Hey guys im not really sure if this applies in this forum but i removed the factory cd player in my 04 wrangler because it kept chewing cd's, I put in an aftermarket player and i lost all of my base because the wiring harness didnt have the hook up for it. I was wondering if anybody knew how to solve this problem as its not very fun cruising with the top down and having some hollow sounding music. I have another player that came with an amp that i plan on putting in. Will the amp help? i couldnt find anything on the internet about it. Thanks  

yea the amps going to help,that and some cubic inches in the subwoofer dept.
when your tops up,you have an enclosed area,so,its easyer to have bass inside tha jeep,but when you open up and let the sunshine in,your open to the world and all the waves are free to roam.
its a common prob with open air vehicles,i dont remember the ratio of watts to overcome the problem, but a kilowat is not unheard of. as for the head unit,look for a line level/speaker level aapter to give ya back some rca plugs, if your really crafty you might look at alpine and rockford-fosgate products,they have the adpter built in to cross over and equalize the sound, now your not going to comunicate with large sea creatures if you cant pressurise the cabin,so trying to run below round 60 htz and lower will take more power than zeus.like i said ya need cubic inches of speaker and power to drive them efficiently,
now..some folks are not too picky bout the quality of the sound,as long as its loud,wakes the neighbors and attracts every theiving hoodratts attention for a mile,then as long as the seat vibrates ,and the wet bag of sand thump of psuedo bass occurs,then more power to them,
but real bass will take a little mony ad a visit to the sterio shop for advice.
But the most important thing..if it sounds good to you,and your happy,good! little changes will do wonders..like adding a bazooka tube w/amp to the back behinde the seat!
happy wheelin!  

Thanks for the reply, i wasnt to concerned about having the top down and sound escaping its even when i have the top up that its just so hollow. i was just making sure that if i ran the amp that i could get the factory sub to come to life again.  

Oh yeah the new sytem i got is a pioneer system with a deck and 6 cd changer. the amp is a MTX any idea how well this system works? or any place where i can get a wiring diagram?  

all ya gotta do is plug in the pre outs. if ya have a decent one it at least has 3 pairs of rca plugs..
high, mid and low.
if the amp is a 2 channel and will only be running a or a pair of subs just use the low or rear jacks to the amp.

most of my stuff is old, i still have a six channel electronic cross over and three amps... two four channel fosgate 1500w and a 2500w two channel for the old subs.  

those mtx amps are pretty well built!for a wiring diagram try crutchfield.com
as always the more power you have to drive the sub the better,also,if ya can ...look for the specs for a box,for the same size woofer,give or take a couple of inches,there are plenty of hardcore subs able to utilize a small box,down to a cubic foot or less,but ya dont want to go too small,a sealed box is good all the way around to go.
now spec time.
1) how many watts is it"RMS", that will tell you the real watts,@a certain voltage
2) how many wats would your existing sub take,do a little diggin,important coz..
3) power is dissipated as heat,and to dissipate it will heat up the voicecoil,too much and you will burn it out.
4) to low a operating frequency,and you will over extend the travel of the speaker,bottoming it out,again,doin nasty to it.
4a) now,you've got a great head unit with hi,mid and low frequency outputs,you may have a way to boost/cut/adjust the frequencys! which is good,and depending on the model number,you may have a crossover built in,which is great too!
4b) if you do great!
5) when ya hook up the equipment,and all is working,
A)goto the crossover/bass section and set the control to flat or 0 ,that away you dont over do the bass,on the amp there may be a bass boost control,set to minimum,we'll get to it inna min.
B) there should be a "gain control" knob on the amp.
Now.. after you've made sure all the equipment is not letting the blue smoke out,
put some music you know pretty well,you a good mix of low bass,mids and highs.
C) turn all the controls for the speakers to flat.turn up the music to about 75% of full volume,and now you can set the gain on the amp..turn it up until the speakers have had enough,just,this will set the volume for the entire system BUT...
if this is just for your sub,then now,you can do all the above,but in your head set the crossover if it has one to the 60hz/80hz range,this will give ya a base to start from,itll give ya a good hit at this range and will sound decent in the wind,
Or ya can play with the cross over and go lower to 60 hz or below, the bass will go lower,but now your gonna need all that MTX power to drive the box.the lower the more power to go louder..your stroking the sub and it will bottom quicker.at the lowest setting,it will shake the metal and the mirror pretty good! but it will be useless going down the road.the frequencys will cancel out.
now if you can..you can set the other speaker levels .turn the music up and put some bass into the front speakers,they may not handle the low freqs as well,again if there is a crossover,set the freq.at above 80hz it will make a better sounding system.

Now.it all depends on the capabilitys of the head unit.there are a few more tricks to be done.all this will set you in the ball park to a better sounding system.

