DudeDah

<center><img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/72762/stereo_question.jpg"></center><p>Hi, please be patient as I describe my situation. I am try to replace the speakers and subwoofer in my '98.5 Avant with a Bose system and Conert H/U. I am going to keep the stock H/U and get an RCA out adapter to run to the amps. We're all good there. My question comes in with the speakers. The sub os going to run of its own amp that gets it's signal from the preout of the amp driving my compnent speaker sets. The components are where my question lies. I have Boston Acoustics ProSeries 4.5's for the front doors and 5.5's for the rear doors. Today I removed the Bose subwoofer enclosure which also houses the amp that drives the entire system. In doing so, I discovered two wiring harnesses connected to the enclosure. I assumed that one was and input from the H/U and the other was the output to the rest of the stereo.

(1) First off, does anyone have a detailed wiring diagram that specifies what each wire is by color/stripe?

This discovery excited me because I thought I could just make ALL my connections there.

(2) Would you recommend using the speaker-level input to my amplifier and forego purchasing the RCA aux output or is the RCA route better?

Then I got to thinking about the speakers. I was going to mount the crossovers for each set of speakers in the amp rack I am making for the spare tire well. I thought I could run wires from the crossovers for the front speaker directly to the wiring harness since the Bose system already has a seperate woofer tweeter setup. Then I found the picture below:

(3) are the "thing-ies" I have circled in red crossovers? Is there just one output to each front channel that is then split by stock crossovers? If so, my idea won't work and I will need to mount the Boston crossovers in the doors.

I figured I would have to locate the Boston crossovers for the rear speaker ijn the doors since the stock setup has coaxials in the doors and thus just one output headed there.

Is my discovery of the wiring harnesses only complicating matters?

BIGGEST QUESTION: Does anyone have the detailed wiring diagram that labels the wires by color/stripe.

THANKS FOR READING!!!...if you got this far.

MacSub

in the tweeter line to filter out mid/lo frequencies. I've never seen a proper Xover in a stock system Bose or non Bose.
I would by pass all the Audi wiring, as it is shockingly bad. The pre-outs don't have the necessary screen to protect them from interference and even if you work out the pin-outs I guarantee you will have noise/interference problems with an aftermarket amp.
Definately use the RCA adapter, don't use a speaker level input. The Bose amp speaker output is designed for a 2 ohm load, your speaker level input is a 4 ohm load so you will only get half the signal strength using this method. Also the Bose output is tweaked to match the wierd speaker setup. You will need to get a dealer to reset the HU back to non Bose mode as well (or someone with VAGCOM).

DudeDah

I bypass all the wiring in the system I have to have the VAG-COME thing done? Will they do that willingly?

THANKS SO MUCH for replying to this!! You've been a great help.

MacSub

They may charge you a small fee, but yes