[FJ Florida]

Yes, but given the 2011 FJ head end doesn't drive the rear speakers at all, there's no point in cutting the wires.

Remember that for 2011 the rear speakers in the upgrade package are apparently driven by an amplifier that is fed a signal via the FJ's AVC-LAN. If you don't have the upgrade package you don't have the amp and so the only use of cutting the wires for the headliner speakers is if you were going to run new wires to the stock rear speaker locations.

I think I mixed apples with oranges and made fruit salad. :lol:

Clarification:

I know about the amp in the upgrade package in the 2011, but mine is the stock 6 speaker 2011, so the head end unit was driving the headliner vibrator exciter thingies on the rear channels. For a while I faded all the way to the front to kill them, but given that I do plan to run wires to the rear pillars, I wanted those headliner vibrators killed. For 6 speaker 2011 owners who don't want to cut the wires and who don't want to pull new wires to the rear pillars, you can simply fade all the way to the front to kill the headliner vibrators like I did for a while.

However, FonnieJr has a 2010 (I think) so it does not have the amplifier (I think). That means the vibrators are wired in parallel with the rear pillar speakers (I think).

In any case, regardless of the year or audio package, I still would find a way to cut the wires to the headliner vibrator exciter thingies because they sound awful. Before I cut the wires to them, I was able to fade all the way to the rear and hear only the vibrators, since that's all that was wired to the rear channels of my 2011 6 speaker head end unit, and they were sooooooooooooooo bad I could not believe it. They sound like exactly what they are - a vibrator attached to molded fiber board covered with fabric. Not acceptable to me.

-FJ Florida-

 

[FJ Florida]

DoWork already has a pretty good write up.
http://www.fjcruiserforums.com/foru.../interior-exterior-visual-tech/81973-how-headliner-removal-dynamat-install.html

Oh my gosh! That's a whole lot of work! I especially do not like the part about cutting and splicing the wires to the lights. It seems like they would just unplug?

Fortunately, I have almost no wind noise because I don't have the roof rack, but the rain sounds like marbles hitting the roof.

Everyone concerned about noise should consider undercoating I think. It helped kill some noise, and it's extra protection underneath. It's also pretty inexpensive if you DIY. I did have to rent a lift for 3 hours to do it though.

-FJ Florida-

 

[FonnieJr]

Another option is to get your roof line-x'ed, I hear that takes away sound. But I dont think the headliner will be too hard to do if you're careful with everything and have another helping hand. I plan on doing the whole car.

I'll look into undercoating.

 

[FJ Florida]

2011 Rear Pillar Speaker Install Guide

This post is part six of a seven part series in which I use the stock 2011 FJ Cruiser basic six speaker head end unit, no amplifier, no equalizer, and no subwoofer to upgrade the factory six speaker system to something reasonably accurate … on a budget. This post describes how to install 3-1/2" speakers in the rear pillars of the 2011 FJ.

I chose a pair of Rockford Fosgate P132 3-1/2" coaxial speakers for the rear pillars to match my dashboard speakers exactly.

In the 2011 basic six speaker system, it is necessary to run new wires to the rear pillars because the factory wires are connected to an amplifier somewhere in the “premium” audio system. This amplifier is not present in the basic six speaker system, which comes with no rear speakers at all. So the rear pillar wiring harnesses from the factory are not connected since there is no factory amplifier, and the rear channels of the head end unit only drive the headliner vibrator exciter thingies, with no speakers in the rear pillars. So, cut and splice into the wires in the driver’s A pillar, which is the easiest location I could find. See attached picture of the A pillar splice. I like to solder and heat shrink my connections to assure the connection is solid, permanent, and well insulated.

Wire colors:

Right rear positive (+) = red
Right rear negative (-) = white

Left rear positive (+) = black
Left rear negative (-) = yellow

Update: I have discovered that on the 2011 six speaker system, the headliner vibrators can bu unplugged from the rear of the in dash unit. That might be a better place to splice than in the A pillar, although the A pillar is easier to access.

Pulling the wires to the rear was the least painful wire pull I have ever done, and that includes dozens. With a thin, flexible piece of piano wire to help me fish the wires, I only had to remove three trim pieces – the plastic that runs along the bottom of the door sills, the driver’s side kick panel, and the plastic trim that runs across the cargo area just above the rear bumper.

