When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.
Small radio update, I got everything removed and mocked up on Friday only to find out that I needed another component that I did not know I needed. So I threw the stock radio back in since Mrs. Ack and I were hauling excess furniture and boxes all weekend to get the house ready to go on the market. I have the missing piece and will be doing the install shortly, however I did some prep work and ran the wires for the front facing bumper camera. I wanted to have this for parking and random off-roading. Here's the camera mounted in the bumper, right at bumper height.
I had to fish the RCA through the firewall to get to the back of the dash. This has become a lot more difficult with the PowerTray in the way, but I got it done.
For power I am running to my sPod, the wires were just long enough to reach. I made the ends before fishing them into the sPod
Then I fished them in, last time I used the fish tape, but this time it was far easier to use a ziptie.
I ran the camera power to switch 1 so that I can find the button in a hurry when trying to park, etc.
And here's the wires all tied up and neat. The wire is inside and ready to be pulled behind the dash the next time I pull the radio. Radio is only temp mounted so I can remove it easily once I get the time
Looking good. You should shrink tube and wire loom those RCA connections all the way back to the wire since they are at the front of the car though and will get lots of liquid on them. Just electrical tape won't be enough for the water and salt.
Looking good. You should shrink tube and wire loom those RCA connections all the way back to the wire since they are at the front of the car though and will get lots of liquid on them. Just electrical tape won't be enough for the water and salt.
Yeah, I thought about that after it was all run through the firewall. When I take the bumper off (probably at the new house) I plan to loom it and make it pretty
I also got the new radio's bluetooth mic run and fished down through the A-Pillar and dash.
I mounted it up in the corner of the windshield. I'm looking to get a 3D printed part so I can eventually mount it in the upper console, but for now I like it where it is.
Further back look to show the hidden wires
Also since I added the camera I figured it was time to put the labels on my sPod switch panel. More to come with that in the future.
I also completed the wiring harness for the Maestro and the HU. I started to Tessa tape up the wire harnesses together to make it pretty.
Oh, hmm. Maybe I'm thinking of my wagon. I guess I have no idea where it is in the 4runner... I thought it was down by where the Party Mode button is(n't in this shitty post-mmc update).
I guess that means you don't have the factory mic to tap into?
Oh, hmm. Maybe I'm thinking of my wagon. I guess I have no idea where it is in the 4runner... I thought it was down by where the Party Mode button is(n't in this shitty post-mmc update).
I guess that means you don't have the factory mic to tap into?
Nope, for whatever reason that's the only thing they don't make an adapter for. Trust me if there was one I wouldn't have run an external mic
You think about just clipping the wires and tapping into the factory mic? I'd assume there isn't a huge difference in impedance... Best case it works, worst case you're back where you are now.
since we are on the topic...
I hate wherever the speaker is on the bluetooth unit in the Acura...
I always forget it's somewhere somewhere somewhere dark and muffled
and nobody can hear me when I switch into that car mid convo.
It's only good for bumping Ashra Temple on my way to work.
You think about just clipping the wires and tapping into the factory mic? I'd assume there isn't a huge difference in impedance... Best case it works, worst case you're back where you are now.
I've thought about it, but given that I'm trying to list a house and buy another one it's not high on my priorities
LMAO, sure thing...he makes a suggestion and you all of a sudden have a lot of other things that are a lot
more important than the car you just posted having spent a fuckton of time on.
We already refi'd at 3.25...
but I'm thinking we might rent out or sell and hop on something bigger for the fam...
we do have 4 kiddos amidst the 2 of us.
So I finally got some time to finish up the radio install. It's not perfect and there's a few tweaks that need to be made, but it's good enough for now until I get into the new house and garage. I had to route these 3 wires under the driver's dash and ziptie them out of the way, the bluetooth mic, the front camera RCA and the OBD2 connector for the radio to connect to the truck, here they are all routed into the dash and ready for install.
So I had to remove the stock navi HU and remove the hazard switch as well as the AC vents, here's a before shot.
And here's everything moved onto the Scosche dash kit.
