09 Tacoma Double Cab Stereo interference

Just got my new 2009 Tacoma Double Cab Long Bed 2 weeks ago. Had to wait 2 months for it as there was no models in my area that had the JBL stereo with Subwoofer option. When I got the truck, the stereo sounded good, but I just listen to the FM radio. When I got Home Put some CDs in it and almost immediatly notice a crakling static popping sound that randomly came from the rear speakers. Upon further inspection I notices the sound issues were coming from all Three rear speakers including the Subwoofer.

I later heard the same interference sounds while listneing to Factory installed XM Satellite stereo as well as the FM reciever, though the occurence was not often.
Anyone having any simlar issues with this stereo and Speaker system?

Of course I brought it back to the dealer and they are blaming My CDs saying the interference is coming from my burnt CDs. I'll have to go back with Store bought CDs and re-demonstrate this issue to them. However, they say there is little they can do with this issue.

Anyone please help cause I'm really fustrated on this.

 

me and some other members are having the same issue. there is a thread entitled 2009 sub problems that has been started. it might help you out. so far, no definitive answers have come about.

 

You waited 2 months just for the crappy JBL system :/ Personally I'd have just got the cheap normal stuff (which I did lol) and swap it out with a nice 7" touch/nav screen and speakers/subs I like (which I will)...

 

I have the same exact problem. Went to the dealer today and they didn't do anything. Service guy just told me that if you turn up the treble, mid, or bass your going to have distortion no matter what. Gave me lots of BS pretty much. I notice that only if the treble is turned up to more then 0 then then the problem occurs.

 

I'd be pissed if I paid what is it, around 1k for the JBL option and you can't tune the mid/treb/bass settings without it distorting. That's absolutely unacceptable...

 

Brought my truck to another dealer to review the JBL stereo issue and they came to the same conclusion. Its my CDs. this time I brought 5 of them

2 store Puchased
2 MP3/WMA
1 Burnt as Waves

Demonstrated the problem on all of these. Blamed the scratches on the 2 Purchase CD as the cause of the issue. Blamed the Compression of MP3/WMA for the other 3.

I can't believe this. The stereo has MP3/WMA right on the front of the stereo

After an hour of arguing, the Shop floor head contacted the Toyota FTS, Some regional Service manger, that admited that this is a known issue with the JBL stereo's in the tacoma and that this stereo is operating within the Manufacturing Specifications. There is nothing they can do.

I then call Toyota corporate and they state that if the dealers finds nothing wrong with the stereo, then there is nothing they can do as the stereo is operating 'within the Manufacturing Specifications'.

I am so f%$^$ing P##sed off at toyota

And last, what really gets me, go to toyota's Web site and you'll see they no longer offer the JBL for the tacoma. Looks like it vanished.

 

thats Messed up i just noticed no more JBL stuff good catch

 

Yea i'm pissed myself. Actually the JBL comes stock with both option A and option b for the double cab. Not sure about the others. Because I know with my TRD Sport it came stock already

 

Fellas - factory speakers and sound systems are always going to be just "factory" regardless of the advertising. If you want solid music in your car you need to go after-market speakers, head unit and amp.... That being said - I can't believe that Toyota wouldn't do anything for this type of problem.

 

After all day on the phone with other Dealers, the FTS Rep from Toyota Finally came up with the followiing solution. Looks like they got this solution from some dealer in California which supposedly resolved the problem for someone else

Disconnect the JBL sub woofer from the JBL AMP leaving the back door speakers connected to the JBL Amp.

Install an after market 150 Watt mono Channel 'Pioneer' Amp to power the sub.

Apparently the unadjustable crossover filter for the sub on the JBL Amp is the cause of the interference and only ocurrs when the stereo hits a specific Frequency at specific volumes.

Toyota is ordering the parts so I'll provide an up date once the dealers installs this to let you know how this sounds

 

sounds good. Do you know which dealer in california they got the info from because i'm from there and maybe i can go to that exact dealer if they are around my area. are they fixing the problem for you for free?

 

What volume does this sound start to occur at? When you play is quietly at 5 or 10 does it make the noise? My Subwoofer cabinet (the plastic case surrounding and covering the driver) vibrates at certain resonant frequencies, but I don't get any clicking or popping sounds like described above at any volume.

