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Help with 2004 Cobra Headunit

TurboJuice

Regular
Mar 30, 2011
119
0
I just picked up a 2004 cobra and I am trying to sort out the issues.

Reading about installing aftermarket headunits in this car is making my head spin.

The car came with nothing installed, but i have a stock 6-disc changer and an aftermarket deck ready to go in.

I hooked up the 2 plugs on the back of the stock disc changer and the sound was terrible. It was all highs, so now I am thinking someone F'ed with the stock amp or speakers.

So my questiion is, where are all the stock amps and connectors. I want to verify everything is in there, then worry about the wiring.

Thanks
 

Flyn

Go ahead. I'll catch up.
Moderator
TCG Premium
Mar 1, 2004
68,052
27,984
Selling homes on the Gulf Coast of Florida
If you want to save yourself a lot of trouble, rip the system out and put a normal stereo system in. The Mach system is ridiculously complex, cheaply made and poorly designed. There are component lists and wiring charts on the web if you want to search for them (google mach 460 sound system). I jury rigged my system to play with an aftermarket DVD unit, amps and subwoofer. It was a nightmare figuring out and hooking into the Mach system. If I had to do it again, I would start from scratch, purchase used, decent components and build a normal set up.
 

The Beast

TCG Elite Member
May 24, 2004
28,229
32,482
South beach
Real Name
Go Go
If you want to save yourself a lot of trouble, rip the system out and put a normal stereo system in. The Mach system is ridiculously complex, cheaply made and poorly designed. There are component lists and wiring charts on the web if you want to search for them (google mach 460 sound system). I jury rigged my system to play with an aftermarket DVD unit, amps and subwoofer. It was a nightmare figuring out and hooking into the Mach system. If I had to do it again, I would start from scratch, purchase used, decent components and build a normal set up.

Same problem I had when I had my cobra the installer tried to keep the mach system and was a nightmare. Never sounded good and I took the car to 5 shops after the install. If I were you I would start by ripping everything out and start from scratch.
 

wizdawg

TCG Elite Member
May 1, 2005
1,996
0
When I bought my cobra it had an aftermarket system in it. I wanted the factory look so I bought a factory head unit and rear speaker/amp assembly. Its been a long time and I dont remember much, but here are a couple pics I took that may help you.

This is a 2003 Cobra btw

There are the 3 plugs behind the headunit on a 2003 cobra, this may be different for a 2004, i dont know.
P6200151.jpg


This is a pic of the bottom of the speakerbox which holds 2 amps and the speakers located in the trunk
waxing_021.jpg


This is the top of the same box, u can see the speakers from this side. The speakers on the carpet are for the front of the car.
waxing_019.jpg


Here is the wiring harness and connectors in the trunk. There are 7 of them.
P6050141.jpg


I also pretty sure there is 1 more amp (so that makes 3 total) in the dash, behind and below the head unit. I think you can see it if you put your head down by the gas pedal and look up and hehind the plastic panel that surrounds the shifter. Hope this helps.
 

TurboJuice

Regular
Mar 30, 2011
119
0
Thanks for the pictures. I can for sure my 2004 receiver plugs are different than that.

But right now I cannot even get my stock headunit to sound good. The second plug on the back of my headunit does nothing right now. So i believe that leads somewhere to my problem. Can anyone say forsure whether or not there is an amp somewhere up front?

I just want to get the stock system working properly, then worry about an aftermarket ehadunit later.
 

wizdawg

TCG Elite Member
May 1, 2005
1,996
0
Thanks for the pictures. I can for sure my 2004 receiver plugs are different than that.

But right now I cannot even get my stock headunit to sound good. The second plug on the back of my headunit does nothing right now. So i believe that leads somewhere to my problem. Can anyone say forsure whether or not there is an amp somewhere up front?

I just want to get the stock system working properly, then worry about an aftermarket ehadunit later.

I cant say for sure. But I am fairly certain there is one. Here is a pic I took from my 2000 V6. It is not a Mach stereo, but why dont u just check this location on your cobra to see if you see an amp? If there is one in the font, its likely this is where it would be.

