3rd & 4th Generation (1992–1996 & 1997–2001)Toyota Camry Discussion for years: 1992-1996 & 1997-2001
Topics of discussion range from fuel economy, safety, modifications, performance all involving America's favorite family car, the Toyota Camry.
ok, this CANT be as much trouble as it's been for me. trying to put an aftermarket stereo into a 1998 camry. i guess the way it works is: you either have the harness from the dash for the radio OR you have the harness coming out from a factory amp.
after much to-do, i figured out the dash harness is from the factory amp.
the short of it: i want to bypass the factory amp and just use the stereo's internal amp.
but i dont know WHERE the amp is to bypass it, or HOW to bypass it, or why this is such a big problem.
my options, as given to me by curcuit city, are:
1: buy their amp wiring harness. however, this needs the aftermarket stereo to have RCA plugs for both REAR and FRONT. my stereo has only REAR. i can buy, for another 20 bucks, a hi-lo limiter (or something) that will allow me to attached the front RCA plugs (from the new harness) into the stereo's wires.
ALL of this will mean that the stereo's enternal amp power will be bypassed and the factory amp will continue to work.
i DONT LIKE THIS because i bought the stereo because it has a lot of power.
the second option is:
2: cut the wires from the dash's harness and wire straight into the stereo. i DONT want it to come to this, however, even if i do, the factory amp will still be the primary power supply which i dont want to do.
can i just bypass the amp somehow?
where is the amp located usually?
is there a standard radio-type harness adapter INTO the amp that i can extend INTO the new stereo? it seems to me i could pass that straight into the new stereo AROUND the old factory amp.
how do i do this? changing the dang stereo out of a car shouldnt be such a big pain...so...what do i do here? thanks for any help.
your post is very messy, let me try to understand, you want to get rid of the
original stereo system and put in e new one? as far as i know there is no
external amp in the original toyota sound system, the stereo unit functions the
same way a normal 3rd party system do, everything is buildt into the original stereo
ink the amp to drive the speakers.
If your car is XLE or LE you should have an amp. Harness from stock deck is useless,Inside of your dash you can see this 2 harnesses, u can't miss them. Just unplug them,go buy a harness and you are done.
If your car is XLE or LE you should have an amp. Harness from stock deck is useless,Inside of your dash you can see this 2 harnesses, u can't miss them. Just unplug them,go buy a harness and you are done.
your post is very messy, let me try to understand, you want to get rid of the
original stereo system and put in e new one? as far as i know there is no
external amp in the original toyota sound system, the stereo unit functions the
same way a normal 3rd party system do, everything is buildt into the original stereo
ink the amp to drive the speakers.
sorry if it's messy, but yes there is an external amp.
it IS an LE and i finally found a great post explaining how to do it...
a bit of confusion=--where do the uplugged extra harnesses plug into?
anything? i noticed with the stock stereo, if you leave one of the extra harnesses unplugged, it will not work.
i ll get my aftermarket harness from wal mart tonight and work on my girl's car later, hopefully i can make this pain in the butt work.
I have an LE too, but i never saw an amp when i did my front stage upgrade... So can you let me know where you found yours and that DIY post you found.
I am having the same problem except I'm having it now and not 4 years ago like the original poster! How can I bypass this amp? I bought a Scosche Toyota 97&up wiring harness and it does not fit. This leads me to believe that I have a factory amp and require the factory amp wiring harness. I would like to bypass this and use the built in 55wx4 amp in my pioneer cd player. Any ideas.
Don't know if it's the same in the Gen 4, but in the Gen 3.5, when you have the external amp, there is a pair of harnesses tucked away behind the dash that can be used for installing a stereo that doesn't use the external factory amp.
Look at the section labeled "To Determine if your vehicle has an external Toyota amplifier connected to the Toyota Radio".
I followed this exactly for my '95. Unplugged the single factory plug from the factory stereo, then found the two harnesses tucked away in the dash and plugged those into my aftermarket head unit with built in amp. Worked perfectly.
Again, don't know if the gen4 is the same, but it's worth a look.
Don't know if it's the same in the Gen 4, but in the Gen 3.5, when you have the external amp, there is a pair of harnesses tucked away behind the dash that can be used for installing a stereo that doesn't use the external factory amp.
Look at the section labeled "To Determine if your vehicle has an external Toyota amplifier connected to the Toyota Radio".
I followed this exactly for my '95. Unplugged the single factory plug from the factory stereo, then found the two harnesses tucked away in the dash and plugged those into my aftermarket head unit with built in amp. Worked perfectly.
Again, don't know if the gen4 is the same, but it's worth a look.
Thanks a lot....I appreciate the response. I will take a look tonight to see if there is a harness tucked away. I just don't want to have to take it in to BestBuy. I have always been able to install my own cd players and don't really trust them to do a good job.
Found the harness! it was tucked to the side plugged in. I had to remove the old cd player and radio units and push their wiring harness off to the side. Then I saw some other plugged in harnesses on the right. I just unplugged them and they both fit into my Scosche 87-up Toyota Harness. Thanks for the help TN!>
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