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

I did this upgrade a few years ago & it’s great, I definitely recommend it to anyone. I now want to upgrade the head unit to something with Apple CarPlay because the factory GPS really sucks. Does anyone know if this harness would be plug & play with an aftermarket head unit using the kit in the below link?

https://www.crutchfield.com/p_249TY61N/Crux-SWRTY-61N-Wiring-Interface.html

 

Will it work? Yes

should you do it? No

since you’re going aftermarket, you’ll want to chop the input side of the key harness and put RCA tips back on so you can use the radio’s rca outputs

 

Thank you for the help. When I hook up the key harness to the head unit with the RCA’s, what do I do with the grey & white speaker wires on the metra harness that the key harness was originally connected to?

 

Cap them off

 

Thank you!

 

I know this is an old thread, but it seems to be really close to what I'm looking for. I am hoping that some of you pros like @destin_meeks would still be willing to help me out. I am looking to add the Key Amp under my passenger seat to finish my audio upgrades. I am not sure how I would go about wiring it with my current set up.

2022 TRD OR DCSB 6MT - Non JBL

Stock HU
Subaru tweeters
Kicker CS on all doors
10" Kicker Comp Sub w/ box - behind the driver rear seat
Kicker CXA400.1 400W Mono Amp - under driver's seat
This PNP wire harness from Amazon for sub hook up

$55 Add an Amp Amplifier Adapter Interface to Factory OEM Car Stereo Radio System for Select Toyota Vehicles- Add Subwoofer Bass Amp - No Factory Premium Amp- Vehicles Listed Below

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B087Z1794K?ie=UTF8

I am hoping there would be a way to have a PNP harness (don't want to splice into factory) to add the Key without messing with the harness that has already been added for the sub. Or if there is a way to add the key to that harness (I'm pretty sure there is, but wouldn't know where to start). Seems like it's pretty well documented on the <19' MY's, but seems it different after that. Also since I have a sub and amp already instead of the hideaway, not sure how different wiring would be on top of that.

Any help is appreciated.

Thanks,

 

Grab the redwolf harness you’ve seen here and just make it with that. Then disconnect the factory wiring from the current adapter you have, and add in the new harness as well

 

Thanks, I am assuming I would have to chop the two harnesses together and they would not be plugged into separate ports in the HU? I don't believe I can follow the instructions for the <19 on this thread for my 22. I wouldn't know where to start by splicing the two together if this is the case.

 

You can follow the instructions for the 2020+ (or maybe it’s 2019? Whatever year it changed to the smaller black connector)

a brief rundown of what your install should look like

-red wolf harness from Amazon

-1 roll of speed wire (multi-conductor speaker wire)

-10awg amp power kit, or even better, a fused distribution block placed near your sub amp, and you can just split the existing power wire to both amps, as long as it’s at least 8awg. This will save money and lots of time

Cut the redwood harness in half.
Cut the speedwire in half.
Splice one side of the harness to one half of speedwire.
Splice the other side of harness to the other half of speedwire.
For the part you just spliced the MALE redwolf end to, splice the SMALL key harness to. Cut the RCA’s off if they are on there.
For the part with the FEMALE redwolf end, splice the LARGE key harness to.

route your two newly formed wires from the radio cavity down into the dash and under the center console. You may want to pull up some panels around the gear shift and e-brake, but it’s very easy.
Feed them down the center console, and under the passenger seat.
Splice a few feet of 12 or 10 awg power and ground wires to the key harness and run them under the console and over to the distribution block.
Plug in key
Pull sub fuse, run key auto setup.
Put sub fuse back
Rock out

 

Wow, you truly are the man! Love the suggestion of splitting the sub amp wire over to the key. It is 8 gauge, for that sub amp and I believe I have a decent amount leftover somewhere...

Regarding connecting the parts of the redwolf harness to the HU, the add an amp harness I have likely already takes that space. It sound like I could connect them as so: HU > Add an Amp Harness I already have attached connected to the Sub Amp > Redwolf harness > factory harness? So essentially a double tap? haha I also should be able to hook both remote turn on wires for the sub amp and the key amp to the same factory wire that I already have the sub amp remote wire on?

Thanks,

 

Yes, you’ll do a double-tap.
Radio > add-an-amp > redwolf > factory

you could extend the remote wire from the sun over to the key if you want to, or just use the auto-turn-on feature

 

And here I was stressing over combining the harnesses by chopping them up and studying wiring pin outs of the harnesses You have just given me the same confidence I had when I installed the sub. I was over-complicating it in mind!

 

anyone know what thread this is talking about?? I've seen the step by step harness builds with pictures for the 2016-19 and mention of the 2020+. But I can't actually find a step by step with images/diagram like for the 19 and below. Am I just missing it?? I'm a noob and need visuals as my dumbass was never good at word problems.

 

I just installed the kicker key 200.4 in my 2021 tacoma w/ premium entune headunit (NON JBL). Buy this harness, cut it in half, match wires to each end of the kicker key. Male to male, female to female, since this will insert between your headunit and the factory speaker wires harness. MAKE SURE you color match every single wire, I'm dumb and didn't do this correctly the first time. There's 2 wires for every color, on both the female and Male ends between the redwolf harness and the kicker key harness. So each end will have 2 purple, 2 white, 2 gray, and 2 green totally 16 different wires total you need to butt splice or solder separately between both harnesses. Set all your dip switches on kicker key to up except the first one, that one should be down. You will also need a power and ground kit to run through your firewall to the battery, ideally the power wire should have a dedicated 10A maxi fuse between the kicker key and the battery terminal FYI. I chose to ground to the passenger kick panel near the passengers right foot. Also tape off the blue wire, you won't need it with a factory head unit

Fire it up and adjust your gains on kicker key to where you can barely hear the white noise. Run your auto eq with the microphone. If you did it right you should hear happy noises. Tuck it in behind the head unit and button her back up. Donezo. Attaching some pics I took during my process

 

Don't make this mistake. I didn't split the 4 wires apart intially, which means I connected the power and ground wires together causing them to short out immediately when firing up the vehicle. Each color had a solid color and a color with black stripes down the middle.

 

thanks. couple questions.
your third dip is down in the picture not just first. personal preference or should that one be down too?

I dont have the key yet, its still in transit. But in the image why are there 2 red wires running from key to your single fused battery power?

Similar question for ground, why 2 from the key to one solid? mpt as critical as pos side bc its a ground, but still ??

Thanks!

 

For the power and ground, they do 2 of each but they are tied together on the circuit board. This allows them to get the correct power without needing a separate connection. Those wires fit in the plug

 

3rd switch is the compressor dip switch. I was trying not to blow out my speakers initially when installing because i had no idea what I was doing and struggled to get it to work for like 3 days because I was combining the power and ground for each color (white + white/black, green+green/black, etc) on both sides between key and where key connects to each half of red wolf harness. I basically had 4 connections on each of the key when it needed to be 8 (16 total). Also I now just have the first dip switch down for DC Turn on

 

Thanks everyone. I guess I was unnecessarily worried bc there aren't as many clips as the 2016-19 haness after being built. I figured I was missing something

 

@destin_meeks, is the configuration, using the cut in half Red Wolf harness, in the above photo correct? I do realize the RCA connectors need to be cut off before I proceed further.

@Integerdy, after soldering the pre amp and post amp harnesses, did you have enough length in each harness to comfortably put the amp behind, under, beside, etc. the head unit or did you add additional wire to the two harnesses?