343%3B953923232%7Ffp63%3Dot%3E2348%3D664%3D697%3DXROQDF%3E23238%3A9%3A%3B%3C275ot1lsi
 

wizdawg

TCG Elite Member
May 1, 2005
1,996
0
Nevermind... I just pulled the cover on the cobra and took a look. It does not look like the pic I posted above. On my cobra, that area is just an open area with nothing in it. Not that any of this may really matter cause Flyn High has already told us the 03 is different than the 04.
 

Flyn

Go ahead. I'll catch up.
Moderator
TCG Premium
Mar 1, 2004
68,052
27,984
Selling homes on the Gulf Coast of Florida
Google is your friend. Spend a little time searching. Took 2 mins to find these.

Flem World used to have a good article on the specs. Here's the article but the excellent pics are missing. Too bad because this was the site everyone used. http://www.flemworld.com/Mach460/Mach.html

Another site with wiring diagrams and color codes. http://www.allfordmustangs.com/foru...aker-wiring-harness-diagrams-only-please.html

You can also call Crutchfield (crutchfield.com). They can sell you a wiring adapter and offer great free advice.

Off the top of my head, it sounds like your lows panel isn't working. Amp(s) may be bad or disconnected.

Edit: I recently gave an Alpine head unit to a nephew. I would have sold it to you cheap if I still had it. If you research, you will find I'm not the only one who has worked on the 460 system and wanted to punch some engineers in their respective faces. It's one of the worst designed audio systems I have ever seen.
 

TurboJuice

Regular
Mar 30, 2011
119
0
I have read a ton recently about installing an after market headunit. But at this point the aftermarket headunit is pointless untill I figure out what is broken. I have searched and read a ton. It is just very confusing because things seem to change with every damn year.

Here are pics from the back of my head unit. As you can see the plugs are different and there are just 2.

When I unplug the connector in the second picture, the sound doesnt change at all. So i just need to see where this wire leads me to.

Radio_01.JPG


Radio_02.JPG
 

serb82

TCG Elite Member
Feb 10, 2009
1,075
2
The 2nd plug should be what feeds your amps to the front door and rears all of which are 6x8s

My guess 1 of these are bad and causing you no sound

1. Amp fuse is blown
2. Amps are unhooked from the input of radio in rear or car
3. Amps are bad
4. Radio low level out put is bad that feeds the amps
5. Speakers are bad or unhooked

The big plug is all your power/dimmer/ and so called tweeter connections
 

TurboJuice

Regular
Mar 30, 2011
119
0
The 2nd plug should be what feeds your amps to the front door and rears all of which are 6x8s

My guess 1 of these are bad and causing you no sound

1. Amp fuse is blown
2. Amps are unhooked from the input of radio in rear or car
3. Amps are bad
4. Radio low level out put is bad that feeds the amps
5. Speakers are bad or unhooked

The big plug is all your power/dimmer/ and so called tweeter connections

I just laid under the dash to verify the previous owner didn't hack anything up. Good news! It all looks clean. So that makes me think the wiring is good. I even crawled into the trunk to view all the connections and everything looked clean again.

So I will start with the amp fuse. Is this located near the drivers side kick panel?
 

TurboJuice

Regular
Mar 30, 2011
119
0
I was looking over the harness that was in the car, and it looks like it is the same one that I am seeing online. It has the RCA plugs with 2 blue wires coming out.

I hooked it up lastnight so i could try out an aftermarket headunit. And it sounded like junk. It had all the highs, mids, and lows. It just sounded a little muffled. Definitely not as sharp as the stock headunit.

I am 95% sure i had the wiring set up correctly. And it didnt seem top change much when i moved the which line out the RCA plugs were in.

I put the stock head unit back in because it just sounded so much cleaner. I am thinking about returning my new headunit in the box i just got too.
 

Dragon03

Super hated on
Mar 28, 2007
27,350
2
if I remember correctly you have some kind of voltage regualtor built into the stock unit and its not a full 12 volts like you would have from the aftermarket unit...I think I had to buy some voltage adaptor that plugged inline with the factory amp plugs but its been awhile I could be wrong I think it was around $50 I will take a look when I get home this evening
 
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