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FJ Cruiser Stereo Upgrade / Android Head Unit / Speaker Replacement

118K views 126 replies 39 participants last post by  Gallaticus 
#1 · (Edited)
Hello, fellow FJ enthusiasts.

I thought I'd share my experience with a recent audio system upgrade for my FJ Cruiser. I spent some time lurking on this forum, getting some great information on other member experiences with doing this.

This is the second Toyota I have owned. My first was a 2002 Sequoia that was bulletproof. As with the Sequoia, my only gripe with the FJ was the weak factory audio system. My FJ came with the "upgraded" system. I added a third-party "bluefusion" bluetooth adapter (used a SAT input) that worked well for streaming music and hands-free telephone. That said, I was really wanting to improve the audio experience and modernize the capabilities of the head unit.

I spend a good amount of time on fjcruiserforum.com, Crutchfield, Amazon, eBay, and audio enthusiast forums, trying to narrow down my options. The 2-din height of the factory unit provides a large array of options. That said, I tend to be very picky about the fit/finish of things and maintaining a clean look with any modification. I didn't want to install an upgrade that looked out of place.

My budget for the upgrade was to stay under $2,000. My goal was to replace the head unit, speakers, add subwoofer, and add amplifier. Installation costs are not included in that number. I did have it professionally installed, but I think this could be a DIY for most.

The minimum features I was interested in were: audio quality, integrated GPS, bluetooth, hands-free calling, snappy performance when using the interface, and ease of use.

One of the first things I realized is that although the factory unit is 2-din in height, it is about 1" wider than a standard 2-din aftermarket unit. Of course, one can get a mounting kit to accommodate this, but the end result is an installation that doesn't look clean. That narrowed things down, quite a bit.

Over the past year, I've purchased a number of items from aliexpress.com. This is the Chinese version of Amazon.com. Although I haven't purchased any electronics, customer service has been responsive, shipping times reasonable, and return policy satisfactory. There is a large selection of 2-din head units available, most of them either Android or Windows/CE based. I narrowed it down to Android, primarily based on the ecosystem of applications and likely availability of software updates. My sense is that most of these units come out of a handful of factories in China. It is also likely that thee factories build/develop most of the audio head units you find in the factory systems (just my guess).

Here's the head-unit I went with. From time of order, it shipped within 5 days and arrived within 15 days via DHL.

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Capa...-RAV4-Prado-dvd-gps-2002-2003/1349881832.html

I opted to go with JL Audio Speakers for the front doors, rear passenger area, and subwoofers.

Front Speakers: JL Audio C2-650 6.5-Inch 2-Way Component Speaker System

Rear Speakers: JL Audio C2-650X Evolution™ Series 6-1/2" 2-way car speakers

Rear Headliner: PowerBass S-275CH 2.75-Inch Full Range OEM Speaker for Chrysler/Jeep (Black)

Subwoofer Box: Wicked CAS

Amplifier: Polk Audio PA D5000.5 900W RMS, 5-Channel Class D PA Series Car Amplifier (PAD5000.5),100 Watts x4; 400 Watts x1

It's all installed and I am very happy with it. After about 2 months of moderate use, here are my impressions.

The good:

1. Chinese head unit is of very good build quality. Tactile feel of buttons, interface layout, and sound quality is excellent.

2. The versatility of having an Android operating system, WiFi capability, etc. makes the average system very boring.

3. Capacitive touch screen is very sharp, easy to read, and visible even in in direct sunlight.

4. ODB II connectivity is a nice feature (note: need to buy $10 adapter)

5. It's all about the APPS! I run WAZE (gps navigation), Spotify (streaming music), GAIA (topo maps), etc.

6. Full plug-n-play. No wiring harness adapter or wire cutting required. Steering wheel controls work and are programmable.

7. iPhone/iPod compatibility

8. Rear & Front Camera Capability


The not so good:

1. Boot up time is about 20 seconds. This has been a non-issue for me. FM Radio come on instantly if the car is shut off with radio playing.

2. Unlike many of these units that have adjustable illumination color, this one only does green.

Hopefully, this is helpful.

Cheers!
 

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#44 · (Edited)
Here are some install photos: Final Fit

As you can see from these, no adapter plate needed

Here are the mounting brackets from the stock FJammer installed on the Android HU. As I had said before, only 2 screws line up but it feels plenty solid.

The ISO plug from the back of the unit match to the FJ harness. I'd say perfectly but...in another thread I see where moving the unused blue antenna wire from it's location in the ISO adapter to a different spot will allow use of the subwoffer without cutting and splicing as I did.

This is the blue wire

And I spliced it here, obviously it is not blue because I needed to lengthen it to reach so in this photo it is black coming from the blue wire in the ISO harness. This made the SW on all the time and the switch useless. So, I moved the blue(black in the photo) wire to the pink wire in the photo below.

This connector goes to the back of the parking sensor switch. Splicing the back camera wire into it gives me the ability to turn the back up camera on at the push of a switch.


This is the wire from the head unit that ends up at the above pictures green wire. I had to use the red wire to lengthen. You can also see the blue wire from the ISO adapter to the right, notice it has the black housing around it. I didn't look too close but I believe it is an inline filter, Only 2 wires in the ISO adapter have this so it makes finding the blue wire easier.

Ended up being a difficult choice for locating the camera but here is the end result.

And the view, you can see that the parking sensor switch is lit and the camera is on.


