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SUVs Toyota Highlander Toyota Highlander Accessories and Modifications
1400 messages, Last post on Oct 12, 2009 at 8:45 AM
You are in the Toyota Highlander Forum. Your Hosts are steve_ & tidester
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| While at a stereo installation shop a couple of years ago there was some mention of an "adapter" which I assumed to be a harness consisting of a connector and a corresponding receptacle to be inserted between the factory headunit and existing harness, and consisting of line and/or speaker-level break-outs, but a quick web search didn't turn up anything. The main issue is where the amp gets mounted. If you find the most convenient place to mount it is under the passenger seat for example (there probably is not enough room to mount it behind the dash close to the head unit), it might be easier to splice into the harness along the floorboard adjacent to the passenger seat rather than route a set of lines from the head unit to the amp (this was the method I used for adding an amp to my factory head unit, but I was able to get away with splicing into the harness adjacent to the passenger seat without running any other lines because I had the JBL system that, at least on Highlanders without the third-row seat ('01-'03), the factory amp was located behind the second-row seat (non-JBL systems do not have a separate factory amp, however), and thus line-level signals were present in this harness, as well as the speaker lines going to the speakers. Not to discourage anyone from running separate lines throughout the car, you just have to decide what system appeals to you. The electrical manual (separate from the $200 two-volume service manual set) is a great asset for determining which lines are which and where the existing harnesses are routed. | |
| I want to get an aftermarket CD Changer for my 2004 Highlander. It has to work with the stock head unit. Has anyone done this? Do you recommend any particular brand and model of changer? Thanks in advance. | |
| Regarding installing an amplifier or an add-on CD changer you guys will get far more help posting at a site specific to car audio. I suggest registering at the12volt.com and posting your question(s) there. Then you can come back here and share the information! | |
| I still can not figure out how to get the wire down behind the "A" pillar? How does the molding pop off? Any other tricks in the installation? | |
| As anyone here had video monitors installed in the headrests? Where did you have the DVD player located? I'm going to have this done to my Highlander in a few weeks and any info will help. | |
| Don't have the DVD screens on the headrests yet, but I've got an in-dash Alpine LCD screen. Right now I use it for navigation - the nav unit is located under the driver seat, the 6-disk changer under the passenger seat. Works well -- should accomodate a DVD player without any problems. | |
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To landdriver: I have the 2001 HL Limited(With JBL System). Well, I was thinking about what how you installed your amplifier. I was wondering, what happened to the stock amplifier? Did you jstu leave it there or did u take it out? I am thinking of replacing the stock amp and using that harness, but I'm going to have trouble with the wiring since I won't know which wire is which. I was wondering, the harness that is plugged into the amp, does it have the wires that goes to all 4 speakers? I recently picked up the adapter to convert line level to RCA so I was planning to re-wire the harness to use for the new amplifier. I am hoping to find an amp small enough to replace the factory amp, but from what I've heard on this forum, the stock amp is pretty small and no manufacturers make an amp that small. Is there any other suggestions you have? Thx |
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wwlccp: I removed the factory amp. We're pretty much thinking along the same lines -- by far the most convenient thing is to locate the new amp in the same location as the factory amp (behind the carpet behind the rear seat), as the factory amp has the line-level signals going into it and the speaker-level lines going out to all four speakers, the idea being simply swapping the factory amp with the new amp (of course the molex-style connectors going to the factory amp won't connect to the new amp, and ideally the adapter you got will plug into this connector to brake-out the line-level signals to RCA connectors that will plug into the new amp). Alas, as you noted and as I discovered, the area occupied by the factory amp is too small for most aftermarket amps, unless if you can find some long narrow amps. Alternatively, after you get the new amplifier you might experiment to see if you can locate it close to the area where the factory amp is, perhaps behind the seat but in front of the carpet. If you could fit the new amp under the rear seat this would work, but there is very little room under there when the rear seat is folded down (I'll wager most HL owners never noticed that the base of the rear seat moves down slightly as the seat back is folded down). Or, depending on you're tastes as far as the amp being visible, it could be mounted in the cargo area somewhere (I looked around the area under the cargo area (where the spare tire is), but didn't remember seeing any spots where I thought I could put the amp). Otherwise, if I had to do it all again I probably would do it the same way as I did before: locate the amp under the front passenger seat and tap into the harness under the scuff plate in the front passenger door opening; its a little cumbersome getting at it. This requires familiarity with a soldering pencil or crimp tool, and patience splicing into wires in the middle of a harness. The line-level signals consist of five wires (the four channels and a common) and a shield -- I used shielded cable in running the lines to the amp to maintain the shield to guard against magnetic interference even though it was maybe only a couple of feet of cable run. Three of the four speaker lines are present in the harness and thus connecting to these is straight-forward (FL, FR & RR if I remember correctly). For the RL what I did, after removing the factory amp, was, at the factory amp location, connect the RL and FR lines together. Then, where I spliced into the harness at the front passenger door, I severed the FR speaker line. The severed end heading toward the front of the car was connected to the amplifier FR speaker output, and the severed end heading toward the rear of the car was connected to the amplifier RL speaker output. Other options include, instead of tapping into the harness in the passenger door opening, to run the preamp lines directly from the head unit to the amp (via under the carpet), and run new speaker wires directly to each speaker, but when is all said and done it would probably be easier to tap into the harness. One caveat. Gaining access to the factory amp is a bit of a pain. After removing the rear seats, to lift the carpet to expose the amp I ended up removing practically all of the interior body panels in the cargo area. You can cheat by cutting a hole in the carpet; the amp is located toward the right maybe a foot or so from the right interior wall. As if this isn't long enough will post pin-outs for the signal lines in a couple of days or so. Good luck! |
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| I have a 2004 Toyota Highlander w/ a sunroof, and have been told by my dealer that the stock DVD player will not work. This is apparently due to a redesign of the head liner, which makes the roof mounted version too big. There is supposedly a new headrest mounted option available as of 02-04. Can anyone verify this or provide any further information? | |
| Has anyone had their Highlander with the dark privacy glass tinted? I want to tint the front side windows (35% tint is legal here in Hawaii on all side windows and rear windshield) but was curious if there is a need or benefit to tint the already dark (darker than the tint) privacy glass. I wouldn't think so, but what do you think? | |
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