Toyota Avalon Grande AU 2000 STEREO

[wikkidiflip]

Hi

Got a Australian 2000 Toyota Avalon Grande with a 7 speaker stereo system (6+1sub), and wanting to install a new head unit + amplifier for a new subwoofer.

Has anyone successfully done this to a 2000 Grande before? If so, how was the factory amp taken care of?

Cheers.

[Avalon_2008]

Hi

Got a Australian 2000 Toyota Avalon Grande with a 7 speaker stereo system (6+1sub), and wanting to install a new head unit + amplifier for a new subwoofer.

Has anyone successfully done this to a 2000 Grande before? If so, how was the factory amp taken care of?

Cheers.

Hi Mate,

I recently had a go about replacing my Toyota Avalon Stereo with another Toyota stereo, and it wasn't fun, as the wires that connects from the stereo don't connect to the speaker, they connect to an amp, the location of the amp is the painful part, it is hiden behind the driver airbag, you would need to access it from under the passenger footwell.

(I have a Mark II VXI, which has the Six Stacker unit ,4 speakers and 2 twiters).

To be honnest, I couldn't reach it, as I saw that there were alot of devices in there (e.g. Cruise Control unit), however, if you take the facia stereo out, you can spot it (hiding in the far left, behind the airbag activation mechanism).

BTW, I didn't change the stereo, I just fixed my old stereo, so I wouldn't have to deal with the amp.

I am sorry I can't be any further help, and good luck with this.

[Banj0]

Apologies for the necro-post, but this thread seems to commonly pop up when searching for info on upgrading the head unit in an Australian Avalon Grande, and I have just spent two consecutive weekends trying to sort this out on the 2005 model. I know the head unit is different on the 2000 model (our '05 has GPS and the 6 stacker in boot), but I'm guessing that similar issues apply to the head unit / amp combo that these cars carry. Maybe my experience can support others who undertake this work.

In our case, I had been to a pro car audio installer and told that the cost of supplying and installing a new head unit for our '05 Avalon Grande would be about $1k, including a Sony XAV-AX5000 head unit. This was too high for my wife (this is her car), who could not see the value. I thought, "Right, I can just do this myself", so off I went and purchased a Sony XAV-AX500 myself (a little under $500), and a harness. The car audio guy said they'd do a bypass - "Phhht! Bypass?!", I thought, "Why not just use the stock amp - surely it would be easier?!".

I did plenty of Googling before I even cracked out the old head unit, trying to find wiring diagrams and plug types. This was REALLY hard to nail down. This unit has a 20 pin connector (attached image shows harness) at rear, something like that in this article: http://myfirsttoyota.blogspot.com/2014/02/connectors-to-fujitsu-denso-toyota-head.html  Not exactly the same, but when I removed our head unit I discovered that it had all of the connections listed in that article aside from the DVD video socket.

Incidentally, the unit in our '05 Avalon Grande is a Toyota 86100-YF100 / Fujitsu Ten 135001-2980A101. Try googling that...yeah...nothing.

I thought the Aerpro APP0259 looked like it would suit this stock harness connector, as the images online showed the same 20pin socket as that on the head unit. Even if it wasn't pinned correctly, I could surely modify it myself. I ordered one of these, but the harness I received an 18 pin connector instead. Communication with Aerpro revealed that the APP0259 images did indeed show the 20-pin connector I was after, but the harness was now sold with an 18 pin connecter instead! Useless to me. Word of warning then: the APP0259 actually has an 18 pin connector, not as pictured almost everywhere, but if you find old stock it may come with the 20 pin. It is variously listed as 18 pin or 20 pin depending where you look.

Elsewhere I was able to order the correct 20 pin connector as part of a 'Premium Sound System With Amp Integration' harness, sold for the Lexus ES300. I would use this later, but only to run the illumination signal.

Armed with my trusty multi-meter, I started probing the main 20-pin connector in the car to see what each pin did. It came up very close to the '03 Forerunner described in the linked blog above. This is what I found:

Pin1: Battery
Pin2: Illumination
Pin5: Data
Pin7: Not sure, but seems likely to be amp mute/power as described for the Forerunner
Pin8: Audio out
Pin9: Audio out
Pin10: Audio ground
Pin11: Acc
Pin13: No idea, listed as antenna amp power for Forerunner
Pin15: Data
Pin18: Audio out
Pin19: Audio out
Pin20: Ground

Pins not listed above had no connections.

