Bypassing Factory AMP (For idiots) (7 Viewers)

[fredthegreat]

Hello,

As the title implies, I am an idiot. When reading other forum posts about bypassing the factory amplifier, the post ends up going right over my head. I simply am not understanding what I need to bypass and what’s important to keep/use. I just keep hearing “diagram” “harness” and “you know, that one cable” when mentioning a vague area that has a LOT of different wires and connections.

This is the stereo I am wanting to purchase since the car had already had a crappy aftermarket installed:

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_500UTE73BT/Alpine-UTE-73BT.htmlq

Could someone explain to me in as simple and straightforward of a way possible how I should...

1.) Remove the factory amp
2.) run speaker wires correctly
3.) make sure my head unit will receive power
4.) properly manage and connect any relevant cables

and preferably, be able to keep the factory sub in the rear; however, this is not a deal breaker.

 

[ramangain]

Please post up year and model of your rig for starters. More Qs will follow after that info

 

[KFunk740]

This website had some of the best info I needed on wires:

Stereo Wiring: Land Cruiser / LX 470 (1998-02)

Article by: RobRed Applicable Models: 1998 - 2002 / 100 Series Land Cruiser or Lx 470 Changing your head unit to an aftermarket unit is pretty stra

tlcfaq.com

I don't have time to give you a walk through of everything myself. If you disregard the amp and identify the wires leading to the amp and tap into them, and run them to the head unit, its basically the same as all other car stereos. The amp bypass kit did basically nothing for me except provide a lot of nice wires.
For a car stereo, you need a wire thats 12V always on, one that turns 12V on when you turn the ignition on, and a ground wire. Thats basically all you need to turn the damn thing on. There's also a big weird antenna wire, actually two of them in the case of the 100. One little one goes to the rear window antenna, but some people just leave that disconnected. That link points you to the adapter and Y you need though if you want to use the rear antenna (I did).
Also, theres an antenna control wire from the head unit, which triggers the power antenna to go up and down.
Then for the speakers, each channel as a positive and negative wire. Identify each one of them, and connect as such.
Most head units arent going to have a sub output, and you wont be able to use it. However, I got a cheap $25 single channel amp and put it under the passenger seat to drive the stock sub. That amp just needs similar power supply 12V always on, and ground and it also needs a control wire from head unit (head unit has to tell it when to turn on). Your new head unit should have an amp/ctrl wire. You'd also need two RCA cables from head unit to amp, to actually carry the music signal. Then connect stock sub wires to it. I think it may have been confusing because theres two sets of sub wires on some years., which I think I just tied them together to run them in parallel (I think, remember I had to research a bit on whether I wanted in series or parallel).

 

[fredthegreat]

Please post up year and model of your rig for starters. More Qs will follow after that info

2000 Toyota LC—I thought I was specifically in the 100 series forum.

 

[fredthegreat]

This website had some of the best info I needed on wires:

Stereo Wiring: Land Cruiser / LX 470 (1998-02)

Article by: RobRed Applicable Models: 1998 - 2002 / 100 Series Land Cruiser or Lx 470 Changing your head unit to an aftermarket unit is pretty stra

tlcfaq.com

I don't have time to give you a walk through of everything myself. If you disregard the amp and identify the wires leading to the amp and tap into them, and run them to the head unit, its basically the same as all other car stereos. The amp bypass kit did basically nothing for me except provide a lot of nice wires.
For a car stereo, you need a wire thats 12V always on, one that turns 12V on when you turn the ignition on, and a ground wire. Thats basically all you need to turn the damn thing on. There's also a big weird antenna wire, actually two of them in the case of the 100. One little one goes to the rear window antenna, but some people just leave that disconnected. That link points you to the adapter and Y you need though if you want to use the rear antenna (I did).
Also, theres an antenna control wire from the head unit, which triggers the power antenna to go up and down.
Then for the speakers, each channel as a positive and negative wire. Identify each one of them, and connect as such.
Most head units arent going to have a sub output, and you wont be able to use it. However, I got a cheap $25 single channel amp and put it under the passenger seat to drive the stock sub. That amp just needs similar power supply 12V always on, and ground and it also needs a control wire from head unit (head unit has to tell it when to turn on). Your new head unit should have an amp/ctrl wire. You'd also need two RCA cables from head unit to amp, to actually carry the music signal. Then connect stock sub wires to it. I think it may have been confusing because theres two sets of sub wires on some years., which I think I just tied them together to run them in parallel (I think, remember I had to research a bit on whether I wanted in series or parallel).