And the hazard button wire transferred, since I used stock HU brackets I was able to mount this to the stock bracket locations
And here's the Maestro cables all connected and ready to solder the subwoofer amp trigger wire, shown at the top of the shot
And here it is ready to be soldered. I also had to use the trigger wire for the parking brake bypass that was wired in.
All soldered and covered in heat shrink ready for electrical tape.
And here's the Maestro unit all connected with all of the extra wiring harnesses for the HU, it was quite a mess of wires!
The component that I ended up missing that needed to be ordered was a SiriusXM tuner which I thought was built in but the antenna adapters did not plug into the HU so I had to order a tuner which wasn't a big deal, only like 35 bucks, and after reading the fine print I did discover was needed.
And here's all the mess of wires connected and ready to install
I used a set of stock metal radio brackets because I hate thieves and the dash kit came with plastic brackets which I felt were way to flimsy and would be too easy to break if someone wanted to take the radio. Here's a mock up of the radio with everything connected, needless to say all that wiring was very difficult to tuck away, but I've been installing car radios for 20 years so it wasn't too unbearable.
Here's another test fit. The issue with doing all the wiring and install myself was that I had to make sure that every wire was correct, and also make sure that the depth of the radio was correct which was a bit of a trial and error
And here I threw on the dash kit to do a test fit and see how everything was going to look, this was a first trial run and definitely not the first or last time that I'd take this apart.
I went with the Alpine Halo 9, 9" floating screen head unit, even though it's a couple years old, it's tried and true and shown to work well with the 4Runner so I wanted something that would work and not need too much extra tuning or fidgeting to make it work. Here was the stock fitment, I opted to go for the lower DIN which required WAY more work and customization. However when I mocked up the floating screen, it blocked half the HVAC vents which was one of the biggest complaints for this HU, but I was just testing to see what it looked like before adjusting.
And here it is after adjustment, I adjusted it down to the middle slots, it could have gone way lower, however I liked the way it filled the dash and didn't cover the vents or the HVAC controls, so this was more the look I was going for.
And another angle, lots of trial and error to get it to sit right...
After I was happy with the height and everything was seated correctly I wanted to fire it up and test that all the wiring worked correctly, so I hooked the battery back up and fired up the radio. Everything appeared to work correctly including the steering wheel controls!
Didn't get any pics of the actual menus, but I was happy that it worked
Testing out features, here's the backup cam. So happy that everything plugged in relatively simple after having to make all my own harnesses
And here's the interior all put back together. Overall I'm very happy with the floating screen and appearance. I still need to play with Android auto and get a few things working like the XM and bluetooth, but it looks great, sounds great and works great, so I'm super happy.
Here's a driver's view with the new emblem cover and the new radio. The wife was in the truck today and didn't even comment on the new radio so not sure if she realized it even changed. I think it looks pretty stock for a 9" screen sticking out of the dash. She did comment on the camera caption about solely depending on the camera, but didn't seem to notice, so fingers crossed! lol
And here's the final product. Getting the mounting screws for the screen and final bracket on was a HUGE bitch even with a magnetic screw driver, so I don't look forward to having to remove that at some point, but it looks freaking awesome! Overall I'm very happy with the outcome and hope that it works as good as it looks!
Hit 24K on the old girl yesterday... Which means that I've driven a thousand total miles since Easter Thanks Covid, most of my miles have been back and forth to the new house moving loads of shit. As I post this I have 2 coolers of cold beer and some furniture in the back ready to go to the new house. Waiting on Mrs Ack so we can leave. No mods for me for a while, but have a nice big house and garage to play with now. Movers come Monday
Finally took the blue runner out into it's natural habitat for a camping trip in the forest. My buddy just bought a 2020 4Runner because he really liked mine.
It got super cold that night, dropped down to 34 deg over night. Thanks Stunna!
We also hit some fire roads and ran some forest trails, it was a blast!
I tried to get some action shots while driving and dodging trees and stumps
Looks like a good time.
It'll be a year or two, but considering something like a 4WD JGC or T4R as my next daily (but we all know that'll probably change between now & then )
06-29-2020, 12:27 PM
OK, well I don't like to modify stock pieces when I need to be able to switch back to stock some day down the road, how's that?
Maybe I should look into a refi. Will have to make some calls & see if anyone's doing a no closing cost refi.
)
