2016 Tacoma Double Cab Audio Install Build

So I started this project about a month ago, but with the 2016's being as new as they are I could not find a whole lot of info out there on what is different from the first and second generations. After working with several shops and online folks I finally figured out I had no choice but to go it alone. Well the build is in, surprisingly everything went back to together and it works. With a little help along the way from Mr. Marv, and absolutely no help from ********* I thought I would post up a little on what I did and what I ran into along the way.

The system specifics are as follows:

Stock Head Unit (w/o-JBL)
Audison Voce 5.1K Amp
Audison BitOne Signal Processor
Hertz ML-1600 6.5 Mid Woofer
Hertz ML-280 Tweeter
Sundown Audio SD-2 8 inch (Pair)

Here are a few Pic's of the finished system.


I am not sure on the best way to document all of this, so I guess I will start with a few of the things that I ran into, and add threads along the way.

First surprise with the 2016 is the huge gaping vents now on the back wall of the cab. I had a sub box all planned out from supercrewsound, but before I ordered I pulled the plastic out to make sure it was the same. It wasn't. These are at a height of 14 inches and are in exactly the wrong spot. I asked a bunch about what these were for and most of the responses I got were related to the being able to close the doors, but I later figured out that this is not it. I blocked these off with the thought of taking them out, and the doors closed just fine. What quit working was my defrost. They tightened the cab up pretty air tight, so when you block these vents and set your HVAC to pull from the outside the air has no place to go. So the fan just spins. With no air flowing it spins and gets hot. So long story short you can't block the vents.

Well with lunch break over I will post up a few more pics a bit later.

 

Nice install.

 

subbed! very nicely done dude.

I'm having a shop do my install this weekend and sent them the pic of the back vents as an FYI so thx for that.

They made no mention of a "Signal Processor" - can you explain why you needed one and why they may
not have mentioned it? They're a high end shop with nothing but great reviews so it has be curious. They are putting
in a 4 ch. Amp, door speakers and a sub & box. He said for more $$ he would put in a better Amp that would have
another port so that I could control the Sub separately but I didn't feel I'd really need that at a cost of another $130
but that there is one on the Amp if I want to tweek it some.

 

Signal processor is really an optional piece of hardware depending on the amp your installing. For the stock unit you have to get the speaker level signal into a format the amp can understand. Some amps have a built in converter and because they do, all you need to do is wire the speaker output from the head unit to the amp. Other amps don't have this option and so you need a converter. Not sure what amp they are suggesting but my guess is that it will take high level inputs and that's why they are not quoting you a signal converter. If you need a converter there are two basic types. A line out converter or a digital processor. I would stay away from a line out converter. Huge noise makers and do nothing other than convert the signal. A DSP is a small computer. It will convert the signal but it also gives you lots of options. Some more than others. The down side to these is they are expensive. The BitOne I am running has built in crossovers, signal de-equalization, timing adjustment, and a built in equalizer. But at a cost of about $1,200.

For the system your looking at a five channel amp with dedicated sub channel is probably your best bet. With hi level inputs the installs pretty easy and it's a pretty nice system.

 

you spent $1200 on a bitone ? wow

 

I didn't but retail I've seen them go for about that.

 

Really nice system I'd have to say I'm a bit jealous .

 

Thanks, this will be the second vehicle I've put it in. It's been a lot of fun.

So a little more on the install. Other that the pain in the butt vents the box build is pretty much the same as the other generations. The 8" subs were not my first choice but without making some major modifications I couldn't see a way to get anything any bigger in there. I mean getting a single 10 or even a 12 will fit, but getting a box volume big enough is another story. The Sundown 8 will run with the magnet right up against the box (no bottom vent), and they handle a small volume. A pair of these will handle the 1000W I have available so that's what I went with. These are about 0.28 ft^3 per sub. So far I'm pretty impressed. They are still breaking in, but pretty bad ass so far for a set of eights.

One thing was adamant about with this install was that I wanted to make sure that I cut or changed very little with the truck. I wanted to be able to put it 100% back to stock. So not cutting of anything, with only a few exceptions. I did remove the baby seat hooks, and I did drill a hole in the firewall. Other than that nothing has been changed. And get ready to gasp. NO SOUND DEADENING.

Here's some more pics of the box. The size of the amp made the box overall size a compromise. Overall it fit nicely.

 

thanks for the info.

did you paint the box - looks amazing completed.

 

No I had it LineX'ed. Truck bed liner. It's a perfect material for a speaker box. About $80 to have it sprayed. Way easier then carpet and a really nice finish.

 

That's nice. So it looks like Toyota moved the tweeter to the dash? A mid in there and tweeters in the A pillar/sails would be awesome. Nice choice on the amp. I have the LRx 5.1k and love it. Also, nice detail with the usb jack mounted below the amp.

As you found out, you really can't block those vents. I watched a youtube video a couple of days ago where the Tacoma/Tundra chief engineer was going over the things they did to improve overall aerodynamics and cut down on wind noise (like those funny looking winglets near the side view mirrors). They double-sealed the doors and did some other things to make the cabin airtight. Those rear wall vents were necessary to allow air to escape primarily when the door was closed. You can definitely still close the door with the vents blocked, but it takes some extra force. Apparently they wanted to make sure some weakling could still close the door.

 

that's what I thought, MUCH nicer that way, very clean look to it.

 

Yeah they did move the tweeter to the dash which has some good points and some bad points. For a tweeter not at all an ideal location, but since I wanted this to be 100% stock and completely invisible I had to go with what they gave me. On the plus side there is a lot of room under there, so yes a mid would probably fit nicely. Actually the tweeters don't sound all that bad up there either. I have to get the system tuned but I have high hopes that its not as bad as I was thinking it would be. The other downside if you would call it that is with the pillars. What used to be a pretty common place to add a speaker pod now has become a giant airbag. I suppose you could still mold a tweeter pod into them, but I am not too sure I would want my tweeter flying at my face if the bag blew. The sails would work but the dash trim gets in the way a little bit.

