LeonK

I wanted to play CDs, so I installed Alpine 7892 in 96 sr5
4 runner. Write up on this site helped a lot.
It wasn't easy to find the wiring harness, because
the runner has separate amplifier and requires different
harness with RCA plugs to connect to the units pre-amp outs.
Please see if you can help with the following:

1. When I disconnected the original cassete player there were
3 connections:
- harness plug with dozen wires.
- antenna (like RCA plug, but longer)
- another plug, similar to antenna, but smaller -
I DON'T KNOW what it is and there was nowhere to connect this
plug in my new unit or the wiring harness! So I left it unplugged


2. Everything works fine, except when
the engine is running and the unit is on - there's
static noise coming from speakers. It's not there when
the engine is not running.

3. One last minor thing. I couldn't fit back the plastic panel
covering the shifter and 4x4 selector. Looks to me that another
panel (around parking break) needs to be removed first, because
of the angled meeting-point between those two.

LeonK

I forgot the mention on the noise issue:
I took everything apart - separated power wires from
speaker wires as far as possible , but the noise is there.

Churnd

the noise could probably be interference from your spark plug wires. i know they're in the engine but it's still possible. the only way i know of to fix it would be to install better wires that offer less radio noise.

UKMyers

Check your ground! A poor ground will result in engine noise. If it was part of the harness consider clipping the ground wire and grounded it manually somewhere else.

Jason B

Do you mean the 7982 3-disc changer?

That's the one I have:

Duffdog

let me ask you a question, when you took the radio out and saw the two antenna plugs, and the two harnessess, did you also see a little metal box behind the radio with wires going into it. That would be your factory amplifier, which has the speaker wires going into it that plug into any toyota harness. those are the wires to use, not the ones going into the toyota cassette deck. And dont worry about the diversity antenna, it doesnt do anything anyways.

tim

LeonK

It's a head unit - one CD at a time, not a changer.
cost me $214 at www.hookedontronics.com
I am not affiliated with them at any way, but they have good
prices and the service was good.

Ground - there was a black wire with U-shaped connector
at the end which I bolted directly to one of the metal stays,
hope it's part of the chassis ;-)
So I didn't connect it to the harness.

Yes, I saw metal box behind and below the radio. Wires
were connected between the original radio and that box.
BTW it was one plug, not 2 at the back of the radio.
But I don't think there was a plug on the other side of the amp -
I think it was wired directly to the inside of the amp - I'll have to
check that. Assuming there's a plug whick I can use and bypass
Toyota amp, why should I do this? This amp is no good? The one
built in the Alpine is a better quality?

I love the sound, even with stock speakers.
With road noise (recently I installed Toyo OC A/T) I cannot even
here the static. But I like thing to work as they're supposed to ;-)

dajabr

Ignore the plugs, they won't fit your new radio anyway. Spend some time figuring out all the wire colors and meanings, here http://installdr.com/Harnesses/Toyota-Wiring.pdf
Check your ground, and definately connect it to the original radio ground wire. I had mine going to the chassis and it was really noisy. You can also test the wires with a multimeter. I found that keeping wires long, even extending them, helped me keep track as they can be separated. You could even label them.

Just finished the stereo in my first gen but sounds like yours is more complicated. Hope this helps a little...

4FonZ

Hey ya.... yeah there is a small external Toyota amplifier which you don't need, you might as well remove it when you put your new HU in there....

That 2nd black cable is not needed, I just wrapped mine up in electrical tape and taped it away off to the side...

If you're getting noise, you should check to make sure your RCA's from the HU are not running up against anything that might generate noise... Also check your connections and your ground...

If that doesn't help, some people add this Ground Loop Isolator and it seems to have helped....

Other than that... maybe try shielded RCA's and twisted RCA/speaker cable... some people believe in it, some don't...

Duffdog

well, you never use the toyota amp because it sucks and injects noise into your system. if you bypass the amp and use the deck amplifiers directly to your speakers, all the noise will go away and you will have a clean system. if you want to cheat--go to a local good guys and buy a "smart harness" -- it has TOYOTA on one side and ALPINE on the other. that way you can just unplug the factory amp and plug it directly into your radio with no wiring at all!

Tim--

( by the way, it shouldn't be this hard to install a radio in a toyota anyways )