Questions about Kenwood HU upgrade...

R

RR90

New member
There's some great info about installs here - I've decided to upgrade mine (after driving this yota for 10yrs since new)! I have a '00 T4R SR5, I'm planning to replace the stock radio with the Kenwood 5140 myself. Before buying NEW and pulling the old one out, just wondering if you might have any suggestions for those who have done a similar upgrade??

1) Will I need a special wiring harness or will the Kenwood hookup seemlessly with the Toyota wiring (going to the speakers, amp etc..)

2)My radio antenna automatically extends with motor when the stock radio power is turned on - will I be able to keep that feature with the new 5140 HU??

3)Will I need custom trim pieces to close it off or will the 5140 HU fit good in the existing benzel?

4)Any websites or online diagrams to illustrate how to properly remove the benzel for the upgrade? (like where screws\snaps are located)

Any thoughts you can suggest would be greatly apprecitated!!
Thanks

RR90
'00 T4R 4WD SR5 AUTO / 180K
 
Register to hide this ad
1) Will I need a special wiring harness or will the Kenwood hookup seemlessly with the Toyota wiring (going to the speakers, amp etc..)

No, you will need to buy a wiring harness for it.

You will have have a harness adapter, one side plugs into the factory harness where the factroy radio was, and the other side plugs into the back of the Kenwood.

Your Kenwood will come with one side. You will need to find an install kit for a 2000 4runner. It will have the side that plugs into the factory harness.

You take both sides of you adapter and solder or crimp all the wires together to their correct colors/functions. Be carefull and make sure you have it all thought out. Some manufactures will use different colors for different things. For the most part they are the same though.

2)My radio antenna automatically extends with motor when the stock radio power is turned on - will I be able to keep that feature with the new 5140 HU??

Yes, when you make your adapter there will be one wire that says "ant", that wire will put +12 to the factory harness when you turn the radio on, thus extending the antenna.

3)Will I need custom trim pieces to close it off or will the 5140 HU fit good in the existing benzel?

Most likey no. The stock brakets on the sides of the stock radio will unscrew from the radio. The is a very good chance that a few of the holes will line up on the new radio. Use your stock radio brackets and (probably 4) screws to mount the Kenwood.

4)Any websites or online diagrams to illustrate how to properly remove the benzel for the upgrade? (like where screws\snaps are located)
Not really. Try searching but I doubt you will find anything. You just have to be carefull taking it apart the first time. It will be much easier later because you will know where everything is. I have never taken apart that dash but if there are plastic clips be carefull and dont be suprised if you break them. Local auto parts store should have an assortment of replacement clips that you can use if you break anything.

If you need any clarification just lmk.
I wil try to find an install kit right now hang on...
 
Ok I was right, you dont need a dash install kit just use the factory brakets.

But you do need to find a wiring install kit unless you want to cut up the factory harness to hard wire it. (I definetly do not reccomend this, although I have done it in the past)

I found this thread on yotatech that should help, yours will only be a small bit different because you have a Double DIN and a more complicated head unit.
http://yotatech.com/f127/aftermarket-stereo-installation-3rd-gen-4runner-75275/
 
That helps!

Hey Toylocost,
Thanks much for the info. That gives me a better idea of what I'm getting into. It's been a long time since I've done a car audio upgrade. Now after following the link you sent from yotatech, I'm all fired up to run out and buy the HU and try installing next week. After your post, I did some more searching and actually found another good thread from yotatech for an 02: http://yotatech.com/f2/kenwood-dnx5120-nav-system-installed-my-02-runnner-pics-177830/

The one you sent says it's for a 96 -97:
http://yotatech.com/f127/aftermarket...4runner-75275/

I'll have to also drop those guys some kudos for their posts. Both examples are great because they're almost identical to the dash layout on my '00 that I'll be working on. Overall it doesn't look to hard to do, but I'll reserve a whole day just in case. My main goal is to get the radio setup & likely add the XM tuner, but now I'm also considering the NAV Traffic FM transmitter (for live traffic updates) and possibly the rear view camera... more money & more time, but definately cool add-ons for the 5140!
 
