What Can I Do With The Factory Stereo?

[VincyRay]

:cries: :cries: :cries: :cries: :cries:

The factory stereo in my SC400 is dying a slow and painful death.

Last summer the front passenger speaker died, and now I think the one in the back is on its way out. Plus the CD changer skips excessivly, when it finally decides to play. And now to top it all off, the tape deck (which went over a year w/o being used at all) won't eject,

I replaced the Pioneer amp and factory sub w/ Rockford about two years ago and was happy for a while. I didn't (and still don't) know about running the factory amp leads to an aftermarket amp, so I used a line-out converter to make that work. It worked pretty good for a while, but since the rear passenger speaker that I connected the l/o converter to started to die, it's taking a toll on my sub.

I haven't seen many custom stereo's in these cars, do any of you have pics and/or stories of your installs?

I like the look of the factory stereo in the car and would like to keep it as a head unit. I'm pretty sure that cleaning the laser would solve the problem w/ the cd changer skipping, and I've read a few articles on what might fix the amp, but I want more power. Is it possible to replace the factory amp w/ an aftermarket unit? I eventually want to put a dvd player in it, and tv's in the sunvisors but could do that w/ an FM modulator and mount the player in the glove box, if I can get the sound I want from the factory head unit.

Any advice?

[Sluggo]

One of the rear speakers in my 92 400 went out recently, so I tore into it to see what's what. The two full range speakers in the back are 4" units from Pioneer. They look to have a reasonable build quality. They're mounted via self-tapping screws onto a polycarbonite ring/frame which is then mounted onto the rear deck with four 1/4" machine bolts (the deck is tapped). I kid you not. These things will not rattle, ever.

I haven't decided if I'm going to just put in a pair of replacement 4" speakers or try something else. The cutouts will fit a pair of 5.25" speakers if you drill mounting holes. The mounting ring bolt holes look like they might be spaced for 6" drivers, but I'm not sure about that. If you did use a 6" speaker, there may be some issues with the size of the cutout, as it's not real big. A 5.25" unit that I tested sat right in place, but a 6" speaker with a fat frame (like Infinity Kappas) will require some cutting.

I haven't measured the inputs to the Pioneer amp, but I'm guessing they use high-level signals. I know they don't use common ground, which is nice. It probably has custom filters and/or crossovers for the factory speakers, but again, I'm not sure. There is no passive crossover for the sub, so it's certainly in the amp.

Replacing the factory amp with an aftermarket unit should be no problem. You should pick an amp that has variable crossovers built-in, since I'm not sure anyone knows what the factory crossover points are. Anyway, that's what I plan to do with mine, once I settle on a stereo speaker set for the rear deck - keep the factory amp in place for the front speakers, and drive the rears/sub from a 4 channel aftermarket amp running in 3 channel mode.

I want to keep my head unit too. It would be nice t be able to play MP3 disks, but that pretty much means a complete swap on all the electronics (except the amp, which I'm doing anyway), and I don't spend THAT much time in my car. =)

EDIT: according to this at LexusPros, the amp takes single-ended line level inputs, not speaker level inputs. the outputs make sense except for the subwoofer (BU?). I would assume that the sub is driven from a bridged output, but there's no sub+/sub- outputs. Curious.

[DKDiveDude]

Where can I find a console kit for my SC400 1998, so I install a regular DIN sized CD player?

I don't care about my trunk cd-changer which is dead anyways, but I am sick of the built-in cassette/radio player, and have until now lived with a cassette adapter so I can play my MP3 files off my MP3 player.

But now I had enough, I want to buy a brand spanking new CD/DVD/MP3 player of regular DIN size and off course need some console kit so it fits.