Abear

iTrader: (1)

What I am doing is replacing my stock Headunit with aftermarket HU. This is pretty easy, it was alot easier than I thought. I know alot of you guys have probably done this already, but just to make sure you know how easy it is.
First I started with removal of the stock HU, easy enough.Start by takin out the Ash tray and you will see 2 or 3 bolts...10mm I believe. Then, remove the air vents up top with a flat head screwdriver. I think there are 2 more bolts same 10 mm. Then pull the whole assembly out, A/C controls and everything. Then to the next step if you havent already done it buy the metra dash kit, its awesome and I think I saw a seller with a store on ebay who has them for around 15 dollars shipped. I took my HU out a few days before I got my kit, so it was sitting my room for a while. Yeah, no radio, but oh well. Heres what I did/am goin to do, I haven't finished yet, it got dark. The Stock Harness has 3 plugs, white, blue and gray. The blue one is the one your working with. If your one of those people thats gonna reuse the stock amp, I wouldnt suggest not doing that, you can, but the signal is amplified and sounds like crap(had this setup in my car for my sub, its was crappy). So if your gonna bypass the stock amp like me, most likely your new HU came with a Harness(no it wont match the stock harness). I Havent gotten to the dash yet as I lost my sockets to take my battery terminal off. But I have been in my trunk all night from about 4 to 8, it got to dark and I dont have the luxury of a well lit garage. In the trunk the stock amp is below the CD changer, if you have no CD changer its on the passenger side under the carpet in the trunk. The amp has the plugs on it, a white one, a orange one and a blue one(maybe Gray), the orange one is the one you want. I am not gonna use my stock amp again, so tomorrow it will most likely be coming out, so I just cut off the orange harness and stripped the wires back enought to fit into my splicers(will have pics tomorrow). Once in the trunk you will need the wiring colors found here....
FRONT LEFT SPEAKER: PINK+, PURPLE-
FRONT RIGHT SPEAKER: LIGHT GREEN+, BLUE-
REAR LEFT SPEAKER: BLACK+, YELLOW-
REAR RIGHT SPEAKER: RED+, WHITE-
10'' SUB: LIGHT GREEN with RED STRIPE+, LIGHT GREEN with BLACK STRIPE-
(THANKS TO TURBOGS300)
You can either cut the harness off like me, or just strip the wires if you plan on taking this stuff out if you ever sell your car(shame on you). So now you have the wire colors. All you have to do now is buy some wire(I am using 18 gauge) and run it back to the center console. You will need to take the backseats out and pull up the carpet and remove the plastic blocking the carpet(like I said, I will have pics tomorrow). I havent run any wires yet, the reason I have nothing done is because I lost that freakin socket. Now where were we? Ah yes, Running the wires, come out the trunk, down the back seats, underneat the carpet(you will need to pop the black tabs to get the wire under the carpet and pull the tower thing that the seatbelt drops into for the passenger it will pop, just pull it at the bottom). Then run the wire under the carpet infront of the passenger seat( the black tabs will need to be popped again, and theres a white plastic thing by the door that will pop also just takes some prying). Now just match the wires with the harness on your aftermarket HU, I plan on running the wires one at a time tomorrow as to not confuse myself, but thats just me

Now we're at the dash and we need power for this sucker. This is the same thing, there will be three harnesses that came out the stock HU, a white, gray and blue. We will be needing the Blue here. On one end of the Blue you will find the wires you need. I will probably not cut off the entire Harness here, I will most likely just cut the wires I need, I only need 2, Constant and Ignition(My HU doesnt have Illumination as I read on in the instruction manual..sorry Jael if I made you look for more info than necessary ).
Constant 12V (+) - Blue/Yellow
Ignition Switched 12V (+) - Grey
Antenna - Pink/Blue AND Pink/Green
ILL 12V (+) - Green
Ground ( - ) - Simply crimp on a ring connector to the stereo harness and ground under the bolt to the body directly under the stereo - no need to tap that.
(THANKS AGAIN TO TURBOGS300)
The thing about this is I already have an aftermarket amp and sub running, the only way Im thinkin you can use the stock sub is if you use a y spliter on the sub out on your aftermarket HU, run RCA wires to the back and splice the RCA wire and plug it to your sub. I am gonna use a y spliter on the Sub out on my HU and run RCAs to my amp, This way I can use the HU to "tune" my sub. If you dont have an amp for a sub but you plan on puttin one, you might as well run the Blue AUTO ANT wire from your HU. Its the remote turn on wire, you will need this with any amp I am pretty sure. I know I forgot to mention the antenna, its the 3 wires on the other side of the Blue harness. I am not gonna reuse the stock antenna, I am gonna get a hideaway antenna, supposedly better reception and plus no ugly antenna on the car(SCORE, haha), with the 3 wires if you figure out which ones are the correct ones, all you do is strip them, and wire all 3 together and give them a power source. This will make the antenna stay up all the time, if you dont want that you can do a switch, switches are easy, just search google on how to do those. All there is left is to make sure you clean everything up, make sure you tape your wires up nice and tight and use zipties as much as possible, we dont want any fires lol. Make sure and disconnect the battery when you start messing with your power wires, I didnt disconnect when I was in the trunk stripping the speaker wire, but I figured it didnt need to be. I hope this helps people now and in the future, I know I wished there was something like this when I first started doing my stuff.
Also, good luck to anyone who attempts this, and feel free to add to it!
-Jacob
p.s. any questions you can PM me or email me abear2386@hotmail.com

Abear

iTrader: (1)

Ok guys, Sorry it took so long to get the pictures. My mom needed to use my camera.

This picture shows what it looks like when you have the dash out.


This is a picture I took Back at the amp, it shows the wires and where you can kinda find the amp.


