Help Bypassing Factory Amp on 3rd Gen

[jdataco]

I've been looking into upgrading my factory door speakers in my 3rd gen and have been reading about needing to bypass the factory amplifier. I installed an aftermarket unit into the 99 4runner that came out of my Tacoma witch already had a harness wired into it so it was plug and play. Did I unknowingly already bypass the amp with the wiring harness on the aftermarket unit or is there something else I need to do?

 

[piperoo]

If your speakers are working then you shouldn't have a problem. The factory amp is the little metal box behind your radio...kind of on the bottom right if you are looking into your dash. You should be able to upgrade your speakers no problem. I put JL's in mine and had to do some cutting etc on the plastic frames that hold the speakers....word of advice...DO ALL CUTTING WITHOUT THE SPEAKERS IN THE BRACKET...otherwise you could puncture a speaker.

I put an amp in to run my speakers and bypassed the headunit amp and hardwired the speaker wires into the amp and factory wires....yikes.

 

[jdataco]

My main concern is that I want the aftermarket speakers to pull their power from the JVC head unit, because I read somewhere that the factory amp only kicks out <10 watts per channel. If i'm understanding this correctly then even though my head unit is kicking out 54 watts 4 ways my door speakers would only be getting around 10 a piece if i'm still running through the factory amp, right?

 

[K092084]

My main concern is that I want the aftermarket speakers to pull their power from the JVC head unit, because I read somewhere that the factory amp only kicks out <10 watts per channel. If i'm understanding this correctly then even though my head unit is kicking out 54 watts 4 ways my door speakers would only be getting around 10 a piece if i'm still running through the factory amp, right?

Did you plug the aftermarket HD into a little metal box about the size of a computer mouse or did you plug it directly into the factory wiring, which had 2 plastic plugs on them?

 

[jdataco]

I think i just plugged the two plastic hookups into the harness, but it's been 2.5 years since I installed the headunit. I'll have to pull it out tonight and check.

 

[piperoo]

I don't think you can even use the factory amp with an aftermarket head unit without any wiring mess...so you probably have already bypassed it. The aftermarket harnesses use the plug that plugs into the backside of the factory amp...so I think you should be ok.