SAR41WY

Have done a lot of searches here on this subject. Have found a lot of info on installing an aftermarket into a vehicle without OEM Nav, but not replaceing an existing one. I find the OEM unit in my 06 LX470 to be the poorest excuse for a navigation system I have ever used. I have had a Garmin NUVI 360 for several years and just replaced it with a NUVI 760 a few months back. So I was looking forward to having a built in unit with my recent purchase of my 06 LX470. After less than a week of use, I find that I want to get rid of this useless piece of equipment and replace it with a real navigation unit. I like one of the double din Kenwood units, but I am not sure if I will be able to replace it because of the climate controls being intergrated into the OEM Navigation.

If any one know of a way this can be done and still have an accepetable working unit that still looks good, please help me get started in the right direction.The navigation is important enough to me that I am not concerned with the cost as must as I want it to still have use of the controls on the sterring wheel, most features such as blue tooth and still be able to have a double din system so that I will have the larger screen. I have not seen an aftermarket unit that will control the climate, so I'm pretty sure I will have to replace that, but I don't want to have to use up one of the din mounts so that I end up with a single din unit.

I love the vehicle in every other way, but am begining to think I made a bad choice. My fault for not researching the navigation part of the vehicle. I did a lot of research on the LX470 and was sold hands down that it is the best vehicle for my needs. I am Commander for our Search and Recue Team in our county, so I spend a lot of time in the mountains of Wyoming. But I travel a lot all over the country and count on my navigation unit when in unfamiler areas of the country.

Any help would be very much appreacated.

AKoch

I'm just curious what advantages the Kenwood unit you mentioned or other aftermarket offerings have over the Lexus OEM one. Would be good to know, I actually never compared.

Now, if you think the Lexus OEM is bad, try the Mercedes or Audi units. I'll start to love the one in Lexus very quickly.

Hoser

The LC100/LX470 was available without the Navi system, though extremely rare in the US. I would bet you (or somebody knowledgable) could swap the parts. It would be costly but possible, IMO.

If you have trouble getting these specific parts, let me know and I can direct to somebody who can be of more help.

SAR41WY

Thanks for the replys.

Akoch,

The problem I have with the OEM unit is that the software has no information for the small town I live in. Which is not a problem here, but I travel all over the Mountain states from Montana to New Mexico to Nevada to the Dakotas. When I have tried it where I live, it will only give me turn by turn directions on two roads. The interstate that passes thru here and the main business loop. Any where else in town it says that turn by turn directions will not be available. So you are pretty much on your own after that. My travels take me into a lot of small towns and cities all over the place. So if it doesn't have any thing for here, (this is one of the larger towns in Wyoming, but that doesn't say much )I'm pretty sure I will run into the same problem in a lot of other places. It works good in the bigger cities like Salt Lake City. But thats all.

I have been useing the small portable Garmin NUVI units for years and very seldom run into places that it can't navigate around even in the smallest of towns. I have my Garmin NUVI mounted on the suction cup mount by the stick shift right now. I think that a shame that I have to use that when I have this expensive built in unit.

This unit only has the 5.1 version, but I am kind of leary to spend what it cost to upgrade to the 7.1 when I have no Idea if it will be any better.

Garmin has done such a great job of getting area coverage every where I have been. I have been amazed at the info available on the small Garmin units. The Kenwood unit I was looking at had Garmin Map software, I'm not sure who provides the one on the Lexus OEM.

Hoser,

Your right, I spent a few hours at the Lexus dealer in Salt Lake City today getting some warranty issues taken care of and spoke to everyone there I could in parts, service and sales. No one there was able to give me much hope. The Parts dept printed out the one page with the climate controls from a non nav unit. But no part numbers, prices or anything that was much help and an opinion that I was wasteing my time. So I asked for the best high end stereo shop around and at least got that. Called them and the guy I spoke with was not sure either. Said he would look at it and see if there was anything he felt he could do. I will be back in Salt Lake next week and will go by there and see if I can get anywhere. And as you said, there were no LX units on the lot without nav to even look at to see what how it was set up.

I own an Instrumentation Company. We are a distribitor for calibration equipment used in the oil and gas industry and we do calibration and NIST certification on electronic calibration equipment. So I know my way around a wiring schematic. Thats not the problem. I just can't seem to get the info or the equipment I may need. The work arounds I have found on here to bypass the nav and bluetooth when in motion would be no problem, I do things a lot more complicated than that all the time. But that won't solve my problem of not knowing how to get from point A to B when I am lost in some way out of the way place and I am trying to find a customers location. LOL

Are there wiring schematics I can get on this 06 LX470. I forgot to ask that question today at the dealership.

