Upgrading JBL headunit

Hello, I have a 2017 TRD with the JBL head unit, speakers and sub behind the rear seat. I would like to upgrade it primarily to get Apple CarPlay. I saw this 2023 (pictured) head unit with CarPlay for sale and wondering if it will work for me. Will it be an easy plug and play or do I need a new harness, speakers, etc.

Thank you

 

i believe you can only replace it with a jbl-model stereo. that appears to be the standard entune radio, which will not have the digital outputs needed for the jbl system. but i don't know if anyone is going to be able to answer compatibility between model years. no one has performed such an alteration to my knowledge.

 

Unfortunately Toyota changed the wiring for the radios starting in 2020 so a newer unit will not plug into an earlier truck. I did read on here where somebody found a company that will make you an adapter to make it work.
Amazon now sells a factory encoder that allows you Apple CarPlay or android on your factory unit, appears plug and play.

 

I bought a carplay/android auto thingy for my non JBL head unit. It has worked very well over the last few months. Much less expensive that a new head unit. Make sure you check your head unit model.

https://cartrimhome.com/index.php?route=product/search&search=TYCARPLAY

 

It’s still working without issues? It’s a good solution for me to not remove the oem radio and mess with a new HU and spent a lot of money

 

Yes, it works well. It is necessary to take out the OEM head unit to connect cables from this unit. Not bad to do at all. Took me less than an hour to do it.

 

How is the resolution with this unit? I've read that since the Entune 2.0 units weren't expected to be utilizing Carplay that it's pretty lousy but that might have been a different dongle.

 

IMO, forget about Toyota OEM head units completely.

JOYING makes an extremely popular and well-regarded series of aftermarket head units which are pretty much drop-in replacements for Tacomas. I installed one 6 months ago and have no complaints, other than that I haven't yet gotten the full set of steering wheel controls to operate.

My JOYING unit has Apple CarPlay that works fine, I expect that all the current JOYING units have the same but of course check the specs carefully before buying.

See this long and popular thread about JOYING units:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/2nd-gen-joying-head-unit-thread.706997/

 

Resolution is the weak point. Certainly able to see read Waze, Spotify, etc, without any problems. But definitely doesn't approach HD. All-in-all, I would buy it again.

 

I have the CARabc one from Amazon, and the res is low but acceptable to me. Works as real CarPlay otherwise:

 

I got the AutoABC version and installed last saturday. It's the cheapest version of these at $150. I use android auto. The resolution is a bit poor but that's a screen resolution thing and works through the Aux input. It works as well as can be expected for something grafted onto your headunit. There are some gotchas, since it uses the Aux input, you can't listen to any source than whatever is on your phone. It wasn't immediately clear how to exit this and get back to my original headunit but it's simple enough (pressing the power button or using the steering wheel controls to change source). Audio playback sounds a bit flat or compressed relative to my other inputs. Otherwise it was fairly cheap and works as advertised.

If any of the other units that look identical happen to work differently, say something.