Would I find all of these speaker wires at the amp under the passenger seat?

 

[knewstance]

2000 Toyota LC—I thought I was specifically in the 100 series forum.

It's different for LC/LX and possibly slight changes between the years.

Would I find all of these speaker wires at the amp under the passenger seat?

Yes. In my 1998, it was the plug towards the front of the vehicle that I was working with.

@KFunk740 thank you! That link was very helpful with my install today.

 

[ramangain]

Hello,

As the title implies, I am an idiot. When reading other forum posts about bypassing the factory amplifier, the post ends up going right over my head. I simply am not understanding what I need to bypass and what’s important to keep/use. I just keep hearing “diagram” “harness” and “you know, that one cable” when mentioning a vague area that has a LOT of different wires and connections.

This is the stereo I am wanting to purchase since the car had already had a crappy aftermarket installed:

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_500UTE73BT/Alpine-UTE-73BT.htmlq

Could someone explain to me in as simple and straightforward of a way possible how I should...

1.) Remove the factory amp
2.) run speaker wires correctly
3.) make sure my head unit will receive power
4.) properly manage and connect any relevant cables

and preferably, be able to keep the factory sub in the rear; however, this is not a deal breaker.

Very well, here goes.

1. No need. Metra makes a harness to bypass the amp. Use the search function to identify the correct Metra part #
2. No need. Use the stock truck wiring.
3. Use the search function to identify the correct Metra part #
4. Plug and play EXCEPT perhaps the dimmer and speed pulse wire. I specifically repeated which wires to tap in the factory wiring within the last 10-15 pages in the main active sticky thread up top. Or, use the search function.

You may find that spoon-feeding specific info found by the search function is in short supply in these parts.

 

[KFunk740]

I can’t remember the specifics, but the metra bypass kit did almost jacksquat for me. It may be made for a specific year or option package. Don’t know if my 99 is just weird or what, but very few of the wires matched up to where they should on the harness. I ended up having to cut and solder most of them instead.

 

[gregnash]

Yes there are a couple different Metra harnesses out there so you will need to figure out which one you are looking at. Crutchfield reps are usually pretty helpful so may be good to figure out what you need from them.

The link posted above for TLCFAQ was perfect when I did mine. Had it on my laptop while I pulled everything apart so I could reference as needed and had zero issues. For me it was easiest to completely remove the passenger seat to easily access everything, but that is up to you.

 

[AlabamaLX]

I had the same problem recently when installing an aftermarket stereo in my 2001 LX470. I didn't want a lot of hassle with the wiring.

I got on Crutchfield's site and chose a 2001 LC, since there was no LX470 option. I bought the Metra harness and had Crutchfield go ahead and wire it up.

Everything was plug and play. Removed the Mark Levinson amp from under the seat. Plugged in the harness. Ran the harness under the seat frame to the door sill to get to the dash. Followed the path of the old antenna wire to get to the stereo. Plugged the stereo in and everything worked.

The bracket from BeatSonic did not work on mine, but the bracket from the Mark Levinson stereo did work with the BeatSonic surround.

This set up just runs the (4) main speakers in the doors, nothing more. I removed all the other speakers, replaced the (4) door speakers, and removed the rattly sub years ago.

I also don't have a power antenna. I converted to a Tundra fixed mast antenna a while ago.

 

[landocalrissian]

There are other ways to do this, but I followed the TLC FAQ website in my 2000. Here's a brief summary.

1. I used the metra harness that crutchfield suggested. All of the wires on this harness connect to the speaker outputs on your head unit. The other end of the harness will plug into the existing wiring harness that you unplug from the amp from underneath the passenger seat. The metra harness kit came with two harnesses, I did not use the smaller one that only has 4 wires. Only use the speaker wire harness.

