The story begins with getting a Moto T305 back in November to deal with the occasional phone call while driving. Wonderful little unit, especially for $25ish delivered at the time. December rolled around and I decided to give out a few T305s as gifts. Amazon was backordered on the T305, but while seeking another vendor, I also found the Motorola T605 hardwired kit for only $50. A little gift for me to go along with the Parrot CK3000 I got for the wife's CR-V, but that's a thread for a different forum.

I finally got around to installing it this past weekend. Took a few pictures along the way for the benefit of anyone else who might want to upgrade a 4th gen without bluetooth. Many thanks to Mr. Castulucci and J.A. for their writeups on how to remove the dash, console, and A-pillar trim. I picked up the wiring schematics from TIS a few years ago when I purchased a one day pass...searching T4R or the web will also turn up similar information for the necessary wires to tap. With my research out of the way, time to "just do it".

A couple of "before" shots. This is a JBL Synthesis 10 speaker system


All of the parts laid out. Ended up not using some of this, but wanted to be prepared.


Everything that has to be removed and what it looks like naked. There's practically a roll cage inside the dash. I had a hard time finding a place to securely mount the brain box, despite it being not much larger than a deck of cards. As a side note, I also couldn't find a suitable place to mount a 12v outlet below the hazard switch or along the right side of the floor console...looking for somewhere more convenient for the GPS mount than the stock power point.


continued in part 2...hit the image per post limit.

...where were we?...

Finally ended up putting it here, under the console switches and between the gear shift and the rear seat A/C duct. It's just a friction fit with some of the loop side of velcro stuck to the corners and bottom to pad against noise from plastic against plastic. Moto's install directions specify one of the sides as the "mounting" surface so I put that side towards the passenger in case it's related to where the antenna is located. The Parrot brain is at least 30% bigger...not sure what I would have done with one of those.


Unlike Parrot, there's not a clear supplier of plug-n-play harnesses for the Motorola units. The one or two I did find that claimed to work with the JBL & Moto were also kind of pricey (2x the Parrot for our Honda) and still left it up to the installer to solve the caller's voice problem. The "problem" is the JBL's amp located in the cargo bay. The Parrots interrupt the speaker level outputs at the back of a head unit via relays...switching the brain's onboard amp output in place of the head's. The Moto doesn't include a relay, expecting you to use either the included external speaker or a line level phone input on your head if you're lucky enough to have one. However, you can also use the speaker level output to drive an existing system speaker if you supply your own relay, which is what I did. It's just an inexpensive DPDT relay from Radio Shack.

Here you can see the taps (red for 18-22awg) for constant/switched power, ground, and mute (pin7). Bring a model knife, Toyota wraps the wire loom in both foam and tape for noise prevention! When the T605 grounds its mute line, the relay switches the center dash speaker from the JBL amp to the T605's amp and the head unit is muted. The relay gets tucked into the GPS antenna shelf behind the head and is completely silent once the dash is put back together. It's both quieter and faster than the relays used in our Parrot. BTW, the relay uses 3/16" quick connects, not the more readily available 1/4" size...I added some heat-shrink tubing for insulation.


Once all the wires are connected, run the mic and control pad and you're done. This would be a good time for testing before replacing the interior trim. I put the mic on the A-pillar (after this pic was taken), but there was probably enough spare cable to go to the sunglasses holder if you wanted (easy to splice in an extension if needed). I put the control pad below the tach to the left of the steering wheel and ran the cable into the gap around the column. Unlike the Parrot's pad, the T605 cable won't exit straight out the back and the connector is huge (6 pin) to provide for the audio control functions so drilling a through hole and still having enough surface to stick it to would be hard even if the cable exit point would cooperate.


Put it all back together and welcome to the world of hands free phone usage and hopefully, safer driving. I haven't put a lot of time on it yet to know how it handles various road noise conditions, but caller's voices sound really natural through the center speaker. I'm beginning to revise my opinion of the JBL speakers' quality a little based on their handling of human voices, especially compared to some other vehicles where I've heard bluetooth used. It's also nice having the radio mute automatically when a call comes in. While the T305 is perfectly functional for conversations, it wouldn't be hard to drown out its ringer if one were cranking the tunes a bit. The T605 has one functional annoyance, IMO. Pushing the green call button redials the last number called...you have to press and hold the green button for 2 seconds to trigger your phone's voice command, if it has it...bassackwards, if you ask me.

As an added bonus for portable music addicts. The T605 supports A2DP wireless music streaming and also provides a 3.5mm stereo input jack...you'll need an aux input adapter to connect it to the stock head unit. I was tempted, but in the end decided to skip the additional expense for now. Maybe I'll give myself one of the Grom Audio units next Christmas so I
can also have USB functionality. BTW, the phone and music sources can be two separate devices connected simultaneously to the T605, according to the manual.

-Brent

nice writeup. ill be interested in something like this in the next few months, its good to know that there are inexpensive options. thanks!

Now might be the time to act.

DISCLAIMER: I'm in no way affiliated with Tech4Less.

I ordered the T605 NIB from Tech4Less for $50 delivered. Just checked today and they're showing "open box" units for $30 and "scratch & dent" for $15. 98799P is Moto's SKU for the T605. Strangely, only the clip part that Tech4Less says is missing from the scratch&dent was included in mine. It's possible Moto changed the packaging at some point...my box is different from some photos I've seen.

Disclaimer: Did I mention I'm not affiliated with Tech4Less. They were an Amazon listed vendor at the time I ordered, but I ordered directly from them...think shipping was a tad cheaper that way. No hassles, quick shipping, but my experience is limited to pressing the "place order" button and opening the box. YMMV.

-Brent