Help Needed - Front Speaker Taps for Subwoofer

[ShadowOfTheTree]

This weekend I replaced all speakers, added sound deadening and foam rings. Took about four hours.

Then I hit a wall.

Installing a powered all-in-one subwoofer. I wanted to tap into the front speakers to get the cleanest bass without being handcuffed to Driver Only/All Occupants or Forscan change to the default equalizer, and finally connect to the sub’s high-level inputs.
I watched multiple videos, read multiple threads, checked and rechecked Crutchfield’s wiring diagram.

Driver side, above dead pedal I tapped blue (left +) and grey/brown (left -). Result, no sound at sub. It was getting some signal because it powered on. I then tapped the passenger side behind the A/C controls, tapped yellow/orange (right +) and green/brown (right -). Result, I have sound in the sub. Adjust the balance to the right and it stays, adjust to the left and it went silent.

I moved the driver side tap to the blue and grey/brown behind the A/C controls. Same results. I even used new taps and new speaker wire. I did notice if I only connect negative driver it gives sound, but adding the positive driver or left + by itself it cuts out.

I swapped from high-level input and installed a LOC. But same results Left RCA is no good, Right RCA is good.

I’m going to check tonight swapping RCAs left to right but I feel it’s a problem with my Left+. Also run the RCAs from another vehicle to mine and mine to that vehicle to isolate the issue.

Anyone ran into a similar situation?
Any troubleshooting advice?
Any tips?

I read somewhere about the Ford system protecting itself. Perhaps I damaged the Blue (left+) wire on my first tap and the system has shut off left+ to protect itself? The left door and tweeter are working.

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[rusty_shackleford]

I had a similar issue, but I ran a loop back harness to the amps instead of tapping because I wanted to go full active on all of the speakers. The entire front left channel would drop out, no DTCs or anything.

I was installing a new amp for the subwoofer and found I could make it happen repeatedly with a 50hz -5dB tone, works fine at 21 volume, left channel gone at 22. The only way I could get it to come back was to physically pull the harness out of the ACM, removing 12v+, and plug it back in. Soft reset with the button holds wouldn't do it.

The amp I use for the doors and stuff is a JBL DSP4086, I ended up putting the selector on it from HI1 to HI2 and the behavior hasn't happened again. It has to be something with the way your amp or LOC handles the input, and the built in dummy load solved it for me.

Additionally, The radio would initially throw DTCs for open circuits on the speakers when I first installed the amp, and chimes would default to the cluster.

Playing with forscan, I set front satellite speakers to all tweeters, no more dtcs or cluster chimes.

 

[ShadowOfTheTree]

I had a similar issue, but I ran a loop back harness to the amps instead of tapping because I wanted to go full active on all of the speakers. The entire front left channel would drop out, no DTCs or anything.

I was installing a new amp for the subwoofer and found I could make it happen repeatedly with a 50hz -5dB tone, works fine at 21 volume, left channel gone at 22. The only way I could get it to come back was to physically pull the harness out of the ACM, removing 12v+, and plug it back in. Soft reset with the button holds wouldn't do it.

The amp I use for the doors and stuff is a JBL DSP4086, I ended up putting the selector on it from HI1 to HI2 and the behavior hasn't happened again. It has to be something with the way your amp or LOC handles the input, and the built in dummy load solved it for me.

Additionally, The radio would initially throw DTCs for open circuits on the speakers when I first installed the amp, and chimes would default to the cluster.

Playing with forscan, I set front satellite speakers to all tweeters, no more dtcs or cluster chimes.

Solved????!!!!!!

Well the speaker wires going High-Level Input to the sub/amp gave me an issue when the L+ was connected. I tried to get around this with a Metra OY-AJLO LOC (powered, required 12v) from Oriellys. I just installed a non-powered Kicker KISLOC2. And stereo works on the subwoofer. Something about how the Ford signal interacts with the Metra LOC and the High-level Inputs on the subwoofer, a different LOC seems to have fixed it. Thanks for the advice.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

Solved????!!!!!!

Well the speaker wires going High-Level Input to the sub/amp gave me an issue when the L+ was connected. I tried to get around this with a Metra OY-AJLO LOC (powered, required 12v) from Oriellys. I just installed a non-powered Kicker KISLOC2. And stereo works on the subwoofer. Something about how the Ford signal interacts with the Metra LOC and the High-level Inputs on the subwoofer, a different LOC seems to have fixed it. Thanks for the advice.

Glad you got it going. I don’t believe Oriellys stocks anything worth buying for an audio upgrade. Except wire maybe, connecters, ect. Higher quality stuff usually has this exact issue in mind with dummy loads built in and selector switches for more compatibility.

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