2005 Toyota LC Audio System Upgrade

[SquareOne]

Hello Everyone,

I was doing a bit of research and decided to change the audio system on the truck. I have the speakers down and that's not an issue.

The only issue I'm really having is wiring a new amp. Now this truck has a NAV, so I don't know how to go about it. I have the wiring diagram, but it's a bit confusing to me.

I was debating whether to just bypass it and install an amp or replace it entirely.

If anyone can point me at the right direction I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks.

 

[customcruiser]

What speakers are you going to use?

 

[bertnd]

are you wiring a second amp to run a sub, or are you replacing the existing amp to run your door speakers?
If you have the wiring diagram for the current amp/plug, i can help guide you through the steps of replacing it with an aftermarket one.

 

[SquareOne]

I was looking at these:

JL Audio C2-650X

I have to see if they are shallow so it doesn't become an issue installing them.

 

[SquareOne]

I'm looking to get the best quality sound I can get under a decent budget. I was thinking of replacing the existing amp, but still leaving the OEM head functioning. If that's even possible.

I'm currently looking at this diagram:

** I also want to ask. Is it required I have a second amp for an aftermarket sub?

 

[bertnd]

no, not required to have a second amp- go to crutchfield.com and pick out a decent 5 channel amp- it will replace the factory amp and run a sub as well. It's perfectly fine to run with the factory head unit. for the money, this one is hard to beat-

Soundstream Picasso Nano PN5.640D

Compact 5-channel car amplifier 60 watts RMS x 4 at 4 ohms + 350 watts RMS x 1 at 2 ohms

www.crutchfield.com

I recall seeing some simpler diagrams on this forum if you do a search- that'll help you identify exactly which wires you need to tap into. The easiest way is to identify the wiring you need for the new amp, and tap into the wire on the other side of the factory harness that plugs into the stock amp. Run a separate power to the battery and a new ground to be on the safe side. Then all that's really left to identify are the remote power wire and signal from the head unit (tells the amp when to turn on and what the music is respectively), and the speaker wires to the appropriate door speakers. Tap into all of those and connect them to the new amp, run speaker wire to your new sub enclosure of choice, and that's about it. I know that's very simplified, but it's really all it is. If you order from Crutchfield, their phone support is second to none, and they usually will send with vehicle specific instructions if they have them.

 

[SquareOne]

Thank you for your help. Once I get started I'll post some pictures for everyone to see for future reference.

 

[loeky]

Please do. Curious about complexity of tapping into wires for remote power and signal. Speakers feel easy-ish to identify.

Curious also about mounting the amp itself. Is there a kit or method that works for the LC from off the shelf parts?

Was going to give this job to an installer, but thinking to do it myself.

 

[SquareOne]

Ok, so I have my setup ready to go. It took me a long while to put it together. After doing much research on the forum thanks to many people who have done this or similar already.

Here is my plan hopefully it will work.

This is pretty self explanatory, but for simplicity sake I listed my notes.

White is for the rear left speaker. "+"
Red is for the rear right speaker."+"
Pink is for the front left speaker. "+"
(NOTE: if the nav is gonna be left in tact the Front Left speaker has to be spliced together with with the AUI+ and AUI- (Black or Brown wire for "-" or ground)). This has to be tested.
Yellow is for the front right speaker. "+"



Black is the "-" for all four "+" wires.
NOTE: the black wire has to be tested to see if you get a bad feedback loop. If that's the case use the brown wire instead. These trucks have a circuit built in with the grounds. It's a weird setup.

Brown is the ground for the Head Unit and ground for the amp as well.
AMP or red and black is for the remote turn on from the HU it seems.
ACC is continous power from the battery when the key is turned to ACC or ON.

I will most likely use the ACC wire for remote turn on.

Orange = MUTE I believe its just a mute wire from the HU
Green = BEEP seems like the touch tone for the touch screen.


Brown wires = 12 E and 13 GND2 I'm going to probably splice these two together with the brown wire from the HU if that works. I'll probably be using the ground that it's connected to as a ground for the aftermarket amp.


Now what I realized is that there is no sub wires coming from the HU so what that means is that the rear wires RL and RR are the signals used for the sub. This is where I decided to use a Line Output Converter (LOC) to get the proper signals and from there I'll run it to the amp. I believe its also possible to splice the sub wires to the rear speaker wires, but I'm not to sure how that will sound.

