2013-2018 Toyota RAV4 Stereo Upgrade

Car stereo upgrade is necessary if you want more infotainment and other practical features in the car. For those who have a Toyota RAV4, you can do a Toyota RAV4 stereo upgrade with an aftermarket 10.1″ HD large screen Android radio instead. It fits 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 year Toyota RAV4. Why you need a radio upgrade? Let’s compare the factory Toyota RAV4 radio with the new RAV4 stereo upgrade firstly.

Factory Toyota RAV4 Radio VS Toyota RAV4 stereo upgrade

Factory Toyota rav4 radio

The factory car radio from Toyota rav4 is just equipped with a small screen and limited functions like FM/AM radio, CD player, Bluetooth. It’s not able to play videos or Bluetooth music with your phone. More importantly, it does not support navigation function, does not support backup camera, does not support new feature of Apple carplay or Android auto.

What’s more, if your factory Toyota rav4 stereo was defective, it costs a lot to repair or replace it with the original Toyota rav4 radio. So why not try a new aftermarket Toyota RAV4 stereo upgrade?

New 10.1″ HD Toyota rav4 stereo upgrade

• It has a large HD 10.1 inch display
• Support touch screen, more convenient for operation
• It’s built-in navigation function, support multiple maps like Google maps, igo and sygic maps.
• All these maps are free to use
• Support not only Bluetooth phone, but also support Bluetooth music with your phone
• Built-in WIFI module, easy to connect internet in the car
• Support backup camera video input, so you can connect an aftermarket backup camera
• It’s based on latest Android 11 system, so you can download your favorite apps
• If you want to easily access apps like Phone, Maps and Messages with your phone, you can install Apple carplay.
• If you want to upgrade the RAV4 sound system, it also supports aftermarket amplifier with RCA audio outputs.
• Affordable price compared with the original RAV4 radio.

Side note: If you want to purchase an aftermarket Toyota rav4 stereo upgrade, you can order it online here.

How to Install Aftermarket Toyota RAV4 Stereo upgrade?

A few years ago, aftermarket car stereo upgrade needs to modify the dashboard or wires for installation. Nowadays, you don’t have to do that anymore.

Latest car stereo upgrade for Toyota rav4 is easy to install now. It fits perfectly in your dashboard, and the wiring harness is plug and play. So all you need to is removing the old rav4 radio from your dashboard, then you can upgrade it with the new head unit. Basically, if you have experience removing the factory Toyota rav4 radio before, then you should be able to install this new rav4 stereo upgrade as well. The power cables, antennas, and other cables are all different and easy to distinguish them, so you won’t plug them wrong.

So let’s get started installing.

Factory Toyota RAV4 radio removal

1. Firstly you need to remove the factory radio. Begin your installation you need to take out car key or remove the negative cable from car battery.
2. Use a plastic trim tool, remove the upper dashboard trim panel. Set the panel aside once removed.
   

   

3. Gently pry the air conditioning air vents on the left and right sides of the factory radio away from the dashboard.

   

4. Pry the clock display and hazard lamp panel away from the dashboard.

   

5. Remove 4 screws attaching the factory Toyota rav4 radio unit.

   

6. Now you can gently lift the factory rav4 radio away from the dashboard and lean it forward to gain access to the wiring harness on the reverse side. Unplug the behind wiring harnesses.
   
   Installation note: place a soft, cloth material over the top side of the air conditioning controls. This will provide a buffer between the controls and the sharp edges of the radio and reduce the chances of scuffing the dashboard.

Here’s a video to show you how to remove the factory Toyota rav4 radio.

Aftermarket Toyota RAV4 stereo installation

Once you removed the factory stereo, you can start installing the new Toyota rav4 stereo. The most important part of this step is cables connections. 

1. Firstly connect your plugs with the power cable.
   
2. Then connect plugs behind the new rav4 stereo unit, including GPS antenna port, USB cable, radio antenna and power plug.

   

3. If your Toyota Rav4 has factory reversing camera, don’t forget to connect the yellow RCA cables as below.

   

   If you connect an aftermarket backup camera, then you don’t need to connect CAMERA R cable with CAMERA AR cable, but you need to connect the purple cable(label: CAMERA AR) with yellow plug with the video cable from the camera. And you should connect another brown wire(label: BACK) with a red trigger wire from the long video cable of the camera.

4. You can put the USB cable in the glove box, just run it from the back of the new stereo to from inside dashboard to glove box. 
5. Put the GPS antenna at top right corner of the dashboard, this can make the unit get GPS signal well. If the GPS signal is not good, then you can check this step.

   

   Note: There may be a speaker at the top corner of your dashboard, please do not put the antenna near the speaker, as the antenna and speaker are both magnetic, it will affect the GPS signal, then you can try another position.

   

After you connect all cables, you can turn on the car to test the rav4 new stereo. If all goes well, you can finish installation and drive the car on the road to have a test. 

Final Thoughts

If you want to upgrade Toyota rav4 stereo with an aftermarket one, it’s worth doing that because of its cost, cool modern features and easy installation. If you follow these steps one by one, you should also be able to install stereo upgrade by yourself. Besides, while installing you may have more questions, don’t worry, DVDGPSNav team are here to help you online.