AVIC-Z130BT Installation Thoughts on a 2010 Taco

For all those who are somewhat timid about installing a new radio yourself, don't be - it's not technically that difficult, but it does take a lot of time if you don't know what you're doing (like me). Here are some install thoughts from a total noob to car mods:

Well I finally got my new Pioneer Z130BT installed. As I am a total noob and have never done any kind of car mod, it took me 4 days. Most of the time was spent looking for the d**mn VSS wire & reverse wire and trying to get the d**mn factory plugs apart without breaking anything (man they're tight!). I have a 2010 double cab that had JBL audio and my wiring was slightly different than what's been on the posts so I thought I'd post my experience in case other people had the same problem. Plus I had a couple of questions too.

Here are the factory wiring harnesses that are left when you pull out your old radio:


The 2 larger ones are the main harness (power, dimmer, speakers, etc.) and the steering wheel controls which I had no problem hooking up. However, I was wondering what the two smaller ones were - one is blue, the other is a small white plug:






My old JBL had XM radio and [stupidly] I thought it would be as simple as plugging in a factory harness plug into the back of the new Z130BT but of course it wasn't. I'm assuming that the blue plug above though is the XM antenna? If it is, it's a different shape than the plug on the back of the new HU. If so, is there some sort of adapter so I can get my XM back? Crutchfield told me that the factory XM currently installed in the truck is totally proprietary and there's no way to make it work with an aftermarket HU and that I should just buy another one but I'm not so sure he's right. Then I read in another post where the XM was built into the JBL radio so when I removed the old HU I took out the XM but I'm not sure about that either. And, if that's the case, then that blue plug must be the antenna plug and if it is why isn't it a standard plug? Anyone that can help me out with that would be much appreciated...

The smaller white plug I'm not sure what that is... Anyone have any thoughts? Could it be related to the factory bluetooth handsfree stuff? Crutchfield thought it was steering wheel controls but I doubt that - I already butt-connected the Axxess SWC kit wires to the wires coming out of a harness for a PAC SWC that actually came with my PAC TATO JBL interface kit (it was an extra harness that came with the TATO kit that said if you had a PAC SWC as well then you should connect the wires from the harness to the stuff in the PAC SWC kit but I ended up going with an Axxess SWC kit instead so I just cut the harness off and butt-connected the wires with the Axxess wires).

Some notes on installation:
1. Things you'll need is some sort of interface kit (like the PAC TATO JBL interface or non-JBL if that's what your stock radio is) which should come with a wiring harness that will plug directly into your factory wiring harness. I used butt connectors to connect the wires from the aftermarket radio wiring harness to the PAC TATO harness and then that plugged directly into the wiring harness in the truck and worked beautifully.
2. A steering wheel control kit (SWC) - Axxess and PAC are probably the 2 biggest ones. Similar to the radio interface kit it will have some wires that you'll have to connect to some sort of harness that you can plug into the harness that's in the truck. As above, I cut off the "extra" harness that came with my PAC TATO inferace kit and butt-connected that to the Axxess and it works beautifully. The only steering wheel controls that don't work for me are the off-hook and on-hook buttons which I understand is an ongoing issue for a lot of people.

I also did the grounding the parking brake and mute wires together mod so that I can play DVDs while in motion (and input addresses into the GPS) and it works great - here's a link for how to do that: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjUq0_hCDLQ
A word of caution though, I didn't get the white "clip" pried up far enough and when I started to pull the pin out, a piece of the top of the pin (the pin isn't a solid unit - it's hollow inside and the shell isn't continuous) got caught in the "clip" (it's honeycombed on the inside) and long story short I broke the wire. No worries though - I macerated the plastic off the clip over top of said stuck pin and then pushed the pin out from the top, inside out. Then I stripped said broken wire and sodered it onto said stuck pin and then inserted it into the new pin hole as described in the instructions (kind of tight in there - had to use soder spariningly in order for it to fit but it all works great now).

There's plenty of posts on how to remove your old unit. Some sticking points though - I got stuck on getting the hazard light assembly out of the old faceplate. Basically the assembly is surrounded by a black plastic housing then that whole thing sits in a black plastic surround in the old faceplate. There are a couple of knuckles of plastic between these two black plastic housings that act as clips to hold the thing in there. The only way you'll see them is if you use something like a flathead screwdriver to pry the two black plastic layers apart (which is what I ultimtely used to pop off the clips and free the hazard light assembly). Trust me - it's a pain in the ***! Even after removing that though, I still wasn't able to get it unplugged from the factory harness so I just let it dangle throughout the rest of my install (probably not the best thing but better than taking a hammer to whole thing which is what I was about to do!)

