When I was at Scion Exposed 8.0 I bought the Scion xB radio off of 
Cornhusker and installed it on the tC it was a straight swap out, except I also got the harness and parts for the ipod which I did not have so a slight wire difference, but otherwise the same.
Picture of the radio and center consel
I have been wanting to set up the Blu-tooth feature for this radio for the obvious safety reasons, plus it will get rid of the extra wires I have hanging around, The white wire, in the photo connects the phone to the aux port. I did a little research and figured out that the universal from Toyota would do the trick. I got lucky and found one on Scikotics website near me in Orlando. (The guy also has a killer glass for the tC for sale). I talked to him and bought a brand new never installed unit for a reasonable price.
Today I went ahead and installed it and decided to do a simple write up for it.
Here is a picture of the unit and everything it comes with.
It comes with a Brain (Control Unit), phone on/off button, microphone, and a wire harness. It also included zip ties, stick on padding a few other little bits for install.
The harness for the Control unit (shown coiled up) is great. I like how it is designed the idea is to work as a splicer. That means plug and play in the true sense of the word. All you have to do for the wires is plug them in between the radio and the wires using all stock plugs. I am ahead of myself.
Here are the tools you will need (not shown denatured alcohol.)
I do not use them all, but better safe then sorry.
The first thing to do is dismantle the waterfall and expose the radio. I think we all should know how to do that, if not do a search and you will find a couple of them.
The radio is held in with a 10mm nuts on the top and two Philips's head screws on the bottom. Once you undo these you can pull the radio back and see the wire harness plugged into the radio these are the wires that you will be messing with in the blu-tooth install.
I decided to install the Brain ontop of the Air Bag Control Unit (please never mess with those wires)
I have not connected the wires to the control unit, this was to test fit. I have a close up picture so you can see something cool about it.
I want you guys to notice that all of the plugs are different sizes and colors, there is almost no way to mess up the connections. I do not connect anything to it is all routed.
I had to route the Microphone which I mounted on top of the steering column so that it was in front of the driver and easy to mount. I removed the gauge cluster cover so That I may pass the wire under the gauges and through the dash and reach the control unit.
Microphone Picture
The other item that needed to be routed was the phone button. I decided to mount this in the place of the cigarette lighter (non-smoker) and move the cigarette lighter and the harness for it to under the cup holder this will have a later DIY on an excelent use for it.
Cigarette lighter back part (undo from this side to get out.)
Cigarette lighter with the lighter plugged in.
Once I had the wires routed I went ahead and plugged it all together. I did not take pictures of this. I am sure all of you can disconect plugs and plug things in.
Here is a picture of the car put back together wow that phone button looks like it came from the factory that way.
BTW the Microphone and phone button are the only visible things.
I was surprised at how easy it was to install this. I would give this a 4 out of 10 and only give the 4 because of the wires (it can scare people). I also will add that one connection wire was not used on my kit and it was for the XM radio since I do not have that in the car hence no wires.
Review
The Blu-tooth unit can have up to seven phones paired with it, but only one can be connected at a time with it. In other words if Chrissy and I are in the car only one of our pones can be paired with it and the other is normal usage. We have the Motorola Razr and that is what this review is based on.
The voice commands of the Razr are really useful with the unit. I push the phone button and I say <call> mom and it will dial it. I am also able to listen to the radio and have the navigation system on the phone in use and it will stop the music when it is time to make a turn, this is great considering I like to listen to the radio while I drive to far off places. I can also stream Pandora, Iheart or any other music streaming from my phone. I hate to say their is one downside and it is that it only will run through the front speakers since the blu-tooth only is heard through the front speakers. I was disappointed at this till I realized I did not have to have Pandora on like I did before when I was using navigation. I have to say it is a great safety device as well as an excellent add on for the radio and tC. I give this two thumbs up. [IMG]http://smiliesftw.com/x/thumb up 1.gif[/IMG]
I also have to add the picture of the latest Vinyl work on the tC.
BTW on the bottom of the glass it says "You got passed by a girl" I have a cheeky wife.
I hope you enjoyed this write up and DIY Please ask questions if you have them and I will update this diy or make a new one when I do a phone holder for it.
