Ok .... here's the story (which is long cause it is a slow day at work today)
Got the '06 unit. I did a quick visual inspection to check for size and fit, and the casing looked exactly the same size as the 05 unit. So --- I proceed to rip the dash apart. I was surprise at how quickly and easily everything comes apart in this car. About 10 minutes later I was pulling out my old headunit. This is where I ran into my first problem. The screws that hold the mounting brackets onto the side of the headunit were on so tight that my screwdriver was just strippin the heck outta them. So, the next logical step was to go inside and get a 7mm metric socket out of my toolbox and get them off the easy way. Of course --- the only socket missing from my set was the 7mm....
So --- quick trip to Home Depot and Taco Bell and I am back to work. It is getting late and I am losing light .... so, I am in a little bit of a hurry now. When I am in a hurry, bad things happen. So --- I go to take the tie straps off of the socket packaging with my trusty pocket knife and end up putting the knife through the meaty part below my thumb. After laughing at myself for a few minutes, I throw some papertowel around my hand and proceed to do the rest of this job one handed. It added a surprising degree of difficulty to the whole endeavour.
Anyhow --- I get the mounting brackets switched over and toss the unit in. Turned it on ... radio works, so I figure I am good to go. I put the entire dash back together and decide to load some CDs. Well --- when I go to push the load button, nothing happens. So -- I start messing around with the unit and I hear the disc changer moving around ... but nothing is happening. Finally, the unit just shuts off. So --- now I am figuring that not only am I coming out of this with a stabbed hand ... I also have a broken CD changer.
Anyhow --- I pull the dash apart again (one handed takes twice as long ....). I plug my old changer back in to make sure it wasn't just a wire or something that had some loose in the harnesses. The old one still works ... so, that isn't the problem. I put the new one in again and now I am getting "ERROR 3". I can only assume now that my CD changer did not survive shipping and I am S.O.L.
Well --- ERROR 3 just means that the changer is jammed. Surprisingly, these head units are very easy to get inside of. If you remove the top two screws on each side, you can remove the top plate. Here are some pics :
THE YELLOW ARROWS SHOW THE LOCATIONS OF THE SCREWS THAT NEED TO BE REMOVED. THIS NEEDS TO BE DONE ON BOTH SIDES OF THE UNIT. (The screws were already removed in this picture).
GIVE THE BACK OF THE TOP PLATE A LITTLE TUG AND IT WILL UNLATCH. PULL UP AND THEN TOWARDS THE BACK OF THE UNIT.
Ok --- So, in my case there were actually two things causing the ERROR3. The first was the fact that the previous owner left two jammed CDs inside of the thing. One disc was in slot 3 and the other disc was jammed in between slots 2 and 1. This in turn cause the second problem --- the laser that moves between the discs also got jammed when trying to get around the jammed disc.
Removing the jammed disc wasn't too bad. I brought the unit back out to the car and plugged it in with the cover off. I held down the eject button while pushing on the jammed disc and it managed to jump back into place and eject without a problem. Once the disc was ejected, I was able to move the laser back into place. Its hard to illustrate this with a picture... but I will do my best.
THE YELLOW ARROW IS POINTING TO THE LOCATION OF THE LASER ARM. THIS WILL SOMETIMES GET STUCK WHEN TRYING TO RETURN TO ITS DOCKING POINT. WITH THE UNIT TURNED ON, I APPLIED PRESSURE TO THE LASER IN A DOWNWARD MOTION AND THIS ALLOWED IT TO JUMP BACK INTO PLACE.
So --- unit is working now. Put the dash back together and it looks pretty good. It doesn't fit exactly like the '05 unit did. It looks slightly recessed and there is a very very small gap at the bottom. Here are some pics ....
As you can see --- when you get up on it, you can see a little gap. It is actually a lot more noticable from the pictures than it is when you are looking at it from a driving position in the vehicle.
Some things I noticed about the 06 : The 06 model does not have the RDS (radio data service) or the TRAF button. Also --- the unit is very slighly sluggish. By this, I mean that changing tracks takes longer and the steeringwheel controls seem slower to respond. There is something on the menu that says "RSE LOCK" which has an "on" and "off" setting. I have yet to try it, but I am hoping this means that you can lock the "rear seat entertainment" console so that my idiot friends don't screw with the remove when riding in the back seat.
Things to do : I now need to figure out how to add the "aux" connector into this thing so I can plug in my IPod. I am going to see if I can get the parts from Toyota this week and install the aux plug. Also --- I am considering added the Toyota satelite system when it becomes available.