Installing aftermarket Stereo Receiver

I don't think you can have both head units working together. if you do the stealth install, the factory head unit becomes an inert lump in your dash. that is why I recommend a 2DIN touch screen head unit to replace the oe head unit.

I don't know if the oe changer can work with an aftermarket head unit; most likely not.

crutchfield.com can hook you up with everything you need. the steering wheel buttons will work if you get a metra axxess unit, and there may be other interface units available. talk to crutchfield, they are very helpful and they give you an adapter harness and printed instructions when you buy a head unit from them.

 

crutchfield.com

 

with all the adapters and bits needed, you probably will spend more than that, even if the head unit was free

 

I just upgraded the factory stereo - actually, still working on it. I did buy everything from Crutchfield, because the Web site shows you all the pieces, and also the price ended up quite a bit better than anywhere else. If you are comfortable with cutting the wiring in the Prius and soldering inside the car, then the only thing you really need is the receiver, but that is not recommended.

The prices below are what I paid in a single order - in that case, Crutchfield gives you a substantial discount on the installation kits and harnesses. For some other cars, those are actually free, but the kits for the Prius are exceptionally expensive, so you only get a discount.

The radio will actually be the least expensive component, at least if you get a low-end radio. Here are the components I used:

- Receiver. I got a JVC KD-X320BTS (under $70 refurbished). Your choice, of course. It comes with a wiring harness that gives you basically just 20 or so loose wires. Without the additional parts, you have to splice that into the car's wiring.

- Wiring harness for the factory amplifier (TYTO-01), around $40. You can do without this harness, but you have to run wire down to the amplifier (under the passenger seat), and you'll also need to cut the wiring in the car in order to splice the wires from the radio in.

- Axxess ASWC-1 steering wheel control adapter. Around $40. Without this, you lose the steering wheel buttons. I haven't managed to program it correctly yet, though.

- Harness for the ASWC-1 - to - Toyota. $5. You could do without this, but you'd have to splice the wires that came with the ASWC-1 manually.

- Trim kit for the radio, $17. This makes it mechanically fit into the space where the factory radio is. This trim kit is optional; some people have instead left the factory radio in place and replaced the cubby hole storage with the new radio.

- Screws for the trim kit. The trim kit says to use the screws that came with the radio - but this radio does not include them. Crutchfield was smart and simply included them.

 

You know what - I did overlook that you said you didn't have the JBL system. I do. So you may need a different (and possibly cheaper) harness.

If you replaced the 6-CD changer with another accessory, your factory stereo would continue to work, but I don't think you can easily have two receivers in your car - you only have one antenna and one set of speaker outputs. So, yes, I don't think you'll be able to use the existing CD player.

My JVC receiver does not have a CD player, but you can easily find one that does let you play CDs.

 

Don't be too scared about opening up the car. It really is very simple, and took me about ten minutes - most of that time spent referring to the instructions they emailed me along with the order confirmation.

Note: if you want to install something in your center console, you will be looking at more work, but that's true regardless of whether you buy a harness or not.

The lion's share of the time will be spent on the work bench putting together the various harnesses before you open up the car.

Here are the steps to open the car:

- (optional, but recommend to avoid setting off the airbag accidentally): disconnect the negative battery terminal in the trunk (it is to the right, underneath the tail light assembly. To get there, take out the pan under the trunk, and the trim piece on the right. You'll see what I mean). It takes a 10mm wrench to do that, and the screw will be very tight. Note that this will clear much of the remembered information from your GPS, reset trip odometers, etc.

- With a plastic trim panel removing tool (a few bucks at a car part store), or a screwdriver if you don't mind scratching your car, pry off the leftmost panel with the heater vent from the dash board. You start from the top, and it will come right out. Note: it comes out directly towards you, not up or down. 30 seconds total.

- Next remove the bottom dash panel under the steering wheel. It is held in place by two screws at the bottom (one was covered by the vent panel, the other is roughly above the brake pedal). Once you remove the screws, the panel pops right out. You may have to pry it off from the top panel. You may need to disconnect some wiring harnesses. You can leave this panel sitting on the floor. Should take two minutes.

- Next remove the top panel above the steering wheel (it has the start button in it). It will pop right out. You can just move it aside a little. Should take 30 seconds.

- Next pry out the vent panel to the left of the radio, the one with the park button and a hole for the shift lever. Should pop right out, another 30 seconds or so.

- Next pry out the vent panel to the right of the radio, between radio and glove box. Should also pop right out, another 30 seconds.

Now look for two screws that hold the cubbyhole (with the smoked cover) in place. They are actually a fair bit below the cubbyhole, since there is a huge piece of trim that makes up the same part. Since you already have a CD changer in there, your procedure might be slightly different here.

Pull out the cubbyhole. Including undoing the screws, takes 2 minutes.

With a 10mm nut, undo the two screws to the left and right of your screen. Pull out the screen directly forward. Note: it will be a little hard, and then suddenly pop out, be prepared for that. Disconnect the wiring harnesses on the back, and set aside.