 

try to turn your treble up and then volume doesn't have to be too loud to hear what we are talking about. Play any CD audio and you will hear it.

 

So Toyota added the aftermarket amp to power the subwoofer and the interference noise stoped. Everything plays fine now including the CDs they said were previous bad. So the issue has been the JBL amplifier that powers the subwoofer and back speakers.

I'm going to call Toyota corporate back and pressure them to fixing the JBL amp issue since they identified it as an issue.

The only issue I have now is the Amplifier is not as clean sounding as the JBL. Going to see what amp they put in and see if it can be adjusted.

 

Toyota has put the aftermarket Pioneer amp in my truck which really has not resolve this issue.

1) Though the popping sound has been fixed from the Subwoofer, The sound quality of the Subwoofer is now worse as the Sub is being distorted by the amp. There’s no Frequency filter adjustment on the amp other than a Low Pass Filter switch. Turning the ‘Gain’ down on the Amp helps but then the sound Is too low
2) Toyota hooked the audio source of the Pioneer amp to the ‘front’ left & right channel output of the JBL Amplifier (More on why they did this later).
3) The popping sound is still present in the 2 back Door Speakers – (JBL 80mm rear quarter speakers)

Frustrated with the sound quality, I decided to do some investigating myself. After ripping the back of my truck apart, here’s what I found out:

The rear left and right channel outputs for the subwoofer and back door speakers from the JBL amplifier is the source of the popping noise. There is no noise artifacts when playing through the front channels. Toyota knows this, as this is why they hooked the Pioneer amplifier audio input feeds from the ‘front’ channel output of the JBL Amplifier. I will be putting another complaint into Toyota as this invalidates the ‘fader’ controls of the stereo. Putting the ‘fader’ to front keeps the subwoofer going. Second, putting the ‘fader’ to rear, now just powers the 2 rear door speakers which have a high pass filter from the JBL amp so the sound is not full.
In Addition, now since the fader controls are working like this, I can clearly hear the popping sound in the 2 rear door speakers as I can mute all the other speakers. This popping sound is the same sound artifact that was heard before through the subwoofer.

So in my opinion, clearly the rear channel of the stereo system has a problem. Where the problem is from, the stereo or the JBL amp is unknown since the stereo is married to the JBL amplifier and one will not work without the other. I really do not know of an easy way of determining which is the cause of the problem without cutting wires and doing trial & error testing.

I also do not understand Toyota’s reluctance in replacing these parts as this is clearly a defect with system. The only justification I can think of is that there is a design flaw with the stereo system and that it exists in all models. But could this design flaw exist since 2006. How could they keep offering this as an option if this is a known problem?


The biggest problem is that there are no other 2009 Tacoma’s double Cabs with JBL in my area that the dealer can compare this with.

Any help on this would be extremely appreciated.

 

brother, if i was anywhere close to your area, i would be there fighting the good fight. keep up the good work!

 

whatever happened to toyota helping out the customer?

on the GTOs i guess the stereo sucked until you changed some settings on the factory amp, is this possible with the jbl setup?

 

Yea I'm still having the problem and its pissing me off. My dealer won't do anything

 

Hey i'm sad to announce that this post (my first post) is on a down note. I've got the same problem. There is no excuse for this. I noticed at JBLtoyota.com this quote:

• The Tacoma Double Cab’s JBL audio system is fully covered under the overall Toyota product warranty, and will be serviced by any Toyota dealership nationwide in the unlikely event it is needed.

Here is the link to the site.
http://www.jbltoyota.com/toyota_tacoma/audio_advantages.asp

I wonder if you showed this to the toyota reps what they would try to do. I know I've got an appointment with them on wednesday to resovle this problem.

 

I too am having this problem. I have contacted both Toyota and JBL via Email and have talked to my service advisor who treaded my like I was stupid. He told me i had to drop it of and they would see if it performed within their acceptable operating parameters. When i ask "what exactly what is there acceptable parameters?" He seemed dumbfounded and told me it has to be hearable.

I will let you all know if and when either get back with me.