New to this forum, but I figured this would be helpful to anyone interested in keeping their factory head unit and adding an AMP speakers, sub, etc. Especially those who want to do this with a JL clean sweep or some other EQ. I am not using Line Out Converters on this install because I find they add unessecary noise, and my amp has speaker level inputs and it's much easier to set the gain on my amp, as opposed to pulling out my head unit to adjust the gain on a LOC.
I had my Amp/Subs/ and Speakers from my old card a '97 Altima which I had hooked up in the following way
Used a Reverse Harness from the factory Radio, and used a Harness to connect to the harness from my dash. This way I am not touching the factory wires at all.
I attempted to do this in my 08 Altima and ran into issues with the harnesses available on the market.
First off, the Reverse harness metra part number 71-7552 is designed to be used to REPLACE the existing harness in your car if it was cut/damaged etc. So it should include ALL wires from the stereo!! It does not! It is missing two wires, one for illumination, the other for illumination ground. The other harness Metra part number 70-7552 is also missing one illumination wire, and the other one is on the wrong pin.
I spoke to Metra, and even Scosche and they both admitted that they are pinned this way on purpose. Mainly because the harness for aftermarket radios doesn't require all of the factory wiring. This I understand, but the REVERSE harness should include all 20 pins that the radio needs!!
Needless to say, my stereo wouldn't light up the Power/Volume/Channel/Tune/Seek portion of the head unit.
All power, ground, and speakers were fine, but the illumination was not working.
I found through Metra a DIFFERENT harness, a T harness part number 60-7552. This is a direct replacement from dash harness to back of factory stereo completely pinned out on both ends for all 20 pins. You just need to cut the wires in half and tap into them. 4 Wires to the Amp, and 4 wires back to the harness' speaker wires out to the front speakers and sub(s)
This Harness is discontinued....no one has them, I called everywhere coast to coast!!!!
So for two weeks I drove around using map lights to find the audio functions on my dash. I finally found a guy who makes his own harnesses for Subaru, which happen to also be compatible with this model Year Altima 07-12, and I am sure various others. I took out the old harnesses and replaced with this one and all functions properly!! If you want to use the factory head unit in your Nissan DO NOT bother with the aftermarket harnesses available in the stores or on
Amazon. Google search ae64 20 pin breakout harness, this is primarily a Subaru site, but the same harnesses work on Nissans, and if I hadn't stumbled upon this, I would have been SOL
This is what you need to keep all of your factory wiring untouched. My thread on this same topic you can find on the Nissan Forums as well.
If anyone needs any help doing this let me know. It's quite easy when you have the correct harness!!! I think it is rediculous that the manufacturer would sell anything OTHER than a 20 pin harness, whatever pins you don't need you just don't hook up...
Hope this helps someone!!
