Diversity antenna- reception fix for aftermarket hu

[PAULUNM]

I misunderstood the info for wiring the extra antenna wire and gave the other large wire power--my amp wouldn't come on...lol. So then I powered 3rd smaller wire with the antenna wires...now I have better than stock reception and my amp works...he he.

Why are you guys worrying about this Y-connector if all you need to do is power the small wire in the cluster and just let the 2nd antenna wire hang???

Can you elaborate on how you did this? I'm an electronics dummy, sorry!

I'll be installing a Scion Upgrade Pioneer HU I just bought, so I need to figure this out. The whole giving the large wire power statement.

Thanks!

 

[dollaz]

hi larry,

are you saying you put power to the third wire of the three that are on the antenna cluster? in otherwords there are 2 motorola plugs, one standard antenna size, one smaller that we dont hook up, and one black wire that has a plastic connector going back into the stock wire harness, is this the one you powered? if so which side is powered the one that goes back with the 2 motorola plugs or the part that goes to the wiring harness?

 

[Larry77]

hi larry,

are you saying you put power to the third wire of the three that are on the antenna cluster? if so which side is powered the one that goes back with the 2 motorola plugs or the part that goes to the wiring harness?

Yes, I cut it and powered it going back to the truck...

 

[dollaz]

Hi Larry,

Sorry for the confusion, when you say you powered it going back to the truck, do you mean you powered the side that goes back with the 2 motorola plugs (i assume to the back of the 4runner windows)?

quick question: how was the antenna amplifier getting power from before on that black cable? maybe with the stock deck connections?

thanks for your time and knowledge guys!

 

[IbrahimGTSR]

this should help i found on ebay but i don't know
i shore do need one, and the seller have different one too
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/90-0...id=p4506.c0.m245&_trkparms=65:2|39:1|240:1318

 

[IbrahimGTSR]

another

i found this at Best Buy and they claim is for a Nissan Vehicle, but it look like that is what we need
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=7199541&type=product&id=1218019705328

 

[tbradp]

Antenna problem

I seem to be having the same problem as many with bad reception. I saw the post about the y-adapter so I went to my local stereo shop to purchase one and they told me they don't make one for a Toyota. The guy told me to just let the smaller antenna cable hang, but when I do my reception is terrible. Any suggestions?

 

[FitzofVA]

After having my new Pioneer hu installed, my radio reception went down the tubes. I learned from this forum about our diversity antennas that utilize 2 antennas in the rear of our 4th Gens--with 2 different size male antenna jacks up front to the factory radio.

Naturally, the new hu had only one input for an antenna (the larger of the two leads), so my installer connected it and power to the antenna. The result: poor reception.

I tried a booster, which did no good. Then on a whim I read about somebody using a Y antenna connector to channel both antennas into one male input for the aftermarket HU. Consequently, I ordered one and a upsizing adapter for the small antenna jack, and plugged them all in.

To be honest, I wasn't expecting much difference, but there was at least a 50% increase in reception! Still not as great as the stock unit (which is made by Eclipse), because there was no internal diversity switching, but a huge increase in reception (1-2 bars on my radio's display reception meter).

Cost is about $30 for the Y and the adapter.

For those of you who have aftermarket HU, I'd recommend trying this fix. Unless of course, you've found a better trick!

I've been looking for a splitter like this - can you recommend where to get one? I cannot find a Toyota-compatible design. Thanks.

 

[tbradp]

I can't find one either.

I've search the internet with no results and I have tried a couple of local car stereo dealers and they both tell me there is not one for Toyota vehicles, although they did have one for Nissan.

If you have any luck please let me know.

 

[Larry77]

Don't need the splitter guys just need to supply power to the third smaller wire in the bunch as explained earlier in this thread. I just taped up the second "diversity" wire, plugged in the regular antenna wire and supplied power to the third wire and poof I have better reception than stock!

Hope this helps...

 

[tbradp]

still confused

Thanks Larry. Due to the fact that I'm an electronics novice, can you explain exactly how you powered the 3rd wire? (connect it to the hot wire to the head unit, connect directly to the car battery, etc. ?)

 

[Frown]

I'd like to know which side of that 3rd wire gets power and from where alos. I was behind my dash tonight working on this and I could not get any better reception when I tried to add power to either side of that 3rd wire. hmmmmmmmm

 

[drmorbius]

I'd like to know which side of that 3rd wire gets power and from where alos. I was behind my dash tonight working on this and I could not get any better reception when I tried to add power to either side of that 3rd wire. hmmmmmmmm

Originally the antenna amplifier was automatically powered by a 12 volt output from the stock H/U which was only on when you turned on the H/U. If you had the standard (non JBL) H/U the power was applied to pin 8 of the 10 pin plug. If you had the JBL H/U the power was applied to pin 13 of the 20 pin plug. Normally when you adapt an aftermarket radio into the 4runner you use adapter plugs that plug into the original wiring behind the radio so just find the correct wire on the adapter plug you used.

 

[FitzofVA]

Diversity Antenna

After reading through the various posts on this topic, I decided to go ahead without the Y-connector (which I could not find, anyhow) for my Pioneer Nav HU. I also connected the antenna power lead on my 4Runner (07 SR5) to the Pioneer antenna lead, just in case. Reception is excellent; no problems. I have not tried it disconnected, but at this point I see no reason not to leave it as is.

Fitz.

 

[ryanhokie2001]

After reading through the various posts on this topic, I decided to go ahead without the Y-connector (which I could not find, anyhow) for my Pioneer Nav HU. I also connected the antenna power lead on my 4Runner (07 SR5) to the Pioneer antenna lead, just in case. Reception is excellent; no problems. I have not tried it disconnected, but at this point I see no reason not to leave it as is.

