Muddy audio, blown amplifier

I have a 2004 Toyota tundra DC, with the JBL system and amplifier behind the back seat. Installed an aftermarket radio and that worked. Started swapping the speakers and everything worked, but when I sealed the doors back up something was touching and shorted out.

Opened the back panel and the amp smelled like burnt plastic. There was no sound at all yesterday but today I was able to get some warbled sound out of the speakers. With low volume and audio cutting in and out.
I double checked my connections and now nothing is touching, but I think I may have burnt out the amp.

My big question is, is there a way to either replace or bypass the amp, BUT I want to keep the steering controls from my crux connection. Or is my only option to try and find a working amp somewhere.

 

First off, you need to understand some things.

You can't just "install an aftermarket radio" with the JBL system. You either need to install an amp adapatation module, or use an amp bypass harness. Much of that is discussed in the "Audio" section in the first reply of our community info/new owner thread, it covers most adapters and install info anybody (from newbie to pro) would need to update the variety of systems Toyota installed in our trucks. The JBL system is, by far, the most complex system out of all and requires the most care to upgrade.

You also can't just slap in aftermarket speakers when you have the JBL system, the JBL system uses a mix of 4 ohm and 2 ohm speakers, wired down so its 6 channels (not just 4 channels) presents as a 2 ohm load to the amp.

So, before anyone gives you advice here, we need you to carefully walk us through EXACTLY what you've done. Like ...

• Which method did you choose:
  • Hack the factory wiring to rig up some bullshit/rigged path to install the radio?
  • Use a wiring adapter to bypass the amp? (if so, which part number?)
  • Use an adapter module to adapt the new head unit to the amp? (if so, which part number?)
  • If you used an amp adapter module, did you follow the instructions to the letter, as some of those need you to set the OEM radio volume at a specific level before you remove the OEM radio, or the module won't work correctly?
  • Which steering control module part number did you use?
• Did you upgrade any speakers in this process, or keep the original?
  • If so, what model speakers (part number) did you swap in for each speaker, and how did you wire them up to produce Toyota's expected load?
• What exactly was touching when you sealed the doors up? (and beyond that, how was it touching, like, how are you terminating things that led to your wires touching anything metal?)

The answers to those questions will help one of us here be able to guide you through getting your stuff straight, or getting beyond the problem you just created for yourself.

 

Crux CS-TJ20 Wiring Interface
Sound Ordnance™ P-67CB
Sony XAV-AX3200

Nothing is cut or spliced, if anything I had to rewire the factory connections next to the amp due to the previous owners work. He cut the factory harness and ran wires direct to the radio, took me like a whole day to rip that all out and reconnect the harness. The radio was already an aftermarket radio, I never saw the OEM one. I've only replaced the front side speakers. Everything was done with watertight connecters crimped, only the speakers needed actual splicing as I couldn't find any speaker connectors that fit to the factory harness.

From what I could tell the tweeters in the top of the doors were what was touching. The adhesive I used came loose and the wiring on the back is weirdly exposed right out of the box, it comes with little cups to hide them, but then they wouldn't fit in the location. I redid it with stronger adhesive and used some rubber shims to prevent future shorts. I'll probably put some liquid electrical tape if it keeps causing issues.

I ordered everything through crutchfield like I have for the past 3 vehicles I've done. The thing is everything was working perfectly the first test run, no static not muddy sound, everything sounded clear and bass was clear. I really think it's just the amp that fried, as it's only sort of sending signals to the speakers now.

Like I said it's important to me that steering controls are maintained, I was just hoping that if I do have to bypass the amp there's a harness that can still do so, as I didn't see one on crutchfields site.

 

Welcome to the forum.

These may or may not help.
https://www.tundras.com/threads/fac...le-cabs-fabric-v-leather.150923/#post-3780923

https://www.tundras.com/threads/2004-dc-jbl-amp-bypass.85713/

 

The thread I linked above, audio section pretty much covers your options. Either amp adapt, or amp bypass.

The symptoms you're describing, not going to candy coat it, it sounds like you've likely blown the OEM JBL amp.

You really have two options here, from my POV:

• Replace the OEM amp, which isn't as hard as it sounds, we had someone source one on here from a junkyard or fleabay recently (link).
• Bypass the amp using the Metra amp bypass harness (part number info here) to ditch the OEM amp.

NOTE: The latter of those two options may mean installing a different steering control adapter module, I'd need to dig on the Crux CS-TJ20 to see if you can use it only for the steering wheel controls. If you can't isolate out the audio away from the Crux,I like the ASWC-1 from Axxess to retain/auto-program steering wheel controls, and Metra's adapter harness that makes its install a plug-and-play affair.
​

If it were me, I'd probably go with the latter, just because the JBL amp is problematic, and there are no truly "great" options to adapt it out, cleanly, in a way that's going to give you decent sound, universally, and offer options to deal with the weird ass speaker impedances/input impedance per channel the OEM amp expects.

We know, at this point, with how many people we've helped adapt their JBL systems, the front JBL door speakers are setup as:

4ohm tweeter in the upper door sail panel
4ohm small 2"-3" high-range in the lower door housing
2ohm woofer in the lower door housing
​

Those two 4-ohm speakers are run in parallel (at the white connector snapped into the door shell about 7-8" below the tweeter) to create a 2-ohm load. i.e. you have the woofer on its own dedicationf 2ohm front channel to the amp, the tweeter and 2-3" high are bridged to produce its own dedicated 2ohm front channel to the amp, then you have the rear speaker, which is also 2ohm for the rear door speaker, on its own dedicated 2ohm rear speaker channel to the amp. There are basic non-invasive cuts you can do to specific harnesses to take the front door down to a single channel, which will make life better/easier if using the amp bypass harness.

The Metra amp bypass harness will potentially require some customization to ensure your Sony head unit isn't getting overpowered. I assure you, that Sony head unit likely has as much (if not more) power output in its circuits than the 20-year-old tech inside that OEM JBL amp, so bypassing it would not be a concern for me, in your shoes.

 

Well thanks for the assistance, now I'm just torn between the harness you showed me and just finding another amp. The adapter that keeps steering controls is around 75$, with the extra cabling around another 15$. A used amp on eBay runs about 90-110$. Maybe I can check my local junkyards first and come to a decision. Thank you again, now I know my options.

 

Definitely, and if you want a sanity check on how you wired your front doors for the Sound Ordinance components, drop some pics in here so we can better understand how you wired it.

There are so many ways you could seriously fuck up your audio and overload the amp moving the front door from a 2-channel setup to a single channel to the factory amp. But in general, knowing the amp wants TWO separate 2-ohm channels in the door, and you installed ONE crossover'd 4-ohm channel with that Sound Ordinance component kit, I can only imagine what the amp was doing.

understanding exactly which wires you intercepted to feed your crossover, and whether you adapted any of the factory wiring would help us figure out what you (or the previous owner) did, and how that would impact the OEM amp.