2013 Prius C One Car Audio Project

Hello all,

I’ve got a 2013 Prius C One. The only thing I’ve done is add the Rostra cruise control kit. The next project I want to tackle is the car audio. There’s a lot of great information out there, but I figured I would document the process for my car. These cars vary and can come up with really specific issues, so there’s no way to have a one stop shop for ALL Prius C’s. You can’t even do all 2013 Prius C’s. My goal for this is to create that for the 2013 Prius C One. And then any help I get along the way is greatly appreciated. Below, I will highlight the steps I would like to take.

1. Set specific end goals. What features do I want to retain. What features am I willing to sacrifice.
2. Read through the forums already out there to find out what is known and not known about what’s feasible. What roadblocks or complications can I expect.
3. Based on the specific goals and expectations for what’s possible, put together a complete parts list.
4. Going back to step 2, figure out what I’m willing to do myself and what I want to have professionally done.
5. Create a timeline of events for completion and execute.
6. Evaluate results. Document all lessons learned. If rework is required, go back to step 1.

I will complete step 1 tonight and post it on here. Hopefully this can provide value to someone like me who wants a quality sound system and doesn’t want to get worked by a car audio shop.

Thanks for your time!

 

Step 1: Set specific end goals. What features do I want to retain. What features am I willing to sacrifice.

Goals:

1. High quality sound throughout vehicle with good balancing. Subwoofer is required, but nothing earth shattering. Looking to feel the bass, not shake the neighborhood. This will be a full system rebuild, with new speakers, tweeters, sub, amp, and head unit.
2. Apple CarPlay. Wireless is not needed, but would be willing to pay a little more for the feature if it’s reasonable.
3. Sounds obvious, but reliable wiring. I owned a 2001 corvette with faulty wiring, and it ended up draining the battery. If I don’t feel confident about performing a step I want to have it professionally done.
4. No budget is set because I do not have proper knowledge of what parts are required to have a full reliable system. I’m willing to pay a premium if I know it’s worth it. That being said, I’m not willing to blindly pay a car audio shop whatever they are asking without doing my proper research.

Features I would like to retain:

1. Steering wheel controls is the only thing I’m aware of that connects to the head unit for the 2013 Prius C One’s. I would like to keep this. If something else comes up, I will re-evaluate this step.

Features I’m willing to sacrifice:

1. I would be willing to sacrifice 1/4 of the rear cargo space.
   
2. Antenna. I can’t remember the last time I listened to the radio. If it doesn’t come built into the head unit, I’m not interested in buying an adapter.

TLDR: The end goal is to create a full system rebuild and maintain all of the stock controls. Sacrificing minimal cargo space if needed.

 

Thanks for your reply. I appreciate you taking the time.
Do you have part numbers for everything you used?

 

One of the biggest things for me is Apple CarPlay, so I’m going to be replacing the head unit. However, eventually I’ll want to add a sub box. Few questions for you in that regard.

1. What year and model Prius do you have?
2. How does the sub sound?
3. Do you have pictures of the sub placement?

I reached out to OEM Audio to see if they had a kit for the 2013 Prius C, because their website only states 2016 and up. So we’ll see. I wouldn’t mind picking their sub up as opposed to going to a shop and having them custom fabricate one.

Thank!

 

@Leadfoot J. McCoalroller

I’ve decided to just install the head unit for now and then expand once I’ve gotten my knowledge about amps/speakers/DSP’s/Subs up. But here’s my parts list that I ordered from Crutchfield. Total came out to $344.67.

1. Sony XAV-AX1000
2. Metra 40-LX11 Antenna Adapter
3. Metra 70-1761 Receiver Wiring Harness
4. Scosche TA2114B Dash Kit
5. Axxess ASWC-1 Steering Wheel Control Adapter
6. Metra AX-TOY28SWC Steering Wheel Control Harness
7. Metra ISOPK Screw Pack

I think maybe because the head unit already has a USB on the front it didn’t offer any USB adapter. The 2013 Prius C does have a USB port on the passenger side dash. I’ll figure out what to do with that later, but just wanted to order the parts for now.

Concerns I have.

