# 2005 Toyota 4Runner - SQ focus



## phroenips (Nov 20, 2018)

4Runner build thread

When we got this vehicle, I was happy that it had the upgraded JBL sound system. I know normally that's not the preferred starting point, but my plan included installing an amp, so having all the speaker wires centrally located in the rear of the vehicle was going to be handy.

So, the plans are for an aftermarket double-din head unit, feeding into a DSP and amp for an active 2-way setup plus a subwoofer.

Additionally, this build is to serve as a "practice" before I tackle my Porsche Cayman GTS

I bought a Kenwood DMX905S as the head unit. The rest of the major equipment list is comprised of repurposed gear:


Audison Bit One (the OG)
Hertz HDP5 five channel amplifier
MB Quart PVF-216 (German ones, from before they sold out)
Hertz ES250.5 subwoofer

Let’s get started!

There was some confusion on what mounting adapter was to be used for the head unit installation. Crutchfield listed the Metra 95-8202, but on Metra’s website, they say that fits everything EXCEPT Limited trim levels. Well, I have a Limited. According to Metra, the 95-8210 is what I needed. I called Crutchfield with this information, and they sent me both, just in case  Thanks, Crutchfield!

Turns out, I ultimately needed the 95-8202 (what Crutchfield originally listed), but I had to “combine” it with the OEM bracket.

This is the OEM radio with the bracket still installed:



And what ultimately worked (I actually later had to move back the plastic adapter so it would sit further back for a better fit. Didn’t get a picture of that):



To route the signal wires to the back, I put all the RCA cables into tech flex (blue), and routed it behind the glove box and down the passenger side.



Used the PAC RP4.2-TY11 as the harness and to retain steering wheel controls, etc. Ended up stuffing it in the area below the radio itself, behind a HVAC control panel.



For sound treatment, we pulled out the entire interior (except the upper half and headliner). I sure hope we remember how it all goes back together… 



Used Knukonceptz Kolossus CLD



I forgot to include the backup camera cable into the tech flex bundle. Screw it, just run it alongside and wrap it with some Tesa tape!



At this point, I was still waiting for the CCF to arrive, but might as well starting laying out the MLV.





What a royal PITA that is to work with and to cut! I later treated one of the doors with Soundskins Pro, and by comparison, that stuff is a dream with work with! Cuts so easily! I personally won’t ever do the CLD+CCF+MLV again, I’ll just use Soundskins Pro. I’m sure overall performance isn’t as good as doing it the “proper” way, but it’s good enough for me. I ended up doing the rear wheel wells in Soundskins Pro after I did the door (forgot pictures of both of those).

Ran power down the drivers side, then brought it over to the passenger side behind the rear seats in order to minimize the distance of power and signal wires being next to each other.

At this point, I hooked everything up to make sure it was working and to set gains. And this is when I realized that my Bit One has developed flaky RCA input connections, meaning if you breath on the cable wrong, it would cut in and out. At least 4 of the 8 inputs had this problem. I’m pretty sure it’s because of how a previous shop installed it in a previous vehicle. There was a lot of stress on the RCA connections, and it took its toll. In fact, I was experiencing that cutting out in that vehicle for a few months before I pulled it all out and sold it (traded on the Porsche, actually).

Anyway, Bit One is out, not sure what I’ll do for a DSP yet. For now, I just hooked it all up to the amp directly, and built an amp rack.









At this point, head unit is installed; rear view camera installed; sound treatment is done on the floor, rear cargo area (including lift/hatch), wheel wells, and driver’s door so far.

Along the way, I also discovered that there’s only one pair of speaker wires going to each door, despite it being a component system. The OEM tweeter simply has a capacitor as a passive crossover. Of course, that means I need to run another pair of speaker wires if I want to run active. For now though, I had had enough, and needed a break! I left the stock speakers in there, passive, powered by the new amp.

The DMX905S has time alignment, so I went ahead and set that up for now, and tuned it as best as I could with the limited (and single) 13-band graphic EQ.

I eventually also have plans for a fiberglass subwoofer enclosure, but for now, I just put in a powered subwoofer I had laying around (Hertz DBA200).

