This is unrelated and I hope you find the solution you are looking for, but could you please ask your dad how did he remove the airbag cover?
is it held by screws? or does it pop out?

thanks in advance!

 

This is a very tough question, and I'm not sure anyone who hasn't actually tried it will be able to give you a definitive answer. You can look at the wiring diagrams for say and LE or XLE and see what IS there for connectors, power feeds, switch gear, needed relays, maybe programming for the Body Control unit, etc. Your question is what would be there, and what would be needed to be added on a vehicle built without these features.

For example, someone added cruise on a last generation base model (2008 maybe), and found it was pure plug & play. He added the little column stalk switch and it plugged in and ran. No other hardware or software required. That gives me hope that behind the connector you found on your Gen-III van would be the correct 'clockspring' spiral cable to transmit these signals down the steering column and to the body CAN buss, and the corresponding connector from the harness back behind the radio head. You're likely in uncharted territory. Many have upgraded their systems, but you are starting from scratch!

If you have the CAN Communications schematics (I'm looking at something from 2012), take a look at P641. That shows the steering wheel left and right hand pad switches with two final wires to the Spiral Cable and out to several junction connectors and finally to the Nav or Radio Assembly. There's also a roof console box on P639 with the microphone. There's no telling if this stuff is all there, or only when applicable to your build. Personally, I'll bet most of it is....

 

My guess is that the wiring is there (the connectors in the steering wheel are clearly in the picture). From what I understand, in most cars, the wiring harness is the same no matter what trim level you buy. That's because it's cheaper to put all the wires into one harness and use it in all the cars rather than having to design, build, and install several different harnesses for the different trim levels.

 

We're in the middle of the install - sorry for late / no updates. Thank you for the detailed responses. I bought a Toyota Tech Info subscription and am working off of the wiring diagrams provided there. One issue we have run into is the factory AUX port - there is a connector with 4-5 wires sticking out of it. On the back of the aftermarket headunit, we only have an AUX input for a standard 3.5mm aux cable. I would like to buy a factory-looking AUX replacement, so instead of having to cut and fool with the wiring coming off of the aux port, I would just run the 3.5mm cable from the new aux port to the back of the head unit. I'm not sure where to buy (if you can buy) an aux port that would fit in that blank. It would almost be like one of those aftermarket switches / rocker switches, but instead of being a switch..we only need an AUX.

We bought the steering wheel controls, and have been hooking up a Metra AXXESS ASWC-1 kit. Hopefully it will work. For anyone interested, the Metra double-din installation kit had to be dremeled down in the corners and the sides for the headunit to fit flush. We are using the Pioneer AVH-X3800BHS head unit.

 

For anyone that's been following along, we buttoned up the install and I wanted to give some advice for anyone who may follow.

The Metra AXXESS ASWC-1 worked perfectly, once we figured out what we were doing. The problem we ran into with the horn going off was because we grounded that wire in the stock harness (the AXXESS directions told us to), but we didn't know that the pin-out of the steering wheel control clip varied between the wiring diagram year (2011 I believe) and the 2014 that we were working on. The ground wire is located on a different pin on the 2014, so we moved that and it worked fine.

We ended up ordering an aftermarket AUX / USB -
It worked perfectly and saved the frustration of splicing into the stock one.

We used the aftermarket satellite radio antenna, mainly because we were not able to find a satellite cable that would plug into the Sienna's factory antenna. We found one that was CLOSE, and ordered it, but it was not quite correct.

The AXXESS steering wheel controls were programmed by watching the "flashes" on the ASWC-1 box, which sounds harder than it was. Once I read through the directions a couple of times, it made sense and we were able to program it without incident.

So the answer to my own question is YES, it can be done!! It will be a little frustrating. I hope that anyone that decides to do this upgrade to their base-model Sienna can consult this thread and at least have a better idea of what they're getting into.

 

Hi There, this is an old thread but facing the same issue just wondering if the steering wheel has all the needed wires (harness). Thanks

 

Yes, absolutely all the connectors are there, only on the base model they simply remain unused.

 

Hi all! Although the topic is old, now I'm doing the same thing. Unlike the Koko4, I'm not installing a universal Double DIN head unit, but a 9-inch "OEM-like" aftermarket plug-and-play Android stereo on a 2014 Sienna Base, so I won't need a Metra installation kit. In this regard, I had a few questions and if the author of this topic or someone else could help me, I would be very grateful. Koko4 says "The problem we had when the horn went off........ The ground wire is located on a different pin in 2014 so we moved it and it worked fine." I had the same problem as I was able to find steering buttons on eBay for a 2011 Sienna only. I would like to know exactly where he moved this wire. And the most important question: did you manage to program all the buttons or only 4 buttons like me: only +, -, ^, v. I can't program all the other buttons.

Best regards, Alex

 

I understand what you bought. You probably bought steering wheel control buttons WITHOUT WIRES! Under the airbag, there is no "sub-harness" to connect to the button blocks, there is only a connector, you had to buy the button blocks already with a harness. It should have looked like this:
View attachment 59574

 

In addition to possibly having to figure out horn wiring, I think there is the bigger issue of CANBUS decoder for my base model Sienna. My android head unit came with two cables. One for CANBUS with a decoder attached to but the connectors don’t fit my Sienna harness for speaker and power connections. The other supplier cable has the right connectors for speaker and power etc but does not have a CANBUS decoder integrated into this cable. I’m trying to get the head unit vendor to send me a different cable with the right connectors for base model Sienna and has CANBUS decoder in it.

Those of you who have integrated new-to-them factory steering controls into their base model that had just ornamental trim, did you integrate a CANBUS decoder cable at your head unit? Or is our steering wheel control system much simpler and just different resistances for each button and the android head unit can be calibrated for that in its related learning mode?