Now you have free access to your radio, held in place by four 10mm hex-nut screws. Two on top, two on the bottom. Note that there are actually three screws on top - don't touch the middle one.

Pull out the old radio.

The trickiest part is that now you have to cut the insulation off two wires and solder a 68 ohm resistor across them. If you leave out that step, your climate control won't work, and you won't see the energy consumption etc. information on your display.

That's all there is to it.

If you want to install something into your center console, you have additional work ahead of you. Can't help with that.

Now put the new radio in and plug the harnesses into the car's connectors.

Next, reconnect all harnesses to the screen and the panels. Then reconnect the negative battery connector.

Test your radio, as well as the other car functions - in particular, climate and the display functions.

If any of the harnesses need programming (for instance, a steering wheel control), now is the time to do that, too. Hint: I put the controller for the steering wheel controls behind the right vent panel, so if I ever need to reprogram it, I can simply pop out that one panel to get to it.

Disconnect the battery again. Screw down the radio with the four screws, put in the screen (make sure all the connectors are plugged in - on my system with GPS, there were four connectors. Without GPS, you may have a different number), secure it with its two screws, put in the cubbyhole (or whatever else you want to put down there) and screw that down.

Put in the vent panels to the right and to the left of the radio. Make sure the connector for the Park button is secure.

Put the top of the dashboard panel in, making sure that the harness for the start button is connected properly.

Put the bottom of of the dashboard panel in, making sure that all the many, many harnesses are connected properly. Don't forget the two screws.

Pop the remaining vent trim panel into place.

Reconnect the negative battery terminal, and be sure to tighten the screw hard - you don't want it to come off on a speed bump or a rough road! After this type of maintenance, I usually do a test drive over rough roads, and have a 10mm wrench handy in case it does come loose.

Overall, for me it was a whole-weekend project (those who say it's a one-hour job must have a lot of experience!), but taking apart the car was the easy and quick part. The hard part was putting the harness together and understanding how it all fit together.

 

^^^^
'11 Toyota Prius Two with Android 4.4.4 Kit Kat Head unit Upgrade! | Page 2 | PriusChat

 

@kkeane, did you also replace the amplifier? My original intent is to replace my speakers, but based on crutchfield feedback they indicated that the JBL amp is holding back the performance. and then once you replace the amp, the head unit should be replaced, then apparently there is about $100 worth of wires required. Some of the wires look like they need to reach the rear battery... all of this sounds a little to much out of bounds for me.

So I was wondering what your take on this was after your experience.

PS. noted your comment about the TYTO-01 harness. I guess this means you kept your factory amp and speakers?

 

No, I did not replace the amplifier. My focus was on keeping the installation simple and adding some features (in particular, MP3s from USB and bluetooth streaming audio), not so much on sound. When you replace the factory amp, it would have meant a lot more work in terms of wiring.

I did not have to touch anything outside the dashboard (except disconnecting the 12V battery to keep the airbag from going off), no need to run a wire to the back of the car.

The only actual modification to the car that I had to make was to solder in the 68 Ohm resistor. Everything else was disconnecting the dashboard, plugging everything in, and reconnecting it.

 

Thanks for the detailed instructions but I do have a couple of questions. With regards to the OEM harness that has the two wires that need to have the resistor added between them, while that part is easy, what about the connector itself? The JVC radio I bought is the JVC KW-V220BT which I got from Crutchfield along with the ASWC-1 and the harnesses to connect everything. What I have noticed is that there are two connectors for the JVC and the car has three, the third one containing the wires needing the resistor. My question is, once I have installed the resistor, is it okay for the factory 20 pin connector to not be connected to anything? And also what about the two wires that come off the ASWC-1 harness? I've looked everywhere but haven't found any responses regarding this particular thing. I have done the other connections for the JVC and the Metra harnesses already but just want to be sure that I take care of the steering wheel controls correctly.

An additional note: the JVC has two separate wires coming off it, one for the parking switch and the other for the reverse which I think means the camera. I am leaving the camera where it currently is but wonder about the parking switch wire.

Any advise would be gratefully appreciated.

 

I'm in the process of upgrading my speakers at the moment, '04 base model. Have a friend who works in audio who gave me a hand installing the stereo yesterday. He followed the guide on Instructions | Axxess Integrate . I used a Pioneer DEH-X3910BT. We did use the 20 pin connector, check the link for the instructions. He had difficulty finding them, but we eventually got to it. It had the guide for which wires replace which, and I'm confident we used the 20 pin connector. Wish I could find the instructions themselves but I can't seem to.

 

Thanks for the reply. But my question really is that the 20 pin connector no longer has a connection with the new receiver so it will just be placed unconnected back in the dash. This makes the resistor installation necessary to complete a circuit. Based on that, I am assuming, correctly I hope, that I can wire the two Axxess wires similarly?