Cornhusker and installed it on the tC it was a straight swap out, except I also got the harness and parts for the ipod which I did not have so a slight wire difference, but otherwise the same.Picture of the radio and center consel
I have been wanting to set up the Blu-tooth feature for this radio for the obvious safety reasons, plus it will get rid of the extra wires I have hanging around, The white wire, in the photo connects the phone to the aux port. I did a little research and figured out that the universal from Toyota would do the trick. I got lucky and found one on Scikotics website near me in Orlando. (The guy also has a killer glass for the tC for sale). I talked to him and bought a brand new never installed unit for a reasonable price.
Today I went ahead and installed it and decided to do a simple write up for it.
Here is a picture of the unit and everything it comes with.
It comes with a Brain (Control Unit), phone on/off button, microphone, and a wire harness. It also included zip ties, stick on padding a few other little bits for install.
The harness for the Control unit (shown coiled up) is great. I like how it is designed the idea is to work as a splicer. That means plug and play in the true sense of the word. All you have to do for the wires is plug them in between the radio and the wires using all stock plugs. I am ahead of myself.
Here are the tools you will need (not shown denatured alcohol.)
I do not use them all, but better safe then sorry.
The first thing to do is dismantle the waterfall and expose the radio. I think we all should know how to do that, if not do a search and you will find a couple of them.
The radio is held in with a 10mm nuts on the top and two Philips's head screws on the bottom. Once you undo these you can pull the radio back and see the wire harness plugged into the radio these are the wires that you will be messing with in the blu-tooth install.
I decided to install the Brain ontop of the Air Bag Control Unit (please never mess with those wires)
I have not connected the wires to the control unit, this was to test fit. I have a close up picture so you can see something cool about it.
I want you guys to notice that all of the plugs are different sizes and colors, there is almost no way to mess up the connections. I do not connect anything to it is all routed.
I had to route the Microphone which I mounted on top of the steering column so that it was in front of the driver and easy to mount. I removed the gauge cluster cover so That I may pass the wire under the gauges and through the dash and reach the control unit.
Microphone Picture
The other item that needed to be routed was the phone button. I decided to mount this in the place of the cigarette lighter (non-smoker) and move the cigarette lighter and the harness for it to under the cup holder this will have a later DIY on an excelent use for it.
Cigarette lighter back part (undo from this side to get out.)
Cigarette lighter with the lighter plugged in.
Once I had the wires routed I went ahead and plugged it all together. I did not take pictures of this. I am sure all of you can disconect plugs and plug things in.
Here is a picture of the car put back together wow that phone button looks like it came from the factory that way.
BTW the Microphone and phone button are the only visible things.
I was surprised at how easy it was to install this. I would give this a 4 out of 10 and only give the 4 because of the wires (it can scare people). I also will add that one connection wire was not used on my kit and it was for the XM radio since I do not have that in the car hence no wires.
Review
The Blu-tooth unit can have up to seven phones paired with it, but only one can be connected at a time with it. In other words if Chrissy and I are in the car only one of our pones can be paired with it and the other is normal usage. We have the Motorola Razr and that is what this review is based on.
The voice commands of the Razr are really useful with the unit. I push the phone button and I say <call> mom and it will dial it. I am also able to listen to the radio and have the navigation system on the phone in use and it will stop the music when it is time to make a turn, this is great considering I like to listen to the radio while I drive to far off places. I can also stream Pandora, Iheart or any other music streaming from my phone. I hate to say their is one downside and it is that it only will run through the front speakers since the blu-tooth only is heard through the front speakers. I was disappointed at this till I realized I did not have to have Pandora on like I did before when I was using navigation. I have to say it is a great safety device as well as an excellent add on for the radio and tC. I give this two thumbs up. [IMG]http://smiliesftw.com/x/thumb up 1.gif[/IMG]
I also have to add the picture of the latest Vinyl work on the tC.
BTW on the bottom of the glass it says "You got passed by a girl" I have a cheeky wife.
I hope you enjoyed this write up and DIY Please ask questions if you have them and I will update this diy or make a new one when I do a phone holder for it.