Cool I'm glad I could help. If you need any help during install just ask.

And if you have to live without a radio for a couple days to do something right. Do it. Haha, I've made that mistake a couple times.
 
Almost ready for install

toylocost said:
Cool I'm glad I could help. If you need any help during install just ask.

And if you have to live without a radio for a couple days to do something right. Do it. Haha, I've made that mistake a couple times.
Click to expand...

toylocost said:
Cool I'm glad I could help. If you need any help during install just ask.

And if you have to live without a radio for a couple days to do something right. Do it. Haha, I've made that mistake a couple times.
Click to expand...

Thanks - I just might take you up on that. I have almost everything now: dnx5140, Sirius SCCI + adaptor, & KCA-IP301V ipod adapter - just waiting for the wiring harness, possibly in today's mail. I mapped out wher everyhing will be installed, did a ton more research to get further up to speed. I'll try to start with the Sirius install part tonight and the rest this weekend.

It sounds like the 5140 has a safety feature that locks the GPS so it can only be used while parked. I'd like to bypass that so that passangers can operate the GPS while vehicle is moving. I found some threads but they're a little vague, do you know how or where I might find more info on that specifically using the '00 T4R factory harness to the Kenwood 5140?
 
I just installed my Sony in my 2001 and it was pretty easy.

As posted earlier, this thread http://yotatech.com/f127/aftermarket-stereo-installation-3rd-gen-4runner-75275/ helped me the most.

Also, when you get the wiring harness for the 4Runner (Metra makes them..can get them at Best Buy) the wiring harness hooks to the harness that is going into the factory amp...so I just took the factory amp out too (b/c you won't be using it with an aftermarket).

Easy to install in a 4Runner...was kind of fun seeing behind the dash too.

In order to pull up the trim pieces, you will need to open the center console first and then work towards the dash.
 
Mt install went fairly smoothly...

My Kenwood HU install is done, & overall, was fairly simple to do.

Many thanks to you guys and other threads. I took pics also, so I might post a separate thread with my pics (plus all the links from others I used for reference) to maybe help somebody else as kind of a "best of" thread install info. There seemed to be a limited amout of Satellite install info available.

I didn't wire the "PRK SW", so DVD video only plays the audio track. No big deal since I won't use that part anyway, but it would be fun to have it operational somehow. The "PRK SW" was not an option on the harness I used, so I'm guessing it goes to the fuse block someplace. GPS works fine while moving, that was a main priority since I do a lot of traveling. The Sirius works great, very pleased with the format selections.

The only downside is the AM reception got worse, the 5140 picks up engine interference on a few stations - so I need to figure out how to boost that part better.
 
I'll try to get the new link and pics up this week. Great article on RFI by the way!

I think an in-line filter will do the trick for me... I'm guessing it's just a shielding issue as it only seems to affect the upper AM band (800+ KHz), lower freqs are ok. So I'll double check\shield any possible leaks.
 
that really long light green wire in the harness is the parking brake wire. If you connect it with the black wire on the harness, all your video and nav functions will be unlocked. Luckily the garmin navigation in these units give you the option to unlock nav functions while in motion regardless of the parking switch. If you were to ever add bluetooth however, you wouldn't be able to get into your phonebook via the screen because it blocks it out as well. It takes only seconds to connect that wire to ground (black wire), and well worth the time. Be careful though... don't be watching movies while in motion. I have it done in mine for passengers in the car and for my navigation and bluetooth functions.
 
Thanks tarheeltp17! I did end up tying the black ground harness wire to the light green PRK SW wire, just forgot to list that part. I actually found that in one of the other threads last week but had to dig for that part more, so it's good to mention that again. Everyting works great now, including the video (even while moving). But no, I'm not watching it. I travel a lot and see to many wrecks & pileups from people doing other less stupid things! Without that bypass (or correct wiring to the actual parking brake), you also can't access the keypad to customize the radio preset names. Those are great units, I like the Garmin and sateillte features the best.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Members online

Total: 509 (members: 2, guests: 507)

Forum statistics

Threads
278,315
Messages
3,554,104
Members
248,016
Latest member
Advally Service

Share this page

Trending content

Back
Top