I’m calling this “Phase 1 complete”

And I must say, it definitely sounds “better than OK.” I wouldn’t say it sounds “great” yet though.


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## teldzc1 (Oct 9, 2009)

Nice work! Better than OK is definitely a good result for Phase one!


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## phroenips (Nov 20, 2018)

Thanks!

Phase 1 was done a week or two ago, I’m in the middle of Phase 2 right now, hoping some of you might have some tips or ideas for me.

*“Phase 2”*

Next up is to make speaker adapters. I started with the tweeter. I want to use acrylic for weather proofing, but made a template out of MDF



I’ve never done anything like this before, so it took me MUCH longer to get to this point than I’d like to admit.

I transferred it to a piece of 1/8” acrylic. Which, again, took a while. Over an hour I think.

And then as I was drilling the holes for the mounting screws/bolts, it broke. I think I cried. Is 1/8” too thin and fragile?



After much cursing, it struck me that the shape I was working with looked familiar. I also have a set of Hertz Mille’s (the original versions). I was planning to use these in the Porsche, but was curious how it would fit. This is the adapter that the previous shop made for my Audi RS5:



It’s very close to perfect. Now I need to decide what to do. Still keep working at getting an adapter for the MB Quartz, or use the Hertz in this car, and buy new speakers for the Cayman (Audiofrog maybe?)


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## Adrock (Jan 21, 2019)

Hey brother, we meet at the meet last weekend. I left a message on a different thread for you. Not sure if your interested, but I have two sets of 6.5" front door adapters for your 2005 4runner. One set is a custom abs plastic and the other is an HDPE CNC'd adapter. Very solid and thick. Should provide needed clearance for most aftermarket speakers.


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## phroenips (Nov 20, 2018)

Adrock said:


> Hey brother, we meet at the meet last weekend. I left a message on a different thread for you. Not sure if your interested, but I have two sets of 6.5" front door adapters for your 2005 4runner. One set is a custom abs plastic and the other is an HDPE CNC'd adapter. Very solid and thick. Should provide needed clearance for most aftermarket speakers.


Yes, I remember...and after I left, I realized I never actually demo'd your vehicle! D'oh! Next time

I appreciate the offer, but I'm going to make my own in order to get the practice/experience.


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## phroenips (Nov 20, 2018)

Well, after thinking about it, I've already spent too much money, I really don't want to spend $XXX more on more speakers. I've decided to try again with 1/4" acrylic (vs 1/8"), and some more patience.

Also, in the vein of trying to control additional expenses, I'm also going to try out the Dayton DSP-408.

Stay tuned, more to come...

P.S. Another problem with using the Hertz tweeters like that in this vehicle is that the sound would be upside down! :laugh:


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## Adrock (Jan 21, 2019)

No worries. Let me know if you change your mind.

BTW, you might want to try abs. It's cheap, easier to work with and can be molded/dent with a heat gun. It definitely wouldn't crack like that acrylic. You can buy Install Bay 12" x 12" x 1/8" abs sheets on Amazon for $3 or so a piece. 

You can also buy cutting boards pretty cheap for your speaker adaptors. Thats another option.


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## CrimsonCountry (Mar 11, 2012)

Nice job so far! I really like the amp location as well. Always enjoy seeing what other fellow 4runner/Prado users do with their builds. 

I've got an '06 myself and have found it to be a fairly easy vehicle to work on...then again, maybe my panels are extra lose after 215k miles. Lol


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## vettefiend (Apr 4, 2009)

I've got an 04 Limited with 205k miles and looking forward to following this. Solid work so far.


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## Jscoyne2 (Oct 29, 2014)

Did you notice a smell to the Knu? I used it some years ago with no smell buy this time around, a few months ago. There is a very strong smell to it.

Sent from my XT1710-02 using Tapatalk


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## rob feature (Nov 15, 2015)

I did a build with clear acrylic some time ago & kept cracking it when drilling holes. My buddy who owned a wood shop said bring it to him. I did & he drilled all my holes without a hitch. IIRC not only was I using the wrong (dull?) bit but I was going too fast. I believe he kept the wrap on while drilling also - which may have helped. But I think my problem was too much speed. Very slowly on a drill press I think remedied the issue. 

