I have speaker hum in my 89 nissan with a bose system in it. I was told that I need to fix the speaker amps at a cost of $150 per speaker. I would like to upgrade the HU with an Alpine radio with cd player. Can I use the existing speakers if I just bypass the individual speaker amps? I'm thinking that there is no interior amp in the Bose radio.
With speakers that old, the cone material is probably dry rotted and brittle. You can replace the head unit, but you'll have to abandon the old amps and directly wire the new speakers to the new HU using the existing wiring but you'll have to do some cutting and soldering behind the rear seat back. Also, the rear deck cutouts are not the same size as aftermarket speaker frames (they are slightly larger) so you may need to do some modifications so you can get all 4 screws to hit metal. It's not a very hard job, I did it to both my GXE's.
Chris
90 & 94 GXE's
You can repair the amps for $110 each here;
Also, if you'd like to keep the Bose sound, but repalce the HU, give this place a go;
I bought the PD-4 unit from them to connect my Clarion head unit to my existing Bose amps/speakers in my 98 Maxima and it worked wonders.
CD
That sounds like a complete waste of money. Just replace the head unit and all 4 speakers and toss that Bose crap in the dumpster. It was great 10+ years ago, but is definitely not worth fixing.
Bill G '91 SE Auto Alpine Deck Rockford Forsgate speakers all around Alpine Amp
If you want to keep the Bose sound it is. Admittedly, 10 years is a long time for a system. I'm just presenting other options.
CD
Unfortunately, it probably won't be the "Bose sound" because the speakers are probably so dried out. It sounded awesome in my '91 when I bought it in '95, but the quality slowly faded over time. Plus, his system is actually
16 years old.$110 (x2) will buy a nice set of front and rear speakers, and $200 will get a good head unit. For the price of fixing 4 amps, he could have 4 new speakers, and a CD/MP3 playing deck.
Too bad that Bose system was so susceptible to failure, it did sound great when it was working.
BG
Both of my front speakers are no longer working (I have a Scosche adapter and Kenwood head unit), and I'm tempted to try installing new capacitors in the amps. Can't hurt, I figure. (Unless of course I forget to discharge the caps first!)
Dave
I have a 92 SE that I bought new; 204K miles on it. Everything works great, only repairs have been brakes, waterpump, starter, and window and lock solenoids. But, more problems than I can list with the Bose system. Nissan replaced the radio once, the radio manufacturer replaced it once, I had it rebuilt twice, and both rear amps went out. Replaced the whole thing, speakers included, a couple of years ago. Glad I did.
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