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I'm going to apologize ahead of time for what may seem like a redundant thread, but @Master Jedi's fantastic post (Create your own jumper harness for adding a sub) wasn't dumbed-down enough for me. Thank you to @removedonut for taking the time to get me straightened out. Sometimes I need to work at the 3rd grader level, that's the intent of this post.
Note that to do this the right way, you really should purchase 2 wiring harnesses: Metra 71-1761 (Amazon.com: METRA 71-1761 - Radio Harness Into Factory Radio - OEM HARNESS TOYOTA 87-UP : Electronics) & Metra 70-1761 (Amazon.com). These two harnesses allow you to build your own pigtail so that you don't need to hack into factory wiring. I also recommend getting a set of RCA cables with wires on one end, something like this: (Amazon.com).
Important Point: The wiring harnesses ARE NOT plug-and-play. The advantage they provide is the ability to plug into the stock amp and wiring harness; however, they must be re-pinned. Yup, I blindly tried this and it's not pretty; you'll get a very loud ~60hz tone out of your sub - glad I didn't damage anything.
If you haven't re-pinned a harness connector before, there are YouTube videos on how to do various connector types (I couldn't quickly find this exact one). Just get yourself a jeweler's screwdriver kit, then one of the smaller standard screwdrivers will allow you to release the pins, they slide out, and then you can put them in a different slot. Be patient in learning this, it's not hard once you find out how the connector is constructed.
The second problem I had is that I couldn't decipher whether Master Jedi's picture was of the female or male connector, so my second attempt had everything 180 degrees off (it's the female btw). The remaining pictures should help ensure you don't have this problem.
First, this is a picture of the stock harness plugged into the stock amplifier. Ignore the 2-wire harness on the right, it's not necessary; we're only going to work with the 9 wires in the 10 slot connector (pin 7 is unused). The four wires on the left, (blue/white & yellow/green) are the "less-amplified" (0-2V as measured by @removedonut) signal wires which we're going to grab for the RCA's. The next one over on the bottom (dark green) is the remote turn-on wire, you're going to want to grab this one as well and run it with your RCA's to the amplifier. Lastly, the 4 larger gauge wires on the right of the are for the door speakers and are already amplified; for the pigtail we're going to construct, you're just going to pass these straight through so they are unchanged.
![Hood Motor vehicle Automotive design Trunk Bumper]()
ok, so now that we know the goal - let's talk about how to practically make this work. Please note, the color of the wires in my pigtail are completely irrelevant - it's only relevant what they are passing from the amp to the factory harness and which ones we're going to tap into. You should focus on ensuring each pin passes through the same way to the amplifier regardless of wire color.
It's best explained using the male connector of the pigtail we're building. This is the one which will go into the factory amplifier. Remember, I had to flip everything 180 degrees once I found out my problem, so my white/grey wires are now on the left and the red/yellow/orange/black wires are on the right (again, the colors don't need to match what you do). The white/white-black wires on this pigtail correspond to the white/light-blue wires on the factory harness connector and we will use these to create the Right RCA. The grey/grey-black wires on this pigtail correspond to the green/yellow wires on the factory harness connector and we will use these to create the Left RCA. The blue wire on this pigtail corresponds to the green wire on the factory harness.
![Wood Space Electric blue Plastic Cable]()
For illustration purposes, here is the female connector (upside down, sorry) which is soldered to ensure all those wires pass through exactly. This is the connector that the factory connector will plug into.
![Hood Motor vehicle Automotive exterior Automotive lighting Wood]()
And the completed pigtail (before I taped it up, so you can see the wires).
![Electrical wiring Cable Gas Electrical supply Technology]()
Lastly, I know some of you may want to see what this did as compared to the factory wiring diagram, so I marked this up.
![Product Rectangle Slope Font Parallel]()
Please note, these are not true line-level outputs; however, they seem to be low enough to be tolerable even by an inexpensive amp such as the one built into the RockGhost. That said, my gain is set almost at zero, but to me this is preferred because high inputs, low gains are associated with higher sound quality.
Note that to do this the right way, you really should purchase 2 wiring harnesses: Metra 71-1761 (Amazon.com: METRA 71-1761 - Radio Harness Into Factory Radio - OEM HARNESS TOYOTA 87-UP : Electronics) & Metra 70-1761 (Amazon.com). These two harnesses allow you to build your own pigtail so that you don't need to hack into factory wiring. I also recommend getting a set of RCA cables with wires on one end, something like this: (Amazon.com).
Important Point: The wiring harnesses ARE NOT plug-and-play. The advantage they provide is the ability to plug into the stock amp and wiring harness; however, they must be re-pinned. Yup, I blindly tried this and it's not pretty; you'll get a very loud ~60hz tone out of your sub - glad I didn't damage anything.
If you haven't re-pinned a harness connector before, there are YouTube videos on how to do various connector types (I couldn't quickly find this exact one). Just get yourself a jeweler's screwdriver kit, then one of the smaller standard screwdrivers will allow you to release the pins, they slide out, and then you can put them in a different slot. Be patient in learning this, it's not hard once you find out how the connector is constructed.
The second problem I had is that I couldn't decipher whether Master Jedi's picture was of the female or male connector, so my second attempt had everything 180 degrees off (it's the female btw). The remaining pictures should help ensure you don't have this problem.
First, this is a picture of the stock harness plugged into the stock amplifier. Ignore the 2-wire harness on the right, it's not necessary; we're only going to work with the 9 wires in the 10 slot connector (pin 7 is unused). The four wires on the left, (blue/white & yellow/green) are the "less-amplified" (0-2V as measured by @removedonut) signal wires which we're going to grab for the RCA's. The next one over on the bottom (dark green) is the remote turn-on wire, you're going to want to grab this one as well and run it with your RCA's to the amplifier. Lastly, the 4 larger gauge wires on the right of the are for the door speakers and are already amplified; for the pigtail we're going to construct, you're just going to pass these straight through so they are unchanged.
ok, so now that we know the goal - let's talk about how to practically make this work. Please note, the color of the wires in my pigtail are completely irrelevant - it's only relevant what they are passing from the amp to the factory harness and which ones we're going to tap into. You should focus on ensuring each pin passes through the same way to the amplifier regardless of wire color.
It's best explained using the male connector of the pigtail we're building. This is the one which will go into the factory amplifier. Remember, I had to flip everything 180 degrees once I found out my problem, so my white/grey wires are now on the left and the red/yellow/orange/black wires are on the right (again, the colors don't need to match what you do). The white/white-black wires on this pigtail correspond to the white/light-blue wires on the factory harness connector and we will use these to create the Right RCA. The grey/grey-black wires on this pigtail correspond to the green/yellow wires on the factory harness connector and we will use these to create the Left RCA. The blue wire on this pigtail corresponds to the green wire on the factory harness.
For illustration purposes, here is the female connector (upside down, sorry) which is soldered to ensure all those wires pass through exactly. This is the connector that the factory connector will plug into.
And the completed pigtail (before I taped it up, so you can see the wires).
Lastly, I know some of you may want to see what this did as compared to the factory wiring diagram, so I marked this up.
Please note, these are not true line-level outputs; however, they seem to be low enough to be tolerable even by an inexpensive amp such as the one built into the RockGhost. That said, my gain is set almost at zero, but to me this is preferred because high inputs, low gains are associated with higher sound quality.
