I am trying to install a new stereo using an InCarTec trim piece and connection harness. I am somewhat confused however, My car ( 2004 XK8 convertible ) has , what I asumed was, a basic stereo system.. There are no tweeters in the upper part of the doors and as far asa I can tell only 4 speakers. 2 in the lower part of the front doors and two in the back near the sides of the seats.

When I look at the instructions for teh stereo harness it says " cars with basic audio have all twelve wires in the white 12 way connector full. This is because the speakers are driven from the car's head unit. If there are only 4 wires in the connector the car has premium sound and am amplifier bypas cable is needed " My car has only 4 wires in the white connector ....so I asume this means I DO have a premium sound system ??

A bit of a nuisance as I have the console out and bits all over the place. Can somebody offer insight in how to tell If I actually do have a premium system of if InCarTec has their information wrong ?

 

Lift out the trim piece on the RHS of the trunk. The amp for the premium system is mounted above the CD player.

 

It appears that I do have a premium sound system afterall. Now apparently I need an Amplifier Bypass Cable kit from InCarTec so the new head can drive the speakers directly. By the looks of it I have to run this cable from the head unit back to the amp in the trunk oh well ..guess I will put it all back together and wait for the cable kit to arrive.


Thanks for the information

 

Barry, I have done the same install with the Incartec cabling and premium stereo. Let me know if you have any questions before the pieces arrive or check out the install post.

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...zation-236892/

 

Barry,

I also installed a stereo with the InCarTec wiring harness. Although I had the premium sound system, the method of installation I used should be the same for both the standard and premium audio. (I think).

I wanted to retain the OEM amplifier and keep the tweeters, so I wired the crossover signal wires up to RCA ports for my stereo, and only utilized the InCarTec wiring harness for the various other stereo wires. Basically, I fed a Front Right, Front Left, Rear Right, and Rear Left signal directly into the stereo's RCA jacks.

My explanation may be a bit confusing, and I am more than happy to go into further detail, and I can send some pictures of my wiring job if you'd like.

Riley

 

Yes Riley I would be insterested in hearing more about how you retained the OEM amp. My care has no tweeters just front and rear left and right . . and @ extheatrekid...thanks for your reply

 

Hi Barry,
You should also have a pair of 'squawkers'* under the grilles on the dash top. These (and the door 'sail' tweeters on the premium system) are driven by a separate channel.

*Named 'fascia speaker' in JTIS

Do you have NAV or 3 gauges?

 

I have 3 gauges. There are no tweeters under the little sail shaped grills on the doors , but they do have an "Alpine" logo.. the "squawker grrills" are on the dash top but I have never noticed any sound from them ....but there IS an amplifier above the cD changer in the boot

 

Odd. The squawkers are shown as present in both base & premium systems, although - my bad - on the former they're on the same channel as the front door speakers.

 

Just because I have not noticed sound coming from the dash top speakers (squawkers ) does not mean that it's not there I will try to listen harder

 

@michaelh : I Stuck my head in over the dash and sure enough ...the "squawkers" do work

 

Good news. I was wondering if someone had been robbin' the speakers out of your car

You can fit tweeters into the 'sail' if you wish as the door wiring should be present. The connector is a TE 2-WAY MULTILOCK 040:
https://www.digikey.com/catalog/en/p...0-series/26971

 

Hoping to revive this thread. I bought a Kenwood Excelon head unit for my car and an InCar Tech installation kit with wiring harnass. I am havaing a complete mental block as to how to kook up the wiring.

The Excelon head unit has a rectangular female connector socket and came with a male 14 pin conector with 14 lenhths os wires of assorted colours attached . These wires have no connectors on the loose ends and are just cut off .

The InCarTec Kit has a cable to bypas the amplifier in the trunk and a harnass with a black box ( steering wheel interface ? ) . This black box has female 12 pin connector whhich plugs into the male 12 pin connector of the car and a blue wire and a white wire which the instructions say to splice into particular pins of the yelow 24 pin connector that plugged into the OEm head unit .
There are no intructions about how to connect the 14 wires from the Excelon Head unit ?
There are instruction about assembling a "patch lead " but they make no sense to me. What is a "patch lead" ? Am I to somehow connect ( some of ) the 14 wires coming from the Excelon connector to the Black Box of the InCar TEch kit by this "patch lead"

Any help would be apprciated

 

Barry, can you post a photo of the end of the Incartec cable that you received? I think that I ran into the same issue but a visual would be helpful to refresh my memory.

 

here are some pictures

InCarTech Harnass

Harnass and plug from Kenwood Head unit

InCarTech Harnass showing end with balnk plug

Bag with connector plu and misc wires

 

Barry,

That is very helpful and apologies for the ask, I don't have the coupe nearby to reference as it's torn apart trying to solve a phantom ground loop problem.

First: the black box attached to the Incartec harness is the Steering Wheel controls adapter. This will translate the signals from the wheel switches to the head unit. It only needs two wires spliced into it as the steering wheel switches only send out a positive / negative signal when pushed (basically grounded or voltage). It only handles those signals and isn't tied into getting audio out to the rest of the car or power.

Second: the black plug with the 14 wires that plugs into the back of the Excelon are the outputs and power wires for the stereo itself. If you look closely at those wires they should have markings on the insulation saying what they are (FL = Front left speaker as an example). Each manufacturer is slightly different so you may have to do some research to figure what each one is if the markings are confusing. These wires are where your "patch leads" would attach. This is to get the audio signal to the breakout in the trunk that goes to each speaker. You will also find in there, the 12v power to drive the unit, the ground wire as well as the constant power to keep your presets etc..

Third: The incartec piece with one white plug and two black plugs theoretically should adapt from the back of the Excelon and into the two plugs under the dash. This would take the outputs to the speakers and the power from the car and make this plug and play. I would try to connect the black plugs to the yellow ones in the car and see if they mate. I suspect that they won't though as this was an issue I ran into as well. If they do, you may be able to cut off the single white plug and splice the excelon plug on to it to save you some steps. Realize though that the factory amp is still in place and may not let signal pass.

My immediate reaction is that you will need to make up some wiring (certainly the "patch leads") as well as the jumpers from the head unit to the car itself (power etc).

I did a post awhile back about doing this in my coupe. It might be helpful. https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/x...zation-236892/

 

Thanks for teh information. I also have an amplifier bypass cable from InCarTec ( no picture because I have installed ( but not connected it ) in the car. It plugs into the amo in the trunk and leads back to where the head unit is. It's end plug at the head unit location is the same as the brown plug on the InCarTec harnass and their instructions say that I should "ignore" the brown plug on the InCartec harnass and use the plug on the amplifer bypass cable.

I will have to take the console out and look at it all again.