Need help installing aftermarket stereo, Cant figure this out... Options

[HX_Guy]

Man...these Toyota's are confusing!

Here is the deal...Im trying to insall an Alpine CD deck in a 1994 Celica GT with the premium sound (stock amp). I went to Best Buy and bought a wiring harness (part number Metra 70-1761...looks like this: http://store5.yimg.com/I/logjam_1701_3450239 ).

I know youre supposed to bypass the stock amp which is located under the AC/heater controls under the stock stereo correct? The stock amp has 3 plugs in the side of it (1 plug goes to the stock stereo...other 2 go into the car's wiring harness it appears).

The problem is...the two plugs that come out of the stock amp do not match the Metra 70-1761 wiring harness plugs. Am I working with the wrong plugs? Are there some other plugs I should be using?

[Guest_Matthew_*]

those wiring harnesses won't work. I had the exact same problem that you are having. The only thing that you can do is run a wire from your battery or some other continuous power source and ground it somewhere, and run direct wires from your head unit to each one of your speakers. I would also suggest getting a 50 foot spool of speaker wire for this job also.

[HX_Guy]

Well...I found a new harness (Metra 70-8112) which plugs right into the one-plug harness used with the premium sound systems (plug that plugs into the back of the stock deck).
The harness has wires for 12V, ACC, Ground and Remote Turn-on...and then has RCA jacks that are supposed to be plugged into an aftermarket stereo.

Im sad to say tho...that for some reason it isnt working.
I hooked up the power wires and the new deck turns on...but there is no sound coming from the speakers...not really sure why, because it should work. I might try and splice into the stock speaker wires before the amp and see if that works.

[HX_Guy]

Well I finally have it all hooked up.

I just went ahead and used the 70-8112 harness for the 12V wire, ACC and Ground...then for the speakers I spliced into the wiring harness before the stock amp. I only hooked up the tweeters/midrange and rear speakers...leaving the door woofers out. That way I didnt have to mess with wiring speakers in series...and since I added two 10s in the trunk...the woofers are not needed anway.

It was pretty straight foreward and easy...would have been even easier if the RCA hookups would have worked. I found the problem might have been that I needed the blue/white wire on the 70-8112 harness spliced into the ACC wire. So there might not have been any sound because the stock amp wasnt being turned on. If that is the case...then the 70-8112 harness is a direct plug in harness without any hacking needed...although you do need a deck with two sets of RCA outputs, and if you want to run an amp for subwoofers, then you need two Y-splitters.

[chosen1]

I had the same exact experience with my car when I bought an aftermarket AIWA last week. I also bought it and the wiring harness from Best Buy. After six hours of trying to figure it out, I finally took the car to Best Buy to have them install the CD player. The guys there were even confused. At first there was no power. Then there was power, but no sound. Finally another guy came and showed him that the old harness comes out around 12 inches down from where the original one begins. After that was figured out, my car was done in 5 mins. That was a very frustrating experience. Someone should post something about that. I'm sure we're not the only ones who have experienced this before.

[rlan214]

i bought my from ebay for 5$ it worked fine