Like Mudb8 said,there are things,outboard crossovers,amps better speakers etc etc etc.
Hey mud.i had a power 1000 back in the day! and a trio of Orion 2250 SX's a audio control epicenter and a alpine top shelf system..inside job took it..bummer,,Happy wheelin guys!
ps..jeeper chris dont be afraid to ask anything here,some one,some where has walked the trail you are taking,  

I still have one that works, the huge castiron case..  

Here is my OOPS PS.on the subject of the amp RMS specs,it will tell you what kind of power your really going to get.
there is peak power,and rms
peak is always higher,but full of distortion
Rms will give the best sound.
1) higher voltage to a point,round 14.4 to 16 volts,it will say on the spec sheet,the higher the better,more power.
2) How many channels does it have?
there are ways to hook up the speakers to lower the impedance to get more power.
3) groun the amp to the nearest big bolt,a seat bolt is great,grind away the paint to bare metal,make sure its good and solid.
As for the power wire.dont cheap out, use at least the size that came with hte amp,not smaller, bad things can and probably will happen if you try to draw too many amps through too small a wire. if its a long run to the amp, go up a size,ex..10 gauge,to 8 gauge,your amp will thank you for it!
dont bury the amp too deep,it needs room to breath and stay cool.
Put a fuse as close to the battery as possible.just a safty tip.
dont run wire where it may wear through and short
protect where it goes through metal
Agin there are more tricks to be had on the cheap! luck to ya!
On the sub there may be a max power and a continuos rating,go with the continous power rating  

Thanks for the crutchfield.com site that helped alot. I just cant seem to figure out which system i have i can only count 4 speakers and a sub but iapparently thats not an option so do i have the 7 speaker set up? its a 04 TJ  Sport if that helps.  

Hey jeeper.i saw the site and looked in,youve two in the dash and two more in the back,and a sub,if ya can measure the sub..is it 6.5 inches? and where is it located?
if you do have 7 speakers,then 2 of them are separate tweeters.which is good,the little 6.5 will be game and if your happy with it then good! it said the sub was in the center console,there is a four wheel parts wholesaler catalog for jeeps thathas some gear. is your amp a 2 or 4 channel amp?
how many watts per channel? a set of pioneer coaxes in the corners at 50 watts apeice would sound great.
happy wheelin  

Yeah the sub is in the centre consol and its 6.5 inches, im perfectly happy with it it can really boom for its size. Alls i have to do now is buy an amp wiring kit have a nice day and i'll be cruising with some good sounds in tno time. Thanks for all your help.  

I need a replacement 6 1/2" woofer for my 04 center consol. Were can I find one? Has any one pulled there's out and want to sell it. I can't find one any where. You think there would be lots of them around because of jeepers up grading systems.
TX  

hey there. look on the crutchfield.com,four wheel drive hardware.com. sites. In the crutchfield site there are three with some pretty good spec's. just fiddle around the subwoofer part,and look to the 6.5" part.measure the depth to see.not very expensive either,
On the F.W.P.H. site they have a page or two of some suggestions.including an 8" or two replacement consoles.
Good luck on the search!
I was thinking bout making 2 thin boxes to mount 2 thin mount(tm) kicker 8 or 10" goolie shakers under my seats. ya dont need too much box or power to drive em,and will give more bump to tha rump!
On the side a good 6.5 coax set of speakers wont be too much at wallieworld,dont worry bout the highs,they will cancel out and ya have a spair for later.
Ps. if you go the aftermarket route, look at 1 spec in particular,,the "sensitivity" number..it will be something like 89db @1w @1meter. the point is the higher the number the better it will use the power you have more efficiently.Luck to ya and
happy wheelin!  

The stock amps / subwoofers aren't normal speakers.  They use a one ohm subwoofer, so a normal sub from crutchfield won't work.  You'll either need a used stock sub, or a new amp / sub combo.

After much thought and research, I ended up putting a sub inside of the rear seat.  It sounds great, and doesn't take up any room (I need the space behind my seat).

Here's a video of my setup
Wrangler subwoofer  

Speaker works in Califas has a "APERIODIC" subwoofer membrane that takes the place of the traditional box. The front of the sub mounts to the back of it and only takes up a little space. I couldnt get the picture to work from the link but ime pretty sure its working on the samne principal.1 ohm amps arnt that hard to find, but why" a good 2 ohm sub driven off a 2 channel amp would be plenty? wire the two front 4 ohm speakers in the usual way, then if the amp can ride that way hook the plus side to one channel and the neg to the other. the bridged mode will drop the impedence to 1/2 for the sub drawing more power, again the amp has to be able to hang tough for this, but they'r no hard to find. luck to ya!