I just got my used clarion camo sub in the mail today and hooked it all up and got it working using the multi pronged supplied wiring harness and it worked, but it doesn't sound very clear, its pretty raspy. I went to try and use the stero jacks in the back, the red and white connections and tried to hook it up to the back of my alpine head unit where the subwoofer would plug into and got nothing, didn't work at all? Is anyone else running this camo sub with an aftermarket head unit and could give me some insight into this? I don't understand why it would work one way, but not the other. If you guys have any idea what could be causing this, let me know, thanks.

 

I got one comming but I just have a stock radio eveyone says it sounds good with the stock unit maybe play around with your gian on the amp you may be overowering it.
jeff

 

Well I tried to pry the portion of the rear of it where all the wiring connects too, and I was planning on replacing it with this piece
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-byh1Ryr...h=clarion+ford
but it won't come off for some reason, so I tried just running it again and now it won't work, today really just isn't my day. Can anyone else seperate that piece from the back of their sub?

-Patrick

 

Mine that I bought used is coming with this piece or a piece like it. If you look up the install instruction for oue truck for that piece you showed it says it does not fit at least my 2001 L.
jeff

 

Anyone else???

 

I bought my Clarion camo sub back when they were on clearance at Crutchfield (awesome deal). I have an '02 SCrew with a Pioneer HU. My camo sub initially had that raspy noise as well and I found out that it was because the circuit card was making a bad seal with the sub box openings for the RCA plugs (air was leaking out). To test yours, gently push in on the sub cone...if it immediately pops back, you have an air leak and need to beef up the seal. Do the following:

1. Remove sub retaining screws and carefully disconnect the sub from the enclosure...set aside.
2. Unscrew the amp card from the unit and make a thin gasket rectangle from a soft, durable material. I used the dense, rubberized foam found in packaging for computer circuit cards (the stuff Sony uses to wrap it's components for shipping). You'll need to cut holes for the RCA plugs, but it will make sense what you need to do when you see it. Anyway, sandwich this 'gasket' between the interior of the sub box and the card (NO ADHESIVE NECESSARY) and screw the card back into the sub.
3. Replace the sub in the enclosure and tighten the retaining screws.
4. Push the sub cone in and check for air leaks. If the cone slowly returns to neutral, you are good to go. If it still pops right back, you need to re-do your amp card seal until there are no more air leaks.

This one, simple change eliminated the distortion (raspiness) caused by air leaks and my sub has been sounding great ever since. The only other thing I did was install RF chokes on the harness in the two locations outlined in the following thread (excellent tutorial!):

Clarion Sub Fix

The air leak gasket and RF Chokes should address any and all problems you may be having with the Clarion sub (assuming your used sub isn't blown and that your gain is properly set).

Although my Clarion sub worked quite well, I upgraded mine with a JL Audio
8W3v2-D4 sub (drop-in replacement, just make sure you use the leads on BOTH sides of the JL sub to get the proper resistance!). It still sounds awesome...4 years going strong without any further problems. HTH.

-Mike

 

I assume your talking about THIS



Sorry all those pic's from that post (link) were lost in an old hard drive failure
But it was taking off the market because of me / us
I put one in my L many years ago and later many others. What we came to find out is by installing it you lost all your radio stations. I wrote Clarion for quite some time over it. Eventually I found someone in their Canadian Branch to take on the project of figuring out why we all lost our Stations. Keith was his name and he spent A LOT of time bench testing, me posting the findings here, and Clarion spending money sending "us all" these RFU filter (or something like that) but unfortunately the trouble was still there, (I even tried 3 filters, figured it was like drugs, the more the merrier)

There were a few different little issues but " FOR MOST" we lost all our regular radio stations and even had trouble getting the most local stations. BUT there was no problem when using the CD ??? was your working ok there ???? As for those RCA Jacks, your right they WILL NOT WORK (been there tried that too) But FYI you DO NOT need to take it apart to use the T Connector, I use the T connector and never had mine apart (but I am using the stock Head Unit). All you do it plug it into the factory harness.

After a while Clarion decided it was easier to take it out of their line up than to continue to give us all our money back, or continue to sell them. In the end (and after rewiring mine 9 million times), the funny part is I figured out all you had to do to get rid of the interference was wind all the extra wire up "in a circle" "and nylon tie it", then WAM all of a sudden all the radio stations came back.

The filters did not work for most, (for some it helped), using differant power or ground wires did not help,(been there tried that) it seemd nothing helped. It all came down to simply having to wind the wires in a circle and tie um that way. Dont know if that plays any part in your issue but for anyone with one that is experiencing the loss of radio problem, thats the fix.....

Why your isnt workign anymore is weird ? maybe the fuse let go ???
GOOD LUCK Bro....

 

Lordy, this is an old post, I have had the sub for over a year now and it has been working fine with my alpine h/u, thanks everybody for the tips though.

-Patrick

 

I saw the one above me said yesterday and didnt look no further

WHOOPS
NEVER MIND ........

 

It's cool I appreciate all the help I can get, I am going to totally reseal the box this summer and put in a new sub, this thing is great though, having the extra dash space on top of that is a big plus as well, thanks DD and Rob for your posts again.

-Patrick

 

Tell me about it, The original 02 I test drove (ok beat the ever living crap out of and then got screamed at by the Dealership for getting rubber all over it) had that Cig compartment built in the dash. MINE DOESNT.

I was a little pissed about that since there's NOWHERE to put anything within a comfortable reaching distance, but the ole Clarion took care of that

Mine works amazing and has giving me years of trouble free play, the only problem now is even with all that bass and power I still cant hear chit over this motor anymore (but thats ok, I listen to the motor more than music anyway)