Question abou component seaker replacement....

[shawn474]

I had been in a 4runner for about 5 years up and am now in a tundra. I have the entune non jbl…...I have been in touch with tacotunes and tech12volts, but seems to be some confusion regarding replacing the component speakers and am hoping one of you can give some insight. I am looking to replace the stock component speakers in the tundra while keeping the stock head unit (I cant afford to do head unit or amplifier but those will be upgraded down the road). It is my understanding that the tweeters are wired to the head unit and the woofers to the factory amplifier. The issue that I am grappling with is that almost every other auto manufacturer sends full signal to the woofers which then are sent to the tweeters. Apparently Toyota is opposite - they send full signal to the tweeters which then sends to the woofers. All of the aftermarket wiring harnesses are constructed to tap into factory woofer harness, then wire to the crossover input and then from the crossover outputs to the woofer and tweeter.

I spoke to a crutchfield tech this morning. He stated that in order to install components in the front doors / dash, you have to clip the dash tweeter wire and run it to the crossover that you mount to the door. From the crossover, you will run new ouput wires to the tweeter and woofer.

In the rear doors, he said you need to clip the signal wire before it splits to the woofer and tweeter. Extend that wire to the crossover input and then run from the crossover out to tweeter and woofer.

I realize an amp and aftermarket head unit would work great, but I am wondering if the lack of quality sound after speaker upgrade is because the wiring is different with the Toyotas.

Because of the way the signal is processed through the Toyota speakers, I wonder if you split the tweeter wire and run to the input of the crossover and then out to the woofer and tweeter if it would sound better.

I think that's the way I am going to try it. It stands to reason that this could be the cause of lack of sound quality coming from the speakers after swapping.

Does this sound correct? Or does anyone have any advice for me doing the install? I know I am now in a tundra on the 4runner forum but know that the systems are similar, if not identical. Thanks in advance.

 

[97BlackAckCL]

non-jbl doesn't have an amp, just the preamp in the headunit. Without an amp you can use the stock head unit, for the tweeters you don't need the crossover, but you would need a bass blocker for the tweeters. Another option is to get the Kicker Subaru tweeters as they are plug and play and have a stock crossover built in

 

[Narat_524]

I just went through this on my 4Runner, so I'll use it as the example. This may not apply directly to your Tundra, so bear with me.

Toyota's stock system doesn't sound great because A) the head unit is under-powered and has a bass roll-off curve to protect the speakers, and B) cheap crappy speakers. All said, it actually performs "well" considering what it's given to work with, but that's not saying much.

The 4Runner has a series-parallel connection for the front dash and door speakers, and a series connection for the rear door and rear hatch speakers (might be different for Tundra with no hatch). Toyota puts a small crossover/bass blocker in the dash tweeter connector, leaving the tweeter with the high frequencies, and sending this rest of the signal to the front door woofer.

The rear door and hatch speakers are in series (right rear door receives the signal first, and then the right rear hatch receives the signal, splitting the available power 50/50). This results in the rear door and hatch speakers being a bit quieter than the fronts.

So, the Crutchfield tech is correct. You want to intercept the full speaker signal before the factory front dash tweeter, and before any split for the rear doors. This will give your crossover the full signal to split between your component speakers. You can also tap the speaker wires behind the head unit and run new wires to your crossover, and then new wires from your crossover to your components. Metra and Scosche both make adapter harnesses. Might be a little easier than trying to finagle the short little tweeter harness in the dash.

Do not use the factory tweeter connector, since its crossover will interfere with your new component crossover.

Since you're sticking with the stock head unit, hopefully you chose sensitive and low-watt component speakers. That would help you gain some volume and punch with the stock output.

Narat

 

[shawn474]

I just went through this on my 4Runner, so I'll use it as the example. This may not apply directly to your Tundra, so bear with me.

Toyota's stock system doesn't sound great because A) the head unit is under-powered and has a bass roll-off curve to protect the speakers, and B) cheap crappy speakers. All said, it actually performs "well" considering what it's given to work with, but that's not saying much.

The 4Runner has a series-parallel connection for the front dash and door speakers, and a series connection for the rear door and rear hatch speakers (might be different for Tundra with no hatch). Toyota puts a small crossover/bass blocker in the dash tweeter connector, leaving the tweeter with the high frequencies, and sending this rest of the signal to the front door woofer.

