2016 4Runner SR5
Senior Member
Anyone here willing to donate their stock front door 6x9 speakers to me?
what an unbelievable difference! - kappa 3.5 dash speakers
- Thread starter mag10
- Start date
2013 Limited 4runner
Guys
I am looking to replace my dash speakers to improve the sound quality. I removed the factory dash speakers and I see only two wires on the plug.
Most of the folks here mention there are four wires.
Can you please suggest how should I be wiring up my 3.5" speakers for the dash?
Guys
I am looking to replace my dash speakers to improve the sound quality. I removed the factory dash speakers and I see only two wires on the plug.
Most of the folks here mention there are four wires.
Can you please suggest how should I be wiring up my 3.5" speakers for the dash?
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Even though the speaker connector is a 4-pin, I suppose they're only using two of the pins although I'd really like to see a photo where the wires go into the speaker side connector to be sure (they could've jumpered the pins in the connector or something). When you look at the harness attached to the speaker, is there a lump under the shrink tubing that looks like there could be a capacitor there? Seems to me that they wired the tweeter and woofer separately in parallel so that they could limit the frequencies to the tweeter with a capacitor.
If you put a multimeter on the 2 pins of the speaker connector that are being used (on the speaker itself) , what do you get for resistance? Now do the same test across the 2 pins that aren't being used. I would imagine you'll see a resistance of somewhere around 3.x ohms (if it's a 4 ohm speaker) for the first test, and no reading on the second test (no continuity).
If this is the case, your wiring job will be much easier that those of us with the standard speakers!
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Does anyone have a lead on a 4-pin speaker adapter for these dash speakers? I'm certainly not going to hack up my vehicles harness, and I'd also rather not take apart the stock ones in the event I want to put them back in.
The only option I've seen is from Taco Tunes, but they're not cheap at $25. Too bad there isn't a metra or scosch option which would be about $5.
My other idea is to find someone with a set of stock Toyota speakers that have a wired 4 pin connector, and pay them to cut them off and mail to me. Seems like a number of Toyota speakers have harnesses like this, such as certain Camrys, Siennas, and even some of the JBLs in the 4Runner.
The only option I've seen is from Taco Tunes, but they're not cheap at $25. Too bad there isn't a metra or scosch option which would be about $5.
My other idea is to find someone with a set of stock Toyota speakers that have a wired 4 pin connector, and pay them to cut them off and mail to me. Seems like a number of Toyota speakers have harnesses like this, such as certain Camrys, Siennas, and even some of the JBLs in the 4Runner.
From the first Thread.
* The light green and pink wire are negative on both sides.
* The other two colors:
left side = violet + blue = positive
right side = yellow + blue = positive.
Mine are showing up today too.
Has anyone re-verified these wire color codes? This seems wrong to me based on both the wiring diagram, as well as typical Toyota standard speaker wire practices.
I'm thinking it should be this, but just wanted to see what others have found:
Left:
Light Green + (to Dash Speaker)
Blue - (to Dash Speaker)
Pink + (to Door Speaker)
Violet - (to Door Speaker)
Right:
Pink + (to Dash Speaker)
Yellow - (to Dash Speaker)
Light Green + (to Door Speaker)
Blue - (to Door Speaker)
The negatives and positives are obviously tied together, and I'm thinking the above is correct. I guess the way to be sure would be to test speaker polarity with a 9v battery or something).
Installed my dash speakers this evening, and ran a polarity test on the stock speakers. For my 2018 at least, the color codes I mentioned above are correct. If done differently, your dash speakers might be out of phase with the rest of your speakers, which can make them sound off.
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Just gonna answer my own question here in case anybody is wondering. As far as I can tell, there are only 2 options to buy these harnesses new: Taco Tunes which would be about $30 shipped, or Seicane which is quite a bit cheaper but you've just got to wait on shipping. Here are the ones I ordered: https://www.ebay.com/itm/112673474469
Even though I already installed my new speakers using the adapter off the stock speakers (which also required me to de-solder the stock 5800 Hz high pass filter), I still didn't like bulkiness of it, so that's why I was looking for harnesses. I also used 400 Hz filters, but I think I'm going get the capacitors and bump that up to about 800-1000 Hz.
ttsphotog
New member
I installed GX302s and didn't shave my speaker grills. Did it a few weeks ago - details in my mod page.
Awesome, thanks!
