LSxtacy

Just bought it Monday night, 68K. Love this car, most comfortable ride I've ever had. Got the car home, playing around with the head unit and got the dreaded "will not connect to external system warning" and head unit works intermittently, speakers sound like s#%t. Is this ML amp failure, I'm going to see if they will help me out with this. Whatever.

CA2WALS430

Congratulations! I love the fact that poeple keep buying these, reading this site, and learning what a great decision they made.
I can only speak to the speaker thing, which is a pretty normal problem for these. DON'T go buy new speakers, It is the foam surrounds that dry and crack, and there is a repair kit.
If you are good with that stuff, you can do it, just takes time to dry.
I did not trust myself, so I paid a car stereo shop about $400 total to do them all and the sub. Now it sounds great, and my door panels aren't broken! Yay!

LSxtacy

Appreciate the rec. I figure that the speakers are bad. I did a diagnostic check through the head unit and it said to check the head unit. It said that the amp was ok. Am I to believe that? I'll tear into the speakers this weekend and see what I find. I have a really nice set of MB quart premium 5 1/4 that I've been dying to put in something, just not sure if they're 8 ohm. Any way to check the amp without sending it off?

OsideTurbo

I went through the same thing about 4 months ago - bought a used LS I love, but it had audio problems that I knew about going in. What I didn't know, was how much of a problem the Mark Levinson amp can be if you don't want to pay the $2700 that Lexus charges for a replacement . . .

Hopefully, yours is just the speaker issue which can sometimes be easily repaired with glue. There are a lot of helpful threads here on both issues, so do some research to find out what your problem is and how to best tackle it. Start with the stickied posts in the LS - 3rd Gen (2001-2006) sub-forum.

If you have generally poor sound, it may be the speakers. If you hear intermittent pops or jolts of power, or if sound is completely cutting out in one or more speakers, it is more likely the amp. (My amp caused a loud pop every time I turned on the ignition and then randomly spit jolts out of the back speakers - but people have reported a lot of different sounds resulting from failing amps.) Good Luck!

LSxtacy

Is it just a general speaker repair kit? I might try that. The head unit is acting flaky, it just got a new battery so I'm going to disconnect that for a while. Ran the diagnostic check through the display and it said that the amp was ok, the head unit had a chk next to it and gave some codes. Anyway to check the amp before I send it off to repair? Anyway, I don't mind upgrading speakers, never have had a great stereo in any vehicle but this i=one is so plush a quiet i wouldn't mind an upgrade. I'll do a little more digging on the site, lots of great posts in here.

OsideTurbo

Start with this thread and you'll get an idea of typical Mark Levinson audio problems and solutions: https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...nd-part-s.html

Once you know what issues you have, you can do more focused searches.

Coulter

The sound system on these cars is definitely a weak link, especially when so much time has passed.

I would repair the existing ones, replacements can possibly fry your amp. The factory ones are a real oddball rating that most aftermarket speakers don't meet.

Repairing them isn't as intimidating as you might think as a DIY, but even if you don't want to, all sorts of places can repair them at an affordable rate.

LSxtacy

So, now the head unit is telling me that "external system is not connected" and "check the connection of the air conditioner". Is this indicative of the ML amp problem or is something else at play here. Upon start up, the screen comes up with the Lexus display, sometimes it says audio off, no Nav, no climate controls. Sometimes it will come back on. I read that there is a fuse specifically on the head unit. I just don't want to have the amp repaired if its not the problem. Anyone have a solution to this, I've searched but didn't really find a solution. Most of the thread just die out.

Love the car, hate the electronics right now.

Discobee

I'd like to see some pics of your car!

LSxtacy

It's a black 04 Ultra, I'll post some pics in a few days, my wife has taken it from me.

Junglequac

From one UL owner to another, congratulations! I absolutely love my Crystal White/Ecru 2005 UL more and more each passing day.
The stereo quality or lack thereof is honestly my only complaint about my LS. Worse still that Mark Levinson makes some of the highest quality home audio in the world and have put their name on untold number of Lexii all the while using relatively low quality components.

What color is the interior on your black 2004? If Saddle, I got mad interior color envy!
Best,
JQ

tallcaguy

What did the stereo shop do? Does that include install/reinstall? Re-foam the sub woofer of course. How did they fix the speakers? ML is very good when everything works right. Local shop (in the Sacramento area) wanted $250 just to remove/re-foam/install the sub woofer ("it's so much work and hard to access"). Am going to to get few more quotes. I like the idea of doing the speakers on mine because the local Lex dealer replaced the expensive problem (the ML amp) for the last owner just 5k miles ago.