Blue and Yellow wire = 16 +B2 and 7 +B is the power going to the amp. I can also use this for the LOC. I need to double check though whether that's connected to anything else.

This is where things might get complicated. I need to see whether I can use the wires prior to the LOC to connect to the nav Front Left Speaker + and - (black or brown ground) OR use the wires after the LOC. I need to test that one the nav ecu might not agree with the signal.


The equipment I decided to use are:

LOC

AMP SoundStream Picasso Nano Pn5.640d

Infinity Kappa Front Speakers with Tweeters

Infinity Kappa Rear Speakers

Audiopipe 6" for SUB (I might change to box later)

The Power Wire


This is pretty much the plan. I just need to find time to get to it since my work hours are beyond normal

If anyone thinks somethings off please let me know. As far I know the system works without the factory amp. I was thinking of keeping it, but its really not worth the headache.

 

[SquareOne]

I was working on the project today. I ended up almost finishing with everything I wrote down being on point. The only draw back was that I could not fit the nav and backup camera bracket together with the LOC and the aftermarket amp.

I was so frustrated everything was working out great but then when I had to put it together it crapped out on me.

Has anyone on here made a retro fit with the nav, back up camera, and there amp under the seat?

Worst case I have to run everything to the back which i hate to do.

 

[customcruiser]

I replaced my cd/dvd changer with a LC2i LOC and JL min-amp

 

[ibrahim83]

So i have a similar setup with me tapping for audio after the factory amp as i wasn't sure I'd be able to use the factory outputs with shared ground. Did that work for you? I'd love to bypass the factory amp!

Second, i ended up putting the amp behind the factory subwoofer panel in the back as i was using my own subwoofer and enclosure. There's no way anything is going to fit under the seat with the factory components present. I ended up with a mosconi set up instead of the audiocontrol. But about the same size. I stuffed it under the navigation box.

I'm not sure what amps you're using, i just can't see them fitting under there. And i even used tiny jl mx series amps.

 

[SquareOne]

Thank you guys for your quick response.

Ok from what I understand and testing this myself you don't need the factory amp. I plugged in the LOC and started it up had no issues with the nav, radio and climate. I think this only works with the JBL amp. The Lexus Mark Levinson has theft safeties that's probably why it doesn't work without it.

I actually used the B+ wire to power the LOC, ACC as a remote turn on, and the grounds (brown wires) tied togehter so its a complete circuit.


I'll post the pictures of my work before putting it back together to factory when i get the chance.

 

[ibrahim83]

Thank you guys for your quick response.

Ok from what I understand and testing this myself you don't need the factory amp. I plugged in the LOC and started it up had no issues with the nav, radio and climate. I think this only works with the JBL amp. The Lexus Mark Levinson has theft safeties that's probably why it doesn't work without it.

I actually used the B+ wire to power the LOC, ACC as a remote turn on, and the grounds (brown wires) tied togehter so its a complete circuit.


I'll post the pictures of my work before putting it back together to factory when i get the chance.

I have the same jbl system and was told that you can't sum the grounds together. I'm very interested in finding out how it all ends up working as removing the factory amp from the loop nets me less devices to go through and the possibility of picking up a cleaner, maybe unequalized signal, from the head unit.

 

[SquareOne]

I have experimented in two ways: disconnecting the amp entirely and connecting it to the LOC. Using both methods the other components worked fine without them as long as everything has been grounded. The only thing I am not to sure about is the Nav voice on the left front speaker. I need to test that one out to see whether it accepts the new signal from the aftermarket. If not, I would simply splice the speaker wires coming out of the Nav.Here are some photos before putting it back to factory. I'm actually pretty glad I tested it, so I know next time.

NOTE: I spliced new wire so it won't pull on the harness:

GND2 = ground

B+ = 12v Power

ACC = Remote In

I snaked the Power Cable under the passenger side firewall as you can see here:

This is what I have for the time being. I will come back to this project. Most likely I will follow this thread in moving the LOC and aftermarket AMP to the rear of the truck. I'll probably make my own box and connect the cables directly from the amp in the rear to the box as opposed to looping it from the front to the back.


DIY Stereo Upgrade for us Stuck with the Stock System


I will keep everyone updated with my results.

 

[planomateo]

I applaud you for being a newbie to this forum and contributing with details! Well done.

 

[SquareOne]

I applaud you for being a newbie to this forum and contributing with details! Well done.

