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Stereo & Front Speakers
I replaced the factory fitted speakers with aftermarket ones but I was far from happy with the sound. The rear panels just vibrated too much and I could only get 10cm front speakers to fit which were gutless and produced quite a horrible sound. So I finally decided to bite the bullet and sort out a decent stereo and front speakers. I decided not to do anything about rear speakers as I don't often carry passengers and I thought it would be more work and expense with little gain, so I just disconnected the rears. However, I am thinking of getting a removable subwoofer box for the rear.
The result with the new stereo and front speakers is very good, perhaps not the best sound quality in the world (due to the vehicle & installation rather than the equipment - I did not use any soundproofing material or anything like that) but it is loads better than the old speakers and even at speed with the windows open I can get decent sounds.
See this link for a PDF document detailing the Toyota stereo wiring harness etc.
I bought a Clarion DXZ638RMP from Car Audio Direct. It is a CD & MP3 player so it will play MP3's that have been burned to a CD-R. This way you can have CD's with 8 to 10 Albums on so it acts a bit like a CD changer but with several advantages. I bought a lead from my local car audio shop that converts the Toyota stereo wiring loom to standard ISO connectors so installation was very simple (see Centre Dashboard Removal for details). However, I did have two problems: Firstly the electric antenna did not operate with the new stereo installed, I eventually had to connect two wires together on the original Toyota stereo wiring loom to get it to operate properly (the PDF link at the top of this page has details of which wires need to be connected together). Secondly, the existing double-DIN sized stereo that was fitted was obviously from another vehicle and the previous owner had cut the surround to get it to fit, this means there is now a small gap each side of the new stereo, so I intend to make up a blanking plate to cover this and the second DIN slot. |
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I went to my local car audio shop and asked about different speaker mounting options for my front doors (I had already taken the door cards off so they could see what was behind etc), see Door Card Removal for details. They offered me two options, custom built fiberglass pods for about £300 a pair (ouch!) or basic MDF speaker pods for £60. I could have probably made some MDF speaker pods myself as they are just a block of shaped MDF covered with vinyl but as they had some in stock which were pretty much the right sort of colour I went for them. I also got a pair of 6.5" component speakers with crossovers. The installation was quite straightforward, I just removed the door cards, cut holes for the woofer and tweeter and attached the MDF pods. The crossovers were small enough to fit in the door arm rests underneath the electric window controls. The only tricky bit was feeding the speaker wire from the doors to the cab through the existing rubber door grommet, I managed it in the end by first feeding some stiffer, thicker wire through and then using this to pull the thinner speaker wire through. I also had to move the door pockets back to make room for the pods. |
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