After getting everything removed, I installed the new radio. There are 3 wires that you'll need to run to the driver's side fuse box behind the little pop-out coin tray - one is for the vehicle speed sensor (butt connect a wire to your new HU's VSS wire), one is for the camera (plug an RCA cord into your new HU's backup camera connector and run the other end to the fuse box), and one is for the reverse wire (butt connect another wire to your new HU's reverse wire). You don't need to connect the blue "power antenna" wire coming from your new HU to anything as that's not on a Taco anyway. I mounted my GPS antenna under the dash wedged between the defroster venting and the "ceiling" of the dash as other people have done and it works beautifully for me as well in terms of accuracy and reception. I ran the mic on top of the steering wheel but plan on putting it in a blank plug as shown here:

Now that you have everything hooked up you have a whole mess of wires going everywhere. Trust me when I say it's not going to fit back into the dash unless you do some cleaning up. Take your time and zip tie everything that goes together, together to make it all a little neater. I then put some of the extra "boxes" (like the PAC TATO interface box which is HUGE & the Axxess SWC box) on top of the headunit as I didn't have enough slack in any of the wires to push them around the sides of the dash and you don't want them sitting near the exhaust fan in the back of the HU. My Z130BT also came with a relatively large box that's the HD radio antenna and I stuffed that down the side of the dash (actually had just enough slack to do this). Even after all that it was quite a struggle to get the new HU in the old space. Part of it is the factory wiring stem literally has NO play in it whatsoever and the hazard light assembly harness comes off the same stalk and has no play in it either so you can't move it anywhere. I finally got it bolted in though after a lot of cussing.

So now you have the new HU in the dash and you shouldn't have had to tap any factory wires yet. The only factory wires you should have to tap are for the backup camera, the reverse signal, and the VSS. Here's where I ran into trouble. My wires look different than some of the wires on the posts. However, all of them are located around the driver's side fuse box behind the coin tray. First the VSS wire (the biggest pain of all). So you'll read about the purple/white wire going into the only black plug in that area. Well I had a black plug but no violet/white wire. After erroneously tapping into a violet/white wire in the ECM on the passenger side by the glove box as listed in other posts did I finally figure it out. So it looks like the original black cable by the fuse box on the driver's side came up a little short. So there was a small "extension" that ran from the original plug up to where it plugs in near the fuse box and they used different colored wiring in the extension (many the same color - how confusing!). After tracing back the wires that went into the original plug, however, I found the purple/white wire that everyone was talking about! I then just noticed which pin it went in and found the corresponding wire coming out of that pin on the "extension" cable (on mine it was a mint green but in simple terms it was the top rightmost wire on the plug as you're looking at the end of the plug). Actually the extension gave me a little more slack which made it a little easier to tap. Next, the reverse wire. So it is in the top left white plug as stated in other posts however I didn't exactly have a red wire. Instead I had 2 pinkish wires (and no my eyes aren't bad - there are other red wires in that area and these 2 aren't the same color as red!). However, one was ever so slightly darker than the other (meaning, more red than pink?) and I tapped into that one and it worked!. Finally, the backup camera. Did it as outlined here: http://www.tacomaworld.com/forum/audio-video/30889-oem-camera-connection-below-dash.html except instead of using pins I just tapped into the wires themselves. Works great, video quality isn't really that degraded, and I haven't had any problems with black lines on either display. The biggest problem with all this tapping into the factory wires were that it's extremely tight in there with little slack in the existing cables so you'll need good lighting and small fingers to figure out what you're doing. Another word of CAUTION - DON'T USE T-TAP CONNECTORS!!! These d***mn things suck and caused me about a day's worth of work. It worked at first but as soon as I hit some really rough road my VSS and then my camera and then my reverse signal quit working. Didn't trace it to the T-taps at first (as they were working flawlessly before) which meant I spent a lot of time looking for the problem, then finally figured out it was the T-taps, re-did them with new T-Tap connectors, and darn it if they didn't work for a day then stop working again. I just broke down and went with the usual "in-line" clamp wire taps and now it works fine and seems more secure.

If anyone wants pictures of what my wiring looked like and what I tapped into to finally get it working just let me know and I'll snap some and post them. Boy was that a headache though trying to figure it out - like putting a puzzle together with the wrong picture as a guide! And thanks to anyone who can answer my questions above.

