Took out old stereo and found an amp on Gen3 camry!!

[fernicus]

Newbie here so I hope I can get some help. I replaced my HU on my 92 Camry LE and found a Pioneer amp right behind the sucker in the dash! Is this factory or not? It was wired up to what looked like a Clarion crossover? or small little junction box with nothing written on the box. Is this stock? I wouldn't think so and also noticed that it seems to be only driving the backspeakers ie. 2 channel. Is there any way for me to be able to tell that, maybe by checking the amp model # possibly? I'm putting in new components in the door so should I buy another separate 2 channel amp or replace the existing Pioneer there with a new 4 channel amp to run the doors too? I can only tell the amp running the stereo by the noticeable CLICK when I first turn on the stereo and it only seems the back speakers are being amped, the doors are hardly noticeable. Any advice?
P.S. are the stock rears supposed to sound that good or what? they sounded pretty sweet with the new Alpine HU I put in.

[Knailgun]

The pioneer amp...a terrible location for it by the way is not factory, a factory amp (if you have a factory audi package) would be iunder the passenger seat.

The crossover is not stock either.

My advice on this would be get that stuff out of the car...it sounds like it wasn't put in with too much foresight. Your Alpine HU should have enough power to push the componenets without an issue. Stock rear speakers could sound good, but they may have been replaced, just open the trunk and look at the speaker magnets and what they say. If you found yourself wanting an amp for all of this, most amps will have a crossover built in, less hassle for installs.

[Calvin327]

Congrads on the find! Haha, man you'll never know what you'll find if you keep hunting around your car!

[fernicus]

true, Calvin, my eldest daughter kept remarking on how annoying that CRACK! was when I first powered the old stereo on, it was friggin' loud because of the amp!
hey, Knailgun, nice to see u in all the forums, bro! u'se my best friend now! lol.
Yeah, the amp behind the stereo sounds pretty crap so far as placement is concerned so u think I should dump it and leave the stereo as is? Even though I bought component spkrs for the front w/crossovers? Shouldn't I be amping those bad boys or just leave as is? maybe there will be enough power from the HU to run them, yes? decisions, decisions!

[fernicus]

anyone?

[RedPhoenix]

what kind was it? what color, because my neighbor gave me a pioneer amp that was left in his daughter 92-93 camry . It was purple, wanted to see if it was the same

[fernicus]

hey, Red, hard to tell, but with the years of dirt and grime behind there, it looked black to me, unless yours was a dark purple.

[RedPhoenix]

This is it. It was REALLLLY dark.




Cant get a good pic, either really bright or black.

[Knailgun]

Wel, you can run an amp to the components, but most will run fine without an amp...as HU's have about 20-50 watts per channel now and speakers are real efficient. I use MTX's comps in my camry and tacoma...never had a power problem with them. Just shout me back with any Q's on that subject...I've cut and shufled that car 10xs over with stero equipment....now it is time for nitrous

[fernicus]

well, esthetically a real beauty of an amp, but the one I had was an ugly dogfaced offspring of it for sure! ha ha. It was smaller and just very black and probably as old as the car.

yeah, maybe I'll just rip it out but will first listen to it amping the rears and do a comparison of my speakers, amped and non-amped. I'm not really dying for ultra megavolume sound for sure, just clean and clear. Is there any way just to leave the amp in, Knail, and somehow utilize it since it's there? Maybe to amp the fronts seeing as they are most important for imaging in a car? Damn, this forum is interesting.