New Maestro Radio Solution

[live_discover]

Question. I'm new to this radio thing. When I pull up the Scosche TA2106B Dash Kit it shows the full middle radio piece in silver. Since I have a trail mine is obviously black. Now my question is, it it actually the full replacement piece or just the inner middle part that you receive to hold in the actual radio?

 

[Superjet]

Fabulous! Thanks.

It looks like iDataLink has released a couple of new products to take the place of the Metra parts in your original shopping list.

iDataLink UTO2 USB connector (like the Metra AX-TOYUSB-2). I assume there's no difference in the parts as they simply conduct electricity from one place to another.

iDataLink STO2 has connectors to go from the aftermarket stereo to the factory GPS antenna and the satellite (XM) antenna. I assume:

1. I won't need to use the GPS that comes with the Kenwood because I can tap into the existing factory antenna.
2. I won't need to run an external satellite antenna because I'll tap into the factory one (I will need to purchase an XM tuner, though).
3. I will still need the Metra 40-LX11 because it looks like it will go from Kenwood to factory AM/FM antenna (it doesn't look like the STO2 connects to the factory AM/FM antenna). If anyone can confirm these assumptions, that would be great.

I'm going to pull the trigger and buy (from Crutchfield) today. My shopping list will be: Kenwood DNX893S, iDataLink Maestro RR, TO2 wiring harness, STO2 satellite/GPS antennae connectors, Metra 40-LX11 AM/FM connector, Metra AX-TOYUSB-2 usb connector, SiriusXM SVX300V1 tuner, Scosche dash kit.

My hope is that I will retain GPS-based navigation for those times I'm out of cell range, XM radio, AM/FM radio, steering wheel buttons, and backup camera. I'm hoping to add CarPlay and the cool Maestro gauges, especially tire pressure. From what I've read, I will lose the compass heading that appears in in the info screen between the speedometer and tachometer, which is a bit of a bummer.

Here goes nothing!

Yup, you loose the compass in the MID in the instrument cluster when the OEM nav is removed. I got over it.

AM/FM antenna adaptor definetly still need.

That radio also has a pretty big firmware update.
Firmware Updates | Car Electronics | Kenwood

 

[Superjet]

Question. I'm new to this radio thing. When I pull up the Scosche TA2106B Dash Kit it shows the full middle radio piece in silver. Since I have a trail mine is obviously black. Now my question is, it it actually the full replacement piece or just the inner middle part that you receive to hold in the actual radio?

The kit is just the center piece, and the radio mounts to it with some plastic brackets. What you see in the pictures is what you get.

Getting the vents out of the OEM radio is a little tedious and then moving them to the new dash piece, need a lot of patience.

There are a few posts here about Trail owners bringing their kit into a body shop to get sprayed.

 

[GearJunkie88]

2 Dash Kits

Question. I'm new to this radio thing. When I pull up the Scosche TA2106B Dash Kit it shows the full middle radio piece in silver. Since I have a trail mine is obviously black. Now my question is, it it actually the full replacement piece or just the inner middle part that you receive to hold in the actual radio?

Apparently, there are 2 dash kits on the market. One made by Metra, the other by Scosche. See this page:
http://www.toyota-4runner.org/5th-gen-t4rs/61082-aftermarket-stereo-21.html

That thread is pretty long, but there's lots of good stuff in there. Including painting the kit black. See this page:
http://www.toyota-4runner.org/5th-gen-t4rs/61082-aftermarket-stereo-10.html

It looks like some folks have used Krylon Fusion black with satin clear over it. Krylon Fusion is made to stick to plastic. I have used in the past on other, non-vehicle-related things and it sticks very well. There were other posts in that long thread that talk about other painting options as well.

