Still have questions..with the whole stereo.

Hi everyone, sorry for my newness. ive been on plenty of other forums and i know new members can be annoying and all but forgive me. I just recently got a 2007 tacoma prerunner sr5 about 3 weeks ago. and I want to get a Pioneer AVH-P3300BT in dash unit. Ive been searching the forums and have found useful info. and i have been looking at the tutorials. but i still have some basic questions about it all.

My first is I know it comes with wires, but do i have to take the stock ones out and replace them? and if so how difficult is that and is there any good videos for instructions.

Second is the head unit, is it pretty easy to install.. i know i need the double din. is tricks or things that could help?

Third is i want to know if it is easy to install yourself from past experiences or should just take to professionals.

Thanks a bunch guys.. sorry again, but sometimes its easier to ask.

 

1. Welcome to the forum
2. You do not have to remove the stock wires. You will want to use the adapter that plugs into the stock wire harness. You then connect wires from that plug to the wires that plug into the new headunit. Sounds a little tricky, but it is as simple as matching the colors together (there will be instructions on what wires connect to each other).
3. Typically it is pretty easy as there is no real cutting or gluing required. Just a couple of bolts.
4. Do it yourself and get to know your truck a little bit better. Should take you an hour or two the first time you do it. I can switch one out now in about 30 minutes.

 

awesome!! thats exactly what i wanted to know. really helped, thank you

with putting in the after market double head unit. does that just like clip into place?

 

when you buy it you'll want to get an installation kit. It is a trim ring that mounts to existing bolts in the dash and the HU slides into it.

I recommend crutchfield.com for first time purchases. They will include all the adapters and an installation kit. They are also available over the phone to help you out if you have questions during the installation. They are more expensive than buying at most online stores, comparable to what you'd pay at a Best Buy or something, but they more than make up for it in customer service.

 

u splice the wires from the new harness to the harness from the HU. this plugs into the trucks harness. doing it urself is really easy. if u have steering wheel controls ull need a ascw which is pretty easy to install too

 

Ditto with Crutchfield--Install kit makes life easy--they give you the adaptor for wires and bracket for radio. AND GOOD INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS.

 

Be VERY careful with that head unit. I recently bought the same one a few days ago and it has a Pico Fuse that blows VERY easily when hooking up RCA cables to the back of the unit. Mine blew and afterwards you will get a VERY loud "white noise" through your speakers. I had to send mine back, thankfully it was still under warranty.

If I were you, I would look for a different head unit

 

Do it yourself. Like all the above mentioned the wires just match up by color and plug directly into ur factory harness. I just installed a avh-4300 with two tens n an amp total took me less than 2 hours routing the wire is the hardest part as I wanted to keep it hidden.

 

not trying to thread jack, lets call it a general enhancement of knowledge for the welfare of everyone viewing this thread; cause it just got me thinking reading your post. since i have the JBL system in my truck and i want to buy this..

http://www.crutchfield.com/p_113KDC248U/Kenwood-KDC-248U.html?tp=5684

ive got to spend the extra 70 bucks on this? - http://www.crutchfield.com/p_127TATO/PAC-Toyota-Factory-Integration-Adapter.html?tp=3486

so it runs through the amp properly? i haven't taken the time to really look at the wiring of everything, but i, like the OP need some new and better audio options.

 

and since i did slightly thread jack i'll make it up by posting this link if nobody has shared it with you....

http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/audio-video/571-stereo-upgrade-basic-how-2nd-gen.html

can be found in "mod's and tutorials" tab in upper right of screen.

 

damnit! I was about to buy that same head unit in the next few days. I was also looking at the SONY XAV-62BT but it's a little more expensive. Thoughts on that one?

 

I can't speak to chandler913's problem, but my reading of a lot of posts wherein the Pioneer units blew the internal fuse were found to happen only when people had power to the unit and were plugging/unplugging the RCA cables.

Guess what I'm saying is one should always have the negative battery post disconnected when messing with any electrical component. I've had 3 Pioneer units (currently the X930BT) and never had a problem (but then maybe I'm just lucky, don't know).

 

X2

My 3200 is awesome.

 

HAHAHA that's what I replaced it with. I bought mine at sonicelectronix.com and they were both the same price there. So far so good with this one. Video is better with the Sony too. But only gripe is that when switching between songs on my ipod there is a little bit of a lag (maybe 1.5sec & only with the Ipod) , no biggie though!

When I installed my Pioneer I had everything disconnected and it ran great for 3 days, then while driving to work i pushed pause and when I pushed play again the "white noise" was ridiculous!!! I have read where that was a really bad problem with that specific unit.... Just trying to help someone not throw away money like I had to.

 

Sorry to hear about your experience (and anyone else who went through it as well).

For those wondering why the heck would Pioneer do such a thing, well....

Pick someone you know, but that is a big "jerk" (insert your own less family-friendly word). Place a screwdriver or other metal object across the speaker/RCA cable outputs of their car/home stereo unit so that the (+) terminal meets the (-) terminal.

Stand back and smell the distinctive odor of frying electronics (with maybe a puff of magic smoke). Or rue the fact that the manufacturer put a fuse in to prevent killing the pre/output section of the amplifiers (RCA/speaker level outputs respectively). Want to investigate? Open your home stereo and see if there are fuses on the main board - I bet there are (although there wasn't on a Harman Kardon amp that one of my kids fried by letting bare speaker wire touch both terminals).

Given that car stereos are frequently installed by less than knowledgeable DIY'ers, Pioneer found it cheaper to replace fuses under warranty than whole output sections.

Why does this happen to units that have been functioning properly? Well it could be the typical within 90 day infancy failure rate of any new electronics device, or it could be that poor install practices -- raising my own hand for being found guilty of "jamming the cables back there so it fits" -- resulted in cables bouncing around and potentially shorting out.

 

so im on crutchfield. and when buying the double din head what wiring harness do i need to properly install? is it this? http://www.crutchfield.com/p_127TATO/PAC-Toyota-Factory-Integration-Adapter.html?tp=3486
or is this all i need?

$6 Scosche TA02B Stereo Wiring Harness Compatible with Select 1986-20 Toyota, Lexus, Scion and Subaru Vehicles - Aftermarket Radio Wire Harness for Car Stereo . Check Vehicle List Below for Your Model

http://www.amazon.com/SCOSCHE-TA02B-Wiring-Harness-Toyota/dp/B00009UHKW/ref=pd_bxgy_e_text_b

 

If you have the JBL optional stereo then you need to buy the first wiring harness to get full use of your sub.

If you just have the regular stereo then all you need is the second harness you listed.

 

how do you tell if you have the JBL? hah

 

Your door where the speaker cut outs are will have a little JBL emblem and there will also be one on the headunit.

 

okay thank you i will go look

EDIT: so i went and looked i didnt see anything with JBL. if i were to have it would i be able to notice it pretty easily. plus its just a 6 disc stock stereo if that makes any difference.

even if it isnt a JBL would the the first one i posted make any difference to sound or quality?