 

Please do post pictures. Enough people install these units and need the pictures that it would be a great benefit

 

one hell of a first post!
+1 for you!

 

1st time mod and went for the head unit - at least you don't lack confidence - and given what I saw/read, self-confidence is deserved.

 

I think that little white plug is audio in from your dash and steering wheel control is three wires on the connector without the power, as I remember pins 6 white-red,7 violet-white and 8 yellow-black.

 

I have just about given up trying to make the Z130BT fit in my 2011 double cab. It seems like no matter what there isn't enough space behind the radio to fit the harness. We're talking 1" of space still needed. What am I doing wrong? I am so frustrated after trying for about 5 hours to get it to fit.

 

Ziptie the mess out of all the wires and keep them bundled as tightly as you can. It will all fit it just takes a little bit of persuasion.

 

Yea I did do some zip ties. After my post I went and did Thanksgiving and I'm feeling a lot less frustrated now. I am going to try again tomorrow after a night's rest. Thankfully I already tested it and the bypass and everything else is working so I just need to make it fit for the final step!

 

I have been reading about the wiring of the AVIC Z130BT all day...lots of good information here. Thanks.

I am going to take the dive on Saturday and try to install this radio...starting with soldering and heat shrinking.

I read on another site about a loud popping sound that occurs when you start up the vehicle. Placing a Radio Shack 5V regulator between the amplifier (blue wire) and the HU (blue/white wire) delays the power supply so that when powered up you don't get the full 12 volts which causes the pop in the speakers/subs. This problem may be limited to certain vehicles that do not have a delay switch for the sound system...I wonder if the Tacoma has this problem?

Has anyone had problems with popping when turning on the truck with an aftermarket stereo?

 

Wow good luck making this radio fit. There just doesnt seem to be any way to make it fit in my 2011 double cab. I have ziptied everything I possibly could and tucked all wires as far back as they will go. There is literally no other place to put any of the wiring. If you didnt have to put the harness behind the radio it MIGHT fit but otherwise I dont think it can be done. Maybe it's because I have the factory bluetooth module or something back there that takes up the extra room.

What else could I possibly do to make this fit? I am tempted to go to a local installer and see what they say but I'd most likely get ripped off.

 

Hiding the wires is a bitch. I have the AVH-P4200DVD with a separate bluetooth module installed, along with my amp wiring kit, and I've done installs with more. Try tucking an excess amount of wires in the gap between the deck and the glove box, or on the opposite side. And one thing I found that helped was keep a screwdriver on hand (flathead) and use it to kind of maneuver wires and such as you're pushing the deck in. Every little bit helps.

Godspeed.

 

Good call on using a screwdriver. I'll try that. My other idea was to tie a string around the harness and fish that down under the steering column and pull on the string to help pull the harness back as the deck is pushed in. Its hard to say if its just the harness causing the issue but I'll def try the screwdriver method.

 

It's more a collective clusterfucker of wires. I'm assuming your deck has those RCA females as well? IDK about the wire trick (too much pulling down as opposed to back) but if I remember correctly, there was a little spot going down where you could tuck some of your wires. If that doesn't work, try taping them width-wise across the back of your deck so they don't go straight back.

 

Well I gave up trying myself and took it to a local shop. They charged me the normal double din install fee and got everything working including factory backup camera, aux input, bluetooth and GPS bypass.

They removed the factory bluetooth unit which is located behind the radio and this is what was preventing me from getting it to fit. As it's not needed anymore this wasn't a problem. It can go back in easily if needed when selling the truck.

It sucked having to pay someone else but in the end I am glad it's all done and don't have to futz with it anymore.

 

what did you pay for the install? and how do you guys like the unit? any suggestions on others you might of gone with?

 

a full install for a deck such as this will be anywhere between 80-120USD depending on where you go. I install stereos as a side job, and I only charge $50, and people jump at it

I find the installation process fun, and a good challenge from one vehicle to the next since they're all different.

 

any suggestions for places in WA state? i was quoted 200 from stereo warehouse near Seattle

 

DIY

The hardest part is getting the self confidence to take on the install. I am also more than willing to help with advice. Save the 200, and buy the parts you needs. It'll cost you $20

 

any really good link for installing this deck? Looking for location of all wires needed etc etc... also back up camera instal, best location to run wire...

 

no offense but you're asking that in a thread already devoted to installing this unit in a taco. if you cant find the info you need here perhaps you'd be better off getting it installed professionally. There probably isn't going to be a thread to hold your hand through every step and nuance but if you have a specific question post away.