 

[live_discover]

Apparently, there are 2 dash kits on the market. One made by Metra, the other by Scosche. See this page:
http://www.toyota-4runner.org/5th-gen-t4rs/61082-aftermarket-stereo-21.html

That thread is pretty long, but there's lots of good stuff in there. Including painting the kit black. See this page:
http://www.toyota-4runner.org/5th-gen-t4rs/61082-aftermarket-stereo-10.html

It looks like some folks have used Krylon Fusion black with satin clear over it. Krylon Fusion is made to stick to plastic. I have used in the past on other, non-vehicle-related things and it sticks very well. There were other posts in that long thread that talk about other painting options as well.

Hmm that sucks. Guess I will never be replacing my head unit. My trail has a sparkly black trim. So unless i paint all my trim they headunit trim will never match.

 

[GearJunkie88]

Metra AX-TOYUSB to retain OEM USB plug (2010 - 2013 is different)
AXXESS 4-Pin OE USB Retention Adapter for Select 2012-2013 Toyota Vehicles AX-TOYUSB - Best Buy


Metra 40-LX11 antenna adapter
Metra Antenna Adapter for Most 2009 and Later Lexus Vehicles Black 40-LX11 - Best Buy

I just installed a Kenwood DDX9903s - no nav, yes CarPlay. I also installed the Maestro RR and an XM Tuner (model 300v2). I have a 2016 SR5 Premium that had Entune Premium with nav.

A couple of notes to anyone with a similar configuration:

1. The Metra AX-TOYUSB-2 adapter used to connect the factory USB port in the center dash area to the aftermarket head unit does not fit the wiring configuration in my vehicle. First, it is not intuitive where this thing is supposed to connect. I thought it should connect directly to the back of the USB port. Nope! It actually connects to the other end of that cable. My google machine found posts on here that said the other end of this cable is behind the glove box and it is a square, brown plug. So, I pulled out the dash. No brown plug there. With the dash out I was able to follow the cable to the end. It is actually a gray, square plug that plugs directly into the back of the stereo. Also, this metra connector doesn't fit that plug. Instead, you need the PAC USB-TY1. Luckily, this adapter is included in the Maestro TO2 wiring harness kit. I could have saved about 2 hours had I known this.

2. The Metra 40-LX11 adapter used to connect the Toyota proprietary antenna plug to the aftermarket stereo has a seemingly extraneous blue wire on it. There are no instructions. I didn't connect it. I could only get about 4 radio stations. The google machine told me this blue wire is for a powered antenna. Well, I don't have an antenna that goes up and down by electricity, so I shouldn't need to connect this wire, right? Wrong! Apparently, powered antenna has something to do with signal strength. Connect the blue wire to +12v. The Kenwood/Maestro wiring harnesses have a blue power antenna wire that I used. Now I get something like 1 billion radio stations.

3. I did not use the GPS antenna that came with the Kenwood unit. I used a connector that came with the Maestro ACC-SAT-TO2. This allows you to use the factory GPS antenna with the Kenwood.

4. I did not use the XM antenna that came with the 300v2. I used an adapter included with the kit mentioned in #3 that allowed me to use the existing shark fin antenna. This saved me from having to run wires for a new antenna install.

5. When I got everything running, the Maestro was reporting tire pressure as N/A. After driving around for about 30 minutes, the tire pressure and temperature readings appeared. So, I didn't need to spend a lot of time googling why I wasn't getting the readings. Unfortunately, I did spend time googling that.

Impressions: install took me about 6 hours. 1 hour to do all the soldering and 2 hours to install everything correctly. Unfortunately, there was an additional 3 hours of trying to figure out how to connect that USB plug to my vehicle (wrong plug for my wiring configuration) and pulling the whole thing back apart to connect that stupid blue wire.

I love the new features the Maestro gives. Tire pressure, gauges, ability to change things like rear wiper delay when on intermittent, etc. The Kenwood sounds excellent. So much better than the stock stereo, which I thought sounded pretty good. I lost the compass heading in the display between the speedometer and tachometer, but the Kenwood has a compass that displays on the home page. This Kenwood doesn't have nav, but the GPS on the unit is used for compass heading and time sync. I will probably miss having the Entune lady (I called her Marge) do things for me like change source from Bluetooth to XM. But I will love having CarPlay and Siri understands me better than Marge did. I won't miss the Entune unit rebooting itself 3 times during my 10 minute commute to work. I may miss the on-board nav. But I have an external Garmin GPS that gets lifetime free map updates that I can use in times where I don't have cell signal or when I can't realistically run GPS over cell for a really long trip.

