A warm hello to all other Camry drivers out there.

New member, but long time reader having had a few Camry models in the past.

I'm from the UK where Camrys never sold that well at all for some reason. So having owned a few gen3 V6/I4 cars and an imported JDM diesel auto, I now find myself with a gen4 V6 1997 model.

Given they are very rare cars in the UK, it took me a while to find one in decent mechanical condition. There is minor body scrapes etc...to be sorted, but there's nothing major there. Information pertaining to specific UK models is very hard to come by although with the V6, there was only the one trim level.

My current focus and where I have a problem just now is with installation of an aftermarket head unit. The car only had the standard Toyota tape deck with no CD changer attached. Tapes and radio worked absolutely fine no problems.

So when I got my new Camry, I got out an old Blaupunkt Melbourne SD27 which I had used in my last gen3 Camry, but I had to buy a new harness from a well known auction site.

Now already having done a bit of reading, I understand that the Camry in the US had the option of coming with a JBL/premium sound system which would change the type of connector plugged into the back of the factory head unit to a single connector as opposed to dual.

My car has dual white connectors as the default option, one of six pins and one of ten. The wiring harness purchased fits into this and gives me ISO plugs at the end which previously, went into the back of the SD27 and worked no problem whatsoever.

The issue that I have is this, sometimes I get no sound out of the head unit whether via aux/SD/radio. Thinking I may have a duff head unit, I went and bought a new Pioneer MVH-180UI. This exhibits the same behaviour for radio and USB. Using the Pioneer means an extra harness from it to the ISO harness.

All the pertinent fuses appear to be ok and the wiring harnesses appear at least to be connecting together solidly enough with no obvious damage to any of the wires.

Sometimes if I take it all apart again and plug things back in, the after market units will work again but for an undefined random period of time.

Audio stuff is generally beyond me so I am at a loss as to where to go next really. My current line of thinking however is to replace the harness that goes from the factory connections to the Pioneer harness guessing that I may have got a bad one somehow. Reasoning behind this is it is one of two common links in the chain between the two after market units, the other being something internal to the car.

Okay, sorry, wall of text, but been bashing my brains out for a few days now.

TLR

1) Fully working factory head unit removed
2) Factory to ISO harness purchased
3) One head unit with ISO connection randomly looses audio on both SD/FM.
4) Second unit with additional harness also randomly looses audio ion both USB/FM.
5) Fuses/harness etc checked and appear to be ok on cursory examination.
6) Removing either after market unit and connecting again sometimes allows audio to work again before randomly being lost once more.

Help?

Pictures attached are of the various connections from car to head units.

 

When the radio loses FM does the AM work?

The Blaupunkt also has an output for a remote amp, are you using an remote amp?

Plus a mute electrical terminal, is this terminal connected to anything?

Based on what you state there is no remote amp. The cars wiring should be for the speakers, +/- 12V, auto antenna, etc. The Crutchfield.com website should have the Toyota 2-plug wiring colors and where they go.

Suggest comparing the wiring for each stereo and wiring for the car to make sure each stereo wire goes to the correct harness wire.

Check for good connections between wires and terminals.

 

Hi, thanks for the reply.

Yeah, the radio goes completely, no AM/FM at all.

Not using any kind of amp with the Blaupunkt or the Pioneer.

Found this link which might help:

1997 Toyota Camry Car Stereo Wire Colors

and:

https://www.installdr.com/InstallDoc...PDF/869037.asp

Fingers crossed I can get my head around this, I'd rather not take it to a garage to get it sorted.

 

That's about it for wiring.

There may be a black/red wire going to the antenna motor.

Is the radio turning off or is it on but no output?

If turning off, do the pre-selected stations (the user sets these stations) erase? If so check for issues with the Gray wire (ign power) and Blue/Yel (+12V battery) wiring.

If the stations remain, check for issues with the Gray wiring.

If the radio is not turning off but has no sound determine if there is wiring to the mute terminal of the Blaupunkt radio. Not sure if the Pioneer has one.

Download each radio operational and installation directions from the net. The radio may have some wiring situations that put the radio into mute mode or turn off the sound if button is pushed, etc.

 

Okay, well this is odd. I was running through checking everything again and it turned out I wasn't getting any sound out of my rear speakers (hearing not so good).

The wires on the speakers appear good, but all I did was I just tapped on the metal frame with my knuckle on the right rear speaker and then suddenly sound started coming out of both rear speakers.

This was with the factory unit installed, so I swapped out to the Blaupunkt I had and it's working perfectly.

So I'm guessing there's a loose wire on the right rear speaker or something. If it happens again, I guess I am looking at replacing the rear speakers.

Don't quite understand how this would kill the sound on an aftermarket unit for all speakers, but there you go. If anyone happens to know, please enlighten me.

 

Might read the radio's features.

It may be the radio's amp has a safety circuit in case there is a dead short in a speaker wire to ground.

Amps also don't like not being connected to the load of a speaker. The result can be amp output circuit damage. Perhaps the radio as a safety circuit for this.