Aftermarket head unit for model 2 2016 Prius

I am about to buy this system, and thank you to @jerryxsara for responding and clearing up my doubts.

But, not ordering from Crutchfield I don’t know if I am opening myself to a world of trouble, because nowhere else are there any instructions on how to do the install. AFAIK Crutchfield kindly sends the instructions as part of the package. They don’t sell the custom instructions any other way.

SO, Is this doable on my own, without Crutchfield instructions? My only other experience with the innards of the Prius is when I installed the Beat Sonic mirroring gadget, and that wasn’t too bad.

 

You can download the RR installation guide from iDatalink maestro website and the installation guide from Pioneer, if you want to do it yourself.

I did that by myself since this is the only option in my case due to the location I live, it’s not hard to do it, Just prepare the T02 harness and some adapters like FM antenna, GPS and USB, also the mounting dash kit as well. In page 4 you can find the exactly p/n if you don’t know which part to order.

You can find the instruction from YouTube for how to remove the stock radio, it takes 10min or less.

 

Your install looks remarkably the same as mine. Down to the same vehicle, and head unit. I would really, really appreciate some install pix if you took any. Thank you!

 

Timothevs,

I didn't take pics of the actual install, but I can tell you that crutch field's PDF install instructions are useless. This video gives you everything they mention there and far more

Crutchfield even neglects to mention the clip. There is nothing else.

Jerryxsara,

I noticed(through a google search of the issue) that you posted to 12votdata(the maestro RR official forums) about an issue with steering controls not working until a complete power off of the car. I wanted to say that I also experienced this issue a few times.

It seems that a new maestro RR firmware and a new pioneer firmware for the w4400/w8400 are available. I downloaded and installed both and haven't had the issue appear yet.(I would have posted there, but don't have an account there). There are several other instances of this, and it seems to only be Toyotas and w4400/w8400. I believe the pioneer update fixed it. (1.01)

 

Hi Liquidtenmillion,

Thank you very much, I’ll try pioneer f/w first and see if this would work, my RR is 2.2 and will keep it for now.

I experienced twice of the steering wheel control missing.

 

I probably had it about 5 times since I installed it, and every time it was at like the worst time. I would just pull over into a gas station and turn the car off and back on to get it up again. Hasn't happened since the updates, but it seemed to only happen once every week or two before. It also fixed a few other stability issues like SiriusXM saying "check tuner" when switching between CarPlay and satellite rapidly in low signal situations(wouldn't come back until power off/on car), but all of those issues were relatively rare.

It says that it deletes all your settings and any downloaded maps, but when I did it it only deleted the navigation settings, all other settings were kept and my maps where kept. I imagine for the 4400 that nothing would be lost at all.

 

Yes, I was expecting the setting will be gone and to the factory setting but it didn’t and that’s a good thing to users.

I have experienced a wired situation which is the CarPlay calling fail and the 4400 crashed, no matter I force it to power off but no reaction when I press and hold the home button, eventually I need to pull over to turn the car off to bring it back, not sure it’s iOS problem or Pioneer, I assumed it’s a connection problem since it was connected by WiFi.

 

Liquidtenmillion,

The connection issue happened after my 4400 upgraded to v1.01, not sure if my RR needs to be upgraded to 2.4, I might wait and see if you don’t have that issue anymore.

There’s a 100% happen minor issue on my car is that the center dash won’t show the music info, if last time I turn off my car and the source is Apple Music, when this happen I need to switch the source to others like FM then back to Apple Music then the center dash shows the music info again.

 

I still haven’t had my maestro RR fail to be detected on startup since the 2.4 update. I will update if it happens again. It seems like it would have happened by now.

However when I check the maestro site it looks like they show 2.2 as the latest and 2.3 and 2.4 appear under “version history”. 2.4 showed as recent not 2 days ago. Not sure if this is a website glitch or intentional. Also not sure if when you plug in and flash through weblink if you get 2.2 or 2.4 still, but it will show when you do it what you’ll be flashing. I checked a few other cars and they also seem to have newer version numbers listed as “version history”, so I suspect glitch.

 

I installed another Prius 2016, the RR I flashed yesterday, the version is showing 2.2 on both the web and in pioneer h/u.

For this case, a weird thing happened is that the backup camera seems not send signal to pioneer when car in reverse gear, only the black screen. I hope it’s wrong wire connection to cause it.

This car has IPA, it looks not been detained and may not be able to show the image of backup camera and IPA simultaneously. Not sure who has IPA to tell how the IPA display in Pioneer.

 

Thank you all for the great pointers. It all went well, for the most part. Everything works superbly - except the GPS. For some reason, I have been unable to retain the stock GPS - as it shows "NOK" on the GPS Information screen. I got the correct harness, or so I thought. Not quite sure where I went wrong. Anyway, I will tinker with it some more over the next weekend.

Thank you!

 

Make sure you use the right GPS adapter and connect it to vehicle’s connector well.

 

You can retain the stock GPS antenna. You need the datalink ACC-SAT-TO2 adapter, and the black cable that fits is XM, and the white cable that fits is GPS. This is the only adapter that works, the harness does not connect to these cables.

I do recommend you connect this, as even though carplay/android auto will work, they use your phones GPS which is not as accurate and eats battery.

I just wanted to let you know that for the first time since I did the 2.4/1.01 updates my maestro did not connect the other day. I went about 2-3 weeks with no issue, so it seems like it might be reduced, but it definitely did happen again.

 

Now ADS is working on it, hope they can solve this issue.

When my RR didn’t communicate with Pioneer I tried to listen all the speakers and I found out all of them with output and backup camera was working, so, I assume RR is on but just no communication between Pioneer.

 

Yeah, I think everything that doesn't rely upon the 4 pin serial connection to the head unit is still working properly, so it must be for some reason pioneer doesn't see it plugged in. The voltage step down for the backup camera is still working, so the maestro is powered, and if you push steering buttons you will see the maestro light flash like it is supposed to.

 

How do you see the Maestro LED indicator? It’s behind the dash so, will need to pull the things out to see it right?

 

Yes, and I have done so. I have my maestro installed behind the climate control buttons, so all I have to do is remove that first piece and I can get easy access to the maestro to inspect/remove/upgrade it. I was astonished at how much space there is behind the radio and the climate controls, you could practically crawl into it. I've never seen a car with that much space for wiring behind the radio.

 

Thank you for sharing this. I may try to locate the Maestro like you do when I pull it out. If you have a picture please upload it that will be nice!

 

So I just removed my maestro to update it to 2.5 and took a picture of what I'm talking about

I can pull the maestro out far enough to inspect it or to unplug it and update it. When I place it back in I just plug it back in and push it in and kind of tuck it in where it stays in place.

 

Thank you!

Nice installation!