Add AUX - 2020 Non-JBL, Yes You Can

Most people never noticed but they deleted the AUX port on the Entune 3 factory radios. I'm sure the thinking was nobody would ever need it since there is Bluetooth, USB and Car play. I'll get into the why later but for now, this is what I did to enable AUX Input on my 2020 TRD OR.

There are two options for the harness you need that I found. There may be more.
Naviks $100 - https://naviks.com/i-24076947-2020-2023toyota-tacoma-entune-3-aux-audio-input-interface.html
Car-Solutions (China) $36 + Shipping ($70) - https://www.ebay.com/itm/266245834219

I chose the Chinese one because it looked a little nicer since they added foam to the vehicle side connector, and I preferred the shorter harness. The Naviks might have larger gauge power wire, I'm not sure, I'll explain why I noticed this later.

What you choose to use for your jack is up to you. I chose the 33mm Toyota AUX jack with the 8 pin socket to install in the glovebox next to the USB jack I added to connect to my DSP (it's under the seat). I was wanting to cover bases I wasn't sure I'd have to because of the way AUX is enabled for selection on the factory radio.

RCA Pigtails -

$7 RCA to Speaker Wire Adapter, 18AWG 2 Pack 3ft RCA Male Plug to Bare Cable Open End, UIInosoo Audio Cable, Red and Black

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B097XV7QNL
AUX Jack Connector w/ Pins -

$10 Guangcheng 2 Sets 8 Pin Tyco Amp Auto Connector Socket Electric Wire Terminal Cable Harness Male Female Plug Compatible with Toyota 1376352-1 1565804-1 (Color : Lavender, Package : 2 Set of Female)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09V7HN2FZ
33mm Toyota AUX Jack (not OEM) -

$15 EVRBUL Aux Port Input Auxiliary Jack Adapter Compatible with Toyota Corolla 2009-2013 Tundra 2007-2014 Tacoma 2009-2012 RAV4 2009-2011 Sienna 2011-2013 Highlander Avalon Sequoia Replace# 86190-02010

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D95H8FHY

AUX Enabled


Wire/Pins added in this harness


The gray wire is not two wires, it's a loop between two pins on the connector. This is a function typically handled in the Toyota AUX Jack itself. The Toyota AUX Jack closes a contact when you insert your AUX cord and this tells the stereo to enable AUX input to select. I think it's this way because older radios would toggle between SAT and AUX on the same input depending on whether or not a cable was plugged into the port. The black/yellow/yellow are L/R audio and ground going to the female RCA Pigtails on the harness.

I got the 8 pin AUX jack because I didn't know if the jumper would lock me out of some other functionality in the stereo and I wanted the option to wire that into the jack rather than have it just be looped on the harness. My 8 pin connector for the jack hasn't arrived yet so I'll add the pin out for that when I have it installed. When I tested the added input I was not locked out of any other inputs so I will probably leave the loop and skip wiring it to the AUX jack.

WHY on earth would a guy need a damn AUX jack? Besides stuff like external players with AUX out, for myself I needed it to tune the stereo using SMAART 8. I've been wanting to take specific measurements for tuning the DSP, measurements that require my RTA software to send test tones through the stereo so it can compare the input signal to the measured response from the microphone. This is how you get really precise on delays, phase, and measure transfer function magnitude. I tried a Bluetooth transmitter which the stereo would not sync to. I tried a AUX to USB adapter, which typically works the other way but the bottom line is the stereo works as a U-Disk, meaning digital file playback, not analog through USB. Nothing was working out so I started looking into adding AUX to solve the problem.

Why is the size of the power wire an issue? I only noticed it because I already have a jumper harness installed for adding aftermarket stereo equipment. The add DSP harness jumper I already have installed has larger gauge wire on the power pins than the Add AUX jumper harness does. Also I did not want to install a jumper harness onto a Jumper harness (one is enough), so rather than install what I bought from eBay, I de-pinned what I needed from that harness and added them to the vehicle side factory harness, my DSP harness has all pins populated so the stereo still sees the added wiring.

So that's it, if for some odd reason you want to add an AUX jack to your 2020-2023 (maybe 2024 IDK) Entune 3 factory radio, it CAN be done, it DOES work, and all you need is is 5 extra pins worth of wiring to make it happen.

 

Great write up. Thanks.

It makes me wonder though, if I connect my phone via BlueTooth to the headunit, and then plug in this headset:





Would the sound come through this device?


You should test that out for us.

 

It is an input, not an output.