"new" head unit for 2000 tundra - Toyota Tundra Forums : Tundra Solutions Forum

aika1 · #1 (**permalink**) 05-02-2005, 05:35 AM

hey boys, heres the deal-
i researched aftermarket head units for my 2000 tundra and came to the conclusion that they all suck in one area or another, mostly radio reception (especially am). However, my head unit skips while reading cd's constantly, so I need a new one. I'm looking to replace my head unit with another toyota one, but I also want to add ipod to it, hopefully through the axxess adapter, which will allow me to see text on my head unit. My truck came with the premium sound in 2000 (six speakers, radio/cd/casette, no changer, and the factory amp behind the head unit in the dash). so which head units are compatible with my factory amp and my truck? can i use the jbl head units from the new trucks? can i even use the jbl six disc units? or can i only replace my old stereo with another old stereo because of the inputs into the amp? thanks for your time...

mglines · #2 (**permalink**) 05-02-2005, 11:15 AM

I might have my old Headunit out of my Tundra.. ill have to see if my wife threw it away or not.

Agent WD-40 · #3 (**permalink**) 05-02-2005, 01:34 PM

The newer JBL stuff won't work with your old amp. They use digital inputs to the amp. The older stuff was all analog. If you get the newer JBL head unit you will have to get the new amp to go with it as far as I know. I recall other members trying and having to upgrade the amp.

Be careful of getting a 6 disk in dash changer to replace it with. I had the "premium" system in my 2001 that had the 6 disk changer built into the dash. It was great but it broke, was replaced, and then it broke again. I went aftermarket at that point. I know there are other that have had them break on them too.

I'm not aware that the older style head units (00-02) were cabable of displaying text. I know the newer JBL ones can do that. It would probably be worth checking out though.

aika1 · #4 (**permalink**) 05-02-2005, 02:39 PM

so if i got a hold of a newer jbl head unit, could i use an after market amplifier and cut out the toyota amps altogether? or if the seller on ebay was selling the head unit with the jbl amp would it then work in my truck? and how tough is it to install the amp? I've taken my old head unit out before to install a pioneer head unit in my truck so im not worried about that too much, but i know that the factory amp is a little deeper in the dash and i was wondering if there was a lot i had to take out of the dash before i could replace the amp. thanks again for the help.

Agent WD-40 · #5 (**permalink**) 05-02-2005, 04:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aika1

so if i got a hold of a newer jbl head unit, could i use an after market amplifier and cut out the toyota amps altogether? or if the seller on ebay was selling the head unit with the jbl amp would it then work in my truck? and how tough is it to install the amp? I've taken my old head unit out before to install a pioneer head unit in my truck so im not worried about that too much, but i know that the factory amp is a little deeper in the dash and i was wondering if there was a lot i had to take out of the dash before i could replace the amp. thanks again for the help.

I was trying to find out some of these same questions when I did the stereo in my brothers 04 Tundra. He has the JBL head unit in his truck. As far as I could find out you cannot cut the factory amp out of the newer JBL systesm. They use a digital signal from the head unit to the factory amp. I believe they did this because they were having noise issues. Because of the digital signal you cannot tap into the wires between the head unit and the amp with traditional analog equiptment.

You can however keep the JBL head unit and JBL amp and use LOC's to take the amp output and turn it into a line level input for your aftermarket amps. This is what I did on my brothers truck. It sounds just as good as any aftermarket head unit would and retains the stock look.

You can however cut the amp out of the older style units, like you had. I did that in my truck. I did a bit of wire cutting and soldering to make RCA outputs driectly out of the back of the stock head unit. I needed to add a line driver to get the signal up to a more usefull level. It was really low straight out of the head unit. I used an Audio Control EQX to take care of that. There is a step by step of this mod in the Garage area.

It should work if you got the newer JBL amp and JBL head unit. Others have done similar things and it worked. www.oemvalue.com might be able to answer this question better than I. They deal with a lot of these type things.

Installing the new amp, assuming it is the same size as the old one shouldn't be too bad. The factory amp is behind the HVAC dials on the dash. You need to take the black palstic panel off to get to it. It is a bit of a reach to get it out but it is do-able. It is held on by one or two 10mm bolts.

Hope that helps.

aika1 · #6 (**permalink**) 05-02-2005, 09:02 PM

well the whole reason i want to replace my deck in the first place is because the cd player skips all the time, and i want to connect an ipod to my deck and have the text read out. although i dont know how well the text will be displayed through the axxess ipod adapter and the jbl head units. i suppose i should just get the charger and the imput for the ipod and just deal with not having text except on the ipod itself. shouldnt be too bad, and that way i can keep the old style deck and just use the outputs from the factory amp into lin level inputs on an aftermarket amp to get more sound out of the speakers (aftermarket speakers too, of course). so now the questions. can i use line level outputs out of the factory amp itself into an aftermarket amps without having to convert to rca? and also does anyone know of how to get my deck to stop skipping? i tried using the cd brush head unit cleaner but it didnt work well enough to stop the skipping. any suggestions? what would all of you guys do? just get a replacement head unit for the 2000 or get an upgraded jbl unit with amp?

T's Blk 01 Tundra · #7 (**permalink**) 05-02-2005, 10:17 PM

I just replaced the head unit in my 01 Tundra. I had the premium audio package and the 6 disc changer just stopped working.

