ECU in factory radio location.. will it be affected by an aftermarket radio?

[Dylan JZ]

For some reason when we were doing my 1J swap, we put the ecu where the factory headunit used to be.. this was done because we used the speedo hole swap method in order to not have to lengthen the factory harness, in addition to, the car not having a headunit of any sort when I bought it.

so far it's been great, but now I've bought an aftermarket headunit and want to install it. I'm confident that both will fit into that area, but I'm worried about the headunit causing interference with the ECU's functions.

Am I crazy, or is that a very understandable question? if that ends up being a bad idea, then are there any issues with relocating the headunit to the glovebox? I'd rather lengthen the stereo harness than try to go back and undue tons of wires spliced into the ECU at it's current location.

 

[Dylan JZ]

well, after searching some other forums (DSM, JZX), I found that some ECU's are installed in close proximity to the radio from the factory. outside of that, I found that quite a few folks run ECUs under their radio with zero issues.

I'd still like some confirmation from anyone here that's knowledgeable on the topic, But I at least feel better about my situation after reading those posts.

 

[OneJArpus]

I did this no issues, be sure to run a ground to the ECU to the stock location just so you know its grounded properly. I now have it on the passenger side floor right next to the dash and i'm building a box to protect it from people's feet.

 

[Dylan JZ]

I really appreciate the input! I've been running with the ECU there for around two years now and just now decided to put a head-unit back in.

of course moving it to the stock location would be nice, but there are wires going every which way from having one of the local tuners do some patch work on that part of the harness.. in any case, I feel much better at this point.