[jcambros]

Hey all,

First off I want to say how wonderful these forums are to read. There is some great info here. Anyways, to the point...

I bought a 2002 GT-S used in February of this year, and I absolutely love the car. However, about a week ago, the CD-player ate a CD, spit it out and now keeps switching over to give me an Err 1 message, which means I cant even listen to the radio for more than 5 seconds at a time... so basically I decided to buy a new Head Unit for my car.

I dont have a lot of money lying around so I was looking at decent HU's in the $150-200 range with the only real priority being that it could play MP3's (and of course sound and look good). I went to the Best Buy here (BIG mistake, I know now) to see what they had and ended up buying a Kenwood KDC-MP425 HU. That was the easy part.

After ~5 hours of dealing with crap from Best Buy, I finally was getting them to install everything, and they didnt have the wiring harness that was needed. They ended up finding the info on your forums here about the Scosche TA03 harness, and I read over the thread on the Noise Mod for it. BBuy said if I bought the part, they would install the HU for me (its free with purchase of the player), but Im concerned about feedback noise from the car.

So this leads to my questions for you all:
1) Does anyone know how many watts the stock amp for a 2002 Toyota Celica GT-S is rated for?
2) Will a new HU with 50 Watts/Channel sound better using the internal Amp or using the pre-amp's to the stock Amp in the car?
3) How much would it cost to run new wires to the speakers in the car if I wanted to go around the Stock Amp.
4) Is there anything else thats gonna bite me in the ass that I dont know about?
5) The guy at BBuy kept saying that I *must* have the 8-speaker setup in my car, but I swear to god I only count 6 speakers. Would the last 2 be hiding from me somewhere?

and of course:
6) Kenwood KDC-MP425 HU a good one for the price? Are there issues with it that arent evident by looking at it on the shelf? Again, my price range is really ~$150-200 for a HU (then ~$100 more for parts and labor to install if need be). If there is another HU I should look at, Im all ears.

Thanks for the help in advance,
J

 

[S|Lv3rBu||et]

First off I have a GT so I don't know too much about the GTS stock system, but I can say this:

If you do have the eight speaker system (which I think all GTS' have?) you have two full-range rear speakers and a pair of three-way component speakers up front (3 speakers front left + 3 speakers front right + two rear speakers = 8 speakers)
You might not be able to go around the stock amp. If the stock amp also houses the crossover networks for the front three ways then you need it. If I were you I would figure out a way to get the signal from the kenwood HU to the stock amp, and then off to the speakers.

 

[sm4k]

The only thing I can for sure help you with is #5. If you have an external factory amp, then you have the 8 speaker setup. There's 3 speakers in each door, the tweeter, and down below there's a 4" stacked on top of a 6.5", they are two seperate speakers, not a single combined speaker.

I think as far as clarity goes, it will probably sound the same, just with a bit more volume if you go through the factory amp, but i'm definately no audio expert. If your going to be powering all 8 speakers, it couldn't hurt to reuse the factory amp, especially if your on a budget. That amp isn't designed to be pumping any subs, it was designed to power the same speakers that you still have, so I wouldn't worry about under or overpowering those.

Running new wires to the speakers in the celica will probably turn into a headache, since all of the speakers in the car are rivited into place, and I doubt you want Best Buy playing with a drill in your car.

I don't mean to make you nervous, as I'm sure plenty of people have had good experiences at Best Buy, but I know of several instances where they installed speakers/headunits in cars and they didn't get the paneling back on properl. ****ty that they made you buy the harness for the cd player they sold you, and offered free installation for, but make sure you check everything out before and after the install, so you can throw a bitch fit if something's not right when you get your car back.

 

[jcambros]

Oh there is no trust in Best Buy touching my car... but the only reason I really bought the HU there was for the Free Install, but they cant seem to do that right.

Thanks for the help on the questions, Ill go look at my car doors to check for the speakers ;-D

Can anyone help with info on the power of the Amp, and also, how likely is there that the crossovers are housed in the amp? Is there any way to check? If there are only 4 lines coming out of the Amp (one per channel), Im guessing that would mean that the crossovers come later, right?

J

 

[jcambros]

Btw, I just called the Toyota dealership and they told me to not use the amp in the car... *shrug* for what its worth

J