This one is just a close-up back at the dash, Shows which harness and what the antenna wires look like.


And last but not least, The Final Product.


Hope this helps, and as stated in my last post if you need help PM or email, but you would prolly do better to email me as I check that everyday.

Wald GS

iTrader: (1)

Great write-up! What headunit did you get?

Abear

iTrader: (1)

Its the Lanzar SVDVD18, I know most of yall are gonna be like Lanzar??? trust me though, I love this thing, plays mp3, dvd, cd, svcd, vcd, and that monitor i got off a website, the deck has a video out and the monitor lets you scroll through your songs while listenin to em and stuff, pretty good for 99 bucks

cjones2402

hey...wasup fam.about the radio thread..just a quick question....why do you all say u cant use the stock sub if u do a aftermarket HU install?? if u use the rca's off of ur new radio(slice the rca's on the to the car side..and just plug them in as if u ran rca's).it should work just as if u put in a aftermarket amp..being that rca are low voltage vs. using high volt speaker lead which should/might burn out either ur radio or amp if u do it that way.. im just saying the sub had to get a signal from the radio via the amp..so even if the sub is tapped into the rear speakers through the car harness all we should be able to do is fire the sub up and everything should work as if its a stock HU.. ..just some thoughts i had...cause im about to do mines if i can find a radio kits in my dayum area!!!

Abear

iTrader: (1)

Im not quite following what your trying to do. Are you trying to say that if you splice the RCA sub lead from the aftermarket deck straight to the sub, that it would work? If thats what your trying to say, you are wrong, in a sense. It would work, but not well, not well at all. You wouldnt even feel or hear the sub. The RCA lead is just a signal, its not meant to push the sub. You have to have an amp. If you try and use the stock amp somehow, then maybe you can get it to work. Either way, going through the stock amp will also sound like crap. The car has an amp in the trunk to power all the speakers and the sub, incase you didnt know, so thats why your first guess is wrong. If you cant afford a new amp/sub, just wait on the audio setup you plan on doing. Either that, or just buy a low-end amp and sub.

twojayzee

I think what hes saying is splice a set of male rca's onto the car side pre- amplifier that way when you hook up the deck pre-amp leads viola you have a sub.

cjones2402

no...thats what im not saying....take a aftermarket radio...slap a cover over the stock amp to say whatever brand u like..and what do u have...a radio/amp setup(a crappy one..but its a basic setup..lol)...as if u got it out of a store.. rca's are low voltage...find the sub leads coming from the cars harness and put rca's on the end of them...plug them into the aftermarket radio rca's and u have a bacis setup..its the same as if u took the stock amp out and put one of ur choice in its place...everything is there for u to use...its just a matter if u want to do it that way...all ur doing is giving the amp a signal..its just from another source instead of the factory HU(lexus HU's are low watts anyway..its just like using rca's..if u hook a speaker up to the radio leads b4 the amp..the sound will b real fant). I had a es 300..did it this way until i got everythig i wanted..then i ran all new stuff for a cleaner setup..I only use kenwood radios with no speaker output because of the superb sound..and now i only get eclipse HU's with the 8volt output on the rca's. but b4 someone ran into my es 300 i redid it with eclipse HU(flip out dvd player)..memphis 1000d...memphis 3004...extra batt(marine) 4gauge and monster cable..with 2 kicker crv's 12...and for the inside(dont laugh) i used some kenwood componets...sounded sweeet...took all that out and put it in a 98 tahoe i picked up clean for $7000(ins money) from minnasota (mom stays there)and now i have to start from nothing to do my gs 300..all i have is a eclipse 8443...

cjones2402

lololol thanks EG8...viola!!!

cjones2402

and in reality u can do the whole setup that way... just use the pre-out leads

Abear

iTrader: (1)

I may be way outta my league here, Im no pro. I still dont think it will work. The way the stock amp is hooked up is really wierd. You can try it your way, and then if it works great, if it doesnt, then theres really no loss. But, if you get in there and mess something up, then there will probably be noone to help you out to try and fix the mistake.
Good luck though, let us know what you decide to do and if it works or not.

cjones2402

hey abear..i cool with u bro..i like how u give ur thoughts without commin off as a pompous *******....lol...much respect.....but i use to work for a well known chain installation shop..(not best buy..but c.c.)and i seen my days of wired **** that even i thought wouldnt work until i sat down and drew out a schmatic(spell check) for it...and low and behold!!sometimes even on paper it says it shouldnt work but it do...lol...but what i do need to know is...what is the best sub to use for the gs setup..im not trying to put a box in there UNLESS i can make one in the same spot the sub is in already...im not the boom boom type anymore..i just want good clean sound INSIDE the car..i dont give a **** what they say it sounds like on the outside

nysupraman

shuda saved ur 100bucks, trust me. i had a crap *** DVD player i got real cheap, and it stopped working 1.5-2yrs max.

Abear

iTrader: (1)

You should check out Gompkas Car Domain page, his stuff is really good. He built a box to fit right below the stock location. Maybe if you sent him a PM he can hook you up with the dimensions, and you can build yourself a copy or something. If you want a sub that you dont need a box for, find a free-air sub 10-12" and just stick it in there with a custom baffle of some sort.
As far as the wiring, I TOTALLY agree with you man. Like I said, Im no pro, but I pretty much do all of my own stuff, including home electronics and computers and all the other stuff. I sit there and stare at this stuff forever and then something in my brain just clicks and says do this..and there it goes.

Abear

iTrader: (1)

This is true, most stuff found for under 150 will crap out. The only reason I got this one cheap is because I knew the guy selling it on Ebay. The deck I have retails at around $325. I dont think its gonna break on me anytime soon. Even if it does, it was only 100 bucks right?!