Sony XAV-AX100 One Hour Installation (Apple CarPlay)

Guys just wanted to share, I've been out of town but got home this afternoon and spent an hour installing this unit into my 2016 Tundra. My wife's CRV came with Apple CarPlay and after seeing how it worked I knew I had to have it in my truck. No need to prop the phone up for Waze, or use it for Spotify and voice commands for texting is obviously much safer.

I've been installing radios and such since high school, so 25+ years or more...not that I'm a pro by any stretch but I knew it wouldn't be that difficult. A few factors to consider which made this swap a breeze.

- I sourced everything from Crutchfield, so all the hardware and harnesses were spot on.
- I paid $28 extra to have them connect the harness to the Sony head unit harness before mailing it. Could I have done it? Sure. Did I want to? Nope. Time saver.
- I also had the right tools to pull the dash components and such, no trying to pry stuff out with a screwdriver.
- The most time consuming part was running the wire for the external mic, which took like 5 mins.

In true form I didn't read the instructions but it really wasn't that hard. Disconnect battery. Take all the old stuff out, wire in (read: connect the applicable connectors) the new stuff, test it, put it all back in...done.

Some before / during / after pics.

 

I might swap some speakers in the future but that remains to be seen. Stock stuff seems to do alright for my purposes.

 

I just installed a Kenwood w wireless CarPlay also. Love the wireless part. Don’t even have to pull phone out of my pocket! I got lazy and installed my mic on the center dash speaker.

Oh and I have the sub and door speaker upgrade from @james@tech12volts and it made the speakers sound way better. Still running the stock amp too.

Did you get the maestro rr module? It connects to your trucks obc port for live data.

 

I don't think I got that module, although I had a couple connectors that remained....unconnected. So maybe I did? That's pretty slick.

I'm thinking to upgrade the speakers but for the moment just learning the system. Just by pressing the voice activated button on the steering wheel I can do just about everything, it's pretty slick.