 

[Superjet]

I just installed a Kenwood DDX9903s - no nav, yes CarPlay. I also installed the Maestro RR and an XM Tuner (model 300v2). I have a 2016 SR5 Premium that had Entune Premium with nav.

A couple of notes to anyone with a similar configuration:

1. The Metra AX-TOYUSB-2 adapter used to connect the factory USB port in the center dash area to the aftermarket head unit does not fit the wiring configuration in my vehicle. First, it is not intuitive where this thing is supposed to connect. I thought it should connect directly to the back of the USB port. Nope! It actually connects to the other end of that cable. My google machine found posts on here that said the other end of this cable is behind the glove box and it is a square, brown plug. So, I pulled out the dash. No brown plug there. With the dash out I was able to follow the cable to the end. It is actually a gray, square plug that plugs directly into the back of the stereo. Also, this metra connector doesn't fit that plug. Instead, you need the PAC USB-TY1. Luckily, this adapter is included in the Maestro TO2 wiring harness kit. I could have saved about 2 hours had I known this.

2014 - 2016 Use AX-TOYTUSB and it plugs in at the radio location
2010 - 2013 use AX-TOYUSB-2 and the plug is at the multimedia module behind glove box


2. The Metra 40-LX11 adapter used to connect the Toyota proprietary antenna plug to the aftermarket stereo has a seemingly extraneous blue wire on it. There are no instructions. I didn't connect it. I could only get about 4 radio stations. The google machine told me this blue wire is for a powered antenna. Well, I don't have an antenna that goes up and down by electricity, so I shouldn't need to connect this wire, right? Wrong! Apparently, powered antenna has something to do with signal strength. Connect the blue wire to +12v. The Kenwood/Maestro wiring harnesses have a blue power antenna wire that I used. Now I get something like 1 billion radio stations.

The antenna adapter has a turn on wire to power up the amplified antenna portion

.

Good to hear you got it all working

 

[GearJunkie88]

Good to hear you got it all working

Thank you for your initial write-up and answers to all my questions. It was very helpful.

I really like the fact that my reverse camera now shows lines that curve when I'm turning the steering wheel. That was a nice surprise.

 

[4Rager]

I may miss the on-board nav. But I have an external Garmin GPS that gets lifetime free map updates that I can use in times where I don't have cell signal or when I can't realistically run GPS over cell for a really long trip.

Thanks for all the troubleshooting with the adapters and what not. That will no doubt prove helpful when I finally get around to this.

Does anyone know if Apple Maps has an "offline mode"? The reason I ask is because even if you're out of cell range, your phone gps will still work. The reason you can't see anything is because typically it's using your data connection to download the map tiles nearby (so you don't have to have maps of the entire US on your phone's physical storage). When I know I'm going to be out of cell range I have the GaiaGPS app, which allows you to download map sections as large as you want. Since the map is permanently on your phone, all the GPS needs to do is plot your position on the map, and it does it with surprising accuracy. The best part is you can put your phone on standby and leave it in the glovebox and it will still track you.

Here's an example. This total trip was about 35mi.

We found this mini motocross track (we were in a RZR). You can even see the different lines we took each lap.

 

[GearJunkie88]

Thanks for all the troubleshooting with the adapters and what not. That will no doubt prove helpful when I finally get around to this.

Does anyone know if Apple Maps has an "offline mode"? The reason I ask is because even if you're out of cell range, your phone gps will still work. The reason you can't see anything is because typically it's using your data connection to download the map tiles nearby (so you don't have to have maps of the entire US on your phone's physical storage). When I know I'm going to be out of cell range I have the GaiaGPS app, which allows you to download map sections as large as you want. Since the map is permanently on your phone, all the GPS needs to do is plot your position on the map, and it does it with surprising accuracy. The best part is you can put your phone on standby and leave it in the glovebox and it will still track you.