 

@alkar1958 , do I need to move the horn wire in this connector?

According to the service manual, the horn wire is supposed to be in Pin 1 of the connector:

I think all I need to do is check where the horn wire is connected right now before I add these new button controls. Maybe its already in pin 1 location in my 2013 base model.

 

OMG where did you find that diagram!? I searched for a long time but couldn't find it. I'm still on vacation, but I can answer. The problem with the horn wire is that on my 2014 Sienna L it is located on pin 5. And on the steering wheel controls that I could find only from the 2011 Sienna (as the seller wrote) the horn wire is located on pin 1. I did not know what to do and tried to swap the wires of pins 1 and 5 and got a positive result. True, only the *b, *c, *e and *f (volume + - , V /\) buttons work, and the backlight of the buttons also works. No other buttons can be programmed, but it's better than nothing. But maybe someone will be able to offer a better solution so that it is possible to program the rest of the buttons. I would be very grateful.

 

OMG where did you find that diagram!?

From the Service Manual but it's not easy to find. It's in the diagnosing steering wheel controls area.

I'm still on vacation,

Oops, I assumed your vacation was over by now

True, only the *b, *c, *e and *f (volume + - , V /\) buttons work, and the backlight of the buttons also works. No other buttons can be programmed, but it's better than nothing. But maybe someone will be able to offer a better solution so that it is possible to program the rest of the buttons. I would be very grateful.

If you only have some of the buttons working, my guess is that you have not connected both of the switch pod signal wires to your head unit. The switches use TWO signal wires (and a ground):

...and both of these signal wires would need to be connected to a head unit that supports two button signal inputs:

Usually an Android Head Unit comes with a factory wiring harness adapter that handles all this for you. Did yours come with a custom cable? Or did you make your own?

 

 

 

This is a plug and play 9inch Android 11 head unit on Amazon. It does not require any Metra adapter. I would send you a link, but they don't sell it anymore. But from the reviews, I know that for people with factory buttons on the steering wheel (model LE), all buttons work.

 

So when you say it’s plug and play, I assume it came with a harness adapter cable. Mine looks like this:

zooming in:

this connector accesses the 3 signal wires for the steering wheel controls.

Does your harness adapter cable have 3 wires in this connector?

 

Interesting, I moved the red wire, but the left side still works. I didn't touch the grey, but the right side still doesn't work.

 

I'm not sure what the red wire is for but you do need to check that these 3 steering wheel control wires are in the right place in the connector:

 

Let's do this. I will return home on Sunday and then we will continue the discussion. You have given me great hope that I will be able to activate the rest of the buttons. Thanks for the diagrams provided, it explains a lot and helps a lot. It will only be necessary to find the second SW wire, connect it to the desired pin and right side must also work. Best regards.

 

Sorry for the long pause guys. I had an accident with my Sienna. I'll look into this issue again when I fix it. There is quite a lot of work, so it will take some time, especially during the holiday season. Happy Holidays everyone!

 

Sorry for the long pause guys. I had an accident with my Sienna. I'll look into this issue again when I fix it. There is quite a lot of work, so it will take some time, especially during the holiday season. Happy Holidays everyone!
View attachment 60306
View attachment 60307

My question is removed by me because my beautiful 2014 Sienna is recognized as a"total loss" after the accident. We are looking for a new one and made sure that it is physically impossible to find. Miraculously, we managed to find the Highlander Hybrid XLE AWD 2023 at $4K above MSRP, it should arrive at the end of February. We will take it.
Everyone who sees these photos is surprised that this is a "total loss", but how can I argue with the adjuster?
Peace and good luck to all.

 

Ugh I hope everyone is ok. Take care of yourself and your car!

I swapped pins 1 and 5 and now the horn works as expected but the Android Head Unit does not see the new buttons. I’m gonna have to remove it and check the wiring and signal on to the Key1 and Key2 inputs.

EDIT: I used a different wiring harness adapter that I made myself--one that I can use the CANBUS Decoder Box with--and this harness worked to get the steering wheel controls recognized by the android head unit. I don't know what is different with this new harness as it uses the same 3 connections (pins 6, 7 & 8)--maybe the other harness had a bad connection.

 

Ugh I hope everyone is ok. Take care of yourself and your car! I swapped pins 1 and 5 and now the horn works as expected but the Android Head Unit does not see the new buttons. I’m gonna have to remove it and check the wiring and signal on to the Key1 and Key2 inputs. EDIT: I used a different wiring harness adapter that I made myself--one that I can use the CANBUS Decoder Box with--and this harness worked to get the steering wheel controls recognized by the android head unit. I don't know what is different with this new harness as it uses the same 3 connections (pins 6, 7 & 8)--maybe the other harness had a bad connection. View attachment 60450 View attachment 60451

Hi, Could you share what harness you use to make it work and what CANBUS decoder? Thank you

 

I'm attempting this sometime in the next couple weeks. Got a Carpuride YT90S that has the CANBUS decoder built in.

The head unit is already installed and working, but I didn't realize (was replacing an older android auto double DIN head unit because I wanted wireless android auto) that this new one had basically no physical buttons. That combined with bad volume controls on the Carpuride UI make it miserable to switch between phone/music/maps as all of them have different volume levels and no easy way to adjust the volume on the fly. Ordered some steering wheel controls to install this or next weekend.

If it works, I'll link the harness adapter (for the 3 steering wires) I ordered on amazon. It looks like it should fit, and it says it should, but I don't want to give any advice until I'm sure it fits.

 

Please advice how you make your own adapter for steering wheel controls, I tried multiple android unit that comes with Toyota harness, the right side buttons never worked. Any pictures or guide line to troubleshoot