Project Double Gnar: Adding Stereo & Camera

So now that I feel reasonably confident the truck won't leave me stranded (new trans, drive shaft, wheels, tries, pw steering rack, & timing belt) I want to address the stereo.

The factory unit is terrible and all the speakers are blown but one I believe. Found plenty of cheap 'Multi-media' head units on Amazon/eBay but seeing all manner of confusion about how to do it and what's necessary on here as there were an awful lot of variables apparently in the way these trucks were built. I've got a 2000 SR5 Access Cab and the description from Toyota is below but I'd guess it's the base level stereo, per thier site it's got:

• Comfort & Convenience
  FR 60/40 SPLIT-BENCH SEAT W/ FOLD DOWN CTR ARMREST DLX AM/FM ETR/CASS W/4 SPKRS CFC-FREE AIR CONDITIONER TILT STEERING WHEEL VARIABLE INTERMIT W/S WIPERS DUAL SUNVISORS/CUPHOLDER CIGARETTE LIGHTER TWO AUXILIARY POWER OUTLETS CRUISE CONTROL / TACHOMETER CUT-PILE CARPETING

I went through chatting with Crutchfield who normally I love using, but just not looking to spend that much on a truck I use 2-3 days a month. So I'm hoping to use a cheap $100~ HU from Amazon (something like this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B092MCNWMC?_encoding=UTF8) and get the wiring to match maybe from Crutchfield or elsewhere as I'm not the person who can handle doing all that. Also thinking I'll use the Master Tailgaters camera.

Curious if someone who's done it can confirm whether all this is possible and what I'll need to get it done.

Thanks in advance.

 

I believe the absence of tweeters would indicate an un-amplified system. I have yet to find a 4-speaker Access Cab truck that has an amp. There were only two amp locations for Access Cab from 2000-2006, one being inside the dash under the factory HU, the other was in the cubby under the rear passenger seat, you'd know it was there b/c it would have a plastic cover over it taking up half the cubby.

That said, my advice: If you're not going to shop at Crutchfield, then plug in your vehicle there and let them build your package of necessary supplies, jot down the part numbers and move to Amazoan or consider another outlet/warehouse vendor, I personally love Sonic Electronix for budget builds. I think what you'll find is, once you add all the peripherals stuff together with the little bits and bobs you need, even going with budget outlets you're paying within 5% of Crutchfield but losing the extra peace of mind and support, plus points purchasing, you're better doing Crutchfield - if only for the wiring and install kits, then buying your HU elsewhere.

 

PS - if you need decent OEM speaker replacements, I still have mine. You'd just need to move your factory connectors onto the terminals of my OEM speakers (easy soldering). Otherwise I recommend JBL's "Club" series kits as a kickass replacement.

 

Will have to wait for it to come back later today (timing belt service) but want to say it had for tweeters

 

If it's an Access Cab and it had door tweeters, I don't think it's a 4-speaker stereo as the Toyota VIN lookup info says?

I'm pretty sure the 4-speaker trucks had a mid in the lower front door and a mid in the rear door with no factory. Factory 6-speaker Access Cabs had door card with a tweeter and came in two main flavors: Factory amp non-JBL, or factory JBL amp and speakers. Easiest way to tell the difference on the latter: The factory JBL head unit typically had a square JBL logo on the face of the receiver, and the amp would also have a JBL logo on it.

I'm open to being wrong on this one if someone has evidence to the contrary, but I'm pretty sure I'm correct. I admit my familiarity is more with the 04-06 than 00-03 though.

 

I can speak to this.

When I first bought my truck, it has a single din JVC unit in it. I knew immediately that I wanted to upgrade to something better that allowed a backup camera. I bought a $50 radio off Amazon and a $25 backup camera and installed them myself. Since it already had an aftermarket radio in it, install was a breeze. I think it took me an hour to do both. If you are decent with wiring, can tell colors apart, you can do it yourself as it's pretty easy.

After a few months, I decided to upgrade to a better unit. While the old unit did everything I wanted it to, the lack of an actual microphone (this one was built in the unit) it made calls terrible. I also wanted CarPlay. I shopped around and finally landed on a unit from Best Buy (https://www.bestbuy.com/site/jvc-6-...-media-receiver-black/6318988.p?skuId=6318988). It was onl sale for $229 I believe or somewhere around there. Anyways, they will price match anyone (including Crutchfield) and install it for free. After speaking to him, he had me order the OEM connector so that he could completely remove the aftermarket harness from the original JVC unit and reinstall the OEM connector just in case I ever wanted to go back. I believe he said they will remove the unit for free as well if you choose to sell the vehicle and keep the radio for you next. All in all, I wish I would have just done it right the first time and not messed around with a cheap unit.

