So I bought a new headunit for my girlfriend's 97 Avalon XL. The installation part is fine, but the wiring has me stumped. I have had both of the standard Toyota plugs but neither one works. First I bought the 2-plug harness from Wal-Mart, because I went to the trunk, and there is no sub. (I already knew this, but I checked anyway) So I went to the local A/V shop and the guy told me I needed the 1-plug harness. Cool. So I take it home and solder it up and lo and behold it doesn't fit either. The white aftermarket harness has a different head on it, and it physically fits INSIDE the factory harness, but the pins are completely different. There's no way it's going to work. So I took it back to the A/V guy and showed him the factory headunit, and he laughed and told me I needed the 2-plug and that there would be a little silver box back behind that would have the 2 slots I needed. There is not. He said he had never seen one like this before.
So now I have no harness, and no idea where to go next. Crutchfield recommends the 2-plug, but there's no where else to plug it in. Anyone know where I am going wrong?
I took the glovebox out. Here's what I got:
Is the stereo amp the silver box on the right? I can see from L-R we have the ECU, the cruise control, and then this mystery box.
Ok, luckily when I returned the single plug harness back to the store, I kept the bag. It says it is for 2000-later Toyotas and Lexuses. I talked to a Crutchfield sales rep and found out that they changed the plug in 2000, so this one the guy sold me was wrong. So I ordered the 92-99 plug from Crutchfield in the hopes it will be the solutions to my woes.
You weren't sold the wrong harness.
There just is no harness for the 95-97 Avalons.
The ONLY way to install an aftermarket headunit is to do one of the following.
1) use one of the custom harnesses that connects to the RCA jacks on the back of the aftermarket headunit to the factory amp, and uses the factory amp for power.
or
2) run new speaker wires to the amp and tap into the output wires of the factory amp. This way you will be using the built in amp of the headunit. This will give you better quality, and an aftermarket deck has a bit more power, but it is a ROYAL pain in the ass to do...I've done it...I know.
__________________
Toyotas in the family/next of kin:
1982 Corolla Wagon, 1989 Corolla DX, 1991 Previa LE, 1993 Previa LE,
1993 Pickup, 1994 Corolla DX, 1995 Avalon XL, 1996 Camry XLE, 1998 Avalon XL,
1998 Sienna CE, 1999 Camry XL, 2000 Camry XLE, 2002 Tundra, 2003 Tundra,
2003 ES 300, 2004 Camry XLE, 2005 Tacoma
You weren't sold the wrong harness.
There just is no harness for the 95-97 Avalons.
Maybe there wasn't but there is now. I got it all hooked up today. Best Buy carried the part I needed. It looked exactly like the first single plug I bought, except the head was just a little different. The pinout on the incorrect one had several different sized pins, and there were 20 of them. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0007WRQQ2/...SIN=B0007WRQQ2
The correct one had 15 uniformly-sized pins, and it's here:
They both have the RCA jacks on them, and the 12v constant, 12v switched, ground, and remote amp signal. Took me about 10 minutes to solder the other wires in. My headunit has front and rear RCA outputs, so everything works fine. I coupled it with the Scosche dash kit, and it doesn't look too bad. Sounds about 3.5 bazillion times better. I thought the speakers were going to need to be replaced again, but not anymore. A couple years ago we got some Pioneer 4" speakers and dremeled out the plastic around the mounts and hooked them up for a marginal improvement. Now they sound really good. She is going to love it.
And I saw the other How-Tos, but my whole problem was the guy at the stereo shop selling me the wrong harness and getting me all confused about where it plugged into.
Glad some company finally stepped up and designed an adapter. For years the only way to make a real harness was to kludge one together yourself turning RCA outputs into inputs for the factory amp. For the longest time no one seemed willing to do this because demand wasn't that high.
Hope you enjoy your audio improvement!
__________________
Toyotas in the family/next of kin:
1982 Corolla Wagon, 1989 Corolla DX, 1991 Previa LE, 1993 Previa LE,
1993 Pickup, 1994 Corolla DX, 1995 Avalon XL, 1996 Camry XLE, 1998 Avalon XL,
1998 Sienna CE, 1999 Camry XL, 2000 Camry XLE, 2002 Tundra, 2003 Tundra,
2003 ES 300, 2004 Camry XLE, 2005 Tacoma
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Yet another Stereo question...
and that there would be a little silver box back behind that would have the 2 slots I needed. There is not. He said he had never seen one like this before.
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