able to make an eye loop big enough to wrap the larger gauged side by side speaker wires. Maybe I’m overthinking it. Do both speaker wires go into the eye loop or only one? Essentially this will form a T connection or harness in doing this.. correct?

 

If helps a lot to pull back the tape or whatever is covering the factory wiring. Give yourself several inches to work with.

 

Ok yeah I didn’t pull the tape down. I started doing it after my sons basketball game and then it started to get dark outside on me but I over thought it and wasted time in doing so. Also jeeez I’m struggling to get the wire out of the cab to the under hood and battery. Should I just drill a decent sized hole for audio wires to run out beside the main rubber grommet and add my own rubber grommet for drilled hole or is there an easier way to do this wo the drilling

 

Depends on your trim level
You may have a grommet available right here

but if not, you can easily drill a hole in the kidney-shaped area just to the right, above the large factory grommet

 

Ok yes that little grommeted hole there is the one I have my Led light bar and ditch lights wiring running into the cab to my switches and that thing is maxed out. I think I’m going to drill a hole in kidney area if there is nothing behind it that I’ll damage by doing so