Fitz.

Not sure if this will work with your Pioneer NAV HU or not, but I found a VERY easy solution to the diversity antenna issue with my new Kenwood NAV HU. All I did was connect the regular antenna connection from the 4Runner to the Kenwood, tape up the secondary smaller antenna connection coming from the 4Runner with electrical tape, then I crimped the blue "power antenna" wire from the wiring harness to the matching blue power antenna wire on the Kenwood cabling. On my kenwood cables it was clearly labeled as such and the packaging that came with my wiring harness also labeled the blue wire as the one for a power antenna. I originally did not connect these wires as I thought they were meant for vehicles that have a true power antenna that goes up and down from the hood, but I guess this cable also supplies the extra power boost needed for our diversity antennas in our rear drivers side windows. Good luck dude!

 

[Stupidscript]

Metra Part Numbers

Tossing this in ... same as some of you, but I'm telling the whole story for clarity.

When I bought it in 2009, my 2000 SR5 4Runner came with:

- stock Delphi Delco 09357129 CD/cassette/AM/FM 2-DIN stereo
- diversity antenna setup (1 on LF fender and 1 embedded in rear window)

This means that when I pulled the stereo out, it had 2 antenna plugs plugged into 2 antenna jacks in the back of the unit.

The plug/jack for the fender antenna is normal sized, and the plug/jack for the rear window antenna is the smaller 1988 GM/Motorola size. The smaller plug has a smaller "barbless" section and a smaller diameter pin, so it just drifts in a normal jack.

I replaced the Delphi Delco unit with a 1-DIN Clarion using the Metra 88-00-8000 pocket and the Metra 70-1762 wiring harness.

The stock stereo included an amplifier that is mounted on the firewall, below the head unit. Since the Clarion HU includes an amp, I didn't need the stock one, so I used the Metra wiring harness to connect with the plug that plugged into the stock amplifier on its bottom, not to the wires that went from the amp to the stock HU, bypassing the stock AMP completely.

Clarion => 70-1762 => plug that used to go into the bottom of the amp

Not used: stock amp => wires to old HU (I just left them in there.)

For the antenna wires, I initially used the fender antenna plug, because it fit into the single normal-sized jack provided in the Clarion. But reception was kinda crappy, and I wanted to use the rear window antenna, too.

I ended up using the following to get both antenna wires going into the Clarion:

Metra 40-UV43 Y-cable (2 female to 1 male, all normal sized)
Metra 40-GM10 General Motors adapter cable (small female to normal male)

The fender antenna's normal plug goes into one of the 40-UV43 females and the rear window's smaller plug goes into the female end of the 40-GM10 perfectly, and the male end goes into the other 40-UV43 female. Finally, the 40-UV43 male goes into the normal single Clarion jack.

Voila.

However ... all of this talk about taking additional action to power up the "blue wire" doesn't apply to my situation, AFAIK. I matched colors from the Clarion's harness to the Metra harness, using every wire that matched and leaving a couple dangling and shielded with shrink tubing, and then plugged the existing harness plug into the Metra jack. There isn't even a blue wire on the Metra harness. There was no label for "antenna power" or anything like that, just the usual speaker, power, ground, etc. assignments.

Anyhoo ... reception is great, so I'm not looking to fiddle with it. I just thought I'd add the part numbers that did it for me, because that was hard to discover, and I ended up doing trial and error and spending about 10 bucks on stuff that didn't fit before I got what I needed.

Metra 88-00-8000 pocket = $20.00 from Amazon
Metra 70-1762 wiring harness = $12.00 from Fry's
Metra 40-UV43 Y-cable = $3.00 from Amazon
Metra 40-GM10 adapter = $13.00 from Fry's, but lots of places have it online

The Scosche MDAB is a $5 jack-to-plug unit without any cabling that looks like it would work instead of the jack-to-cable-to-plug Metra GM adapter, but I couldn't find it in a store, and the shipping would be more than the unit, so I went with the Metra adapter.

 

[docfeelgood]

I just swapped out my factory HU with my old Sony CDX-GT150, and didn't bother to run the second, smaller antenna. Unit & reception quality works fine in NYC. I haven't done a road trip with it yet.

But after reading the page, I found out that the part I would need, if I were to go that route is the: METRA Ltd 40-UV43 Motorola Antenna Y-adapter + Metra 40-GM12 GM Antenna Adapter (Barbless) (Upsizes the smaller antenna cable to larger size)

There is a dealer on amazon that sells both for ~$13.00 total + SH.

 

[BROOKLYN]

ok this is my situation im a electronic idiot
i have a 05 runner sr5 with front components speakers, a sub 2 amps
in the back and a scion nav. my reception sucks the installer moved so im up shits creek. he did install two modules or boosters of some sort in back of the radio (it that helps) i cant listen to am at all and my fm sucks.
so what can i do :hiding:

 

[BROOKLYN]

any solutions

 

[sbbamafan]

I know this is an old thread BUT

I am having the same problem and am confused by this thread but it is the closest I could find while searching. Specifically, I have a Kenwood KDC-X994 in place of the original JBL. FM reception is fine. AM is non-existant. It is clear that I need to power the am antenna amp. I understand the blue/white wire is to connect to the antenna wire (whichever wire that is). It is currently tied to the blue/white coming off the Scosche 8113 adapter. It is my understanding that the blue/white wire is turning on the JBL amplifier that I am still using. Is it supposed to be tiedto a third wire? Which one?

Thanks