Aftermarket deck with premium speakers?

[SiZ]

Hey all, I've recently bought a 99 SR5 and I really don't know much about it. Seems like a nice truck, but the stock CD deck is pooched so I went out and bought a cheap Sony.

I did what I normally do, bought a harness, wired it all up, and went to install it. The first harness I bought had about 4 plugs on it and it seemed a little excessive, sure enough it didn't in any way fit, the pins were supposed to be much smaller. SO, I guessed I must have the "premium" sound system although it doesn't seem like it (6 speaker?!) and bought that harness today.

On the new harness, there's no wires for speakers, just RCA plugs and I'm not sure where they plug into? Two say front, and two say rear. But I don't remember when I pulled the stock deck out seeing a place that I could plug them into, and on the back of my new deck it only has one out for RCAs and it says "sub/rear" or something.

I would really appriciate some help, thanks.

 

[kcyota]

My 97 SR5 had an amp. If you are replacing the deck, then you don't need the amp anymore... and chances are the harness you bought is meant to connect to the harness connected to the amp (not the harness connected to the back of the factory stereo).

That's the way mine was. I ordered from Crutchfield and the harness they gave me connected perfectly to the harness going into the amp.

 

[SiZ]

Oh, okay. I thought I saw an amp back there just under and behind the stock deck. That's what made me assume it was what they called premium or whatever the term is.

So is there RCA jacks on the factory amp, or do I have to completley bypass that?

Thanks

 

[kcyota]

Why would you need to replace the speaker wire? Just bypass the amp and connect the new deck directly to the existing wiring. Most likely, the amp in your aftermarket stereo is better than the factory amp.

 

[piperoo]

This is just my experience with my old '99 limited. No RCA's anywhere. Unplug the amp which has a white connector (possibly two) going into it, another going out. Connect your harness to the the connector going into amp (remove your amp permanently or put it back with nothing connected to it...good storage place). Take apart everything first, see what you see, and then probably return that RCA harness. I used something like this:
http://www.crutchfield.com/p_120701761/Receiver-Wire-Harness.html?search=harness

This is correct. Just take the factory amp OUT...you won't even need it. It has 2 brackets on each side and you can unscrew them. The white connectors that are going INTO the factory amp are the same connectors that you will hook up to the wiring harness you bought for your head unit. I just replaced my radio in my 2001 SR5 a few weeks back and it was a breeze...let me know if you have any questions.

 

[piperoo]

That is personal preference really. If you want to hack into the trucks wiring feel free to do it that way. I was thinking along the lines of returning it to stock in the future. Some people don't care about this and half ass it.

You don't have to hack into the wiring at all. The connectors on the back side of the factory amp are plug and play with the wiring harness (Metra, etc)

 

[SiZ]

Thanks, good info in here. I probably should have asked here before I tried it, but I've never had a car with a factory amp, and I figured any amp is a good one so I wanted to retain it if possible.