headgone

I will attempt to do this...bluetooth setup..maybe in a few months...

lextout

The space is more useful without the chunky cell phone anyway IMO. What good does it do if its there anyway. Maybe one day they will showcase it in a Lexus museum 100 years from now.

Daprex

Still powers up in my 00 LS 400, and I made sure to show all my friends when I got the car. However, the initial beep when it turns on is rather loud and annoying, is there a way to silence it without removing the entire system? Maybe a fuse somewhere.

Sorry, I am a newb.

lexfive

Mine still works in my 93 no signal of course.

dicer

I have seen quite a few iterations of the phone system in Gen1's. Weren't they all dealer installed? Some had antenna's on the windshield and some on the rear window. Some have a mic up near the driver sunvisor some on the steering wheel? Some had the control buttons on the steering wheel some don't? If it was a dealer only deal it would have been a complete interior tear apart to install them. What was the cost?

Kansas

All LS400's were pre-wired at the factory for dealer installed phone systems. "Interior tear apart" was not necessary to install them - only minor disassembly of the center console and trunk liner up through 1994. Only a fixed handset was offered until the 1993 model year when a portable handset became an option. All dealer installed Lexus phone systems in the LS400 had the microphone on the steering wheel phone control module. After 1994, the phone ECU was mounted under the false floor on the right side of the trunk.

When I bought my first LS400 in early 1990, I was offered a dealer installed Lexus phone system for about $1,000. The Lexus dealer also offered an aftermarket President brand phone system from Southwestern Bell (now AT&T) for only $100. The aftermarket President phone system handset was mounted in the same place the official Lexus phone system handset would have been mounted. It did not have a steering wheel mounted control and it's microphone was attached to the headliner. It also did not mute the radio and lower the HVAC fan speed like the Lexus phone system did. But it was cheap so I bought it. Cell phone coverage in 1990 was sparse here in the midwest and roaming charges could be extremely high. When outside my home area, it was sometimes necessary to contact the cell phone company serving the area in which I was driving and to use a credit card to pay for service.

I could have gone directly to Southwestern Bell to have the same President phone system installed but it was easier to have the Lexus dealer have it done.

In about 1993, the original fixed phone system was offered to existing LS400 owners at a very steep discount.. My President brand phone system was working well enough so I passed on the offer.

There may be more but I know of four different dealer installed Lexus phone systems that were offered in the U.S. spec LS400 from 1990 through 2000. As far as I know, there were only two Lexus phone systems offered in the gen 1 (1990-1994) LS400 - the original fixed handset and the portable handset that was introduced for the 1993 model year. I still have the promo VCR tape that Lexus sent to me in late 1992 that showed the "new" portable handset except I don't know if any of my VCR players still work. All the Lexus phone systems offered in the U.S. were analog but the U.K. and Europe got GSM phone systems - at least some had a SIM card slot.

dicer

What do you mean by fixed and portable? Fixed is hard wired? Did all the phones say Lexus on them?

lextout

Hi Jim, why the switch from the LS to the Sienna.

Kansas

Fixed = corded handset - you couldn't take the phone with you.

Portable = a standalone handset more similar to modern cell phones. The portable handset clicked into a charging cradle under the armrest - same location as the fixed handset cradle. The charging cradle also linked the portable handset to an ECU that allowed making calls with the phone controller on the left side of the steering wheel.

All handsets had the Lexus logo.

Kansas

I created a thread last year explaining why I switched: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...14-sienna.html

It is a decision that I have not regretted. It is wonderful to finally have a vehicle that can carry six adults in comfort. And it's got a pretty nice Bluetooth phone system too (this being a thread about phones).

Hiroshi12

iTrader: (1)

I just had a brilliant idea! For those of you who still have those old Lexus car phones that no longer work try this out: it's summertime so keep your eyes on the weather and the next time there is highly localized electro-temporal spatial effects caused by unusual aurora borealis activity...drive your car under some large power lines and maybe you will get a call from the Lexus engineers in Tahara Japan, circa 1990, and they will finally reveal all of their secrets!