Remote turn wire with factory head unit?
 

I need a remote turn on wire for my powered subwoofer. Is there one behind the factory OEM head unit?

Will I need to pull the radio from the dash to access it or can I get to it from under the dash?

There is no remote turn on lead from the factory head unit. You will need to tap into an ignition switched lead, wire ina switch of your own to control amp power, or get a current sensing relay that can be tapped into a speaker lead to detect the radio on and flip the relay. This has been covered before, so you may be able to find some more info if you try some searches. Aslo, Nuke posted a sticky at the top of the audio forum which may answer some of your other wiring questions.

Whether you need to take the deck out or not will depend largely on what options you choose. I pulled the deck and used a set of Schosche wiring harnesses (2 - one regular as to install an aftermarket deck, and one reverse as to connect stuff to the factory deck) and used the 2 to bring out all the connections I needed for the LOCs and my amp, etc.

There isn't one on the stock HU. There are a few options you can choose.

1. Hook it up to the ignition/switched wire on the stock HU. It will then be on whenever the ignition is turned on, even if the HU is off.

2. Hook it up to a switch. This might be nice since its a sub. You would be able to turn it off while having the other speakers still playing music. Its good if you listen to the news or radio talk shows.

3. Get a current sensing relay. This hooks up to one of the speaker wires and will turn the sub on whenever the speakers are getting a signal. So the sub will turn on and off with the HU.


I went with number 3 for my amp because its not powering a sub. If I end up adding a sub later on I will probably go with the second choice so that I will have the option of listening to the radio without the sub.

Going with a DEI $11 Remote Power Adapter
 

Now I just need to find one in town, otherwise, I'll just order it and wait. Thanks for your input!

I see Dermen and I were writing the same response at the same time :D

FWIW, I went with tapping into the ignition lead into the deck, and have had no problems. Dermen did it the good way though - with the relay, your amp will only be on when there is music, which is ideally what you want.

Golfdad....you can use one of the options that Dale or derman suggested...

HOWEVER.....there IS a wire to the STOCK headunit that is only powered up when the head unit is ON.....

its PIN 10 on the connector....if you will look at the stickied thread at the top of the forum that has the PIN OUT in it....which is near the bottom of the post.....you will see the image of the pinout....and PIN 10 is an AUX and it works just fine for an ON/OFF remote wire to your powered sub.....I am using it for the remote on/off for my amp.

This is the wire I was talking about with option number 1 posted above. However, I think that the wire above is switched on with the ignition, not the HU.