QuestionI am trying to hook an after market amp to a factory deck in a 1996 toyota 4-runner that has know inputs, plus is has a factory amp, Can you help, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
AnswerHi Jason,
There are two ways to connect an after-market amplifier to a factory sound system without RCA outputs:
1. Some amplifiers have a "high-level" input option. This lets you make connections directly to the factory speaker wires.
2. You can purchase a device called a line output converter. This works the same way: connect it to the factory speaker wires, and it will convert the signal to a low-level RCA output, which can be connected to the amplifier's inputs.
The presence of the factory amplifier makes it just a little more tricky, because it might be harder to get to the speaker wires. Your Toyota factory amp is fairly easy to work with, however. The amplifier should be located below the factory radio. It looks like a silver box, with a single plug at the top and two plugs at the bottom. The smaller of the two bottom plugs contains the rear speaker wiring; the larger plug contains the front speaker wires and power wiring. This is probably the easiest place to tap into your factory speaker wires with the line output converter or high-level input wires.
Your speaker wire colors should be:
front left (+) pink
front left (-) violet
front right (+) light green
front right (-) blue
rear left (+) black
rear left (-) yellow
rear right (+) red
rear right (-) white
Each wire pair should be located side-by-side in the plug.
Hope this helps!
Brian
