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2001 IS Metra TYTO-01 harness how to!

158K views 130 replies 74 participants last post by  Hart_auto527 
#1 · (Edited)
Are you a 2001 IS300 owner who was looking forward to using the Metra TYTO-01 harness to hookup your nice aftermarket head unit, then discovered it’s only compatible with 2002+? Well, have no fear, the 2001 IS Metra harness mod is here!

I won’t get into how to take the dash apart and take out the stock deck, or how to hook up the Metra harness to your deck as those have been covered before. This is strictly a ’01 mod how-to, lets get started.

The reason that the Metra harness only works with ’02+ is that the wiring which plugs into the stock deck is a little different between ’01 and ‘02+. 2001 uses two plugs and ‘02+ combines the wiring into a single plug, so we simply need reroute the wires around to make it all work. The extra plug on ’01 only has two wires so it’s a pretty simple and quick task.

Picture below shows the two plugs that go into the stock ’01 deck, on a ‘02+ there is no (B) plug and instead those two wires are located on plug (A).




Picture below shows what wire from plug (B) we want to move where on plug (A) .




To make things easier later, somehow mark the wire that’s at pin 10 of plug (B), it’s the red/blue wire. I used a piece of masking tape.




Now we need to take the wires out, it’s very simple to take out the pins from the plug without destroying it. All you need is a very small flat-head screwdriver which you slide under the pin, this will release a little tab that holds it in. Once the tab is released, simply push the end of the pin with something and it will slide right out. Remove both pins from plug (B), picture below shows how to do it.




At this point plug (B) no longer exists and you should be left with two stand alone wires, picture below.




I was hoping I could just insert those new wires into plug (A) but turns out the sizes don’t match and they won’t fit, a little more work is needed.

From this point there are couple options on how to proceed, you could modify the pins to make them fit into the stock plug (A) or hook it up directly to the Metra harness. I decided to go with the latter since I wanted a setup that’s easily reversible.

Note: I’m assuming that all Metra harnesses use the same wire coloring, if not, pink wire refers to pin 5 and blue/pink refers to pin 15.

First thing lets mark one of the wires we are taking out to make it easier later, mark the pink wire on the Metra harness, again I used masking tape.




Lets take the Metra harness socket apart to get the wires we need, you could just cut them or tap them but I wanted a cleaner setup. To take the socket apart you need to push in a tab on each side of the socket and then push back the plastic frame which holds the wires in. This will let you get the wires out along with the pins without destroying them. Picture below.




Take out the pink wire you marked earlier and blue/pink wire also. Careful not to rip the wires from the pins, you need to push the pin up a little and pull the wire back to get it out in one piece. Put the socket back together by push the plastic frame back into the socket. Picture below shows the wires out.




We are almost done, all is left is to connect the wires you took out from plug (B) and from the Metra harness. The wires are very easy to connect, the pin from Metra wire slides right into the pin from plug (B). I used heat shrink to secure the connection, you could use electricians tape or solder them together.

Now what goes where, you are connecting together the two wires you marked earlier, remember, and then connect the two wires that are left. (Pink wire goes with red/blue wire, blue/pink goes with red/white.)
Pictures below show the final connection.






Complete setup




That’s it, now hook up your aftermarket deck and enjoy music in your 2001 IS300:)
 
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#6 ·
Nice write up +Rep
 
#7 ·
Awesome...hard work does pay off.
+rep for you.

M
 
#16 ·
I won’t get into how to take the dash apart and take out the stock deck, or how to hook up the Metra harness to your deck as those have been covered before. This is strictly a ’01 mod how-to, lets get started.

Not really that old of a thread, as I stated at the start, this is only '01 mod how to. You need to follow the regular hook up instructions once you complete this mod like for any other year, so yes, the RCA cables are needed and they hook up to your aftermarket deck.

You can see the black box in the last picture I posted, the other end where the RCAs come out of is not visible but they plug into the deck as expected.
 
#17 · (Edited)
Ok thanks for the reply. I have a '01 and in the process of figuring out how to exchange the head unit. This will be my first install.

When connecting the harness wire, does the two wires from plug B fit easily or any special mods needed, other than using electrical tape or shrink tubes?

Ok, I get it...I had thought the box in the last picture was the headunit. Where would be the best place to put the black box? Do you screw it on someplace or just chunk it into back with all the wires?
 
#18 ·
It's a pretty simple process if you follow how I did it, no soldering required. The wires that need to be hooked up end up with male/female type of connector, so they fit well together. The heat shrink or electrical tape will ensure they don't come apart.

As for the black box location, I squeezed my to the very right where theres a little pocket of space. My double din unit was pretty big and there wasn't much room to work with at the back.
 
#20 ·
Thanks for the tips! Great pics and advice. Couldn't quite make out what was going on in the other how to thread here
This is the first and only how-to on modding the metra harness to work on a 2001 IS300, up till now it was just "it does not work on 2001 so give up" :)

The other thread is just the basic install for '02+ where it's plug&play without any modding to the metra harness.
 
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