Thank you very much for that. I love this forum and I like a great DIY where it's detailed and easy to understand.

 

[SquareOne]

OK so I ended up getting the help of an audio guy to put this all together. I just had no time to do this so I rather expedite it with some help.

Now I want to say and confirm. The system cannot do without the factory amp unless you want to lose some features. I'll explain, your navigation, beep, and touch screen data goes through the amp. If you bypass the amp or remove it you won't get any of the sound for the MFD screen and Nav.

I believe it does work without it as far as climate control and the rest of the stuff, but you just won't have any sound. The wires to use for this are in my last post. You might have to mess with the Black SGND and the Brown GND to get the right negative. The the second wire (either the Black SGND or Brown GND) has to be grounded to the aftermarket amp/ LOC as this is the ground for the stock head unit.


Now for the details. I ended up reverting my original plan and going with another more "cleaner approach."

First thing to do is remove all your paneling, some pictures are below:


Trunk Paneling

Driver side wheel well

Driver side second row pillar by driver seat belt.

Driver side second row by wheel well.

Steering wheel paneling (plastic cover, metal plate, and some connectors need to be removed)

I'm gonna end this message here to add more photos.

 

[SquareOne]

I want mention before I continue, if you do a simple search within the 100 series forum you can find a lot of how to dos on removing the paneling and where the wiring runs. This job took a total of 8 hours two people. If I had to do this in order It would be:
1) Run the power cable and speaker wire.
2) Add the new speaker system to the doors.
3) Add the amp, LOC and TEST.

Onward.



Passenger side paneling under glove box (Note I removed that power cable)

I removed the stock sub woofer. I'm sorry guys it sucks, it doesn't tune well well and the 6 inch sub woofer only punches. You won't get that deep bass.

I mounted the AMP and the LOC here. I'll take pictures of that once I have it to my liking.

List of stuff we did in the beginning:

1. Take 2 speaker wiring (9 conductor Cable) run it from the stock amp location to the passenger paneling under the carpet..
2. Snake that through the center console to the the driver side under the steering wheel. (refer to the picture labeled "Steering wheel paneling") We zip tied the speaker wire to the vent under the steering wheel. I POSTED A PICTURE OF WHERE THE WIRE WILL BE UNDER THE STEERING WHEEL AFTER THIS POST.
3. If you have a bass controller or similar now is a good time to put the controller in place leaving some slack for the run to the back.

Now we ran the power cable from the battery to the driver side.

This is right under the steering wheel with a drill bit thick enough to bring it through the firewall.

Brought it right through under the fire wall (add some 3M flexible strip black caulking or similar to seal it. Ensure that it can handle heat) I also added a wire harness for the cable.

The power wire, 2 speaker cables, and the controller wire (if you have one) go under the wire track. Keep bringing it through and make sure its a tight fit against the wheel well wall or else you can't put the paneling back on later. I POSTED A PICTURE OF THIS LATER AS WELL.


I'll continue onto another message.

 

[SquareOne]

Where the 2 speaker wires were ran

Wires by wheel well. Make sure this is against the edge as much as possible or else you'll have trouble with the paneling later

For the speaker wires:

1. Tape one wire with blue tape or some tape to know which one goes to the LOC and which one is the amp wires.
2. The wires you want to tap into for the LOC are in POST #9. Bascially the wires after the stock amp and the two Violet + Pink (for the front driver side navigation). The second wire for the aftermarket amp connect to the wires going to the speakers.
3. Connect the wires by soldering or clamping.

We then started putting the speakers in all the doors, with the crossovers and tweeters. You can look this up on the forum on how to do this you got a lot of guys who posted pictures and how to do it. This was probably the most tedious to get a proper fit and ensure the speaker doesn't rattle. Also if you can solder the wires and electrical tape. its so much easier!


BTW the crossover is inside the arm rest of the door if its too big to mount on the door. It's a tight fit so it doesn't move much that way. Maybe I'll find a better spot later with some 3M tape.


We then hooked up the LOC with the aftermarket amp in the back above the driver side wheel well. Again I'll post photos of this once I clean it up the way I want it.

Everything is clean as far as sound. You do get some hissing from the speakers, if you despise the hissing just make adjustments to the gain on the aftermarket amp. You'll still get some hissing/static noise, but you literally have to put your ear on the speaker to hear it.

I'll continue this soon.