Clarion Upgrade! All by myself! haha

I upgraded my stock Tacoma radio since it kept spitting out cds. I got a clarion unit and this mother is LOUD!!! Way louder than my stock one and has lots of cool features! Here's a couple pics. Sorry if this is uninteresting. I'm just really proud of myself. lol

 

looks good. how long did it take you? just be careful with the aftermarket....lots of low life thieves out there...just recently there was a post of a fellow tacomaworlder almost getting his jakked.

 

Well it took about as long as I thought. Approx an hour. I already knew how to dismantle everything so it wasnt to bad. I t was my first time hooking up a new radio so thats what took the longest. That and realizing you forgot to put in two of the radio mount bolts. lol Overall, it went well. It worked the very first time I tested it. I put a code on it and it has a red flashing light when the car is parked so hopefully that will deter thieves!

 

now all you need is better speakers and an amp

 

That is a nice headunit you got there

I have one and the sound out of that sucka is pretty good especially once you get it tweaked with the sound settings. Pretty nice features for the price AND COLOR MATCHING!

Good job man!

 

looks sweet

 

Thanks guys. Was a good little install

 

Looks good man! If you're not ready to upgrade your speakers deaden those doors and the back panel... really improves the sound of the stock speakers.

 

That looks great

 

If you don't mind me asking.

Where did you get it at and how much did you get it for?

 

Oh no problem! I got it from Crutchfield.com It came with the new dash plate so it looks nice and sits flush as well as all the other mounting accessories. All together it cost me $209 because I bought an aux cable and some wire crimp caps to connect the wires. It was an easy install. If you want to get one, id be more than happy to help with your install. BTW the model is Clarion CX400

 

Interesting. How would I go about deadening my panels? What materials/tools do I need?

 

It makes a big difference, isn't difficult to do & no special tools needed. Do a search on "deadened" and there will be lots of threads to folks that have done it on this forum. Be careful not to get bogged down with information overload... this thread might be a good start: http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/audio-video/33862-dynamat-poll-yes-no-if-so-how-much.html

 

Nice, thanks it looks great. I have been looking at one very similar to that from crutchfield as well. They seem to have some good deals

 

They do. You can find some units cheaper elsewhere but they dont offer any support and dont include detailed instructions and free mounting equipment. Crutchfield is the best way to go.

 

I am thinking of installing the same one with the polk db651's, the stock unit has almost no volume, my biggest concern is how to get the clock out and back in the new dash kit? and what about leaving the factory door tweeters in would that be a problem ? also i don't want to install a amp so i'm hoping the volume is louder.

 

Make sure the watts arent too high for the stock speakers. Mine is like 30-40 watts or something. Thats a little high but it works out ok. I didnt install any amps or subs or anything. I just did the head unit and it sounds great!

 

the cock pops out of the stock radio and pops into the dash kit along with the hazzard buttom. it's really a non factor on deciding to upgrade or not.

i suppose you could leave the factory tweeters in and wire them into the db's, although, i'm not so sure how it would work without a crossover. or you could go components and replace stock tweeters with the component tweeters.

 

the clock pops out of the stock radio and pops into the dash kit along with the hazzard buttom. it's really a non factor on deciding to upgrade or not.

i suppose you could leave the factory tweeters in and wire them into the db's, although, i'm not so sure how it would work without a crossover. or you could go components and replace stock tweeters with the component tweeters.