Apple maps does not have offline mode. Google maps does. There's a Garmin iPhone app that has offline maps... it costs $40 I think.

 

[Ricomondo]

Pulled the trigger last night and ordered the Kenwood DNX693S and all the assorted goodies mentioned in the post!

I'll post up when it's in, hopefully everything works correctly!

** I'll have a 2016 Entune Premium radio for sale w/GPS/NAV/Xm and Navigation over ride module (posted in the FS section)

 

[ScottR]

I just installed a Kenwood DDX9903s - no nav, yes CarPlay. I also installed the Maestro RR and an XM Tuner (model 300v2). I have a 2016 SR5 Premium that had Entune Premium with nav.

A couple of notes to anyone with a similar configuration:

1. The Metra AX-TOYUSB-2 adapter used to connect the factory USB port in the center dash area to the aftermarket head unit does not fit the wiring configuration in my vehicle. First, it is not intuitive where this thing is supposed to connect. I thought it should connect directly to the back of the USB port. Nope! It actually connects to the other end of that cable. My google machine found posts on here that said the other end of this cable is behind the glove box and it is a square, brown plug. So, I pulled out the dash. No brown plug there. With the dash out I was able to follow the cable to the end. It is actually a gray, square plug that plugs directly into the back of the stereo. Also, this metra connector doesn't fit that plug. Instead, you need the PAC USB-TY1. Luckily, this adapter is included in the Maestro TO2 wiring harness kit. I could have saved about 2 hours had I known this.

2. The Metra 40-LX11 adapter used to connect the Toyota proprietary antenna plug to the aftermarket stereo has a seemingly extraneous blue wire on it. There are no instructions. I didn't connect it. I could only get about 4 radio stations. The google machine told me this blue wire is for a powered antenna. Well, I don't have an antenna that goes up and down by electricity, so I shouldn't need to connect this wire, right? Wrong! Apparently, powered antenna has something to do with signal strength. Connect the blue wire to +12v. The Kenwood/Maestro wiring harnesses have a blue power antenna wire that I used. Now I get something like 1 billion radio stations.

3. I did not use the GPS antenna that came with the Kenwood unit. I used a connector that came with the Maestro ACC-SAT-TO2. This allows you to use the factory GPS antenna with the Kenwood.

4. I did not use the XM antenna that came with the 300v2. I used an adapter included with the kit mentioned in #3 that allowed me to use the existing shark fin antenna. This saved me from having to run wires for a new antenna install.

5. When I got everything running, the Maestro was reporting tire pressure as N/A. After driving around for about 30 minutes, the tire pressure and temperature readings appeared. So, I didn't need to spend a lot of time googling why I wasn't getting the readings. Unfortunately, I did spend time googling that.

Impressions: install took me about 6 hours. 1 hour to do all the soldering and 2 hours to install everything correctly. Unfortunately, there was an additional 3 hours of trying to figure out how to connect that USB plug to my vehicle (wrong plug for my wiring configuration) and pulling the whole thing back apart to connect that stupid blue wire.

I love the new features the Maestro gives. Tire pressure, gauges, ability to change things like rear wiper delay when on intermittent, etc. The Kenwood sounds excellent. So much better than the stock stereo, which I thought sounded pretty good. I lost the compass heading in the display between the speedometer and tachometer, but the Kenwood has a compass that displays on the home page. This Kenwood doesn't have nav, but the GPS on the unit is used for compass heading and time sync. I will probably miss having the Entune lady (I called her Marge) do things for me like change source from Bluetooth to XM. But I will love having CarPlay and Siri understands me better than Marge did. I won't miss the Entune unit rebooting itself 3 times during my 10 minute commute to work. I may miss the on-board nav. But I have an external Garmin GPS that gets lifetime free map updates that I can use in times where I don't have cell signal or when I can't realistically run GPS over cell for a really long trip.

