Repairing your dash after a thief destroyed it

Like the title say, I'm going to attempt to fix this for my brother-in-law before he has to move up to Alaska.



I'll try to keep this updated with some useful information that might help someone else out who finds themselves in a similar situation.

So far I have found most of the parts using ebay and salvage yards with their inventories listed on car-parts.com. Most of the stuff is schedule to arrive by the end of next week. I try to avoid the stealership at all cost because I am cheap and don't think you should pay $375 for a new headunit surround and a 4x4 switch, let alone $2K for a factory head unit.

The single most challenging thing about this repair is going to be replacing the connectors. I know there is alway a lot of interest in finding connectors to swap newer headunits into older tacomas so I'm going to walk through the process of how you can get them, sometimes even for free.

So most people know about Toyotas TIS website. $15 give you two day access to everything you could want to know about your tacoma. I pulled the wiring diagram for a 2013 tacoma with a built in amplifier to get an idea of the connectors I will need.



Looks like the names of the connectors to the headunit are R1, R2, R15, and R22. Well on ebay they sell a reverse harness for connectors R1 and R2 for around $5. You can't really beat that. The tricky one is R15. So scrolling down to the bottom of the diagram I can see these pictures of the connectors. Take note that the R15 Connector has 28 pins configured in two rows (14 pins per row).



I could be wrong but I don't think a lot of people have heard of this website TE.com. They manufacture a lot if not every connector that toyota uses. The problem is there is no connection between toyota part numbers and TE.com part numbers so it is really hard to find them on their site. Here is the best way I know how to locate them. Most of the connectors are part of the .025 series.

Go to www.TE.com and search for .025 series. Or just click here





Next you come to a page where you can narrow your search. Select number of rows = 2 and number of positions = 28.








This significantly narrows your search down. Now just pick one that looks like R15.







Its important to note that the picture on the description page is not always 100% accurate so you need to check out the connector drawing. Also check out the part number for the pins because the dealership will charge you $11 per pin and no buddy has cash for that.







Now comparing the R15 Connector to the one on TE.com you can see they look pretty close.







Now here is the best part. You can request free samples! If they are in stock TE.com will drop ship them to you fedex express! If they are not in stock just search google with the TE part number and multiple venders will pop up that you can buy the connector and pins from.







In my next post I'll go through some of the OBD II stuff I'm using to read the error codes. And with that said, if you are in the market for and OBD II Scan tool I would suggest checking out this kickstarter. I already use the OBDLink MX Bluetooth and its worked really well for me. Since I am an iPhone user I already backed this one which will support iPhones... at the time I posted this (2/189/14) there are 13 days left in the kickstarter. (Link)

 

they stole a factory head unit? why?

 

that sucks. i have a stock head unit from a non-jbl 2010 taco I would donate, but I'm sure you want the '13 HU.

 

It was a touch screen so maybe they thought it was worth something. They also just the USB jack which ain't going to be cheap to replace either.

I appreciate it. I was hoping to get my hands on one of the non Jbl nav units that one of the members on here seems to have a supply of. Unfortunately I think the waiting list is a little too long and my brother-in-law wasn't too interested in navigation so I recommended he buy a stock non nav touch screen from eBay. The good news is it came with a clock/hazard assembly. He also had proof of purchase from a salvage yard so I know it wasn't stolen.

Edit: I should probably clarify I had no reason to think any member on here is selling stolen nav units I just mean that I'm suspicious of someone selling one on eBay with the clock assembly because the original owner is not likely to sell that part with the headunit.

 

Damn man... that sucks. Hope it isn't too much trouble and too expensive. I know I would be pissed

 

Understand the enjoyment of helping others , but shouldnt this type of repair be covered under insurance ?

 

The goal is to keep the repairs under $1000 deductible and not have to file a claim. As long as I don't find anything else wrong, I think we'll squeak by just under that.

 

I would trade it in. The feeling of being violated like that would make me not want to drive the truck again.

 

It would just give me an excuse to make it better. Lol

 

Thats throw away thinking!

Good for you op, sorry to hear about that, if anyone ever broke into my truck i'd be beyond pissed

 

I traded in my 08 frontier for this exact reason, every time i got into the truck i got pissed just thinking about what happened to it. what a blessing it turned out to be

 

I had my first gen broken into once. They jacked all my snowboarding gear some tools and my jack kit. I was pretty pissed and I know exactly what you mean about feeling violated. I walked out side to head to work in the morning only to find all my doors and glove box wide open on my truck.

Since this isn't my truck I just see it as a fun project. Some of you might have seen my other post on modding factory headunits. I guess my brother in law just got lucky that I actually enjoy doing this kind of stuff. Today I got the headunit and dash surround plus the R15 connector from TE.com. Also made some progress on soldering some of the connectors.

 

I actually work for a distributor for TE. I shipped out similar stuff today.

 

Do you guys have a website? I'd like to have it for future reference.

Edit: I also just wanted to say that I can now confirm that the R15 connector I selected in my first post was the correct one. It plugs right into the back of a 2013 Radio.

 

great thread man! great info!

 

What or who is TE.com?

 

I believe it is just TTI inc.com.

 

felt the same way after my mustang GT conv was stolen,not damaged but it was never right after that
hope the new install goes well with no future issues

 

I got a lot done over the weekend. Since soldering wire ends seems pretty self explanatory its probably not worth going into too much detail. One thing I will say though is setting up your splices before you start soldering goes a long way. After I determined where each wire goes on the connector I soldered both ends of the splice. This is an important step because unless you have three hands you can't hold the wire, the soldering iron, and the solder at the same time. If both end have the solder on it already all you do is line the wire up with one had and quickly melt the solder with the other had. Another important step is to coat the pre-soldered wire ends with fux. That way the solder flows nicely which will eliminate a sharp burr of solder when you pull the iron away. If you do get a burr in the solder make sure you clip it off. If you're not careful when you go to shrink the heat shrink tape over the splice the burr will penetrate it leaving the wire exposed.





These new stereos have several circuits which require a shielded wire. The purpose of the shielding is to protect the signal wires from outside interference or noise. When you splice a shielded wire you need to make sure you properly apply a shielded cover over the splice or you will risk having a noisy signal. It takes a little forethought and preparation but it is far from difficult. First you need to pull the insulation back for enough to expose the signal wires. Splice these first and cover them with heat shrink tape.



The shielding is just a bare wire wrapped in tinfoil. So just like you would think, connect the shielding wire with solder and wrap the splice area with tinfoil.





then just shrink the tape over the tinfoil and now the wire is good as new.





in case anyone is interested here is a shot of most of the tools I used for this repair.






It took some time but I tried to remain patient. I have to say this is quite the improvement over the truck's previous state.






and finally kid tested and approved!

 

I fucking hate people. I wish that if they were going to steal something that they wouldnt destroy a bunch of stuff too. Fuckers. Good on you for fixing it.