The rear door and hatch speakers are in series (right rear door receives the signal first, and then the right rear hatch receives the signal, splitting the available power 50/50). This results in the rear door and hatch speakers being a bit quieter than the fronts.

So, the Crutchfield tech is correct. You want to intercept the full speaker signal before the factory front dash tweeter, and before any split for the rear doors. This will give your crossover the full signal to split between your component speakers. You can also tap the speaker wires behind the head unit and run new wires to your crossover, and then new wires from your crossover to your components. Metra and Scosche both make adapter harnesses. Might be a little easier than trying to finagle the short little tweeter harness in the dash.

Do not use the factory tweeter connector, since its crossover will interfere with your new component crossover.

Since you're sticking with the stock head unit, hopefully you chose sensitive and low-watt component speakers. That would help you gain some volume and punch with the stock output.

Narat

Thanks so much Narat.

Ok it sounds like the tundra and 4runner have the same wiring schematic then. I did choose sensitive and low watt components - the advisor was sure to state that this was a must. He really seemed to know his stuff.

I can easily intercept rear speaker wiring harness before it splits to the woofer. The I would run those wires to the input of the crossover. From the crossover I would then run wires to the tweeter and woofer. That sounds easy enough.

For the front speakers you said, "You can also tap the speaker wires behind the head unit and run new wires to your crossover, and then new wires from your crossover to your components." What wires would I tap there? I can tap and run through the dash and to the door for the crossover but what wires would I tap? I assume it be would front right positive and negative to passenger crossover and front left positive and negative to driver crossover? Just want to be sure before I start hacking up wires.....

Thanks again

 

[Narat_524]

Thanks so much Narat.

Ok it sounds like the tundra and 4runner have the same wiring schematic then. I did choose sensitive and low watt components - the advisor was sure to state that this was a must. He really seemed to know his stuff.

I can easily intercept rear speaker wiring harness before it splits to the woofer. The I would run those wires to the input of the crossover. From the crossover I would then run wires to the tweeter and woofer. That sounds easy enough.

For the front speakers you said, "You can also tap the speaker wires behind the head unit and run new wires to your crossover, and then new wires from your crossover to your components." What wires would I tap there? I can tap and run through the dash and to the door for the crossover but what wires would I tap? I assume it be would front right positive and negative to passenger crossover and front left positive and negative to driver crossover? Just want to be sure before I start hacking up wires.....

Thanks again

Tapping the speaker wires behind the head unit is only necessary if they're easier to get to there, rather than at the tweeter or door. The head unit has several connectors, but the biggest connector has the front speakers (from memory, white is left front, gray is right front) and then right next to it is a small 4 pin connector that has green and purple, which are your left and right rear speaker wires. The adapter harness would allow you to tap into these without cutting any factory wiring. You would simply route the speaker pos and neg wires from the head unit->adapter->crossover->speakers.

This is just an option, but tapping the speaker wires anywhere that is easily accessible for you is fine.

Narat

 

[shawn474]

Tapping the speaker wires behind the head unit is only necessary if they're easier to get to there, rather than at the tweeter or door. The head unit has several connectors, but the biggest connector has the front speakers (from memory, white is left front, gray is right front) and then right next to it is a small 4 pin connector that has green and purple, which are your left and right rear speaker wires. The adapter harness would allow you to tap into these without cutting any factory wiring. You would simply route the speaker pos and neg wires from the head unit->adapter->crossover->speakers.

This is just an option, but tapping the speaker wires anywhere that is easily accessible for you is fine.

Narat

Ok I installed the rear woofers and tweeters last night; best thing I can say is that sound is much crisper. Details and nuances of music are more defined if that makes sense. Doesn't necessarily go louder but they don't distort and the clarity makes it much more palatable. In this case, I used the provided wiring harness from crutchfield to tap into the woofer. O could not locate the wiring prior to being split.

I also installed the tweeters in the sail panel of the front doors (cut it myself). I will tap into the rear of the head unit and run new wires for the crossover input and out to woofer and tweeter from the crossover. I just need to allot more time for that; hopefully can get to it this weekend.