Tpp4's No Nonsense Guide to Kicker Key T-Harness (16-19)

Both models in stock at Crutchfield. I've been happy with both of them.

https://www.crutchfield.com/S-GNijRoPc3Gd/p_20647KEY20/Kicker-47KEY200-4.html
https://www.crutchfield.com/p_20647KEY50/Kicker-47KEY500-1.html

 

Thanks for this thread! Installed a 200.4 recently and now I can fade Disney read along books to the rear speakers instead of blasting it up front!

 

Thanks go out to the OP and destin.meeks and others who shared their knowledge to make this thread an awesome resource for adding the Kicker Key 200.4 to the 2016 Tacoma with Entune stereo.

After doing the Subaru tweeter, replace the door speakers, deaden all doors, add a powered 10" sub behind the back seat, stuff the fun pool noodle in the gap between the cab and bed, now I can finally enjoy the music in this truck because I can actually hear the back door speakers work.

It was hard to get the pins of the blue wire out of the Metra harness. It took 2 people and an ice pick to unlock and pull them out.
After that, it took me 2.5 hours to twist wires together and heat shrink the T harness joints. Then I pulled the stereo from the dash, figured out which plugs to pull from the bottom corner of the stereo, swapped them into the harness, plugged the harness into the stereo and to the amp, stuffed the amp under the stereo upsidedown, and put the stereo back in.

I still need to adjust the rear gain, but that is a work in progress alongside trying to fade up to the front on the stereo unit...

Thank you for sharing this modification Tacomaworld

 

Nice job on the wiring. I haven't done the pool noodle mod, but I've read it makes a significant difference.

 

What are you using to power the sub? The key amp?

 

"powered sub" it's probably a kicker hideaway or similar

 

I had installed the Rockville 10" powered sub as seen here: https://www.rockvilleaudio.com/rw10carwk10/

Originally, I wanted to put it under the front driver's seat, but it wouldn't fit so I needed to extend my lines to the back seat. It fits perfectly in the back seat cubby, wrapped in a bath towel to lessen reverberations.

After driving my family around after installing the Key Amp yesterday, my wife said that the stereo sounds "really clear" now. Furthermore, raising the volume beyond 20 starts to get loud now. I didn't put that much gain on the rear channel, but I have to fade almost all the way to the front to get better balance. I didn't put much gain at all to the front channel. I still have the hi-level-input for the sub pulling from the front left speaker channel and pulled it out to "tune" the system initially. I have some more adjustments to try out.

 

Wait? Pool noodle mod? Go on....

 

The pool noodle mod was something brought up in another thread, but it is a great, low-cost, noise cutting solution.

You can check out what was said about it here: https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads...eduction-solution-by-15db-or-so.740602/page-8
I did it and was amazed at how much road noise is blocked by it.

I really recommend it if you are trying to cut road noise from entering the cab. Just wait for your exhaust to cool down before trying to stuff it in between the cab and the bed from under the truck.

 

Yeah, styrofoam pool noodle wedged between the cab wall and bed. It's supposed to cut down on interior road noise.

 

Alright, doing my best to read everything and answer my question but hasn't seemed super clear.

How do I integrate both the key and hideaway with the harness? I understand that either the fronts or rears will have to be spliced, but:
1-where should I splice at (ideally in the harness built)
2-front or rears?
3-will the splicing cause sound/distortion issues?

At this point I am looking at going with a LOC like the lc7i but I understand that both the key and hideaway do not NEED the LOC.

Thanks for the help everyone!

 

Hideaway (or any sub signal) goes right here, between the head unit and the key input, and definitely the front channels



And the key and hideaway don’t even WANT the lc7i so don’t waste your money

 

@destin_meeks got it. So just splice off at that location to the sub. And that won't cause any noise interference?

 

Correct

 

@destin_meeks , long time reader, first time caller. How’s this look?

 

Looks spot on to me!

 

Awesome. Thank you. Time to install it alongside a new head unit. Let's hope all the harnesses play nice with one another.

 

I hate to tell you this but you’ve made a crucial error in the installer world

you taped your harness before testing!

If it works, congrats!
If it doesn’t, it’s because you jinxed yourself lol

 

I did a risk analysis and cursing our 30 degree weather later this week was the lesser of two evils.

 

If there is a good enough reason, cold weather is certainly it