JBL Speaker Replacement Woes.....

Hello everyone!
I am a new member here, and have just purchased a 2005 Double Cab SR5 for an extra vehicle.
It has a lot of miles, so I have been giving it some TLC, to include replacing the factory JBL speakers. Let me say that its been frustrating. I am a novice with car audio, but have replaced head units and speakers throughout the years. This truck has a pretty basic double din Kenwood touchscreen that is probably about 4ish years old...but blown stock speakers.

I have a couple of issues with my install:

1. I installed the rear 6.5" speakers and they both sound weak and have a slight crackle. Shouldn't they be plug and play, with no extra noise?

2. I started to install the fronts and that's where my novice status began to show. I could not find a reliable wiring diagram where the colors actually matched. I also don't really know how to handle the wiring. My thought was to take all the existing wires going to the 3 speakers and combine them with all positives crimped together and to the new speaker. Same with the negatives...well, let me say it sounds like ass...crackling and they lack any kind of power.

Since I am having so many issues, especially with the rears that are pretty simple, I am beginning to wonder if the head unit has a blown amp...or maybe its wired bad...

So after much frustration last night, I decided to ask some experts! Am I doing it all wrong?

Thanks in advance!
Jason

 

Welcome from NY.
Someone will chime in with a answer.

 

I have done so much research on this, but am amazed at how little information applies to this issue...even finding an accurate speaker diagram...

 

Crutchfelid.com is a good resource. There customer service/tech support may be able to help you. They may be able to supply a harness for your speaker install or tell you how to wire correctly.
Good Luck!

 

I would start off by pulling your head unit out and seeing how it's wired up. Maybe take a couple pictures and post it up.

 

Trooper2, I thought about contacting Crutchfield, but wasn't sure how much they would help considering I didn't buy anything from them. I will check the website right now...Thanks!

I will probably pull the HU tonight if I have time, that's a good idea, Danimal!

 

Let them know what you have or "what you may be interested in". They can tell you if anything else may be required or make the install easier. If they can sell something, they are good.

 

I have an 06 DBL Cab Limited that came with the JBL premium system that had 3 speakers in each front door. I used the Metra amp bypass harness that eliminated the factory JBL amp behind the back seat. I wired the amp bypass so that I only used the subwoofer wires in each front door for the replacement speakers and taped off the tweeter wires.

Left Front Tweeter + Pink
Left Front Tweeter - Violet
Right Front Tweeter + Light green
Right Front Tweeter - Blue
Left Front Subwoofer + Green
Left Front Subwoofer - Blue/white
Right Front Subwoofer + BLACK / YELLOW
Right Front Subwoofer - WHITE/ blue

Left Rear Mid + Black
Left Rear Mid - Yellow
Right Rear Mid + Red
Right Rear Mid - White

Do you still have the factory JBL amp behind the back seat assuming your model came with one?

Amp is mounted on back wall on drivers side at corner

 

Thanks for that information Weadjust! I have that very same harness coming from Amazon today. I ordered it after replacing the HU thinking it was the cause of my distortion, and finding an axxess black box to use the factory amp (thanks Crutchfield!). Guess the previous owner just wanted all the OEM speakers to work...but the fronts were badly blown when I got it.
I will locate the amp today, I’m hoping it’s in the same location. Seems like routing the wires may be a pain in the ass, but I can’t have my stereo sounding this weak and distorted.
I figured while I’m tearing it apart, I would order a sub that sits under the seat for a little more kick, that came in yesterday.

 

If you still have the factory JBL amp you need to get rid of it. The JBL amp is a 2 ohm 6 channel set up and all the aftermarket stuff your installing is most likely 4 ohm 4 channel. Running aftermarket 4 ohm speakers with the 2 ohm JBL amp will significantly decrease the volume output. Also the signal going to the front door speakers is split into just bass for the main door subwoofer speaker and separate signal for the tweeter with the JBL amp. When the amp is gone with the bypass harness you will have a regular 4 channel set up to each door.

Do your original JBL front door speakers look like this

 

I have a Kenwood KSC-SW11 powered subwoofer that fits perfectly under the passenger rear seat in the jack storage compartment

 

Yes, they are exactly that style!