This is great info, thanks for the rundown as I'm getting ready to swap out my head unit for an aftermarket Pioneer NEX (including the iMaestro datalink). Now all that is left to do is have the panel painted to match my TEP black trim and swap it all out.

 

[Ricomondo]

Radio shop can't get my rig in for the radio/Maestro install until the 27th...uugh.

 

[Gclark949]

[MENTION=92436]GearJunkie[/MENTION]
how did you install the microphone? I wish these AM units would just integrate to the OEM mic. On my WRX, the AM head unit mic was pretty bad. People have told me the sound quality is excellent on this 4R OEM mic setup when I am talking on the phone and I really want to maintain that functionality.

Thanks for sharing your experience. This is very helpful information.:heh:

 

[GearJunkie88]

I ran the Kenwood mic wire from the head unit under the steering wheel, up the drivers side pillar, under the headliner, to the center overhead console. The microphone clips right next to the overhead console. The Kenwood mic is very good.

 

[southman_70]

I ran the Kenwood mic wire from the head unit under the steering wheel, up the drivers side pillar, under the headliner, to the center overhead console. The microphone clips right next to the overhead console. The Kenwood mic is very good.

That is where they installed my Pioneer Mic plus the head unit also has a builtin mic.

 

[swva]

Thanks to [MENTION=131466]Superjet[/MENTION] and [MENTION=147757]GearJunkie88[/MENTION] for all the information you all have supplied in this thread. This can be a very useful upgrade to the 4Runner.
I have some questions about the custom gauges. Are there many more gauges than what's listed in the picture in the first post? Are there gauges for oil temperature and transmission temperature? Does it show real time fuel mileage as well?
I really like how the tire pressure can be shown at all 4 wheels and I thought I read it can monitor tire temperature as well. That would be great information to have at your fingertips.

 

[GearJunkie88]

Maestro gauges and other extras

Here's a list of gauges that Maestro provides:
Acceleration
Accelerator pedal position
Air fuel ratio
Average fuel economy
Battery voltage
Engine oil temp
Exhaust gas temp
External air temp
Fuel pressure
Intake manifold
Mass air flow
Throttle plate position
Timing advance
Torque
Transmission fluid temp
Vehicle speed
Distance to empty
Boost vacuum
Engine coolant temp
RPM
Tire pressure
Tire temp
Open doors

There is a "vehicle info" page that shows pressure and temp of all 4 tires, battery voltage, and doors open/closed.

There is a "gauges" screen that lets you show 5 gauges of your choosing. You can have 2 gauges subpages - total of 10 gauges.

Maestro adds lines to the backup camera that shows you the projected path of the vehicle depending on your steering wheel position. As you turn the steering wheel, the lines curve along various arcs. Also, the Kenwood head unit allows me to view the rear view camera even when I'm not in reverse.

 

[swva]

Thanks for that info. This sounds great. I had no intention of changing my head unit out when I bought my 4Runner but I'm just about ready to do this upgrade after reading all of this.
When I had my Subaru I used Appradio Unchained with my rooted Android phone but this to me is even a step above that with all the program-ability with Maestro.
How are you liking the 9903s? I am trying to decide between it and the 9703s. It looks like it is basically choosing between resistive or capacitive touch screens.

 

[GearJunkie88]

How are you liking the 9903s? I am trying to decide between it and the 9703s. It looks like it is basically choosing between resistive or capacitive touch screens.

I like the 9903 very much. Primary differences between 9903 and 9703: more powerful pre-amp, 1 extra USB input, longer warranty, "better" screen. About the screen: I had a Kenwood 9902s in my old 4runner. It had the resistive screen. The capacitive screen on the 9903 is very crisp and responsive, more so than the resistive screen. The capacitive screen can be difficult/impossible to see when the following conditions are met: sunroof open + sun directly overhead (e.g., noon) + wearing polarized sunglasses = screen appears to be off (can't see anything at all on the screen). I don't use the extra USB port. I'm not sure I would miss the extra power of the pre-amp. I could live without the capacitive screen, but it's fine despite the weakness listed above. For me, I'm not sure if the extra $100 for the 9903 is justified.