92 Camry Sedan - ignition and power source for radio - Toyota Nation Forum : Toyota Car and Truck Forums

nz-dude · 11-21-2010, 09:52 PM

Hi guys,

this is my first post ... looks like this is THE toyota board ... hopefully some of you guys can help me with a pretty basic problem, which I'm sure I'm not the first person facing it ...

I've been having my 92 camry sedan since early september and I'm quite happy with it. the 2.5 V6 runs well and it's a good car.

So far I've been using the standard fitted toyota radio, but yeah, back in 1992, ipod and usb weren't really state of the art. so I got a new head unit and tried to fit it in ... i've been doing this with quite a few VWs and it was never a big deal. sometimes you had to change battery and ignition, but that's it ...

so when i started to change the radio I realized that the plug is different ... ok not a big deal, got an ISO plug and checked on the internet which wire colors do what ... well none of them fitted ... i had ground, ignition and power where the radio is, but I couldn't get the new radio working ... then I went to a audio car dealer to check if the new radio works ... it does ... the dude over there also said, that my built in AMP might cause trouble ...

so back home, took out the multimeter again ... unplugged the AMP and well then ... everything dead ... meaning that neither ignition, battery or ground were working ... shortly after i figured out that all of it goes into the AMP and the AMP directs it to the radio ... so since I'm planning to use the new radio and don't need the AMP anyway I might just use everything from down at the AMP and manually connect the wires so I can use them up at the head unit slot. In other words cutting off the plugs at the AMP and connecting respective wires to fully bypass the AMP.

The only problem is, that from the AMP under the passengers seat up to the head unit slot only 9 wires are going.

The AMP uses one wire for each speaker (RR, RL, FR, FL) from the radio and then puts +- for each speaker from the AMP to the speakers ... I guess that's how an AMP works. So the AMP has 4 out of 9 wires taken and can uses the other 5 for ground, ignition, battery power, amp control etc ...

The new radio needs +- for each speaker, so 8 wires ....

out of 9 is only one left ...

I could use this for ignition and get battery power and ground from somewhere else. Ground should be fairly easy.

Any suggestions where to get battery power in the head unit area from? besides the ciggi lighter ...

An easy way to also get ignition power from somewhere around the head unit slot?

The last thing I want to do is fitting in 2 or 3 more wires from the head unit space down to the passengers seat

Also, from the wiring diagrams i found on the internet, the main wiring from and to the AMP is going quite close to the head unit space ... any ideas if it's a good idea to get the required cables from there?

Even though I ll use soldering and heat shrinking tubes, some areas are quite tight and some cables are already quite short ... I'd really appreciate if somebody has a smart solution

Cheers guys

greetings from new zealand

2win2rbo · 11-21-2010, 10:04 PM

Hi there! Welcome to TN! Is your car a Camry Vista? When I installed my head deck, I just went to Jonvy in the Shore to get an adaptor kit. It would help a lot to have it checked by an installer because some of the Jap wirings are really tricky, according to many. Usually the newer head decks have a built in amp so we don't need the stock amp. What my bro did in his Mark II X90 is that he just extended the speaker wires from the amp, disconnected the amp and used the standard power source used by the old head deck, etc.

nz-dude · 11-21-2010, 10:15 PM

cheers mate.

ohh i forgot. It's a Camry Prominent

I checked some adapters in different stores, but none of them fit, unfortunately ...

Extending the wires from the AMP is my plan, at least so far ... sorry I might have not clearly expressed that in my previous post.

But as I said, there are not enough wires at the moment

at the head unit place there are 15 wires or so.

9 of them go down to the AMP, the other 6 go somewhere, but not the amp or to something useful. I checked every single one with a multimeter. No ground, no power, no ignition.

In addition, power, ground and ignition DO come from the AMP with the 9 wires. So everything goes and comes via the AMP

So to solve my problem, I have 9 wires to fit 8 speaker wires and 3 for (ground, battery and ignition). That's at least 2 over the limit.

Hence I need to get two of them from somewhere else, if I want to avoid to mount new wires from the head unit spot down to the AMP ...

My plan was to get either ignition or power from somewhere inside the head unit spot or somewhere close ... It would be perfect if I even could get both from somewhere else then the AMP ... grounding the radio to the frame or something else shouldn't be a big deal.

2win2bro, thanks for your help so far .. any ideas on the clarifications i just wrote?

or maybe I'm just missing something

doozergreengrass · 11-21-2010, 11:01 PM

I know this doesn't help you at this point, but for anyone else that wants mp3/bluetooth in their car without all the hassles, there's these things on the bay (or just google it): "bluetooth fm transmitter" which uses your existing stereo and sends mp3 from yr phone etc to the car stereo on user defined fm frequency. but also supports sd cards or usb connection as well.they plug into cig lighter. theres many different types and they're CHEAP!!! I was looking at new head unit for my car and stumbled across em by accident, saving me lotta $. Hope this helps someone =)

THEY ARE WIRELESS, NO NEED FOR REWIRING. But make sure your phone is stereo bluethooth or A2DP compatible, some of the transmitters support A2DP (advanced audio distribution from phone/mp3 player).

nz-dude · 11-21-2010, 11:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by doozergreengrass

