- Joined
- Mar 12, 2025
- Threads
- 3
- Messages
- 7
- Reaction score
- 9
- Location
- ChicagoLand
- Vehicle(s)
- Tacoma SR5 Doublecab Longbed
- Thread starter
- #1
Hello everyone,
I am new here but joined for 3 reasons. The first has to do with the title to this thread.
I inherited a 4th Gen SR5 with upgraded JBL speakers back in late November. I immediately noticed how quiet and crappy the sound system performed. Initially, I didn't do any research on the topic. I had a portable JBL speaker in the past and never thought the audio sounded all that great so I just chalked it up to JBL being a low grade audio speaker company anyway. Mid December, I watched a Youtube video searching for a way to turn off the incredibly annoying seat belt chime. I often drive around on private property, at low speeds, with very little need for the belt as I am hopping in and out of the vehicle quite often.
That video is when I found out about an ODB device called "Carista." It is advertised as being able to unlock "secret features" in some car brands and models. Albeit, with a subscription. I decided to purchase it anyway. The device arrived, I plugged it in, and I subscribed to the service. The device and application does as promised. Several nice features were unlocked. I was able to disable the seat belt chimes, enable the windows to be rolled down via the key fob, disable or lower the sensitivity of the front parking alarms, and many more things. Most importantly, I WAS ABLE TO SOMEWHAT FIX THE JBL SPEAKERS!
In the Carista APP, under the special vehicle customizations tab, I noticed an option for MUSIC AND AUDIO. I clicked it. The only object under this setting was called "volume" i believe and it had the numbers 1-10. Mine was set to 3. I turned it to 10. Immediately, I was able to listen to music at a very high volume by having the stereo only set to 20. Before changing this setting in carista, If I wanted the stereo to be somewhat loud, I needed the head unit to be turned up to 60. Going to 60 would now blow out my eardrums. After some time, I decided to settle on setting the option in carista to 8. Now, I turn the volume to 30 or 35 and it is very loud. 50, and I can't hear myself think and my voice is drowned out while jammin along.
I believe these features accessed by Carista can be accessed by a dealership. I have no idea why Toyota would send a dealer a vehicle with global volume setting set to 3 instead of 8 or 9. I could understand not having the global volume set to 10. As I believe a 10 will allow for a completely unfiltered use of the speakers and potentially blow them out. However, I don't think 8 will cause this issue. I have a computer headset with a tuner that operates similarly. I have the option for 1-10 and i set that, then I control the volume level through windows. Maybe Toyota is just playing it safe so it's virtually impossible to cause issues with the sound system? Either way, JBL speakers are not the best. Mid, Treble, and Bass aren't that great and at the pricepoint of 4th gen taco i would expect something like polk audio or boston speakers. I will say, they are sounding much better now after I adjusted this setting. I would reach out to your dealer to see if they can manually adjust this for you. If they don't know what you are talking about, tell them it's in the same system that allows you to enable opening the windows with the key fob. If they try to charge you, I would tell em to "obsenity" off, and just buy the Carista ODB. I believe i got mine on sale for 40 bucks at christmas with a year of access to the application.
If anyone has any questions, wants to know more, or needs help with this at all, feel free to reach out to me.
I am new here but joined for 3 reasons. The first has to do with the title to this thread.
I inherited a 4th Gen SR5 with upgraded JBL speakers back in late November. I immediately noticed how quiet and crappy the sound system performed. Initially, I didn't do any research on the topic. I had a portable JBL speaker in the past and never thought the audio sounded all that great so I just chalked it up to JBL being a low grade audio speaker company anyway. Mid December, I watched a Youtube video searching for a way to turn off the incredibly annoying seat belt chime. I often drive around on private property, at low speeds, with very little need for the belt as I am hopping in and out of the vehicle quite often.
That video is when I found out about an ODB device called "Carista." It is advertised as being able to unlock "secret features" in some car brands and models. Albeit, with a subscription. I decided to purchase it anyway. The device arrived, I plugged it in, and I subscribed to the service. The device and application does as promised. Several nice features were unlocked. I was able to disable the seat belt chimes, enable the windows to be rolled down via the key fob, disable or lower the sensitivity of the front parking alarms, and many more things. Most importantly, I WAS ABLE TO SOMEWHAT FIX THE JBL SPEAKERS!
In the Carista APP, under the special vehicle customizations tab, I noticed an option for MUSIC AND AUDIO. I clicked it. The only object under this setting was called "volume" i believe and it had the numbers 1-10. Mine was set to 3. I turned it to 10. Immediately, I was able to listen to music at a very high volume by having the stereo only set to 20. Before changing this setting in carista, If I wanted the stereo to be somewhat loud, I needed the head unit to be turned up to 60. Going to 60 would now blow out my eardrums. After some time, I decided to settle on setting the option in carista to 8. Now, I turn the volume to 30 or 35 and it is very loud. 50, and I can't hear myself think and my voice is drowned out while jammin along.
I believe these features accessed by Carista can be accessed by a dealership. I have no idea why Toyota would send a dealer a vehicle with global volume setting set to 3 instead of 8 or 9. I could understand not having the global volume set to 10. As I believe a 10 will allow for a completely unfiltered use of the speakers and potentially blow them out. However, I don't think 8 will cause this issue. I have a computer headset with a tuner that operates similarly. I have the option for 1-10 and i set that, then I control the volume level through windows. Maybe Toyota is just playing it safe so it's virtually impossible to cause issues with the sound system? Either way, JBL speakers are not the best. Mid, Treble, and Bass aren't that great and at the pricepoint of 4th gen taco i would expect something like polk audio or boston speakers. I will say, they are sounding much better now after I adjusted this setting. I would reach out to your dealer to see if they can manually adjust this for you. If they don't know what you are talking about, tell them it's in the same system that allows you to enable opening the windows with the key fob. If they try to charge you, I would tell em to "obsenity" off, and just buy the Carista ODB. I believe i got mine on sale for 40 bucks at christmas with a year of access to the application.
If anyone has any questions, wants to know more, or needs help with this at all, feel free to reach out to me.
Sponsored