2. From there you need to follow the TLC FAQ instructions for getting the power, ground and remote turn on connected.

• On Connector S7 remove pin 3 (B+ out) and on Connector S6 remove pin 7 (B+ in) and tie them together using appropriate crimp or solder them.
• On Connector S7 remove pins 2 (accessory in) and 9 (accessory out) and tie them together using appropriate crimp or solder them.
• On Connector S7 remove pin 10 (ground int) and on Connector S6 remove pin 13 (Ground out) and tie them together using appropriate crimp or solder them.
• On Connector S7 remove pin 1 to use for your new amplifier “turn on” signal.

3. Hook up the power, ground and remote turn on to your head unit. If I remember correctly, these wires can be had at the head unit by snipping off the harness that plugged into the back of the factory radio.

 

[PDXUZJ100]

@landocalrissian Sorry for what is almost certainly a dumb question, but after I remove pin 1 on S7, where do I connect it? for context I'm installing a sony xav-ax1000 on a 2000 LC using the metra 70-8116 bypass harness from crutchfield already spliced into the headunit harness. The connections on that end were (seemingly) pretty dummy proof and just plugged in, and steps 1-3 above made sense, but I'm just not sure where to put that "turn on" signal, so unsurprisingly nothing turns on.

 

[landocalrissian]

@landocalrissian Sorry for what is almost certainly a dumb question, but after I remove pin 1 on S7, where do I connect it? for context I'm installing a sony xav-ax1000 on a 2000 LC using the metra 70-8116 bypass harness from crutchfield already spliced into the headunit harness. The connections on that end were (seemingly) pretty dummy proof and just plugged in, and steps 1-3 above made sense, but I'm just not sure where to put that "turn on" signal, so unsurprisingly nothing turns on.

If I remember correctly you can get the turn on signal from the harness that you disconnected from the back of the original head unit. You don't have to get it from pin 1. It is probably the same color of wire at the old head unit harness as the pin 1 cable. Alternatively, you could splice a wire from pin 1 to your unit's turn on wire and that should work too.

 

[PDXUZJ100]

If I remember correctly you can get the turn on signal from the harness that you disconnected from the back of the original head unit. You don't have to get it from pin 1. It is probably the same color of wire at the old head unit harness as the pin 1 cable. Alternatively, you could splice a wire from pin 1 to your unit's turn on wire and that should work too.

Thanks, I was beginning to think that the headunit side was the way to go too. The harness that crutchfield sent has chunks that plug into the new HU, the old harness at the HU, then down at the old amp location, but from what I could tell the solid yellow power cable in the old harness section isnt connected to anything else downstream.

 

[VTOLC100]

There are other ways to do this, but I followed the TLC FAQ website in my 2000. Here's a brief summary.

1. I used the metra harness that crutchfield suggested. All of the wires on this harness connect to the speaker outputs on your head unit. The other end of the harness will plug into the existing wiring harness that you unplug from the amp from underneath the passenger seat. The metra harness kit came with two harnesses, I did not use the smaller one that only has 4 wires. Only use the speaker wire harness.

2. From there you need to follow the TLC FAQ instructions for getting the power, ground and remote turn on connected.

• On Connector S7 remove pin 3 (B+ out) and on Connector S6 remove pin 7 (B+ in) and tie them together using appropriate crimp or solder them.
• On Connector S7 remove pins 2 (accessory in) and 9 (accessory out) and tie them together using appropriate crimp or solder them.
• On Connector S7 remove pin 10 (ground int) and on Connector S6 remove pin 13 (Ground out) and tie them together using appropriate crimp or solder them.
• On Connector S7 remove pin 1 to use for your new amplifier “turn on” signal.

3. Hook up the power, ground and remote turn on to your head unit. If I remember correctly, these wires can be had at the head unit by snipping off the harness that plugged into the back of the factory radio.

@landocalrissian I’m running the Crutchfield harness to the Amp but have a question on the S7 connector. In the points above, did you remove the pins on the existing S7 connector originally going to the Amp and tie them to the original S6 connector and then you connected the Metra harness to the original S7 connector.? Then I can remove the amp as there is nothing connected to it, correct? Right now I have not power at the head unit. Thanks

 

[Live to Ski]

It's different for LC/LX and possibly slight changes between the years.


Yes. In my 1998, it was the plug towards the front of the vehicle that I was working with.

@KFunk740 thank you! That link was very helpful with my install today.

plus, from my mud reading over the years, the years with the large info-screen (believe 2003+) are a whole nother huge can of worms.