leonar40's subwoofer installation / illuminated door sill installation
Hi everyone. I'm going to be installing a Rockford Fosgate P300-10 powered subwoofer soon. Because I am keeping the OEM head unit, which doesn't have any RCA outputs, I will need to tap the rear speaker wires. While I have everything torn apart, I am going to install the illuminated door sills, which requires some of the same panels to be removed.
This first section will detail performing the rear speaker taps as well as installing the illuminated door sills. There are already good instructions in the Lexus service manual and with the illuminated door sills, so I won't concentrate on those steps. But instead will share some of the tricks that I found and issues that I ran into during the installation. There is also a good thread on the rear speaker connector here:
http://www.ct200hforum.com/forum/le...nto-factory-speaker-wiring-where-easiest.html
1. Tools
- Plastic trim removal tools
Astro Pneumatic 4524 Auto Fastener and Molding Removal Tool Set, 11-Piece - Amazon.com
- 18 gauge mini Posi-Tap connectors
Posi-Tap- No Crimp Tap
- Wire cutters, wire strippers, needle noise pliers, zip ties, electrical tape
2. Unplug the negative cable on the 12V battery.
3. Removing OEM head unit
The Lexus service manual does a good job of explaining this. I did not find the pieces too difficult to remove, but there are a lot of them so it is fairly time consuming. I really miss the days of just pulling the radio out with a radio removal tool like in my Ford Ranger. I can remove that radio in less than 1 minute. Once you finally have access to the head unit, you will remove it by taking out the four #10 bolts, and then pulling the head unit out. Lexus didn't give us a great deal of slack on the wires, but there is enough to work with. There are a lot of connectors to unplug along the way, but Lexus was good enough to make it such that no two connectors are interchangeable, which is very helpful when you put it back together. When you are done you will have a big pile of parts like this:
4. Run the speaker wires to the head unit location
You will be routing the speaker wires under the glovebox and along the door sills, which are the same panels that you remove to install the door sills. Pull them up and out of the OEM head unit location so that you can work with them. You will notice that I also took off a little panel on the left side of the footwell.
5. Tap into the rear speaker wires
As was pointed out in an earlier thread, the rear speaker wires are contained in their own connector. The color code is:
Left Rear + Green
Left Rear - Brown
Right Rear + Red
Right Rear - White
I used Posi-tap connectors which made the job fairly easy. You are still working in a tight spot, but it's about a good as it could get. I couldn't image trying to solder in that small of an area. Just a word of caution, when connecting in the speaker wire side of the tap, I ran into a couple of issues. On one connection, the Posi-tap connector actually cut the speaker wire in half when I was screwing it together. I just re-striped, tried again, and this time I was successful. Another time I had a connector where the threads were stripped. Not sure if I did that by tightening too tight, or it was faulty to start with. Give the speaker cables a good pull test and also check for continuity if you have a multimeter. You will notice that I am not tapping a 12V source for the amplifier as it automatically detects the signal on the speaker wires for turn-on.
6. Route the speaker wires to the back of the car
You will be routing the speaker wires under the glovebox, down to the front door sill, behind the "B" pillar, and along the rear door sill. After that it is personal preference about how you get the speaker wires into the trunk area. For me, I peeled back the rubber door seal on the right side passenger door, removed the grill for the hybrid battery fan, and ran the speaker wires up/under that large piece of plastic trim, over underneath the hybrid battery vent, and finally behind the right side passenger seat. Use lots of zip ties for strain relief. I also added a strain relief right after the wires leave the OEM head unit location using an existing bolt. Sorry it wasn't really possible to take good pictures of all of that, but here are a couple:
7. Reassemble the interior trim pieces around the OEM head unit
At this point I did a final continuity check between the speaker wires in the truck and the rear speaker wire connector. Reassemble the interior trim pieces by going in the reverse order as was done during the removal. I left the footwell trim panels and door sills panels off for use during the illuminated door sill installation.
8. Install right side Illuminated door sill
Everything was done according to the included instructions except that I cut off the "t-taps" and used the posi-taps instead. One tip, make sure that you are taping the wires with the connector in the correct direction so that the tap goes the direction that you want (to the right in this case). Luckily the illuminated door sill has a good amount of slack, so this was not a big deal.
9. Install left side Illuminated door sill
Installation is similar to the right side, except that the panel that you remove has two screws that need to be removed, and there is an extra connector that gets in the way. Routing the cable is a little bit trickier as you don't want it to interfere with the emergency brake or the hood release cable. I routed the cable in front of the emergency brake pedal (up in the plastic panel so you can't see it), and then used zip ties to work my way down to the door sill wiring run.
10. Install rear door sills
The rear door sills are not illuminated, so you just pull off the old ones, and put on the new ones.
That's it. The total operation took me about 5 hours. When I plugged the 12V battery back in, of course I had to reset the clock and my radio preferences. All of the car preferences (the ones on the dash display) where saved which was nice. I also noticed that the car ran strangely for about the first mile or two. I guess it has to re-learn it's idle settings and things like that? One thing that concerned me is that I noticed the hybrid battery was down to only one bar. I took it for a drive and within about 2 miles it was back up to normal (1 bar from the top). I doubt it was actually discharged down, maybe it just have to "re-calibrate" when you disconnect the 12V battery, I'm not sure.
I should have the subwoofer delivered and ready for installation in a week or so. I'll continue the write-up at that time.