Along these same lines the door speakers presented a few challenges and differences from the 2015's and below. The Gen1 and Gen2's had both the tweeter and the 6X9" speaker in the door. The way these were wired was that a single pair of 18 gauge wires went from the deck, through the door boot, and to the tweeter. The 6X9" was then wired in parallel with the tweeter. The signal to the door was full range and the tweeter had a small cap for a filter. So to run the Mid-base and Tweeter as separates meant running at least one pair of wires if not two pair through the boot and into the door. This is what most people did I think. On the 2016 the 6X9" is still wired through the tweeter, but the tweeter is not in the door. So the pair of wires going to the 6X9" is now after the tweeter. Basically meaning you can run the mid and tweet separate without running a wire though the door. This is not the route I was going to go, but I discovered a surprise in the boot. They sealed the crap out of it. So to push a wire through was no longer as simple as unhooking it and fishing through. It can still be done, but your going to have to do some cutting. So for mine I opted to run my wires from my amp to the tweeter location, and then re-use the existing wires to the door speakers. The wires are 18 GA and at such a short distance more than adequate.

Also worth noting is the mounts even though the speaker has moved have not changed. I ordered mounts from Mr. Marv based off the 2015 pattern and both the tweeter and mid fit perfectly. Lots of room in both spaces. The stock speakers are pretty pathetic. On the mid adapter I had it lineX'd at the same time I had my box done. Primarily so it wouldn't swell. If you get these made out of MDF you will want to paint or treat them in some way so they are protected from moisture. Condensation can get back there.

Here are a few shots of some of the stock stuff in the doors. I wish I had taken more pics, but when I did the doors it was really cold.


You can see the adapters Marv made in this shot. By the way working with him was fantastic. Highly recommend him. Thanks Marv.

 

how difficult was it to get the upper dash off to expose the tweeter?

 

Looks great! For the wires that went from the Head unit to the BitOne Signal Processor, did you end up splicing into the wires that ended where the stock tweeters were, or did you buy some kind of harness that will plug into a non-jbl head unit?

 

Getting to the tweeters was not too bad, but if you look close in that picture you will notice I broke off one of the supports. There are three tabs with a red insert not two. I ended up super gluing this back on and it held. If I have to get them back out it will probably break again though. If you start at the tabs on the front and get them up then gently pry around it comes right out. The area up by the pillar is the hard one.

On the deck I wanted to make sure I didn't cut any of the wires. The plugs that are our there for the 2015's fit the 2016's as well with one exception. The smaller plug has an orange and black wire for the dimmer. This was on one of the plugs, but not the other. It needs to be there or your dimmer won't work. What I did to remedy this was just remove one of the pins and move it into this slot. These are the two adapters I used. On the small plug the wires coming out of the deck go to the bitOne. The plug on the other side is unused. Except for the dimmer wire. So I took a small needle and pulled one of the speaker pins out and moved it to the dimmer slot.

$11 Metra 71-1761 87 - 94 Toyota Vehicle Harness

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00029X1KA?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00

$5 Metra 70-1761 Radio Wiring Harness For Toyota 87-Up Power 4 Speaker

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002BEQJ8?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o04_s00

Getting the deck out is really easy, and there is a bunch of room behind it. So wiring was a breeze. It was actually the part I was most worried about.


While I am at it, the power wire was also not as big a deal as I thought. The spot to run this through the firewall that you see on the ********* videos is not there on the 2016's, but they give you a really nice spot to drill through. I was really reluctant to drill, but when I looked at the alternatives it was the easiest and cleanest way to go. All of the rubber boots are sealed tight and I just couldn't see cutting them. Metal I can fix. These boots not so much. Once you push through there is like a carpet pad on the back side. A small hole for the wire and a grommet and its all done.

 

Well that is pretty much it. Install was pretty simple once you got past the box design. There are some differences in the 2016, but for the most part not much has changed. I didn't go into getting off all the panels, but most of them are pretty straight forward. If you have not done this before you can set-up and account with Toyota's "Technical Information System" and get access to a whole bunch of stuff. Its like $15 for a two day access and you can print and download to your hearts desire. Really helpful and totally worth the money. This was a lot of fun, and hopefully the pics and write-up helps/inspires.

 

Nice components, install, and truck! I love my Bit One and Mille drivers! How did tuning the Bit One go? Are you pretty well-versed with all of its features? I learned some pretty great tricks from Elettromedia on the Bit processors when I was tuning mine.

 

I am still breaking in the Sub's, so I have not yet started tuning. When I had this system in my Veloster I tried to tune this thing but eventually gave up. My old ears, well older anyway, are not what they used to be. I don't have the access to any of the hardware to do it by machine anymore, so I ended up just hiring it out. I have a guy that I hear is a master at this, so this time it will be going to him. He's quoted me about 10 hours to do this (ouch), but I hear it is worth it. Any tips you can share though would be great.

 

I can send you my .bit files from my last truck and you can try them out. I can make minor changes to help the settings better suit your specific truck. I'll be happy to provide some insight on how to tune your gain structure to match what the Bit One wants, as well. You can try them out and if you like them, you may just save 10 hours of labor costs for a master tuner.

Also, beware of the proclaimed "master" title. There are very true masters of this trade out there, especially when it comes to what skills and knowledge it takes to tune a Bit processor. Most shops don't even have the right equipment to do this. I've got about 100 hours of tuning time with Bit processors, alone, and I would still consider myself an expert, not a Master. My old mentor is a Master, and I still turn to consult him on best tuning practices from time to time.