 

Oh that’s really nice! Where do you store the jack?

 

Rockville SS8P 400w 8" Slim Under-Seat Active Powered Car/Truck Subwoofer Sub

$100 Rockville SS8P 400w 8" Slim Under-Seat Active Powered Car/Truck Subwoofer Sub,Black

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079PRCP9W/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_7zXtDbV8XV9AE
This is what I bought...cheap and good reviews...we will see how it works!

 

Ok you have the same set up as me. There are two JBL systems for the DC. The front door speakers and headunit are different on the two JBL systems. Like you I found very little info on the premium system with the three front door speakers and even got the wrong front door speaker adapters and front door speaker wiring adapters from Crutchfield. The front door speakers on Crutchfields DC JBL page are different and are not the Premium JBL system (3 speakers in front doors) but the other JBL system (2 speakers in front doors).

Crutchfields Tundra DC JBL page with photos link (only 2 front door speakers in their picture pages and the wire colors are different)

https://www.crutchfield.com/car/outfitmycar/mycar.aspx?i=1131666S

I put the jack stuff in my tool box but you could put it in the storage compartment under the drivers side rear seat.

 

Interested in hearing your thoughts on it.
Cheap and looks easy to install.
I'd probably mount it behind the back seat out of the way.

 

Mounting my Kenwood behind the back seat where the JBL amp used to be was my original plan. It would not fit unless I left the panel that covers the back of the cab wall out. The kenwood sub is 11"W x 2-3/4"H x 7-1/2"D. I suspect you will find the same with the sub you have.

 

Got the

$33 Metra 70-8117 Factory Amplifier Harness for 2004-Up Toyota Vehicles with JBL Sound System

Metra 70-8117 amp bypass harness today. Panel is off, amp is out.
What is the best path for the wires? Looks like they are run along the drivers door from the factory. I was thinking straight up the middle? Also, the second harness with just 4 wires....is that for me to use for power, ground and amp remote? If so, that is super convenient!

Challenger1, I will post up my impressions...hopefully later today!

Thanks everyone for the replies!

 

Oops. The second connector is for the factory harness. I may still tap power off the amp harness if it’s possible? Hmmmm

 

I ran all my wires for the amp bypass and my subwoofer under the driver side door sill plates. The wires I did not need on the bypass harness were zip tied in a bundle and were left behind the back cab wall panel where the amp used to be.

The drivers side kick panel and door sill plates just pop off. May have a couple of screws or plastic pins but I don't remember. I fished the wires from the front door channel under the pillar to the back door using a coat hanger and some tape.

 

So the install was finished at 1:30AM Saturday night. The harness install went well, but one of the colors were incorrect on it. The Gray and Gray/Black wires were not speaker wires as they should have been. Located the correct wires, and all is good. Sub install went well, I only had to pull the single cable from the HU. Power, ground, and remote were tapped from the old JBL amp harness.
It sounds pretty good, but I need to fine tune the EQ settings and get the sub dialed in. Initial Impressions of the sub are good. Felt like it is built well, and adds a nice bit of bass....I installed it under the drivers side rear seat, but may just move it under the driver seat so its not as crowded by the rear seat plastic bottom....we will see. I can say that the $89 price is well worth it! one can never expect too much from something so compact, so for a little added bass I'm satisfied.
Thank you WEADJUST and others for the help!

 

@weadjust and @jkeith72 thank you for all the useful data above, I just finished putting new door speakers in my 2004 Tundra with JBL sound system and it went very well thanks to you! I ended up keeping the new Kenwood Excelon DDX395 head unit that is wired to the JBL amp, then putting in new front door speakers with tweeter wired to tweeter circuit and big speaker wired to the woofer circuit. I first tried it to the midrange circuit but it had no volume, much better using the woofer circuit. I used the equalizer and other settings in the head unit to get the balance and sound right, it turned out sounding really good with adequate volume, big win I say!

Here is a link to my build thread post with details: https://www.tundras.com/threads/the-6-million-dollar-tundra-revival-story.84992/page-2#post-2185165