- Jason
Hi everyone. I'm going to be installing a Rockford Fosgate P300-10 powered subwoofer soon. Because I am keeping the OEM head unit, which doesn't have any RCA outputs, I will need to tap the rear speaker wires. While I have everything torn apart, I am going to install the illuminated door sills, which requires some of the same panels to be removed.
This first section will detail performing the rear speaker taps as well as installing the illuminated door sills. There are already good instructions in the Lexus service manual and with the illuminated door sills, so I won't concentrate on those steps. But instead will share some of the tricks that I found and issues that I ran into during the installation. There is also a good thread on the rear speaker connector here:
http://www.ct200hforum.com/forum/le...nto-factory-speaker-wiring-where-easiest.html
1. Tools
- Plastic trim removal tools
Astro Pneumatic 4524 Auto Fastener and Molding Removal Tool Set, 11-Piece - Amazon.com
- 18 gauge mini Posi-Tap connectors
Posi-Tap- No Crimp Tap
- Wire cutters, wire strippers, needle noise pliers, zip ties, electrical tape
2. Unplug the negative cable on the 12V battery.
3. Removing OEM head unit
The Lexus service manual does a good job of explaining this. I did not find the pieces too difficult to remove, but there are a lot of them so it is fairly time consuming. I really miss the days of just pulling the radio out with a radio removal tool like in my Ford Ranger. I can remove that radio in less than 1 minute. Once you finally have access to the head unit, you will remove it by taking out the four #10 bolts, and then pulling the head unit out. Lexus didn't give us a great deal of slack on the wires, but there is enough to work with. There are a lot of connectors to unplug along the way, but Lexus was good enough to make it such that no two connectors are interchangeable, which is very helpful when you put it back together. When you are done you will have a big pile of parts like this:
4. Run the speaker wires to the head unit location
You will be routing the speaker wires under the glovebox and along the door sills, which are the same panels that you remove to install the door sills. Pull them up and out of the OEM head unit location so that you can work with them. You will notice that I also took off a little panel on the left side of the footwell.
5. Tap into the rear speaker wires
As was pointed out in an earlier thread, the rear speaker wires are contained in their own connector. The color code is:
Left Rear + Green
Left Rear - Brown
Right Rear + Red
Right Rear - White
I used Posi-tap connectors which made the job fairly easy. You are still working in a tight spot, but it's about a good as it could get. I couldn't image trying to solder in that small of an area. Just a word of caution, when connecting in the speaker wire side of the tap, I ran into a couple of issues. On one connection, the Posi-tap connector actually cut the speaker wire in half when I was screwing it together. I just re-striped, tried again, and this time I was successful. Another time I had a connector where the threads were stripped. Not sure if I did that by tightening too tight, or it was faulty to start with. Give the speaker cables a good pull test and also check for continuity if you have a multimeter. You will notice that I am not tapping a 12V source for the amplifier as it automatically detects the signal on the speaker wires for turn-on.
6. Route the speaker wires to the back of the car
You will be routing the speaker wires under the glovebox, down to the front door sill, behind the "B" pillar, and along the rear door sill. After that it is personal preference about how you get the speaker wires into the trunk area. For me, I peeled back the rubber door seal on the right side passenger door, removed the grill for the hybrid battery fan, and ran the speaker wires up/under that large piece of plastic trim, over underneath the hybrid battery vent, and finally behind the right side passenger seat. Use lots of zip ties for strain relief. I also added a strain relief right after the wires leave the OEM head unit location using an existing bolt. Sorry it wasn't really possible to take good pictures of all of that, but here are a couple:
7. Reassemble the interior trim pieces around the OEM head unit
At this point I did a final continuity check between the speaker wires in the truck and the rear speaker wire connector. Reassemble the interior trim pieces by going in the reverse order as was done during the removal. I left the footwell trim panels and door sills panels off for use during the illuminated door sill installation.
8. Install right side Illuminated door sill
Everything was done according to the included instructions except that I cut off the "t-taps" and used the posi-taps instead. One tip, make sure that you are taping the wires with the connector in the correct direction so that the tap goes the direction that you want (to the right in this case). Luckily the illuminated door sill has a good amount of slack, so this was not a big deal.
9. Install left side Illuminated door sill
Installation is similar to the right side, except that the panel that you remove has two screws that need to be removed, and there is an extra connector that gets in the way. Routing the cable is a little bit trickier as you don't want it to interfere with the emergency brake or the hood release cable. I routed the cable in front of the emergency brake pedal (up in the plastic panel so you can't see it), and then used zip ties to work my way down to the door sill wiring run.
10. Install rear door sills
The rear door sills are not illuminated, so you just pull off the old ones, and put on the new ones.
That's it. The total operation took me about 5 hours. When I plugged the 12V battery back in, of course I had to reset the clock and my radio preferences. All of the car preferences (the ones on the dash display) where saved which was nice. I also noticed that the car ran strangely for about the first mile or two. I guess it has to re-learn it's idle settings and things like that? One thing that concerned me is that I noticed the hybrid battery was down to only one bar. I took it for a drive and within about 2 miles it was back up to normal (1 bar from the top). I doubt it was actually discharged down, maybe it just have to "re-calibrate" when you disconnect the 12V battery, I'm not sure.
I should have the subwoofer delivered and ready for installation in a week or so. I'll continue the write-up at that time.
- Jason