I've found HDPE cutting boards super easy to work with FWIW. They make great adapters & and are readily available


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## phroenips (Nov 20, 2018)

Thanks everyone!



Adrock said:


> No worries. Let me know if you change your mind.
> 
> BTW, you might want to try abs. It's cheap, easier to work with and can be molded/dent with a heat gun. It definitely wouldn't crack like that acrylic. You can buy Install Bay 12" x 12" x 1/8" abs sheets on Amazon for $3 or so a piece.
> 
> You can also buy cutting boards pretty cheap for your speaker adaptors. Thats another option.


I appreciate it, I forgot about the "moldable" characteristics of ABS. I did go ahead and get some abs as a backup, and also to make a mounting plate for a GPS antenna which I'm putting in the OEM center speaker location.



Jscoyne2 said:


> Did you notice a smell to the Knu? I used it some years ago with no smell buy this time around, a few months ago. There is a very strong smell to it.
> 
> Sent from my XT1710-02 using Tapatalk


I don't recall any strong or strange odors, maybe the batch you got was somehow defective?



rob feature said:


> I did a build with clear acrylic some time ago & kept cracking it when drilling holes. My buddy who owned a wood shop said bring it to him. I did & he drilled all my holes without a hitch. IIRC not only was I using the wrong (dull?) bit but I was going too fast. I believe he kept the wrap on while drilling also - which may have helped. But I think my problem was too much speed. Very slowly on a drill press I think remedied the issue.
> 
> I've found HDPE cutting boards super easy to work with FWIW. They make great adapters & and are readily available


This prompted me to do some googling. Looks like there are indeed acrylic/plexiglass specific drill bits. Seems they are designed to "grind" away material rather than try to chip it off. Wonder if I can find them locally...I'll go see later today

From my understanding with HDPE, it doesn't adhere very well to any other surface (including itself), with any type of glue. For example, if I needed to stack a few layers to get the depth I need, gluing them together would eventually fail.


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## rob feature (Nov 15, 2015)

phroenips said:


> From my understanding with HDPE, it doesn't adhere very well to any other surface (including itself), with any type of glue. For example, if I needed to stack a few layers to get the depth I need, gluing them together would eventually fail.




Yeah, good point. I've always used them in single layers as baffles but I've heard this too about adhesives.


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## phroenips (Nov 20, 2018)

Was able to get a little more work done.

And a noob question came up in my mind on how to mount the tweeter? (<-- clicky for a new thread I posted about this)

Since I'm going to run active, I had to run at least one more pair of speaker wire to each of the front doors. I had read on one of the 4Runner forums (t4r.org) to be sure to use the signal before it splits off otherwise there are passive crossovers limiting the frequency range. Rather than bother with that, I just picked up some 16/4 speaker wire from Home Depot, available by the foot.

To help anyone doing this in the future, we found it to me much easier to push the wire from the outside/door side into the vehicle (as opposed from inside toward the door).



Next up was to work on the speaker adapters for the door woofers. The plan is to do a base layer in 1/4" acrylic for outer shape which attaches to the door, then build up just the speaker area with 1/2" to get the depth required.

I forgot to take a picture of the OEM speaker adapter, and I had to button the car back up for now. Here is what it looks like though, courtesy of Crutchfield:



It extends into the door as well, which means it didn't sit flat, which means I couldn't use it as a direct template on the router. So, we just simply traced it onto some MDF, cut it with a jig saw, and sanded. It's not perfect, but it's not too bad.



Pro tip: don't be lazy and try to eyeball things. Otherwise this will happen. D'oh!



Re-did that work properly, then used my new MDF template to create them out of 1/2" acrylic





I was still waiting for the ABS I ordered to be delivered, but decided to try the tweeter adapters again using 1/4" acrylic. Between more patience, and different drill bits (simple black oxide bits vs some titanium coated or something I was using before), I was much more successful!



