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Does a replacement amp (under RF seat) need to be reprogrammed after installation?

Discussion in 'Gen 2 Prius Audio and Electronics' started by donjoe, May 2, 2014.

  1. donjoe

    donjoe New Member

    Joined:
    May 2, 2014
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    Vehicle:
    2004 Prius
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    I am brand new to this forum. I attempted to shed some light on someone's problem and now I ran into another problem after attempting to solve an amp replacement problem. I installed a used amp in my 2004 Prius (I assume it's not defective-it does have a warranty-but before I decide it's bad I have to ask about the "reprogramming issue"). Below is what I wrote to someone else in need.

    I'm brand new to this forum. I had the same problem recently with my 04 Prius. (ULTRA LOUD static whether the radio was on or off-like it would blow the speakers any second!) It started intermittently, but after a couple weeks it was constant. I could not even turn on the car for fear of blasting out the speakers. I did take it to a Toyota dealer for diagnosis. (The dealer was only about a mile away.)

    They said it was the amp under the front seat. They wanted $500+ to replace it with a reman unit. I found an exact model of amp out of a 04 Prius with very low mileage (salvaged car hit in the driver's front side). You can find quite a few of these amps on Ebay and bone yards for $60 -$89 and all the way up from there. It only took about 45 min to replace it-and I am not a mechanic. Untighten the 2 front bolts on the passenger seat. (You don't have to take out the entire seat). The amp has 3 brackets attached and 2 plug in wire harnesses. Two of the amp bracket bolts can be removed from bottom front of the passenger seat. The other is easier to remove from under the rear of the passenger seat. Then slide the amp out from the rear under the passenger seat. Then , install the replacement.

    HOWEVER, I just did this last night and it took care of the "static" problem but now I have NO sound from AM,FM,CD-nothing. The audio display seems to work fine but after about 30 seconds or so the display defaults to navigation. Does anyone know if you have to do any "reprogramming" if you change out an amp like this??? And if so, how is that reprogramming accomplished???
     
  2. Jakethehawkeye

    Jakethehawkeye New Member

    Joined:
    Apr 30, 2014
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    Location:
    Pensacola, Florida
    Vehicle:
    2005 Prius
    Model:
    N/A
    You shouldn't need to do anything for it, as long as it's the same setup as your old amp. The amp is a piece of hard-wired hardware; there's nothing inside the amp that can be changed without actually messing with the electrical components. Now, if you weren't using an amp before, or if you had a specialized soundsystem, then something could potentially need to be rewired or set up, but if you're just replacing one amp with another, you wouldn't need to do anything.

    The display is set to go back to the navigation screen by default after 30 seconds. If your car was unplugged, it would revert back to that setting (if you didn't already have that). You can turn that off by gong to display->settings (or whatever it's labelled) . The problem isn't the display, the sound system must just not be set up correctly. I have my amp umplugged while I wait for the new one to arrive, and the display looks like it's working normally - there's just no sound coming from the speakers.

    Your post is a little hard to read, sine I can't exactly tell who has what problem, but static like that wouldn't be because of the amp if you have the radio turned off. If it were the amp, the static would get louder as the radio was turned up; if the radio was off, then there would be something in the wiring that was bridging a connection, or otherwise making it think it was off while power was really flowing to the speakers.

    If your problem is no sound, though, then you must not have hooked something up all the way, or something came loose (or the replacement amp is defective).