Basic upgrades for a first gen

So I bought a 2000 Tacoma (xtracab) last year and wound up on here. I made another thread a couple weeks ago asking about a few things. Everyone was super helpful. Anyways this truck had been bubba'd a bit. Crappy wiring for an amp and sirius XM tuner left in there, the stock Tacoma stereo was replaced with a 4runner 6 disk CD player with it's own factory external amp, bunch of weird stuff. I didn't want to deal with all the mystery wiring.

I pulled the entire dash, cleaned everything, and put it back to stock wiring. I got a decent deal on a Pioneer DMH-1700NEX head unit, installed that and a backup camera, plus a USB port where the cigarette lighter socket used to go. I'm now wanting to upgrade the stock speakers a little. They don't sound super great, but that's to be expected for speakers that old.

Being an idiot I just figured I'd order a cheapish set of pioneer speakers off of Crutchfield. Their website said that the Pioneer TS-G520's would fit my car, so I bought those. They arrived and I discovered that I'm dumb. These are 5-1/4" speakers (they did come with brackets) but the factory speakers are 6-1/2". I hooked two up to my wiring and they don't sound super great either. I'm probably going to return them.

Here's where the questions come in. Will the stock speaker brackets work with 6-1/2" speakers? I'm not looking to run an amp or do any major overhauls, I just want some decent speakers. What should I be looking at? I don't have a fixed budget, but I'm not looking to go crazy here.

Also I have heard that separate tweeters make quite a difference to a decent sound system, but this truck doesn't have the wiring of a place for them. Has anyone here added them, and if so can it be done without too much hassle?

Thanks in advance.

 

Components with tweeters would be a gamble if you are not adding an amplifier. You would really need to find something that runs well on low power.

I think I had components in my 2004 but I can’t really remember. Maybe I added them in sail panels or upper door panel. Either way you have to be able to punch a nice clean hole. I use an electrical knock out set to cut my holes usually.

As far as speaker size goes, I think the depth is more crucial on a Gen 1 than Gen 2. Either way, I wouldn’t use the factory bracket (is there one?). You might be able to bolt new speakers in directly, but I’d use a spacer to push the speaker as far out as you can get away with so you have more clearance for the magnet. Use the size of the factory speakers as a gauge for how far you can push them out.

Use weatherstripping to insulate your contact points and a little deadening on the large areas inside the door would make for a decent installation and a better result.

 

These are the factory speakers and brackets (well the passenger side at least)


They should be able to fit a normal speaker, right? Unless I go with something super deep. I did a little bit of googling and it looks like I can just buy the sail panels off a third generation 4runner, those have tweeters in them. The trick is I have no idea how to wire up a separate tweeter into the existing speakers. Is there an adapter for that or something?

 

Kicker 43DSC6504 1 $69.95

Metra 71-042C Speaker Wiring Harnesses 1 $0.00
Metra 82-8140 Speaker Mounting Brackets 1 $0.00

I did the following upgrade on my single cab and I gotta say these speakers hit pretty hard with my $15 DUAL (Yikes) head unit.


edit: obligatory plug for crutchfield.com since they have yet to disappoint. good prices, free install gear, and instruction manuals yada yada yada.

 

you would use the speaker wiring adaptor and instead of connecting it to a speaker, use it as the input for a crossover. Then, add wires from the crossover to the woofer and separate tweeter.

It looks like a fairly simple upgrade.

 

I have the same brackets and wiring from crutchfeild, but when I was looking for speakers for some reason only 5" speakers where appearing on my search. How do you like the sound of those kickers? Do highs come through okay?

The speakers I ordered seem to lack in both bass power, and in the high notes sounding very tin-y.

 

Thanks. After a little more googling it looks like most component speaker sets come with a crossover. I'm going to look at ordering some 4runner sail trim peices (apparently all the 4runners had tweeters) and see if i can make that work in my truck.