And then I ran out of time and had to button everything up before a blizzard/snow storm hits us (this is our "winter beater")

The Dayton DSP-408 should arrive tomorrow, and I also need to glue/cement the woofer acrylic pieces together, and finalize how to best secure the tweeters. And then phase 2 will be done!

Phase 3 is the fiberglass work for a subwoofer


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## fischman (Jan 3, 2007)

Good job on the adapters! It's coming along nicely. Can't wait to see the finished product!

Josh


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## riceandpho (Dec 30, 2009)

i have the hertz mille legends in my 4runner, it sounds good to me, all active.


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## phroenips (Nov 20, 2018)

riceandpho said:


> i have the hertz mille legends in my 4runner, it sounds good to me, all active.


I have no doubts that they do. I love my Milles. I was planning to use them, just not in this build. I really didn't want to spend more money, so I gave it another go, and was successful this time. Original speaker plan is still a "go"


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## Sine Swept (Sep 3, 2010)

I laughed reading about the dash kit, I have an 05 Matrix and I swear I've bought 3 or so kits and none of them ever fit properly. I'm also using a mash of OEM / aftermarket brackets to fit the radio.


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## phroenips (Nov 20, 2018)

Got some more time to work on this.

Tweeters are mounted!



Speaker adapters mounted, and drilled/tapped holes for the speakers



Whew, they fit and the holes all line up:



Didn't really get pictures of the following items, but I decided to use XT60 connectors on all my speaker connections after reading another thread here about the car going into the shop and they hooked up the speakers with reversed polarity 

I also stole @Adrock's idea and made a removable inline capacitor option for the tweeters (See post #24 of his build thread)

The Dayton DSP-408 came in, and I mounted it on the outside of my amp rack:



It does stick out past the trim panel, but I knew that and was expecting that. For my install it's not a problem, because in "Phase 3," it'll all be covered up by the subwoofer enclosure. Speaking of which, I also hacked up said trim piece in preparation for Phase 3:



And with that, Phase 2 is complete!!!

Got time alignments and crossovers set, then spent some quality time with REW to tune it. I may be biased, but I think it sounds fantastic! 

It's been a lot of work, a bit more than I was expecting, and taking quite a bit longer than I was expecting, but it's also given me such a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction.

Now to work up enough courage and fortitude to start Phase 3: subwoofer enclosure. Yay, fiberglass :worried:


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## SlvrDragon50 (Apr 10, 2017)

Dang, I came over here to see the door deadening photos, and you forgot to take photos haha.

So it looks like you pretty much just used the Soundskins Pro like CLD and placed it on the outer and inner skin? You didn't make a continuous piece like you normally would with MLV?


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## phroenips (Nov 20, 2018)

SlvrDragon50 said:


> Dang, I came over here to see the door deadening photos, and you forgot to take photos haha.
> 
> So it looks like you pretty much just used the Soundskins Pro like CLD and placed it on the outer and inner skin? You didn't make a continuous piece like you normally would with MLV?


Haha, sorry. When you're in the groove of things, it's hard to remember to take photos!

I did full coverage (well, as good as I could get it) on both inner and outer. Adrock did the same in his 5th gen 4Runner. He actually has Second Skins Damplifier (non-pro) on the outer door skin, but I think at 100% coverage as well, then Soundskins Pro on the inner. He also did a much prettier job than I did!

Post #9:
https://www.diymobileaudio.com/foru...allery/413651-2012-4runner-mild-sq-build.html


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## SlvrDragon50 (Apr 10, 2017)

phroenips said:


> Haha, sorry. When you're in the groove of things, it's hard to remember to take photos!
> 
> I did full coverage (well, as good as I could get it) on both inner and outer. Adrock did the same in his 5th gen 4Runner. He actually has Second Skins Damplifier (non-pro) on the outer door skin, but I think at 100% coverage as well, then Soundskins Pro on the inner. He also did a much prettier job than I did!
> 
> ...


Awesome thanks! Really looks quite easy now. Only thing that makes me hesitate is that it seems like it's not removable if the doors ever need to be accessed. Any reason why you decided to not go with Luxury Liner Pro? Or is gluing the CCF to the MLV not really that big of a deal?