1. Wire splicing. Crutchfield didn't offer their quick install service, so I'll have to splice the wires somehow. I'll probably solder them, I just hope that the instructions are clear enough for me to understand.
2. This is my first time ordering anything from Crutchfield, so I'm just trusting that this is EVERYTHING I need. I just hope a small little part or adapter doesn't come up that I didn't think to buy.

These parts should be here Wednesday (Jun 17th, 2020), and I will begin the install immediately upon receiving them. Every single part of the process will be documented and photographed. I'll figure out how the best way to display that information, but I fully intend on making it much simpler for the next person trying to do this project.

 

2013 Prius C One Head Unit Replacement
This is going to be a pretty robust post. If you've got the same car, just bear with me, follow the steps, and you'll get through it.

Parts list from Crutchfield



Others

1. Soldering kit with wire. Just make sure you have at least a foot of electrical soldering wire. You're not going to use a foot, but just to be safe.
2. Heat shrink tubing. I recommend going to amazon and getting a kit that has a variety of different sizes. It's a lot cheaper than trying to find the perfect size for this application (there are 2 sizes for this job), AND you'll have extra for different jobs.
3. Heat gun/hair dryer. Self-explanatory. I bought a heat gun, but I'm sure you could make due with a hair dryer.
4. Small twist on connectors. Buy at least a 30 pack.
5. Wire cutter/stripper combo
6. Electrical Tape
7. 6 inch screwdriver
8. Anything small and flat to take off the stereo trim.

Step 1: Remove the factory head unit. I didn't take pictures of this because it's extremely self explanatory. Just pop the trim surrounding the head unit off. Make sure you unplug the hazard light button. There are 4 screws holding the stereo in place, which is why you'll want a 6 inch screwdriver. Try to save the screws just in case. Pull the stereo out and unplug the connectors from the back, it's very simple. But at this point you can put the old unit up for sale. You need nothing from it.

Step 2: Know the connectors behind the head unit. Note: the USB connector does not have an adapter to connect to the Sony head unit. If there's a way to make it work I am not aware of it, so at this time the USB on the passenger side does not do anything.



Step 3: Start making connections. Before you get started, I want to give one piece of advice. Instead of soldering the parts in from the start, use the twists on connectors to test out all the equipment. Once you twist everything on, plug it into the car, and it works, THEN take it out and solder everything in. This DOES create more work for you. But I believe in the long run you'll be a lot more comfortable with your install and you'll know you have a solid system. Below is a picture of the twist on connector mess that I redid with the solder work.



Step 4: Open the Sony XAV-AX1000 and take out the wiring harness in there. This is what most things will feed into. There are a couple of other connections on the back of the head unit, but I'll get to that later.

Step 5: Use electrical tape to tape off the Purple and White wire, the Orange and White wire, and the light green wire. None of these are needed for this application so just make it look somewhat nice. Then you want to make sure the ends of your wires are stripped and clean before you start soldering. Here is what it should look like so far.



Step 6: Next we are going to connect the speaker wiring.

***Before you even start this step, go watch a couple videos on how to do a simple solder. I'm not an expert and probably did it poorly.***

***Advice: put your heat shrink tubing on ALL of the wires before you start. This way you do not forget and then have to cut a wire you just soldered. This applies to every other step moving forward.***

I'm going to attach a diagram of the speaker wiring themselves. You do not need to learn it, but it is what I used to achieve my results. I'll start with the front speakers. You're going to tape off the Orange and White wire and the Blue wire. Same thing as the last step, make sure the ends are clean and ready to solder.





Step 7: Start soldering!! I'm going to write down all the connections and which ones you're going to make at this point. DO NOT connect the red and black wire because you're going to do those on a later step.

Make the following connections. I'll write it as Front Speaker Harness(FSH) to Head Unit Harness(HUH) for simplicity.

Yellow FSH to Yellow HUH
Grey FSH to Grey HUH
White and Black FSH to White and Black HUH
Grey and Black FSH to Grey and Black HUH
White FSH to White HUH
DO NOT connect red wire
DO NOT connect black wire
Blue FSH is taped off
Orange and White FSH is taped off.

It should look like this:



For safe measure, I usually like to put some electrical tape around the heat shrink.

