6G Celicas Forums

I am completely bewildered. My celi has the 8 speaker, premium sound option, I was trying to replace my stereo last weekend, and pulling my dash apart I noticed that I had the factory amp, explained in the how-to article. I had a secondry amp under my drivers seat. Heres the juicy part, the wire harness going into my factory radio does not match the 1987+ harness. Instead of being two plugs into the radio it only has one! WTF? I have decided to team up with a buddy of mine to relocate the battery, put my new headunit inside the passenger airbag cover (my car was salvaged so the airbags dont work), we're planing on putting small actuators that with a switch will lift the panel exposing the unit, for heat a small 80mm pc fan inside to cool the unit. What do you guys think? And does anyone else have that single plug?

I believe all factory-amp cars have that single plug.

As far as putting the head unit under the passenger airbag cover, I wouldn't do it. You won't be able to change CDs when driving or look at the screen or make adjustments very easily. Plus you'd have a large blank opening(or a non-working factory head unit) where the factory head unit goes. The only advantage that I could think of would be that the head unit would be well hidden so thieves wouldn't know it's there. But it seems like it'd be a huge hassle(both the install and everyday use.)

Thats why you get the head unit that plays mp3's and wma's so you only have to change cd's once every 4-6 hours. As far as adjustments, came with a remote so that will be taken care of. Now like you said power will be an issue, the old factory radio will not have power. Actually I'm going to make a relay switch so I can toggle between the two. I'll post about details. Has anyone changed the LED's on the factory radio to make them red?

Amy made her screen orange by using some red bulbs I believe.

Is your whole system going to be amped? If so, you'd only need to provide constant power, switched power, parking light switched power(optional), and ground through a custom harness.


Do you plan to listen to the radio? If so, you'd need to extend the antenna wire as well.

Why would you want to have a toggle switch to use the factory head unit though?

Also, how is the head unit going to pop out through the air bag cover? Will the air bag cover be hinged and then the head unit will pop through vertically(or almost vertically?)

well right now the air bag cover can easily lift from the front, so my plan is to make it basically like a hinge. When I'm in the car my plan is to have the head unit accesible it will be laying horizontally (parallel to the ground), I'm going to make some custom brackets that will hold it in place while the cover is up. I do plan to get an amp, not sure what wattage yet. I've got some buddies that I went to high school with that want to take a crack at trying to get my head unit out. They dont know where Im planning on putting it. My main goal is to maintain the stock look and have the audio performance hidden. I'll see if I can post a picture of the idea, maybe drawing, maybe with the head unit?

umm no. Im going to agree with commer, its not a greta idear. To far away and more a pain then coolness. If u do anything with that, custom mold a monitor or somthing for a pasenger, i was thinking about that in my bimmer, cause it didnt have a passenger air bag an it was an open gap. If you want somthign so theves wont see ur cd player, get the flipping cover kinda. I have an kenwood with the cover flips everytiome i start or turn off my car. All my buddies dont think i have a head unit.

Addressing the radio harness question, I'm not sure how the premium sound system wiring works but on the standard stereo with one amp, there is a connector from the factory stereo to the factory amp and then a connector from the factory amp to the factory wiring harness. The factory wiring harness DOES have 2 plugs but you have to find this connection AFTER the factory amp. You need to remove these amps from the equation if you are using ANY kind of amplification - be it from the head unit or an external amp.