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## phroenips (Nov 20, 2018)

SlvrDragon50 said:


> Awesome thanks! Really looks quite easy now. Only thing that makes me hesitate is that it seems like it's not removable if the doors ever need to be accessed. Any reason why you decided to not go with Luxury Liner Pro? Or is gluing the CCF to the MLV not really that big of a deal?


I wasn't familiar with Luxury Liner pro until just now, so that would be the reason for that 

Since the area we have MLV is all flat, I didn't even glue them together, to maximize the decoupling.

Edit: as for accessibility, yes you're right. I figure if that is ever needed for some reason, I can just cut it out, and slap it on as needed. I took a "gamble," and assumed the odds of needing to get in there is fairly slim at this point. (We did have a door lock actuator on one of the doors that was faulty, we replaced that with a new one before we applied the soundskins pro).


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## SlvrDragon50 (Apr 10, 2017)

phroenips said:


> I wasn't familiar with Luxury Liner pro until just now, so that would be the reason for that
> 
> Since the area we have MLV is all flat, I didn't even glue them together, to maximize the decoupling.
> 
> Edit: as for accessibility, yes you're right. I figure if that is ever needed for some reason, I can just cut it out, and slap it on as needed. I took a "gamble," and assumed the odds of needing to get in there is fairly slim at this point. (We did have a door lock actuator on one of the doors that was faulty, we replaced that with a new one before we applied the soundskins pro).


Haha, that's a good reason. I think I'm just gonna get the LLP just to make my life easy for a first install.


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## vettefiend (Apr 4, 2009)

Maybe I missed it in this thread but did you notice a large reduction of noise after installing the sound treatment? Or maybe better put, was it worth the time and expense to put in CCF, MLV, CLD? I will be taking the interior apart on my 04 Limited in the next few months and contemplating the same sound treatment you did.

And thank you very much for the details on the Metra kit and the OEM radio bracket. Those pictures helped me a lot last weekend because I too was confused on the "Except Limited" statement in the kit.


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## phroenips (Nov 20, 2018)

I did experience a large reduction in noise following sound treatment installation.

If I had to do it all over again, I would personally just pay a little more and use Soundskins Pro everywhere.

I know others have said cutting MLV isn't that difficult. I don't know if it's the specific MLV I got, or if I'm just a wuss, but it sucked. And I'll never do it again.


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## SlvrDragon50 (Apr 10, 2017)

phroenips said:


> I did experience a large reduction in noise following sound treatment installation.
> 
> If I had to do it all over again, I would personally just pay a little more and use Soundskins Pro everywhere.
> 
> I know others have said cutting MLV isn't that difficult. I don't know if it's the specific MLV I got, or if I'm just a wuss, but it sucked. And I'll never do it again.


I figure you can always put MLV on after you use Soundskins Pro if you end up wanting more noise reduction.

I'll be putting on Sonic Barrier MX-4 in my car which is the same as Soundskins Pro so I'll report back!


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## lowcel (Dec 28, 2014)

Looking good. I've been told that there are some good sounding 4Runners out there.


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## phroenips (Nov 20, 2018)

Oh yeah, I was supposed to be working on the subwoofer enclosure  

I was originally planning to use a Hertz ES250.5 subwoofer I already had. But I needed a grill for it. Went looking for one, and they wanted $50 for a piece of plastic. :surprised:

Meanwhile, I found a JL TW3 for sale on here, including a grill, for a reasonable price. I've always liked JL subs, and this one required a little less airspace than the ES250.5, so I decided to go for it.

First, I built part of the structure out of MDF:



And setup my fiberglassing station, and got to work:





I missed getting pictures of some of the steps in between, but I wrapped it with fabric, more glass to enclose it, and some body filler to smooth it out for carpeting:



This vehicle has a movable/adjustable cargo shelf, and I'm happy to say that it still clears the subwoofer and remains fully functional. Woohoo!

I plan to "outsource" the carpeting bit, but it's fully functional at this point and tuned. Finally got some low end to round out the system. Sounds pretty good, too. So much easier to get good bass in an open cabin!


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