The door sill trim pieces popped right off with my hands with no broken clips or any other problems. Then I removed the driver’s side kick panel. It screws in place with a plastic finger screw next to the “dead pedal” footrest. For the cargo area trim, there are five obvious screws in it. Remove them and it pops right off.

There is plenty of room to drop the wires down from the A pillar to the kick panel. From there, I found wire clips/guides underneath the removed door sill trim, and I placed the new pair of wires in those wire clips/guides. When I got to the large plastic side panels in the rear seat, I used the piano wire to fish the wire instead of removing the panels. When using piano wire, remember that the ends are sharp. It’s easy to tear a headliner or pierce your hand. To protect you and more importantly lol your FJ Cruiser, remember to keep a little tape on both ends at all times. I taped a strong string to the piano wire, and I fished the string inside the panels back to the rear compartment where the jack is stored. In a number of places I was able to just tuck the string under the edge of the plastic side panels, and it went right on in. There is apparently a lot of air space behind the panels. Once I had the string pulled through inside the panels, I used the string to pull the pair of wires back to the jack storage location. Almost there!

From the jack storage compartment, I removed the two little panels that provide access to the tail light wiring on both sides. They pop right out with a screwdriver. I used the piano wire to fish the string up the driver’s side rear pillar - first to the tail light opening and then the rest of the way up to the speaker location. The wire for the passenger’s side rear pillar speaker crosses the FJ underneath the removed cargo area trim. There is plenty of room for it. Then I used the piano wire and string to fish the wire up to the passenger's side speaker location just like the driver’s side.

The next problem was the sheet metal behind the factory blank panels where the speakers mount. 1) It has several welds and some of the joining pieces were bent inward, toward the outside of the vehicle, giving less mounting depth and presenting a very uneven mounting surface. 2) The opening in the sheet metal is a bizarre shape that is far away from the round shape of the speakers.

I straightened the sheet metal very easily in a few places with a pair of channel lock pliers. Big improvement, almost no effort. The next step is to figure out the best place to drill the two screw holes for the speakers to get maximum mounting depth. Mine are rotated at a bizarre angle – see the attached picture. The magnets do touch the back of the pillar. Just to make sure there were no problems with that, I applied felt covering to the back of the magnets.

To deal with the odd shape of the opening, I found a great product called “Stick’rz Felt” that is a self-adhesive, stiff felt at a local fabric store. I cut pieces of this stuff to cover the entire opening, and I cut a round hole in the felt to fit nicely around the speakers. Experiment with paper templates first so you don’t waste the felt. After a few minutes of trimming templates, the felt was cut to fit and ready to go into place, but before sticking on the felt, first stuff some sound damping material into the pillars. I used fabric-backed foam rubber pads made from 1" thick foam rubber and heavy soft upholstry fabric glued to it with hot glue (same as I used behind the dash speakers). See pic.

Once the sound damping material is in the pillar behind the speakers, apply the felt. I peeled off the paper backing, cut it into eight pieces, and reapplied it to the sticky side of the felt. These cuts allowed me to hold the felt in place with the two speaker mounting screws while I pulled off the paper backing one piece at a time to make sure the alignment was correct as one section at a time stuck to the metal. See the attached picture for the fully prepared speaker mounting area.

The felt worked so well, I also added it to the dashboard locations, which required several paper templates to get the size and shape right, but it was worth it. The better you get the seal between the speaker and the baffle (mounting surface) the better the sound. You can spend a thousand dollars on a pair of high end speakers and install them without attention to detail and get a poor result – much less than you paid for. On the other hand, a decent set of speakers meticulously installed can sound fantastic. Do not ever skip the details thinking that it will not make a difference! Note: The dash speakers need to sit as low as possible to clear the grilles, so I trimmed the felt around the speaker mounting tabs so they would sit as low as possible. They just barely clear the grilles.

