I INSTALLED THE Z-1 IN MY 2005 SPORT TRAC. IT HAD A FACTORY AMP AND SUB. IN AUDIO MODE VOLUME LEVEL 9 IS ABOUT AS LOUD AS THE SPEAKERS CAN TAKE AND THE VOLUME FOR BLUETOOTH AND GUIDANCE CAN BE AS LOW AS ONE CLICK OFF MUTE. IT ALSO HAS A LOUD HISS WHEN ACTIVATED. IT SOUNDS GREAT BUT I'M SURE I HAVE SOMETHING WRONG.

Well, it sounds like your factory amp's gains are way too high. Try to find it and see if it lets you adjust some settings. I would have suggested that maybe the SLA on the AVIC was all the way up but you mentioned that the bluetooth was also really high at only one bar.

EDIT:

You mentioned you "had" the factory amp and sub. Are they not utilized anymore? If not, it sounds like your AVIC might be bad.

Just a thought...

Try grabbing the RCA line level outputs from connector 1 for speakers. I am assuming you are running the speaker level outputs from power connector, which are amplified. The line level outputs are ~33% of the speaker level outputs. Makes sense considering you have AVIC at 25% of it's max (I think 40 is max on display)...

I DO HAVE THE AMP AND SUB STILL HOOKED UP. THANKS I'LL GIVE THESE SUGGESTIONS A TRY.

there is no need for caps.