2016 w/OUT JBL. What am I dealing with here?

Hey folks,

I decided to take a look at the rear of my "stock" head unit, and to my surprise, it doesnt appear to be the unit that this truck came with. There are multiple wires, including the antenna etc which dont appear to be connected, and clearly wires have been spliced in. It appears to me that a previous owner either had the original go bad and put a different unit in or something, because clearly this isnt an "upgraded" head unit.

What am I dealing with here? My plan was to put a Teyes CC3 in, but now I am unsure what I am going to need to do to make this work.

 

Ah yikes, I hate it when people don't use wiring harness adapters. Got the part number or a photo of the stickers on the top and bottom of the unit? Maybe we can learn more that way.

 

here is link to pin out

https://pinoutguide.com/Car-Stereo-Toyota-Lexus/Toyota_Tundra_2015_Radio_pinout.shtml

 

Thanks that should come in handy!

 

I'm fairly certain that is an OEM head unit for a 2016, however they definitely chopped factory wires instead of using a t-harness which is annoying. Guessing your right in that original head unit went kaput, they replaced with a junk yard one, but not sure why they cut some of the wires. Could also be that their head unit was stolen and thieves chopped the wires instead of undoing the connectors, hence the positaps and electrical tape connections. Those 2 thick blue wires in your first pic appear to be speedwire, which leads me to believe they were running an aftermarket amp setup. Rather than doing a t-harness at the factory amp under the passenger seat, it looks like they probably tapped in before at the back of the head unit. In any case, I'd start by seeing where those thick blue speedwires run to. To clean everything up, if it were me, I'd take off any of the positaps, pull off that electrical tape, and start by either solder and heat shrinking all those connections, or if not solder use butt connectors with heat shrink. The connections in the pictures are garbage at best and sketchy at worst.

Do all of your AC controls, steering wheel controls etc. work properly? Like volume, skip track etc.?

If I had to hazard a guess, I'd wager that blue pair of speedwire probably runs to under your passenger seat. Possible they replaced the factory amp under there and may have left it, or they put the factory one back in before selling it and didn't bother pulling the speedwire. I left speedwire ran in my last truck when I sold it, but I had used a t-harness so everything was back to factory when I sold it, minus the addition of 15' of speedwire ran to the back.

Ultimately like I said I'm fairly certain that is a factory head unit for that year, and if you repair all of those shoddy connections you should be good to go. I'm not familiar with the Teyes CC3, but I'm sure the connectors on the back either match factory, or there's a wire harness you'd use to connect it. If there's not a double ended harness, e.g. one end that plugs into the back of the Teyes with another end that plugs into the factory Tundra harnesses, you'll have to cut off the factory Tundra harnesses anyways.

According to this thread the Teyes CC3 should be plug and play: Aftermarket Head Unit | Toyota Tundra Forum (tundras.com)

Only downside is it looks like you need to download an app and buy an external carplay adapter if that's a feature you plan on using.

 

^ This, someone probably had an aftermarket HU and put the stock back in when they sold/traded it in.
It's a shame they cut wires, there is no need for that..

 

Yeah I hate when people do s*** like that in vehicles, especially when it's hidden behind a panel or in the dash. No way of telling without taking things apart. AutoHarnessHouse.com has a variety of harnesses for Tundra's, although they're more geared towards T-Harnesses etc. for tying into factory systems and adding aftermarket amps etc., but they might be worth checking out if you end up needing any harnesses for your new head unit. As for the Teyes, the price and features are attractive, but I've always been a proponent of big name brands for software that works, and ease of support/returns if something fizzles out.

 

At this point I will be running all new speaker wire anyway, so its not a huge deal that they cut them. Ive not going though all the pin-out diagram to see exactly what they cut yet, but I assume they arent as big of a deal as the speaker wires, so it shouldnt be a major issue. What really had me confused was all the additional wires in the back that werent hooked up, as well as plugs that were not used. The USB for example wasnt even hooked in, so the USB plug next to the 12v plug didnt work. There were some other wires coiled back there too unused...so I can only assume they had things from the aftermarket deck back there. There was never an amp in this truck as far as I can tell.

 

I'd guess then that they swapped this factory unit back in when they went to sell and did a shoddy job reconnecting everything. With those 2 runs of speedwire in your picture though I'm fairly certain they would have been using an aftermarket amp as well. Have you checked the factory amp connections under your passenger seat to see if they hacked anything under there as well? Since you'll be running all new wire, agreed that it's a non-issue, but with work that shoddy I'd be skeptical they didn't leave something else unhooked or cut that could cause a short. Better to be safe than sorry and check the factory amp as well, my 2 cents.