Next I prepared the speakers. I soldered a 400 microfarad capacitor to the positive terminal of each speaker to block frequencies below 100 Hz. The capacitors are available from Parts Express:

400uF 100V Non-Polarized Capacitor

Super glue (hot glue failed) holds them securely to the sides of the speaker magnets. Heat shrink tubing insulates the wires to avoid any possible shorts. I also applied foam rubber weather stripping to the edges of the speakers to get a better seal with the uneven sheet metal in the pillars. See the attached picture.

Solder the speaker wires that you pulled into the rear pillars onto the minus (-) speaker terminals and onto the crossover capacitors (+) carefully observing positive (+) and minus (-) polarity of the wires. Do not make a mistake here. If you get these wires connected wrong you will get bad sound. Check twice before soldering. I left enough speaker wire attached to work with the speakers on the floor of the cargo area. When I mounted the speakers, I just pulled the extra wire down into the little compartments that provide access to the tail lights. I used a small plastic cable tie to secure the speaker wire to the frame of the speaker to prevent any stress from the wire jiggling over time. Screw the speakers in place and test them. With luck, they will both work properly. Make sure you get left and right correct before you pull the wire over to the passenger’s side.

So now you can enjoy your speakers for a while as you decide what to do about grilles for them. There is a thread on this forum with a great picture of a stock blank cover (like mine) that someone perforated all over and covered with black speaker fabric. It looks great, but I didn’t want to deal with the fabric. I also think the factory grilles, which you can order online for about $50, are outrageously priced and seriously ugly. So I did a perforation job. I could have had a local car stereo shop do it, I am sure, but I did it myself. I don’t have a perf tool, so it took a lot of work on my part – about an hour per side, plus creating my own custom perforation template.

First I made a template in a computer graphics program. I can post the template if anyone wants it. I measured the plastic panels very carefully to make sure the template would end up centered exactly over the speaker. To get the perforation job centered exactly over the speaker, the measurements turned out to be centered vertically on the blank cover and the center hole is indented 2-1/8 inch from the outer edges of the blank panels. I drilled the center hole with a 1/16 inch bit first to align the template and taped the template in place on the panel securely. I used the 1/16 bit to drill a pilot hole for each perforation location. Then I removed the template and used three progressively larger drill bits in the pilot holes to make sure the holes were in the precise positions. The final bit size is 1/4 inch. I could have used a larger size, but 1/4 inch works fine for this application. The outer ring of holes is 3 inches on center with 18 degrees between holes (20 x 18 = 360 degrees). The next ring of holes is 2 inches on center with 22.5 degrees between holes (16 x 22.5 = 360 degrees). The inner ring of holes is one inch on center with 8 holes at 45 degrees.

The result of the 1/4 inch bit is very rough. You will think at first that you have ruined the panel. You have not. You just have a lot clean up work to do. Use the back of a finger nail to press any stuff sticking up on the outside of the panel back into each hole. The plastic is very soft. Take the 1/4 inch drill bit in your hand and pass it straight through each hole several times, picking off as many plastic shreds as you can from the back side. Use pliers to rip off the plastic ribs on the back of the panel. They come right off. Always push the drill bit through by hand from front to back, and it will progressively remove more and more shredded plastic from each hole. After a few passes, use a blow torch (or you could carefully use a butane cigarette lighter) to quickly flame off stubborn shreds of plastic from the back of the panel. The front will be very clean after this, and the back will be fairly clean. Keep at it with the drill bit and the flame until it is all clean. Be patient. See the result in the attached pictures.

Or take it to a local car audio shop and have the perforation done. :lol: I really like the clean appearance of the perforation job compared to other grille options. Plus, I know it is centered properly over the speaker.

Regardless of the grille option you choose, there is one more problem that needs to be addressed, and that is the large void space between the grille and the speaker. You don’t want this void space open. After installing the speakers, I cut sheets of half inch thick foam rubber to fit to fill this void space. Make sure the foam rubber isn’t touching the speaker. It does not have to be perfect. See the attached picture. Also, do not forget to put some sound absorbing (damping) material in the rear pilars. I cut 1" thick foam rubber to fit and covered the back of it with the same thick upholstry fabric that I used for the dash speaker damping pads. See attached pic.

Sound: Anyone who tells you that the rear pillar speakers are useless or that you cannot hear them either isn’t listening or needs to have the ear wax removed from their ears. In fact, I have them faded two notches to the front to turn them down a bit.

