2005 XLE HU replace & trip computer mod

[Hillingdon]

Hope this post might be useful to others. I've posted it on some audio sites I'm fairly regular on, but thought a copy might be of use here as it is specialized. Mods, if it is actually on here somewhere then please delete this, I just never found it. I've broken it into a few posts to help ease of reading (I hope).

ISSUE: Told by numerous big name companies and shops that if you replace the head unit (radio) in the 05 XLE Camry that has the JBL 8 speaker, six disc changer system, you loose the trip computer display above the radio on the dash and you loose the button functions that control the trip computer.

When looking at doing a system in my car all my web searches turned up just lots of other people looking for the same answer. Upgraded the system because I wanted more accurate response and preformance. Tried the LOC route and just did not like the way it worked with the factory JBL input. Now have changed the whole system.

Here is a copy of my post on how I fixed it.

Crutchfield tech and all the rest simply say that if you replace the HU on the XLE 2005 Camry that has the JBL 8 speaker system with built in 6 disc changer then you loose the computer display above the HU and the ability to control it with the steering wheel info and mode buttons on the right hand side of the wheel.

First off let me say this, Crutchfield tech, after talking with their supposed head guy, said I'd loose the entire display. No clock with temp next to it and none of the trip computer (instant mpg, ave mpg, distance to empty, eta.....) would work at all if I replaced the factory HU with an aftermarket one. They stated that the display would be completely blank!

That turned out to be untrue. For all those who have the same car, here is what I initially did. I made sure the display was on the clock display that has the temp next to it. Then I disconnected the battery and did the HU swap. Put in the Pioneer AVH-P4200DVD.

When all powered back up afterwards I still had the clock temp display no problem. Just none of the trip stuff.

[Hillingdon]

At that point I'd not decided on which steering wheel control adaptor I was going to use to have the wheel controls work the new Pioneer unit (yes it was more work having to take everything out again, but there you go) so I did not install one.

I wanted to see about getting the trip computer section to work again on the clock display. I was able to get the factory wiring diagram for the 2005 JBL system Camry for both the audio system (with amp) and for the clock system.

From what I could see the RH button on the wheel was just getting a ground signal from the HU. It has it marked SWG on the radio and there is one wire that actually goes from the factory radio to the RH buttons and then one wire from there to the clock.

The factory JBL HU I removed had two plugs in the back. First plug supplied power, ground, speaker wires etc. (well, actually to plug in the Toyota harness adaptor to wire the HU the plug needed was laying flat behind the heater controls below the HU, but that is anther story.

The other plug had only three small wires in it. Looking at the wiring schematic I found this plug was the steering wheel control plug. The wires are located at position 6, 7 and 8 on the plug.

For my USA built Camry the wire colours are: red, blue and black.

There is a possiblity that, depending where the car is made, the wire colours could be yellow, black and orange

I'll give the key for position here so you can follow as you need. Pin 6 on the plug was my red wire (black for different build), pin 7 was blue (alt. yellow), pin 8 was black (alt. orange).

For the radio control side, the left hand buttons, all three pins are used. Pin 6 with the red wire is labelled SWG on the HU side and provides common connection for the function buttons. Pin 7 with the blue wire, shows to run the seek and volume buttons. Pin 8 with the black wire shows to run the Mode function for the lh buttons.

Looking at the wiring schematic for the clock it shows the use of the pin 6 wire only which is the red wire on my car. The box to represent the factory radio has SWG labelled by the connection to the radio. This wire goes to the steering wheel control for the rh side buttons. The wiring schematic shows a red wire outputting to the clock from the wheel control buttons. Just say for info sake.

So, been considering just grounding this pin 6 wire to see what the result would be on the trip computer.

I tested all the wires with the VOM to confirm my thoughts on how things worked and all seemed okay.

[Hillingdon]

Bought an ASWC Axxess controller/adaptor to get the wheel buttons for the radio to work.

Decided on this unit because looks like the people who do the Metra stuff are behind it so thought it would be decent and also I did not like the sound of mucking with resistor values (think that is what I read for it) for the PAC unit. Apart from that got the ASWC cheaper.

Reading the instructions on it, you are supposed to run a switched power and a ground to the unit.

The other connections are to the steering wheel control wires. You can look on their site for full instructions/wire colours for everything.

The important part was they have you hook a wire to the pin 7 blue wire and a wire to the pin 8 black wire. The pin 6 wire (red) they have you run to a chassis ground to get the radio to work off the buttons.

So, here was a bit of a confirmation of what I was thinking was provided by the pin 6 red wire through the factory radio for both the radio control and the clock/trip computer......a ground.

Wired in the ASWC, grounded the pin 6 red wire, double checked all connections, put things back together with the ASWC hanging out from behind the heater control slot, reconnected the battery and crossed my fingers.

Turned on the ignition and watched for the flashes on the LED on the ASWC. Thing was a bit fast for me to clock the long and sort flashes to use if I had a problem with it, but other than that it worked great.

The ASWC autodetects the wheel buttons on the 2005 camry and found the Pioneer no problem. When I got the solid red LED saying all was well I tested the buttons and the all work fine and do what they are supposed to.


SO TO THE TRIP COMPUTER INFO BUTTON PART:

So, after seeing all worked on the new HU for wheel control buttons I pushed the buttons for the clock/trip computer. The right hand buttons now work. I was able to toggle between the clock/temp display and the before lost trip computer display. I was able to also toggle between the various info sections on the display. Mpg, ave mpg, distance to empty etc.

Been driving the car regularly and all is normal. All the trip computer functions are all working fine. Really nice to have everything functioning again as there was certainly no support/help out there from any of the big companies and doing a search when I was looking just provided people posting asking the same question.

Info should be the same for at least the 2005-2006 Camry with the wheel control/trip computer I would imagine. Not sure about the earlier cars in the generation or later cars, but could give you a starting point.

Honestly, I've seen a few wheels that look like mine in other Toyota models (although could have been non-domestic ones) that the issue of trip computer loss is the same and could probably be cured in a similar fashion.

Guess I should put in the standard old caveat of this is what worked on my model of car as described, get a wiring diagram and check your own wires to verify everything with a vom, don't go blindly mucking with the wiring unless you know what you are doing you can cause damage, I take no responsiblity, the responsiblity for anything is yours, blah, blah, blah....lol.

Anyway, hope it helps some fellow Toyota owners.
Cheers