The wires that had me concerned here were 5 and 15. These two wires made a twisted pair and went to the stock amp. I was not familiar with this arrangement, but a bit of research lead me to conclude that these two wires send data to and fro' the amp, and without them, the amp would not function correctly. *sigh*. No off-the-shelf head unit will play nicely with this stock amplifier!

So...I pulled out the passenger footwell cover and poked around to find the amp. I found it to the very left, and managed to remove the two cables running to it. I found what appeared to be the audio signals and amp control (mute and data) coming via one smaller connection, and power and speaker outputs via the other plug. I found the Aerpro APP0260 (to suit Lexus IS200), which appeared to have the correct long connection on it to suit the speaker harness coming out of the amp. This APP0260 had two ISO connections on the other end. Once bitten but not twice shy, I ordered this harness.

Once the APP0260 arrive, I pulled various bits of trim out of the Avalon again, unplugged the factory amp, and popped the APP0260 onto the harness. Again with multimeter in hand, I tested the various pins on it, finding that everything appeared to be in the right spot. This harness also supplies 12v, ACC, and ground connections to the factory amp, and I didn't want these to go to the wrong place. I had also purchased an Aerpro APP8SP4 to suit the Sony head unit (with ISO connections).

So, I pulled out the new Sony and popped it onto the passenger seat, plugged in the APP8SP4, and connected that to the ISO connections on the APP0260. Straight away the display came to life with demo info. Turning the ignition to ACC, and I had SOUND! Tested fader/balance, and all speakers were working as intended (aside from sub). Beautiful!

Note on the sub...because the aftermarket head unit has no onboard sub amp, we lose the rear deck sub by doing this. Turns out that it doesn't do very much anyway, but this can be overcome by adding a small amp to the setup and feeding it with the sub output from the aftermarket deck. Shouldn't be too hard, and this is something I'll probably try later.

As for the 20 pin connector to the factory head unit, well, I ended up taking only the illumination signal from it. I used my 'premium' 20 pin plug to take this from the vehicle harness, and soldered that wire to the loose illumination wire on the APP8SP4 harness. Works fine. So our 20 pin connector only ended up carrying one wire in the end - you could just as easily do this with a tap.

After running the mic lead (placed behind the 'A' pillar, and tapping the park brake (unnecessary, as you can just ground this if you choose), I put the new head into the dash (with some 'Toyota' ears on the sides) and tested everything before replacing the trim. All works well.

So, in summary, if you want to do this with a later model Toyota Avalon Grande with the Sat Nav unit, you will need:

• Aerpro APP0260
• Aerpro APP8SP4 (for the Sony XAV-AX5000, or alternative ISO harness to suit your factory head)
• 20 pin male connector, OR a tap for the illumination wire
• Fascia 'ears' to suit double din going into Japanese Toyota/Subaru style double din slot

Simply pull out the trim, remove the factory head unit, pull the cables out of the amp and plug the long connector into the APP0260, connect ISO harness for your aftermarket head to the APP0260 and the head unit, connect any other remaining wires that you wish to use, and then put it all back together.

Of course, if you want to put in new speakers you may want to run your own wires, and no doubt you won't care about the bypass harness. In that case, at least you can use the 20pin connector to power the head unit using the above pin layout.

Hope this might be useful to some other poor sucker who decides to do this! Cost for me in the end was around $600 (by the time the harnesses, useful or otherwise, as added in), plus a couple of days stuffing about. I'm sure it would be quicker and easier if I had to do it again.

One last thing...when shopping for harnesses it seems that some retailers have very little value to add in terms of knowledge. If the product doesn't say 'Toyota Avalon Grande' on it, then "it won't work"! Clearly this is not the case with the Avalon Grande, as the APP0260 suits it just fine, but is spec'd for the Lexus IS200! The APP0259 would also have fit the Toyota at one point in time, but for Aerpro changing the plugs on this connector. Take everything with a grain of salt - the Australian Avalon Grande is a little unique.

Edited December 16, 2019 by Banj0
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