One last thing. If you have done the Rockford Fosgate 6x9" and 3-1/2" mod in the front, you may want to change the crossover capacitor value on the dashboard 3-1/2” speakers. I used four identical 3-1/2" inch speakers for timbre matching and to prevent image shifting from front to back. I had the fronts crossed at 320 Hz in the original post. Important note: If I were not installing the rear pillar speakers, I would recommend using the 320 Hz crossover point in the front. However, when installing the identical 3-1/2" rear pillar speakers, I changed the front value to approximately 100 Hz with 200 microfarad capacitors to more closely match the timbre of the rear pillar speakers. The front-to-rear image shifting I was experiencing stopped when I changed the front capacitors, which are available from Parts Express:

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=027-366

The sound really is very accurate, and I met my goals of using the factory head end unit, no amplifier, no equalizer, and no subwoofer. I also did it on a budget. The rear pillar speakers are providing nice rear fill, and I have converted my six speaker stock system with headliner vibrator “exciters” (junk) into a high quality 10 speaker upgraded system.

Speaker count (10): 6x9 coaxials in the front doors with the wires to their tweeters cut to leave only mid-bass = 2 … plus 3-1/2” coaxials in dashboard = 4 … plus 3-1/2” coaxials in rear pillars = 4 … total 10.

Update: For those who are installing the rear pillar speakers as described here and also are doing the 8 AWG power and ground wire mod listed below: The 8 AWG power and ground mod changed the sound so significantly that I had to tweak the system again. If (and only if) you also are using the 3-1/2" P132's in the rear pillars and also doing the 8 AWG power and ground mod, then change the dashboard speaker resistor value to 4.3 ohms and the capacitor to 220 microfarad at the same time you install the 8 AWG power and ground wires to cut the dashboard 3-1/2's down another dB or so while keeping the crossover near 100 Hz.

Note: All electrolytic capacitors should have a small film capacitor in parallel to improve sound quality. See previous parts of this thread.

Rock on! :rocker:

-FJ Florida-

 

[FJ Florida]

Re: 2011 Rear Pillar Speaker Install Guide

Pics of perforation job and final install.

Rock on! :rocker:

-FJ Florida-

 

[FJ Florida]

Merged content into this thread.

-FJ Florida-

 

[SpeedRye]

Re: 2011 Rear Pillar Speaker Install Guide

Nice perforation job! Do you have the +/- wire colors where you attached to the exciters' wires? That'd be helpful to add to make sure the speakers are in phase for anyone else attempting this mod. Great write-up!

 

[FJ Florida]

Re: 2011 Rear Pillar Speaker Install Guide

Nice perforation job! Do you have the +/- wire colors where you attached to the exciters' wires? That'd be helpful to add to make sure the speakers are in phase for anyone else attempting this mod. Great write-up!

Ugh. I wrote that huge long post and forgot the wire colors. I'll go back and update it.

Right rear positive (+) = red
Right rear negative (-) = white

Left rear positive (+) = black
Left rear negative (-) = yellow

Be careful not to get the +12V red wire in the A pillar.

-FJ Florida-

 

[SpeedRye]

Re: 2011 Rear Pillar Speaker Install Guide

Now it's perfect! Your whole ordeal has made me glad to have an older (prewired) model.

 

[tbone57]

Re: 2011 Rear Pillar Speaker Install Guide

Thank you!
I've been waiting for a post this detailed. Exactly what I was looking for. As soon as the weather warms I know what I'm up to.

 

[tbone57]

Thank you for such a thorough write up. Being a musician I can appreciate the effort and testing put into your choices.
I just checked with Crutchfield for the Rock-Fos 6x9s and they have them listed for $120 ? Where did you find yours for $65 ?
Thanks again.

 

[HUGO STIGLITZ]

Re: 2011 Rear Pillar Speaker Install Guide

Thanks for the time you put into this write up for the members:cheers:

 

[FJ Florida]

Thank you for such a thorough write up. Being a musician I can appreciate the effort and testing put into your choices.
I just checked with Crutchfield for the Rock-Fos 6x9s and they have them listed for $120 ? Where did you find yours for $65 ?
Thanks again.