Step 8: Do the same thing as the last step for the Rear Speaker Harness. This harness is easy, no extra wires are needed to be taped off.

Make the following connections. I'll write it as Rear Speaker Harness(RSH) to Head Unit Harness(HUH) for simplicity.

Green and Black RSH to Green and Black HUH
Purple and Black RSH to Purple and Black HUH
Purple RSH to Purple HUH
Green RSH to Green HUH

It should look like this



Step 9: This step is simple, we are just going to connect the antenna wire. I believe this is the only step where the wire from the adapter and the wire from the head unit are NOT the same color. But you'll see.

Connect the Blue wire from the Antenna Adapter to the Blue and White wire on the Head Unit Harness



Step 10: Here is the part of the install that confused me the most. The steering wheel controls. Let me save you a LOT of time trying to understand how all the different parts work. You're going to receive a few harnesses and connectors with the ASWC-1 along with the little black box. You ONLY need the black box in there. Take all the other wires and toss them. Along with that box, you need the AX-TOY28SWC harness. The funny thing is that you don't need a lot of the wires on the AX-TOY28SWC. I'll highlight below how all the wires are used or taped off.

12-pin connector goes to ASWC-1 Box
3.5mm jack will eventually connect to the "remote" input on the back of the head unit.
DO NOT connect Red and Black wires to Head Unit Harness yet
Light green wire is taped off
Dark green and Purple wire is taped off
All RCA jacks get taped off

Here's what it should look like:




Step 11: We can start connecting to the Head Unit Harness. This step is the reason why we didn't connect the red and black wires a few steps back. I'll explain the only 2 things you need to solder for this step.

You need to solder the red wires from both the Front Speaker Harness(remember, we didn't solder that yet?) and this Steering Wheel Control harness to the red wire from the Head Unit Harness. Sounds hard, but it's not. Just look up a video on youtube on how to do it if needed. You'll do the same with the black wire, which we also didn't connect earlier.

It should look like this:





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At this point. If everything was soldered properly, everything will work 100%. You just need to put it into the car.

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Step 12: I didn't document how to install the dash kit. The reason being it was too simple. By the time I took it out of the packaging it was installed 2 minutes later. I think that anyone who can follow these instructions is more than able to do that without me saying. It is VERY easy to install. So we are going to move on and assume you did it.

Step 13: Plug everything into the back of the head unit. I took a picture of it. The only thing not in the picture is my microphone cable. It's the red plug labeled "mic". Very simple. Just plug the mic cable in and I'll explain how to route that later.



Step 14: Plug the connectors from the head unit to the factory wiring.



Before you put everything into place, make sure that your microphone cable is pushed to the left, through the steering wheel column, and down through that bottom left little ECU box. This makes sure you can route the mic cable wherever you want.

Step 15: Push everything in. Pop the dash kit into place. Reconnect the hazard light button. You're installed. Don't turn the car on yet though.



Step 16: Before you turn the car on. Hold the "Mode" button on your steering wheel down and THEN turn your car on. I believe the ASWC-1 has to program this button, so you have to hold it down for about a minute while the ASWC-1 gets integrated with the rest of your car. I honestly don't know an exact amount of time to hold it down so I held it for like 2 minutes. I didn't want to know what would happen if I had to reprogram the ASWC-1, so I was better safe than sorry.

You should be done now. All you have to do it route the microphone to wherever you want it. I routed mine through that little kick panel by your left foot and then up the left side through the trim and to the sun visor over my head. Was pretty simple just needed to work through it a little bit.

Hopefully this is the product you end up with. If not let me know and I can try to help you troubleshoot.

 

Thanks!!
I may do that. However I want to look more into USB options. The USB port in the car currently only outputs 0.5A. It’s not really an issue right away because the head unit USB is what I use

 

Sorry, I should have clarified this originally. The back of the 1000 does not have USB output capability. The only solution I can think of would be hard wiring it to the battery with a resistor of some kind. But that seems like wildly too much work for a USB port when #1: theres already one on the front of the head unit and #2: If needed you can get a cigarette lighter to 2 USB splitter for like 2 dollars anywhere.

It would be cool to get it to work though, just to say I did it. But not a very high priority at this time.