 

Also, forgot to mention that cheap aftermarket Amazon radio was bigger than the standard double din. I had to take a dremel to shave out some spots for it to clear.

 

Hit the web to grab a dealership VIN on a used '00 AC SR5 that had no tweeters in the door card. Ran the VIN thru Toyota Parts Online. Got to the Speaker area and landed at the exploded parts diagram for speakers, putting the AC and DC parts diagrams below.

I checked the tweeter and it seems to think it doesn't fit the truck whose VIN I used. May mean something, may mean nothing?

4 speaker trucks should only have speakers 1,2 and not 3. 6 speaker should have 1,2,3 on both sides.



And here's the DC version in case anyone finds this thread later and needs it.

 

Appreciate all the help, truck is apparently stuck in the shop another week waiting on a dealer only 'combination switch' cause one of the headlights wasn't working and this is apparently the culprit. Once I get it back I'll figure out what kind of stereo it got and go from there.

 

Ok, switch came early and I've got her back. Pic attached of existing stereo but it's got door tweeters so I guess that means there's an amp under the head unit I need to discontinue based on the above.

 

Did you check for black plastic half-box in the cubby under the rear passenger seat? That would normally cover the amp, although I can't recall which years the factory amp was in the dash under the head unit, or if that was a Sequoia thing, damn I'm getting old.

 

Here you go - when it's in the dash, apparently here it is: https://www.tundras.com/threads/sound-quality-worse-after-new-head-unit.60995/#post-1598898

When it's under the rear passenger seat in the access cab, it's in the cubby under this plastic:

 

How are you guys doing the backup camera? Drill the tailgate handle?

 

So... I went quick and dirty with a cheap license plate camera. I really only use it to connect to a trailer, but am looking at the handle one on ebay. Seems pricy for a cheap handle.

The problem with the license cameras in the LED plate lights will completely wash out the picture.

I think my next project will be switching to a handle camera. I did see a post around here where someone drilled their OEM handle and had success.

 

Funny you should mention that given that I make three versions of a harness to turn off plate lights when in reverse. I think the 2nd Gen Tacoma version might work for first gen Tundra but I will have to check and confirm.

 

This is news? Hmm. I guess because the Tundra one is geared towards Tundras with a camera?

DIY (origin story)
3rd Gen Tacoma DIR
2nd Gen Tacoma DIR
Tundra DIR

 

I literally hadn't seen that. I was just going to ask if you were using a basic relay to achieve the goal, but wasn't sure. Is this fully p-n-p, all OEM adapters, and the relay adapter is waterproof?

 

Actually, one more question: Where are you getting the rubberized tubing you're running the cables through? I was hunting for that to do my overhead console run. I've got heat shrink, cabling I need. Lack the bulkhead I want to terminate at, and the rubberized stuff.

(actually, reading the origin thread, maybe it's in there)

 

Yes yes and yes

 

Digikey for PVC tubing but it’s a bit of overkill inside the cab. Of course I do love overkill.

 

Better to build things more stout than they need to be than less stout than they should be.

I know we have a digikey acct at work, the EEs are always ordering stuff over there, but using it for embedded systems which don't need PVC tubing. Sending one of them an email now...

 

Ok folks... So I fell for an Amazon alert on a super cheap headunit (dropped to $100) I'd saved at some point and went all in on buying all the stuff for this setup since the master tailgater kit was back in stock too.

Parts list below for reference:

Master Tailgaters Replacement for Toyota Tundra (2000-2006) Black Textured Tailgate Handle with Backup Camera

Metra 70-1761 Radio Wiring Harness For Toyota 87-Up Power 4 Speaker

Android Double Din Car Stereo with Bluetooth- Wireless Apple Carplay & Android Auto, 7 Inch Touchscreen Car Radio Receiver with Backup Camera & Mic, Bluetooth, WiFi, FM, GPS Navigation

So I've watched all the videos that are on YouTube and read all the threads here.... And they all seem to be done by people who have a good idea what they're doing and not idiots like me...

I've taken all the wires & connectors out... And some match...some don't. Got to connecting some until I got to a few that have conflicting words on them despite being the same color and also some that have no matches...