I paid $64.99 at Amazon.com and I got free shipping.

Currently $59.99 at Amazon.com with free shipping. Can't beat that! Rockford Fosgate Punch P1692 6 x 9-Inches.

-FJ Florida-

 

[BillK]

Though the quoted Amazon ship time is now 2 - 3 weeks, as I believe the 1692s are now discontinued.

 

[FJ Florida]

Though the quoted Amazon ship time is now 2 - 3 weeks, as I believe the 1692s are now discontinued.

1692 is still on the Rockford home page, unless they just have not updated it. Amazon was temporarily out of my Rockford 3.5's so I got them from Sonic Electronix instead. They also have the 1692's in stock for $59.99

Rockford Fosgate P1692 (09-p1692) 6" x 9" Punch Series 2-way

-FJ Florida-

 

[BillK]

Know of a better parts source than Parts Express?

Paying $12 shipping for $8 in parts is a little… painful.

(Never mind - I just ordered enough other goodies to make the purchase worthwhile. ;-))

 

[FJ Florida]

Know of a better parts source than Parts Express?

Paying $12 shipping for $8 in parts is a little… painful.

(Never mind - I just ordered enough other goodies to make the purchase worthwhile. ;-))

I can relate, lol. :lol: I always find a way to order $25 from Amazon to get free shipping. Sometimes I have to wait to save up enough to make up a free shipping order.

I do love Parts Express. I always use their cheapest shipping - Smart Post - which is slow but cheap and delivered to my mailbox with Sat delivery included. I never have paid more to ship than the parts cost, and I must have placed 10 orders with them as I tweaked the resistors and capacitors through my ordeal ... er ... joyful experimentation! :lol:

-FJ Florida-

 

[BillK]

What's the best source for the speaker wiring adapters for the doors and dash?

 

[FJ Florida]

What's the best source for the speaker wiring adapters for the doors and dash?

I didn't use adapters. I soldered the wires from the factory harnesses directly to the drivers, retaining the factory plugs for convenience. I knew I would want to unplug them at least a time or two during the tweaking and experimentation process.

You can call Crutchfield to see if they have the 2011 FJ in their database yet. When I called them about 3 weeks ago, they did not.

Beware the changes Toyota may have made. The 2010 rear pillar wiring harnesses I tried had to be returned because they are different from the 2011 (before I found out there was no power to the rear wires anyway). Not sure about the dash and doors. I just soldered those.

The polarity for the dash speakers is marked on the speaker. For the 6x9's in the doors, I observed a 2010 Crutchfield adapter online, determined which wire went to the large terminal and which to the small, crossed my fingers, soldered, and it turned out to be correct based on my observation of the 2010 adapter, but there is no guarantee that the 2010 adapter would actually connect. I wish I had written down the wire colors while I was doing it, but I did not. I'm not ripping off a door panel again to find out.

-FJ Florida-

 

[FJ Florida]

Note on the efficiency of this speaker system:

The SPL for the P1692's is about 90 to 91 dB from 70 - 200 Hz, and from 1 KHz to 20 KHz. There is a dip in the response of the P1692's from 300 to 800 Hz, but I am using some overlap with the 3.5" P132's to smooth the overall power response curve in this range, which also helps keep the SPL curve around 90 to 91 dB over the entire range. The 6x9's naturally start to roll off around 1 kHz (since I cut the tweeter wires), and the 3.5's are pretty much doing all the work above that, but there is overlap below it. It required a lot of engineering and tweaking to get the overlap just right. I did the math several times, and I came up with a range of overlaps and attenuations to try. After a few experiments, I settled on the one I posted.

So, overall, the entire speaker system is approximately 90 to 91 dB efficient from 70 Hz to 20 kHz. That's pretty high, and given the relatively low power of the stock FJ head end unit, I deliberately engineered a highly efficient speaker system that would work with it while also using a bit of overlap and careful attenuation to get a reasonably smooth power response curve that neither speaker on its own could produce.

Be aware that the capacitor and resistor values I posted for the dash speakers are different if you also are going to install matching 3.5's in the rear pillars. See the post above on how to install the rear pillar speakers.
-FJ Florida-