@Neverbetter I knew I should have taken a pic of the camera wiring harness lol! I forgot to take a pic due to the surprise that it worked. Honestly, I think I got pretty lucky. I think there are only 3 or 4 of the wires that actually do anything. So this weekend I'll pull it out and take a pic and post it in this thread.

I had a T9 headunit from Cartrimhome with a giant screen, and Android Auto was gorgeous in use on it. So going back to the stock screen with lower resolution has been the biggest adjustment. The screen really sucks! Overall the beat sonic unit is solid, and I haven't had any issues with it so far. It's really nice having that stock look again, plus, the radio in the stock HU is sooooo much better than the T9.

Would I do it again? Well, I only did the retrofit since my T9 stopped working. Honestly, I'm very tempted to try and retrofit a stock HU from a 20-21 with that big nice screen. Even the baseline non-nav version has CarPlay/AA compatibility, which is all I need. I'm looking around for a salvage one for cheap.

If you can get this working, you'll be a national hero.

Following this thread with great interest.

@Neverbetter Here is are pics of the backup camera harness that I made from the Axxess connectors. In reference to the difference between the 24 versus 16 wires, again, I matched all the wires by color. On the 24 pin male end connector there were several colored wires that I taped off because they had no matching wires on the 16 pin female connector, and are in the second pic below. From reading some other posts about the backup camera harness, I think there are only like three or four actual wires that do anything. Again, I feel like I got lucky.

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I did it! I found a salvage 2020 non-JBL nav head unit and I have successfully retrofitted it into my 2012 TE!

The 2020 HU was not cheap, even for one from a salvage vehicle it still ran $700, and I feel like I still got it for way cheaper than these can be found for.

If you look at the connectors on the 2020 Entune 3.0 HU versus the 2014-2019 Entune 2.0 HU, nearly all are different. So I found this thread on a Tacoma forum where a few folks had retrofitted an Entune 3.0 HU into older models: New 2020 head unit. Buying? | Page 18 | Tacoma World

After some research I determined that all Entune 3.0 HU's share the same connectors, 4Runner included. Obviously the key to it working was getting a harness that would work. Long story short, I contacted the amazing folks at AutoHarnessHouse|Plug and Play Car Wiring and Audio Gear and they were able to create a custom harness that would allow plug-in-play from the Entune 2.0 connectors into Entune 3.0 connectors. And I'm pleased to say it works perfectly! The harness set me back $190. This includes a connector that enables the navigation to work on the newer unit. If you don't need nav on the HU, then the harness only costs $135.

- Radio: The only connector that required no retrofit.
- GPS: I was able to re-use the gps unit that mentioned in my earlier posts
- Backup camera: See my earlier posts, but I had to create a custom harness from splicing together two Axxess harnesses
- USB: Entune 3.0 HU's use a new connector... Purchased this for $21: Metra Online
- XM Radio: My 2012 apparently has a different XM radio unit than the 2014 and up models, so the adapter that I tried didn't work in either the Entune 3.0 or 2.0 HU's. It might work for folks with 2014+ models. Which is fine, I don't use XM radio
- Entune Apps: Based on people in the Tacoma forum and the message I see on the Entune 3.0 HU, the apps seem like they will work if I had the entune app on my phone.

The install was pretty easy overall. After the initial start, it took like 10 minutes for GPS to reset. It also took about 10-15 minutes for bluetooth to start working. Thankfully, the backup camera works fine using my custom harness too. Android Auto worked immediately when I connected my phone via usb.

All in all, I love the 2020 Entune 3.0 HU. The 8" screen is awesome. After having the T9 and 2017 Entune 2.0 HU, the 2020 HU seems to be the best. The sound quality is on par with the T9. I don't regret going to all of this trouble with how good it turned out. I've also gotta say, the new HU looks so good in my vehicle.

If anyone wants to purchase my Beat Sonic unit that allows CarPlay/Android Auto in the 2014-2019 HU's, send me a message. I've also got a 2017 Entune 2.0 HU if anyone wants it (which I will sell for extremely cheap).

One final caveat: This only works for non-JBL head units. If you have a JBL sound system, you are unfortunately SOL.

One last thing, my apologies to the OP of this thread - I am still a junior member on this forum so I am unable to create new threads. Sorry if I hijacked your thread.

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Amazing. How does CarPlay work on the new unit?

Awesome. I want to upgraded the head in my 2016 SR5.

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Pending you get the plug in play harness from autoharnesshouse.com, yours being a 2016 model it should be way easier for you to upgrade to the new Entune 3.0 HU. I had to jump through a few extra hoops because I have 2012. For one, you won't have to make a custom adapter harness for the backup camera. Also, the GPS and XM radio connectors should work on the Entune 3.0 HU.

Thanks. Is there an "ideal" year head unit to use?

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For a retrofit I think the ideal situation would be to have a 2014-2019 non-JBL Entune 2.0 head unit and use the harness from autoharnesshouse.com for plug and play connection to a 2020-2021 non-JBL Entune 3.0 head unit.

**I forgot to add, and this is important, the harness from autoharnesshouse.com only works for non-JBL head units.

Navigation is completely optional here. If your existing head unit has navigation then buy a newer 2020-2021 head unit with navigation. This will also require an additional harness which autoharnesshouse.com can provide (I purchased this for my vehicle). If your existing head unit does not have navigation then buy a newer 2020-2021 head unit without navigation. Remember, CarPlay and Android Auto both provide navigation, so it may not be a top priority to have it in the head unit.

@Chadical , I really appreciate you sharing all the pictures. I finished making the adapter harness cable today. After matching all the wires from the 16 pin adapter (2012) to the 24 pin (2014-2019) I had one brown wire with black stripes left from the 16 pin which I ended up not using -1st picture- I also connected the black and yellow power wires. I had few wires left unused from the 24 pin adapter. I also ended up buying a GPS antenna from Amazon since the one from my 2012 had a different adapter. Here's a list of what I bought

Amazon.com: DHT Electronics External GPS Antenna with SMB Female for Verizon Samsung 3G Network Extender : Electronics

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/metra-h...?skuId=4630709

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/metra-h...?skuId=4630713

The benefit of buying this brand of wire harnesses is that you could match the wires based on colors without going back to any diagrams but like you said it's probably only a couple of wires that actually do anything since it's just a backup camera!
Everything worked as expected in the 2016 HU I bought. The GPS antenna picked up the signal with seconds!

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Awesome! I'm glad it worked for you too. Seems like we have the only two documented examples of making this work on the internet at this point. I definitely had my doubts when splicing the harnesses. Your HU looks great btw.

Awesome write up!! I'm intrigued

update on use of it ? Any issues, pros/cons?

My update is that it continues to be awesome. Other than having to spend some time tweaking the sound to get it just right, no issues and no cons. I wish everyone could experience this in their pre-2020 models.