Figured this would be easy enough... But seems it may not be. Anyone that can help me understand that I need to do here or if I should just find a shop to do it? (Thanks in advance as always)

 

(pics and the ones I've already connected are the green and purples)

 

This is why I and many others recommend (practically beg) everyone to shop for your cabling through Crutchfield. They'll build your harnesses for you at a meager upcharge and save the average newbie hours of work and frustration. If you could pay someone the same price for harnesses as A-Zon and an extra $20 to not think about any of this, would you? Time is money.

If you don't want to pay them for building the harness, they still give you a "master install sheet" for free that tells you exactly which color wire gets crimped to which other wire and give you free phone support to your heart's content. Can't recommend them enough. There's a reason everyone says to use them.

Anyway, we're past that point, so tips I'd give you.

Not every wire color is gonna match between the OEM and adapter harnesses.
Not every wire gets used on the adapter harness - remote turn-on, illumination, p. antenna, and attenuate leads are common ones unused.

In your last pic, look at the writing on the wire, it tells you exactly its purpose.

Basically, if you've never done this I'd recommend you get a piece of paper. Get your Metra box and see if it gives you the color breakdowns you need to pair to. If not, get the wire decoder chart for your head unit. Take the paper and draw a cross. In the top left corner write TUNDRA, and in the top right corner, METRA. Fill the TUNDRA column with each existing wire color and purpose. Next, fill the METRA column with Metra's corresponding color/purpose wire.

Now you have a map of exactly what needs to be connected. Crimp or solder, whichever you prefer.

 

Appreciate that and I'm a Crutchfield fan as well, but they didn't have a headunit available for less than $200 that would do what this one wills do for $100. I priced out every option they had and checked with their support but working under the assumption I could do it myself it just didn't make sense.

Hadn't accounted for some wires not being used but the writing on the wires conflicts with the tags on the other adapter in some cases, which was really my main question. I'd kind of ruled out being able to do the backup camera given my lack of ability but figured I'd at least be able to do the headunit for now. I'll check out the wire decoder, but not sure that'll help as these are all wires just from the metra kit or the headunit, haven't pulled the radio yet and when I get there I'm also not sure what I need to do with the factory amp, as Crutchfield said this harness would bipass it but didn't say whether I needed to just take it out or if something needs to plug into it.

Realize I'm apparently in well over my head and now finding someone to take on this with products they don't sell is going to be a nightmare so just trying to salvage it at this point

 

You're only in over your head if you're not willing to learn and/or if you're planning to give up.

Crutchfield doesn't force you to buy a head unit; you can buy only the wires from them and get all that awesome support and documentation.

If you have the basic 4-speaker system, chances are you have no factory amp but we should confirm that. First things first, let's confirm if you have the factory amp. If you do, there's an extra harness you're missing which you'll need.

If you have the access cab, reference the pics a few posts up to see where it is in the later model trucks. You have a 2000 model so it may not be there.

I'm attaching the MasterSheet which only covers where everything is in your truck, but DOES NOT contain wire coloring info, it shows where the amp would be in the dash if you have it. I can't seem to find one online that contains the wire color info so I'm going to look that up now.

 

Crutchfield only supports what they support though.

OP, start w the basic stereo then work on the camera.

white, grey, green and purple are speaker outputs. Black stripe means negative. Should be direct one to one.

solid blue or blue w white stripe is remote out / power antenna. Should be easy enough.

red is typically battery and yellow ignition switched or vice versa. Color matched.

Black is ground.

orange typically for illumination as labeled. Turns your head unit to dim mode at night.

then the wires which are leftover are for the fun stuff.

 

Not looking to give up just gotten to the point of recognizing where my attempting to do shit like this without the ability just costs more than paying someone to do it right the first time (wasted $200 getting my drivers window fixed after I tried to take it apart and got it stuck).

The truck has tweeters and Crutchfield said it would have an amp based on that and the lack of pocket under the factory stereo.

 

Next, this image is the decoder which should be on the back of your METRA packaging.

The first thing I start with always is speaker wires. Generally speaking, every modern head unit and every modern METRA harness use the same color coding for speakers:

purple + purple black stripe
green + green black stripe
grey + grey black stripe
white + white black stripe.

Once those are crimped, more than half your work is done.

I don't suppose you can post a picture of the wire decoding for that no-name chinesium Android unit you bought, out of its manual, can you? I'll tell you what to hook these to for the rest. I don't know what KEY and KEY2 are on the head unit wires, for example