Magnetic
New member
I wasn't clear on a few details from you mod page. :doh:
Did you cut up and reuse the factory mounting bracket with an aftermarket wiring harness (if so which one),
or did you remove and reuse the factory connector as well?
While I am going to "upgrade" the factory 6x9 door speakers eventually, a low complexity install of dash speakers would seem a no-brainer...
ttsphotog
New member
Yeah I reused the factory mounting bracket and reused the factory connector as well.
I had to cut up a piece of the mounting bracket to fit. And I removed the factory connector from the back of the old tweeters - just stuck on there with glue.
No aftermarket wiring harness. A lot easier than I thought it was going to be.
Magnetic
New member
Looks like I'm going to order up the parts and give it a go...
My recent road trip to Zion may it pretty clear that an speaker upgrade is a necessary evil with the factory stereos.
Did you use bass blockers or did these come pre-installed?
ttsphotog
New member
Those pics are exactly what I did too.
I didn't get a clear answer about bass blockers from any of the threads here so I just left the capacitors on the stock blue plugs. The speakers also come with capacitors on them as well. Someone told me I should remove the stock capacitors, another person told me I should get some other bass blockers. I don't know if I will - it's definitely easy enough but the speakers sound really good to me. And I'm 48 so I might not notice the difference LOL. :lalala:
Magnetic
New member
I did the JBL GX302 upgrade before my trip to Joshua Tree recently.
Definitely a improvement, and they seemed to improve further with a little break in.
I used the Tacotunes harness, (with zero wiring help from TT as I didn't buy my speakers from them). :thanks:
The tweeter smoothed out nicely, but I did experience some buzzing on the driver side speaker with certain songs, so I may need to trim the grill after all.
Looks like door speakers and some panel deadening is next...
Finally got my front harnesses in from Seicane on Ebay, and it looks like they'll work just fine. Total cost for both was $12 shipped, so quite a bit less than Tacotunes. Only drawback is waiting a week or two for shipping.
For those of you questioning whether or not to remove the factory capacitor, I think it should be done. Mine were 6.8 uF, which equates to a high pass frequency of about 5800hz on a 4ohm speaker. Some of the speakers people have been installing are closer to 2.5ohms, which would make it even worse at over 9000hz.
Also, the capacitors that are found on your new speakers are most likely just a high pass filter for the tweeter only, and do nothing to protect the woofer (there are a few exceptions here, such as the Infinity which has the crossover assembly wired in line with the speaker).
For those of you questioning whether or not to remove the factory capacitor, I think it should be done. Mine were 6.8 uF, which equates to a high pass frequency of about 5800hz on a 4ohm speaker. Some of the speakers people have been installing are closer to 2.5ohms, which would make it even worse at over 9000hz.
Also, the capacitors that are found on your new speakers are most likely just a high pass filter for the tweeter only, and do nothing to protect the woofer (there are a few exceptions here, such as the Infinity which has the crossover assembly wired in line with the speaker).
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97BlackAckCL
Elite Member
I have a set of these 3.5" kappas that were in the doors of my 08 4Runner, just waiting for some warmer weather to swap these in. Glad to see so many people having success with them!
I found another option for wiring, without hacking the original wiring or speaker, or waiting on a harness.. and it was extremely inexpensive.
I was shopping around trying to find the flat pins used in the harness and instead found that a spade terminal fit in there perfectly. The ones that I used had the prongs spaced to where one spade will plug into two spots. So I attached one to the positive and one to the negative side of a speaker cable. Then inserted one of the spades into the factory harness for pins 1 & 2, and the other spade went into the harness for pins 3 & 4. So basically each spade terminal is making the bridge connection to the door speaker, and the wire coming out of that spade terminal goes to the new dash speaker.
Some brands may be shaped slightly different than others. The ones I used were Gardner Bender brand (home Depot), 16-14 gauge, 4-6 stud.
I was shopping around trying to find the flat pins used in the harness and instead found that a spade terminal fit in there perfectly. The ones that I used had the prongs spaced to where one spade will plug into two spots. So I attached one to the positive and one to the negative side of a speaker cable. Then inserted one of the spades into the factory harness for pins 1 & 2, and the other spade went into the harness for pins 3 & 4. So basically each spade terminal is making the bridge connection to the door speaker, and the wire coming out of that spade terminal goes to the new dash speaker.
Some brands may be shaped slightly different than others. The ones I used were Gardner Bender brand (home Depot), 16-14 gauge, 4-6 stud.