Anyhow, I put an Alpine Headunit in this Sunday in about 2 hours. Go online to Crutchfield and browse around for a new one that has the IPOD control interface. Alpine has one, as do most manufacturers. The great thing about Crutchfield is they ship you every thing you will need and have installers as tech support when you have some question on the install.
You could ebay a changer or single disc for your ride, but you might wind up with a broken unit again! From what I have seen, I would have paid as much for a unknown quality Toyota head unit on ebay as I just paid for a brand new Aftermarket unit.
I hope this helps!

Agent WD-40 · #8 (**permalink**) 05-03-2005, 03:58 AM

Come to think of it the 03+ head unit is slightly larger than the 00-02 one. You will need to enlarge the radio opening in the dash if you want it to work.

As for using the line out right out of the head unit. You can do that but you will need to solder RCA plugs on to the wires to plug it into the amps. I did this to my truck. The problem was I only could get 2 channels (Left + Right) of clean sound. I got a lot ground loop noise (which produced an annoying hissing sound and severly reduced the bass output). Adding a ground loop isolator fixed that problem. If I tried to plug in all 4 channels (L+R front and rear), even with a ground loop isolator I would get the noise back. The output was very weak, but it was workable.

That is why I finally got an Audio Control EQX. It took my 2 channels of clean output from the head unit and turned it into 8 channels of output while adding signal strenght and giving me some euqlizer ability. I would never do this mod without getting something like the Audio Control EQX. Check ebay you can find them cheap.

If you don't mind getting an equalizer this is a quite doable mod. It sounded just as good as the Alpine deck I have now. What are your major qualms with going aftermarket? It sounds like it might be a better solution for you.

You mentioned you were worried about AM reception. You likely wouldn't notice a drop in receptoin as long as the AM sensitivity was less than 3 dB different than the stock unit.

aika1 · #9 (**permalink**) 05-03-2005, 12:36 PM

I've checked out the after market decks. I can actually get them for cost through a buddy, which is a great deal, but the more I look at them the more disappointed I become. the alpine 9855, which I was stoked about for a while, has a great display, but a horrible format, which is hard as heck to see. the numbers are tiny! the pioneer 8600 or premier 860 look great, but theyre not really sirius ready I dont think, and at one time I had a pioneer deck in the tundra and switched it back to stock and sold the pioneer because stock sounded better. also, ive listened to a recent pioneer deck in a new honda and the radio reception just plain sucks. but according to crutchfield, pioneer has the best radio reception of all the decks, so the conclusion is that radio reception on aftermarket decks suck because the antennas of cars are engineered to work with the stock head unit. for a long time I was going to change to an aftermarket deck but just couldnt find one that was any good (or at least good enough to warrant replacing mine). the problems I mentioned are only some of the problems I have with the decks. there are more I just havent mentioned them.

Agent WD-40 · #10 (**permalink**) 05-03-2005, 05:51 PM

Well good luck with what you decide. I should mention that www.davidnavone.com makes very high quality LOC's if you decide to go that route.

Phil0411 · #11 (**permalink**) 05-03-2005, 06:12 PM

I have a Pioneer double din that I like a lot. It is XM ready, which I did immediately and it also has aux inputs. I am not really sure about the iPod interface, but if it is any consolation, it is also MP3 WMA and WAV ready, so you can play true MP3 CDs in it, and it does show the text. Most of my MP3 cds have between 100 to 150 songs on each one, and it displays both artist and title!

Here is a picture of the unit and a link to the website. http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pn...157288,00.html .

I just went back to Pioneers site and this might actually be more what you're looking for. http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/pn...869141,00.html

aika1 · #12 (**permalink**) 05-04-2005, 08:17 PM

Its not that I'm worried about double din or single din head units. in fact, I'm not a big fan of the styling or the features of the aftermarket doubldin units, and probably wouldnt get one. the problem is that if i got the aftermarket headunits, they wouldnt give me any more performance than my current head unit. like i said, i had a fairly high end unit from pioneer in my truck at one time, and the stock stereo sounded better, played discs just as well (at the time), and had better radio reception and was easier to use. so basically the pioneer fell short in absolutely everything i took into account. I suppose i could spend a grand and get new speakers, a new head unit, and a 4 channel amp to power it all, but I could also just get the 4 channel amp, new speakers, and keep the stock head unit which has better radio reception, and plays cds just as well if not better anyways...so here we go again- does anyone have the 9855 alpine or the 8600 pioneer in their truck? the reception is worse than the stock head unit right? thats really what pushed me over the edge.

aika1 · #13 (**permalink**) 06-01-2005, 03:04 PM

update- I listened to agent wd-40's truck, and the aftermarket equipment sounded (and looked) great. I then talked to the friend that had the horrible reception in his honda with the pioneer deck, and found out that he had just had his radio rewired for the 4th time at circuit city! and now the things reception is awesome. seems that they had screwed the wiring up somehow 3 times before. thanks everyone for the help. when some cash comes around again thats what ill be looking for. thanks especially to wd-40.

Agent WD-40 · #14 (**permalink**) 06-02-2005, 01:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aika1

update- I listened to agent wd-40's truck, and the aftermarket equipment sounded (and looked) great. I then talked to the friend that had the horrible reception in his honda with the pioneer deck, and found out that he had just had his radio rewired for the 4th time at circuit city! and now the things reception is awesome. seems that they had screwed the wiring up somehow 3 times before. thanks everyone for the help. when some cash comes around again thats what ill be looking for. thanks especially to wd-40.

Good luck. Glad I could help.