It seems like most of the posts (if not all) about replacing the factory radio with an aftermarket radio mention that there is a noticeable engine noise afterwards. As I plan to replace the head unit in my 2000 es, I want to make sure I order everything I need beforehand. Is it possible to hook up the aftermarket HU and NOT have any noise? Perhaps it's just certain head units? I'll be patching into the factory amp with a Scosche harness that has the front and rear RCA connections, not speaker connections. Anyway, if you did install an HU without noise using the factory amp, how did you do it? I'd be interested to hear...

 

Hmm, I've installed 2 head units and one was noticeably louder than the other. Not sure what the difference was, installation wise, but I'm sure how loud it gets may depend on the head unit. I'm not much help here, but I'm also curious if there's a way to get rid of the noise.

 

Instead of tapping into the factory ground coming up the harness make a ground from the headunit's ground(s) right to a solid place on the chassis. AS long as its unpainted metal if you have to scrape some off go ahead make sure it's solid.

 

If your gonna use the factory amp I would install 2 rca noise filters F/R

 

• NEVER hook up the RCA's with the battery connected
• Find a good, solid ground on the cars chasis
• Buy two of these and ground them to the HU's chasis

 

Great advice, thanks. I also have a powered Bazooka sub in the trunk; would you recommend an RCA filter for that as well?

 

If you have a pioneer: thats when you do not hot swap RCAs. It blows the pico fuse ground.

Trust me with this answer....Because I have dealt with it for years and fixed it perfectly.

Ground your RCA's to the sheathing of the radio. TRUST me. make a good ground in addition to this fix.

What I did was solder a decent size wire to my RCA. and put a spade connector on the other end of the wire. Placed it to a screw in the back of the stereo. voila....MAGIC.

Google Pioneer pico fuse. it will return alot of results. You DON't need a ground loop isolator for this either. There is a ground loop in the HU, and nothing can fix it unless you fix the pico fuse (too much work) or do EXACTLY what I just told you. Good luck...you don't need it though. I guarantee this is the answer.

 

Exactly what I had to do. They're not very expensive either and easy to install.

 

That won't work if you have a pioneer with a blown pico fuse. Thats just hiding the problem and not fixing it. BTW, it interferes with sound quality as well.

 

Wow, great, lots of ideas to look at here, just what I wanted. I'm going to actually install it first without doing any additional wiring except the scosche harness. I don't mind taking it all apart numerous times, that I'm good at. I have a cheap Axxera head unit to get started, until I can afford a better touchscreen later in the summer. I'll hook everything up and let you all know what I experience first, then I'll add filters and other advised mods as I go along, noting what seems to work or not work. I'm not expecting much in the way of clear sound, so as long as I keep my expectations low I've got nothing to lose, right? Maybe I'll post some pix later as well. Now if the damned HU would get here already...

 

The pics would be great Jazzer. I am planning a head unit install myself on my 96 ES300. I want to keep all stock except HU while using factory amp and CD player in trunk. Not sur eif this will be possible. Look forward to the pics.

 

Any chance you could elaborate on where you soldered the wire to the RCAs? Are we talking red, white, or shield? Just wanna make sure I do it right...

 

Well, the best laid plans of mice and men often turn to ****...

I took the factory Pioneer head unit out today to discover that it doesn't have the same connector as the Scosche harness. Turns out that a lot of things on the 2000 model have slightly different modifications, and this was one of them. Soooo, headed out to Best Buy to pick up the Metra 70-8113 harness, which has the 20 pin connection. Hooked it up and the new HU powers up, Bazooka sub thumps nicely, but NO factory amp. Back to the drawing board...I may just save myself some time and trouble and wire directly to the speakers from the new HU. Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow with better news...

 

I've been wondering about doing the same things with my 95. I did a google search and I found this, maybe it will be the answer.

http://www.sonicelectronix.com/item_...a-70-8112.html

I don't care about CD's but I want a good sounding system that will play my mp3's

 

If you all still use the factory antenna in the rear window, then a really good window cleaning might help with the noise. Ford had a TSB on the Fusion about the rear window defroster causing interference with radio clarity. So I cleaned ours really well with many paper towels and a window cleaning product purchased at CarQuest from Stoner Co. called Invisible Glass and the radio noise was gone. So I did the same with our 1997 ES300 with factory stereo and the radio noise cleared up on that one also. The window cleaning took from 1/2 hour to 45 minutes per vehicle to remove the hazy residue running next to the antenna and window defroster lines. Most of the cleaning should be in the same direction as the lines run. Clean also the defroster lines under the third brake light. When finished, the lines should all have distinct edges with absolutely no hazing on glass. Be careful not to damage any of the lines.