lexs300

hey, i have a 97 es300 and i have a kenwood excelon double din indash nav/dvd/head unit.
i just purchased the dash kit and i was wondering if i need a wiring harness?
I have subs currently w/ stock head unit.

if i do need a wiring harness , does anyone know where i could get what i need?
and also if any one has done a double din install, on a scale of 1-10 how hard is it to install with the nav brain and everything.
please help me out

Thanks,
David

msa13623

Are you running any aftermarket amplifiers to the main speakers? Or only to the sub?

lexs300

it is only to the subs.

msa13623

I wouldn't use a wiring harness then. It would require you to run the speaker outputs of the new head unit through the existing stock amp. You'll want to bypass that. Use the wiring diagram on this site to identify which wires to use.

Connect new head unit to existing speakers:
Run the speaker outputs from the head unit to under the passenger seat. Once there, you can remove the wires that run to your speakers from the stock amp, and connect them to your head unit. Now the stock amp isn't connected to any speakers, so you can take it out altogether if you want (or just leave it...it won't hurt anything...with no speakers attached to it, it'll power up but won't do anything). You will have a set of outputs from the head unit for rear speakers and a set for front. On your fronts if you have more than one pair of speakers (extra tweets for example), just wire them in parallel.

Install new head unit:
You can find the power, ground, antenna and turnon leads attached to the old head unit, and wire them to your new one. It'll probably have a wire for dimmer control too (some head units have that, some don't).

Subs:
Your sub will continue to work fine since it is tapped into the speaker level leads of your existing speakers. It'll just be getting its signal from the new head unit instead. However if you wanted to upgrade this, you could run an RCA cable from your head unit to your amp and use the line-level rather than speaker level signal for your sub.

ES BL155

iTrader: (3)

If you want to save some time buy this harness, which allows you to plug it in the wire harness going to the stock amp. This way you bypass the stock amp and you no longer have to test for wires and cut into the stock wiring harness.
http://cgi.ebay.com/87-2005-TOYOTA-C...ayphotohosting

More info about this harness is on this thread on the 8th post, also the diagram for the stock wires can be found here if you don't want to buy the harness.
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...U+for+99+ES300

Good Luck

msa13623

OK this previous post ^ is good info. If you read the thread he refers to, it actually describes the same harness found on eBay. It's the one w/o the RCA jacks on it. From reading that thread, it appears this harness would allow you to connect the speaker-level wires from your new head unit to the wires which lead from the amp to the speakers. It appears this harness allows you to run your new H/U directly into the speakers, thus bypassing the stock amp. That might save you a little time. You'll still need to (a) run your speaker wires from your new H/U to the existing amp so you can then use the harness at the amp, and (b) still need to get power, turnon lead, etc at your H/U.

Note that the stock H/U provides line-level outputs to the stock amp. That's why you'll need to run your new H/U's speaker-level outputs, by bypassing the amp, to the speaker wires which come out the opposite side of the amp.

As with all this stuff, there are always surprises. Get a high level overview of what you want to accomplish (run your new H/U speaker-level wires to the speaker wires, which you can pick up on the opposite side of the amp), and then if you try a harness you can evaluate if it will do what you want or not. I sometimes use harnesses where I can (esp if I later plan to remove the equipment) but sometimes it's easier to do the work w/o the harness.