Jeff 97 Formula

My old Kenwood has this small black box on the yellow wire with the harness that came with it, but my new one does not have that on the harness.

I am currently using my old harness since the plug is exactly the same and didn't want to rewire anything.

Is there any harm using the old harness with the black box as part of the yellow wire?

Daniel Richards

iTrader: (1)

In my run ins with "black boxes" like you describe they have typically been one of two things, either an oversized fuse holder (if the HU has a fuse in the back of it then it's not that) and the other times they are a "ground loop isolator" that some manufactures add to try to reduce "engine whine" in the HU, shouldn't hurt to have it but you probably don't need it. I've even cut them off of some harnesses because they where to far from the plug and I didn't want to have all this wire to deal with.

Jeff 97 Formula

Thanks, I believe it is some kind of filter since there is a fuse in the back of the old unit (new one has the fuse too).

I actually went ahead and removed that black piece since the new harness does not have it either (figured if it was needed, they would've included it). Much easier than changing out the entire harness (only thing the new harness added was a mute feature for a hands-free add-on, but I have Bluetooth built-in so I don't think I really need that feature).

Still seems to work fine without the black box, no engine noises, and probably now allows the unit to receive all the available current that it needs.