I know this doesn't help you at this point, but for anyone else that wants mp3/bluetooth in their car without all the hassles, there's these things on the bay (or just google it): "bluetooth fm transmitter" which uses your existing stereo and sends mp3 from yr phone etc to the car stereo on user defined fm frequency. but also supports sd cards or usb connection as well.they plug into cig lighter. theres many different types and they're CHEAP!!! I was looking at new head unit for my car and stumbled across em by accident, saving me lotta $. Hope this helps someone =)

yeah, but from my experience their quality isn't always good ... also different cars have different positions of the radio antenna and sometimes the place the cig lighter is, isn't just good enough to have a quality signal all the time...

doozergreengrass · 11-21-2010, 11:07 PM

True. So buy a higher quality one for better results or a lower quality one for lesser results - as with anything in life! I know this doesn't apply to your particular situation but I use one with excellent results.

nz-dude · 11-21-2010, 11:08 PM

true ... any brand / model you can recommend for future?

2win2rbo · 11-22-2010, 12:20 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nz-dude

cheers mate.

ohh i forgot. It's a Camry Prominent

I checked some adapters in different stores, but none of them fit, unfortunately ...

Extending the wires from the AMP is my plan, at least so far ... sorry I might have not clearly expressed that in my previous post.

But as I said, there are not enough wires at the moment

at the head unit place there are 15 wires or so.

9 of them go down to the AMP, the other 6 go somewhere, but not the amp or to something useful. I checked every single one with a multimeter. No ground, no power, no ignition.

In addition, power, ground and ignition DO come from the AMP with the 9 wires. So everything goes and comes via the AMP

So to solve my problem, I have 9 wires to fit 8 speaker wires and 3 for (ground, battery and ignition). That's at least 2 over the limit.

Hence I need to get two of them from somewhere else, if I want to avoid to mount new wires from the head unit spot down to the AMP ...

My plan was to get either ignition or power from somewhere inside the head unit spot or somewhere close ... It would be perfect if I even could get both from somewhere else then the AMP ... grounding the radio to the frame or something else shouldn't be a big deal.

2win2bro, thanks for your help so far .. any ideas on the clarifications i just wrote?

or maybe I'm just missing something

That's unusual. When I open my centre console, There is a label, in Japanese, for battery, power, ignition and antenna. The other wires are bundled and labeled, as well.

You can extend the wires (power, antenna, etc.) going into the amp toward the head deck or maybe, to be more cautious, I would get power from the fuse box under the steering wheel. There are blank unused spaces there that are good for additional equipment. You can just replace the existing, inactive fuse, with the corresponding one for your system.

uibalnme · 11-22-2010, 01:42 AM

1st off, here's the factory Toyota wiring colors...

When I changed my stereo I got one of these...
http://www.crutchfield.com/p_1207017...s.html?tp=2977

The new harness allowed me to just plug right into the factory wiring, no fuss, no muss. After I connect the harness to my new stereo, it took me 15mins total to install the new unit.

webf2010 · 11-22-2010, 02:15 AM

Hello Dude, welcome to Toyota Nation. All the best

nz-dude · 11-22-2010, 04:05 PM

cheers uibalnme --- I found this pic before I started, but those colors don't match at all with what I've got in the head unit spot ... some of the colors are the same under the passenger seat where the AMP is ... Also the link you sent has two adapters, mine is one single one

Who knows what the Japanese owner has done with the wires

i'll keep you posted

uibalnme · 11-22-2010, 05:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nz-dude

cheers uibalnme --- I found this pic before I started, but those colors don't match at all with what I've got in the head unit spot ... some of the colors are the same under the passenger seat where the AMP is ... Also the link you sent has two adapters, mine is one single one

Who knows what the Japanese owner has done with the wires

i'll keep you posted

Yeah, that's how the adapter harness is. The 2 plugs connect to the factory harness in the dash. The wires of the adapter harness connect to the stereo's wires.

Here you go I just took these...

Unplug from here:

Plug in here:

nz-dude · 11-23-2010, 08:41 PM

thanks for the pics.

I def haven't seen those in my car yet, but according to the wiring diagrams there must be there and you have them too.

I'll check and keep you posted, thanks so far!

nz-dude · 11-24-2010, 03:26 AM

almost solved the problem

after I knew what i was looking for, thanks to uibalnme and the wiring diagrams ... i removed all the plastic stuff around the radio ..

and quite deep, somewhere below the ashtray I found the two blue plugs, which every body was talking about ...

I checked with a multimeter which wire would be what ... some of the colors weren't quite right, but the position (pin number) of the plugs are sweet ...

just gonna buy an adapter tomorrow and it will be sweet ...

that's how my old one looked like:

So for the record: everybody with a pre-fitted AMP and the standard 6 or 8 speakers, you're likely to have this white and long plug for the old radio ... this goes down to the amp and from the amp back up ... somewhere behind/below the ashtray you find the original 2 plugs (pic2) just remove them and connect with an adapter to the new radio.

Thanks for all your help!!!

uibalnme · 11-24-2010, 03:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nz-dude

...I checked with a multimeter which wire would be what ... some of the colors weren't quite right, but the position (pin number) of the plugs are sweet ...

just gonna buy an adapter tomorrow and it will be sweet ...

That's the beauty of the adapter harness. You don't have to worry about the factory wire colors, and which wire is what. All you have to do is match the stereo wires colors to the adapter wire colors, then plug into the factory wiring. That's it.