 

This truck doesnt have a factory amp. Its BARE BONES. I do suppose its possible they removed the factory amp and just didnt put it back in though....thats a good call to check for wiring. Again i know for certain there is no amp under the seat(s). For the record, the audio sounds like complete dog $#*! right now, so its definitely possible that the guy ripped out the stock amp, put in an aftermarket HU and Amp, then removed the subs/HU/Amp and just wired the stock speakers back to the HU. Clearly it works OK, but it sounds muddy AF, and has ZERO bass.

 

I believe all Tundras from 2014-2021 have a factory amp under the passenger seat that powers the 4 door woofers, while the tweeters in the dash corners are powered by the head unit. In the JBL trim level trucks the mid ranges are in the dash corners instead of the tweeters, which are moved to the sail panels. I don’t think the plain ol SR work models lacked the basic factory amp, but I could be wrong. If you’re radio and speakers work the amps either there or I’m totally wrong and work trucks power everything off the head unit. In any case if you’re running new speaker wire I’m assuming you’re installing new speakers? It looks like the Teyes CC3 is rated for 4x45w rms which is pretty decent, but an aftermarket amp would definitely be something to consider, if even just a modest 4ch.

 

I'm under that same impression, my 2016 SR5 had a factory amp. I removed it initially, and then readded it. It does do something helpful even if it's not terribly clean. Someday I'll pull it one of those Kenwood 5 channel amps but today's not that day, still pretty happy with the audio upgrade from the

$999 DMX1037S 10.1" High Definition Car Stereo Receiver with Capacitive Touch Panel

DMX1037S headunit.

 

Supposedly the work truck does not have the amp. In talking to James at tech12volts hes only seen about 5 of these trucks, but he has seen them. I am 100% certain there is no amp in the cab anywhere. I have my plans documented in a brand new build thread here. The short of it is I think you are dead on. I am however starting with new tweeters + Factory Door Speakers run off the CC3 HU. I am adding a pair of 8" subs and sub amp and I will go from there. I anticipate there is a better than average chance that once I am able to filter out the base from the stock door speakers, and run them all off the upgraded HU, its possible it may be satisfactory for my less than audiophile ears. Regardless, I am fully planning on adding a pair of door speakers and a 4 channel amp to power the tweeters and door speakers. At that point I am pretty confident this truck will be handled....

 

Im going to check under the seat to see if the guy just spliced the wires together to complete the circuit but didnt reinstall the aftermarket amp. Honestly that is what I hope happened, because that would explain why it sounds so terrible.

 

Should be a pretty quick glance, if the amp is present, it's not a small thing. I have one of those bypass harnesses still, I plan on reusing it when I do someday upgrade that amp, hopefully that's the $20 route the previous owner took instead of, well, what we're starting with here!

 

Unfortunately I cant just run outside and check. The truck is getting leather put in it right now . I know for a fact the amp is not there. I already checked. What I didnt do was pull up the carpet to see if there were wires run under the passenger seat (from the deck and returning from the amp that were spliced to bypass the amp). Regardless of which of the two I am facing, I am going to replace all the factory wire anyway, so it really makes no difference.

 

This is on my 2020 SR5. The amp harness will come from the floor. You may not even have a harness. There's no telling what the PO did.

 

When I did bypass my amp for a while, the wiring all tucked away neatly under the carpet there even with the harness. Here's hoping that's what's waiting for you!

 

That lil black plastic box/cover is not there for sure. But again, even if it is there, I am planning to replace all the speaker wire with 16 awg wire, RCAs to the Amps, as well as new power/ground wires anyway, so its really not going to be much help regardless.

 

With the speedwire in your pics and lack of factory amp, 99% chance previous owner had an aftermarket amp. You’re probably right that they just looped the signal at the other end of the speedwire. I wouldn’t be surprised with how shoddy their work was, if they 1) installed low quality aftermarket speakers that perform worse than oem and left them in when they sold it or 2) put the blown or half blown stock speakers back in before selling. I wouldn’t be surprised if they did #1 and the head unit isn’t strong enough to power them, as well as the possibility they installed them without adapters or chopped the factory speakers out of the factory brackets and dropped them in. I’ve had friends install cheap aftermarket speakers that ended up sounding worse than their factory ones due to poor fitment and lack of power. Whatever the case may be, a full system overhaul will undoubtedly make a night and day difference and congrats on the coming upgrades!

 

I had not even really considered that they may have put crappy/non-stock speakers in there, or crossing fingers, actually put better than stock door speakers in and left them. I am definitely not that lucky! I will be sure to add that to my build thread when I find out . I get my truck back tomorrow afternoon. I will take some pictures.