There is no reason to worry with the red "brake" wire to get video from any source. That wire is a safety function to keep from watching video while moving. This HU has a sub munue to allow you to defeat the safety. CAUTION! Having just taken a trip with my boys and their friend, having the video player on and traveling is very distracting. I LIKE IT!!
I'm sure this post is lacking a lot so post up if you have questions.
 
#46 ·
No issues what so ever. I would definitely recommend doing this yourself.

Have you removed the oem hu before? Very simple process. Can be found on the forum. I have pics of some of that also or we can talk if yyou want to share #'s via pm.

Biggest question is, did you order the same one grump and I ordered? Because we know it to be plug and play.
 
#47 ·
#48 ·
So my Android HU finally arrived. As I hoped, the wiring harness looks completely plug and play, with the exception of the sub-woofer on/off issue. I had ordered a Metra 70-1761 harness adapter just in case, and I see that it is exactly like the Android HU harness except it has an extra pin looped to the blue power antenna wire. You can see the extra loop of blue wire in the attached photo. That blue loop doesn't exist in the HU harness. Anyone know what this is? If it solves the SW switch issue I could solder the Metra wires onto the HU, but don't want to do that if its not necessary.
 

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#49 · (Edited)
I would have to pull mine to see where the SW socket is? Even if it is where that loop goes, would you want to add a whole harness just to solve a 1 wire problem? I believe that if you can figure out how to push out the blue antenna wire form the ISO adapter and place it into the correct socket you'd be better off.

edit; looking at my pic of the OEM harness and your adapter, I believe that the SW wire is probably where the loop on your adapter is? I'd look for info on how to push the pin out and move it to the other location that has the pink and ?? wire that is an unfilled socket on the ISO adapter.
 
#55 ·
I have had the appradio 2 since around when developers first made apps that allowed it to mimic your android phone.. it works, but it's a little buggy sometimes. I would love a HU that just has android installed, like these mentioned in this thread but I am concerned about updates and whatnot since the developer community isn't as large as it is for phones.

How has it been so far for updates? It looks like all of them are still running 4.4 kitkat? I just purchased an appradio 4 because sometimes I just want to stream my music via bluetooth without having to deal with the hassle of waiting for my app to take over the HU.
 
#56 · (Edited)
Well I just got mine and installed it last night. Still trying to mess with it a bit. Overall, its a nice unit, but I have a few gripes with it. First, when I finished doing the install, I still had 3 harnesses that were not plugged in (3 upper plugs in attached photo). I'm assuming one is for the satellite radio and another is for the aux/USB port because neither of them work. Anyone know what the last harness is for?

My next concern is the stock music player. I can't figure out how to get the music player widget off the home screen because I downloaded another one which I wanted to use. But the issue with that is it seems the track buttons and knob on the unit only seem to work with the factory music player.

I haven't had too much time to mess with it, so if I somehow figure out these issues later on, I'll keep you guys posted.
 

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#62 ·
I would imagine 2 of them would be fore the satellite and the aux/USB port. Still haven't figured out the last one though. I may take it back apart this weekend and follow the wires. I also emailed the seller to see if there is an alternative harness that I need.
 
#64 ·
Sorry Salvador Sun, it's been a while since I was here. I assm you got power for your back up camera? What did you end up using? The po of my fj had a 12v wire already back there, so I taped into it. I didn'twant to just use the back up lights because iI wanted the camera to come on whenever the rear parking sense button was pushed.

Try this thread for technical information on the head units.

HuiFei - 2 DIN Pure Android 4.2.2/4.4.2/4.4.… | Android Development and Hacking | XDA Forums
 
#65 ·
I haven't installed my back up camera yet. I plan on tapping in to the reverse lights under the drivers door sill (as in the "$15 back-up camera install" thread). If you look at the photos from tdreyer on page 5 of this thread, you will see where he tapped into the green wire in the back-up sensors harness. If I'm not mistaken, that allows you to turn on the camera when you push in the back-up sensor button on your lower console.
 
#69 ·
#76 ·
that 8" one looks REALLY good. I might try to figure out how to get that work working.
 
#80 ·
#81 ·
So this just popped up in my head. As far as I know, the only FJs that have functioning rear speakers are the ones with the JBL head unit. Can someone confirm that the rear speakers still work after installing this android unit? This may be a reason for me to install rear speakers if it works with this stereo.
 
#91 ·
Yes, steering wheel controls work. there is a menu in the HU that walks you through the set up. A lot like bluetooth connecting ....you press the control (i.e. vol up) on the HU, while its blinking you click on the same steering wheel control and its done. I don't have the right side steering controls the newer FJs have, so I don't know if those will work. The manufacturer says you need a dongle to tether, but I was able to do it just with my phone, which allowed me to use WAZE while cruising. Might depend on your cell service provider.
 
#95 ·
ok i got mine in the mail, along with the flush mount camera. im probably going to bumper mount like has been posted earlier in this thread, my question is how did you guys run from outside to in? where is a decent spot to punch through, or is there a previous opening i could run the wiring through?
 
#100 ·
got the HU installed(going to wait till i have the time to remove the bumper to do the rear camera), i must say it is awesome so far!! its already got the toyota symbol on startup, so thats cool...bumped the blue wire over in the harness and the sub works like a champ...need to dl waze and torque in addition to my music apps...thanks again for the informative write ups!
 
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