DIY: Basic Speaker Upgrade- 2nd Gen Access Cab

BigDan,
As far as I can tell, there is an opening in the metal part of the door where 6.5" speakers can be mounted, but Toyota now puts the rear speakers in the headliner. To do this, you have to run speaker wires from the speaker up to the deck.
There is no opening in the door panel, so people are cutting holes in the panel and mounting the speaker grill over it. A few people have fabricated custom panels that have concealed holes in them. Search around on here a little bit and you will see them.

I have an 2011 AC as well. I ordered the mounting kits from ********* and speakers and deck from Crutchfield. After I get everything and have a Saturday free, I plan on putting in a new deck, 6X9's in the front and 6.5's in the rear (including cutting holes and mounting the speaker grills on the door panels).

Since most of the write-up are for 2009-2010 Tacos, I'll update my findings here for my 2011 when I attempt the mod.

 

Reiss,
You don;t have to be disappointed. It appears that adding 6.5" speakers to the rear door of the AC is possible - just takes a little extra work of running wires, splicing into the factory rear wires and installing speaker grills in the rear door panel.
But as several people have pointed out - the extra work yields very little added performance. By changing the deck and upgrading the fronts to some quality 6X9's you can get plenty of sound to fill the cab.

 

Any tips for accessing wires for rear/ceiling speaks? Wondering what's the easiest way to splice into them.

 

From what I have read here, everyone splices into the rear speaker wiring at the harness behind the head unit. This seems the safest way to do it.
Haven't heard of anyone trying to take off the headliner, especially with the airbags up there.

 

Thanks, I guess that makes the most sense.

 

I did the speaker upgrade to my 2011 AC this weekend.

The 6x9's in the front doors and 6.5's in the rear doors fit great using the ********* adapters. Running speaker wire from the head unit to the rear doors is very easy. Took about 10 minutes each side.

The only problem that I encountered is that bolts come with the kit, but the 2011 uses plastic screw retaining clips (inserted into square metal holes in the door frame) to hold the speakers in. You have remove the the plastic piece and buy nuts to go on the bolts. This seemed to be much more secure than using screws to me.


I re-routed the speaker wire through the hole above the speaker opening in the door, then duct taped the wire to the inside of the door frame so it did not interfere with the window track. I think this works better thand drilling a hole through the top of the ********* adapter plate.

 

What did you do for a grille or opening on the rear doors? I was thinking about mounting the speakers on the outside of the panel, & just using whatever grilles come with the speakers. Not quite as clean as hidden speakers, but seems like it might be cheaper than buying another pair or panels for an older year model.

Any pics of your rears?

 

I did the same as what whippersnapper posted above. I've seen several other people doing the same, but I haven't taken pictures yet.

Cut holes and mounted the grills that came with the speakers over them.
It does look a little cheesy, but I hardly ever have passengers in the rear and you can't even see them unless I open the rear doors for something.
I think the increased sound is well worth the rarely seen cheesy looking speaker grills.

 

nice write up, I'm looking to do mine in the next week or two & this will help a lot.

 

I just replaced my front 6x9's with some JBL 3 way 6x9's. I unhooked the small factory tweeter in the door because I was worried that it'd mess with the ohms delivered to the speakers. It looks like in the original post the factory door tweeters are left in line and working. Can I hook the tweeters back up without hurting the HU or speakers?

 

Yep. You can leave the tweeter hooked up.
It appears to be in parallel so it has no effect on the ohms on the 6x9.

Mine runs fine with the tweeters still hooked up. Haven't heard of anyone having issues.

 

Depends on if you unwired the factory crossover. Did you unhook the tweeter at the speaker?

Also, if the crossover is still in the line to your 3-way you probably aren't getting much high-end out of it currently. If the X-over is in the circuit you should be able to run both speakers at the same time, but you possibly could do some damage without it if the speakers are in paralell off the HU since the impedence of the circuit would be reduced, if they're in series you'll just lose some volume output from the higher impedence

 

Just the answer I was looking for. Thank you.

Yes, I unplugged the harness that splits to both speakers and wired a couple blade connectors from that harness to the new 6x9.

In short, sounds like I can plug the speaker harness that splits back in and plug the 6x9 harness into the 6x9 so there's sound being directed to the factory component tweeter and the new 6x9.

 

This is probably the lamest question ever, but can someone help figure out how to get the driver's door wire harness unclipped? I've been fiddlefucking with it for an hour and can't get it unclipped.

The wires are barely long enough to allow enough space to get my hand back there, so I'm mostly going by feel. I see there is one tang on the inside edge of the harness that faces the door panel, but depressing that tang doesn't release the harness.

I got all the harnesses in the other doors undone easily...just the drivers that's giving me the hard time.

 

Where did you run the wire? I'm really interested in doing this, but I'm not sure quite how to get it done. I'm also not quite clear on the re-wiring that needs to be accomplished behind the head unit.

Do you have any photos you can post?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

 

I've got the ********* component kit ordered (Ctx65cs - Image Dynamics 6.5" Component Speaker System).

I would really appreciate someone expanding on xjake's comment above about what it takes (and where) to mount the crossover.

I've read and watched the videos and am not concerned about wiring or mounting the tweeters and mid-subs, I'm just lost when it comes to where in physical space the crossover can/should go.

TIA,
PW

 

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

 

Under the seats is where mine are. I don't remember if I did this or not, but you can poke a few holes in the carpet and use zip ties to keep the crossover from moving if that's a problem for you

 

Good write up. I made my own speaker adapters out of plastic cutting boards I bought at Target. Saved quite a bit of dough that way.



Rear door DIY speaker adapter.

 

NICE!!!! what isle in Target?