ProfessorP

Hi folks - I have a 97 ES 300, Pioneer factory radio. In the past year, my LED finally blackened out on me, so rather than spending the time and effort to replace the LED, I've decided to replace the unit with a navigation unit. So I went out and scored a Pioneer AVIC-F900BT navigation/DVD player unit.

The main questions I have are 1) will I need to rewire everything and 2) will I need to replace the amp that exists in the car already (once again, factory). Or can the AVIC-F900BT use thw wiring/amp that is existing in the car? That is my first preference because I don't think I'm keeping the car for more than say 3 or 4 years (got 175K miles on it) and if and when I get rid of the car, I'd like to simply take out the AVIC unit without sinking a whole bunch of more money into it.

Choas

First of welcome to CL!!! Second SEARCH this has been talked about more times than I can remember. Finnally yes you can just bypass the amp or use it it has been augued either way.

HYPERBOY

how is the f series????

i have the d3 (love it)

im going with choas, bypass it or not bypass it.

to tell you the truth i dont think mine is bypassed and it sounds great!! but then again i have jl all around =]

Infin1ty

You shouldn't have to worry about doing any rewiring, and yes you can use the factory amp is you do so choose. You can find the wiring harness you will need all over the internet, but if you just want to do a simple search for it so you know what your looking for, you can find it on crutchfield fairly easy. I believe it is just listed as a Toyota wiring harness on the website.

As far as finding the mount for that HU (unless you've already done so) I'm not sure how easy that will be to find. I know that Metra makes a dash kit for a standard DIN size HU that you can use to replace your stock equipment, but it looks like the navigation unit has different dimensions.

basketthis

Metra makes the double din kit for the es300:
Metra Electronics Corp. 95-8155
97-01 Lexus ES Double DIN kit

And, my recommendation (as always) is to bypass the factory amp!! You will have a horrible whining sound that will alternate with the rpms of the engine (engine noise) at low volume. It annoyed me to no end!!!
Maybe this will help!!
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=384430

ProfessorP

interesting info. I've talked to 3 very reputable stereo installation places and all have said that rewiring is needed. Maybe I should have them connect things and then let me hear it first? Are there different types of quality for harnesses?

Is a mount going to be a problem? I haven't heard anyone mention that they needed to custom-build anything, so I thought the mount would be a regular stock item.

Choas

I ended up getting the whine when I put my 12s in. It was easily corrected with a ground loop isolator. If you are going to bypass the amp you can do it yourself. The amp is behind the glovebox and all you need is the wiring diagram, wire cutters and spades to recconect the wires with. You see you don't want to remove the amp and rewire the whole system because you will have to put and back and rewire it again when you sell her. Instead what you want to do is bypass it by finding out which wires feed the amp and which wires go from the amp to the speakers. Then you just put some spades on the ends of all the wires you cut off the amp which without looking at the diagram should be about 16 wires. Now just connect the wires that were coming from the deck to the amp to the ones that were coming from the amps to the speakers. What this allows you to do when you sell the car is just disconnect those wires and recconect it to the amp and your back to stock without some overpriced shop charging you to rewire the whole system

kphu

iTrader: (8)

Welcome to the club professorp.

I recommend that you bypass the amp. Here's the wiring diagram for the 97 ES300, it's in this thread post # 60 look for my handle kphu.
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sho...=129035&page=4

Essentially what you need to do is connect the power cables using the old harness to the new head unit, find a good location for a ground and then run speaker cables from your new HU to the wires listed in the wiring diagram.

ProfessorP

thanks for the info guys! I pointed out this diagram over the phone to one of the "reputable" installers and now he's saying that the factory speakers won't be able to handle the AVIC-F900BT if I use existing wiring and/or I might need new speakers. That doesn't sound right to me either. Is he fully of baloney?

Choas

In some ways he is correct. By no means is the HU gonna pop those speakers right after you plug it in. What could happen is if you crank the deck many times and especially if you turn the bass up and you don't have subs you will eventually pop the speakers. On another note he may be just exaggerating the fact that the stock speakers won be able to handle the same range of frequencies that the HU is putting out thus not giving you the full effect that it can do. If you ask me I would leave the stocks in and see how it sounds to YOU since it is your car and if it sounds good run with it if not change them. Even if it does end up popping the speaker you can easily put them in yourself latter. So again my advise on this is again do it yourself and save some money these shops will just keep trying to get you to spend more money. Next they gonna advise that your speakers out of alignment for your type of ears LOL.

basketthis

You MAY need to replace the speakers a long (long, very long) way down the road but you won't have any incompatibility issues. I install for a living and can tell you this from personal experience. If you want to throw him of a bit, ask him something like "If you remove the factory amp in a Ford Explorer to put in an aftermarket radio, will it work?" The answer is yes it will. In 99% of factory amp bypass/removal jobs the factory speakers can be used with no problem. Your case falls well within the 99%!!!

You don't need any "new", "special" wiring to the speakers. It will sound just fine, although, I would recommend getting a 4-channel amplifier (nothing big, just a basic little amp) to run to your door speakers. What you want to be more concerned with here is the ohm-load that is being stressed to the in-dash unit. Aftermarket units have a recommended ohm-load of 4-ohms. Anything above that is fine. i.e. 8 ohm, 16 ohm, etc. But, when you go lower (i.e. 2 ohm) you put undo stress on the unit and can cause overheating problems. You could easily blow a channel or just plan fry your speaker outputs. What I recommend is to use your low-level RCA outputs to a 4-channel amp. Let the 4-channel amp handle the low ohm-load (that's what amps are for, among other things) and you will not have to worry about your unit overheating, or any of the other issues that I have explained. GL!!

Choas

That is by far the better way to do it. I would go with a 6 channel tho so you can run separate lines to the tweeters. You don't have to go crazy but it's prob the best thing you can do to improve your audio quality with an aftermarket dec,.

ProfessorP

ok, so in addition to the navigation unit itself, my other major materials include:

- harness
- Metra double DIN mounting kit
- a 4 channel amp (perhaps)

I'm a bit confused, I couldn't find a specific harness (which I assume to be the connection wires) for the 97 ES 300. Will something for a 97 Camry do? Perhaps one of you can show me a link?

Also, will the Metra kit be an exact fit, or will there be gaps that I need to worry about?

Choas

As far as the mounting kit its the only one available as far as I know and I'm pretty sure a few guys here have used it hopefully they can chime in on this. Now the harness I'm not sure about you might wana try 97,98,99 for the harness since they are all the same.

basketthis

Okay.
Double-din kit - fits perfect - no gaps
Harness is specific to your vehicle (I think its Metra 99-8112 ?)
If you get the four channel amp the harness will not be necessary!! You will only need 12v, acc, and ground and can tap into them fairly easily.

Sorry so short. Not much time. GL!!