Thanks again for all the help and ANY advise that you may have.

Hoser

Sar, Check your private messages.

Kansas

I think I'm seeing part numbers for the HVAC controls for the non-nav 06 Toyota Land Cruiser on "www. t o y o d y i . com" . Remove the spaces from the URL since Clublexus for some reason is blocking the display of the URL for this most useful website.

You can get wiring diagrams from Lexus online techinfo ($10/day subscription) -- but surely your Lexus dealer would print copies of wiring diagrams for you. Mine has.

Another place you could look for HVAC controls is Hawaii. I'm guessing that the LX470 sold in Hawaii didn't have nav since it wasn't even available on the Hawaiian spec LS430 UL. You can get the phone numbers of the Hawaii Servco Lexus locations from the Lexus corporate website. It's winter -- you probably need to go to Hawaii to pick up parts? Ha!

Edit: Maybe I should take that back about looking in Hawaii. I just found this 06 LX470 at Servco/Honolulu and it has a screen -- but nav isn't mentioned so maybe it has a screen without a nav function: http://honolulu.craigslist.org/oah/ctd/918087567.html

Aftermarket navs like Garmin are always way ahead of the navs from auto manufacturers. That's just the way it is. You certainly wouldn't be the first person to use a portable nav even though your car has a built-in nav -- people on this forum have reported doing that with their relatively new Lexus LS cars. Even if you bought an aftermarket in-dash nav, it is quite possible that it wouldn't work any better than the nav in your LX and especially not work as well as your Garmin.

There are all sorts of brackets available for mounting a Garmin on your dash without doing any damage so you wouldn't have to use the suction cup mount. Even though brackets for the newer LX are not listed on http://www.pro-fit-intl.com/lexus , the Pro.Fit people could likely provide a bracket for your LX that would fit your Garmin perfectly.

If you look closely at my avatar, you can see a portable nav mounted on a Pro.Fit bracket.

I agree ... this sucks.

AKoch

Funny enough, the OEM unit says that the directions are unavailable when I come close to my place. And this is metropolitan area. So I can see where you are coming from.

And I agree - it will be awhile before the built-in units catch up with the constantly evolving aftermarket ones. The life-cycle seems so short now, so it will take time.

I only find that when the OEM nav works it works better than the portable Garmin (I also have one). It is probably the additional benefit of taking the sensor data from the vehicle, like speed, distance traveled, turning angle. Plus additional integration with the audio, blue tooth etc.

SAR41WY

Kansas, Hawaii does sound good right now!! Since it was 14 degrees here this morning. I have my NUVI mounted right in front of the stick shift which works good for now. It's real easy to see and access right there. I will call my Lexus dealer tomorrow and see about getting the wiring digrams for both nav and non nav units. I have an appointment next week for some more warranty work and have already contacted a highly recommended car stereo installation shop to meet with next week and see if I can make any progress there. I checked out the ******* site today and got all the part numbers for the one I have. But not sure how to find the on without nav to get the part numbers for the standalone climate control panel.

Hoser, Thats a great picture of the non nav unit you sent me. Thats what I need. If I can get the control panel in the bottom half of that installation, then pull my complete nav unit out and also remove the tape deck (who carries around tapes anymore???) that should give me plenty of room to install the after market double din and also the manual climate control panel if I can get it.

Thanks all, I will keep you informed as to how this goes.

Kansas

SAR41WY, be sure to check the connectors on the wiring harness of your nav LX to see if they are the same as the connectors on the non-nav Landcruiser HVAC control. Even if the connectors are the same it is possible that the pins in the connectors have different functions.

I remember people trying to swap the nav out of a GS or LS for a non-nav HVAC control unit and finding that the connectors were different. If the connectors are different between the nav LX and the non-nav Landcruiser, you might need additional wiring harnesses and even some re-engineering -- it could get complex.

Toyota/Lexus does some odd things. For example, I'm absolutely certain that different audio system wiring harnesses and connectors types are used for the various audio systems that were available in both my 2000 LS400 and my wife's Camry - I learned the hard (i.e. expensive) way when interfacing phone kits.

Also, if you are concerned about resale, having an aftermarket nav or audio system can made it difficult to sell a car - no matter how nice the work was done. If an audio shop has to chop off the connectors to install an aftermarket system, it could be difficult to reinstall the original nav to satisfy a potential buyer of your LX.

My wife and I have rented cars with nav several times while on extended vacations although we mainly rely on a portable nav so we don't have to learn how the rental car's nav works. When we do use the rental car's nav, it can be kind of fun to have "the war of the navs" to see which gives the best route -- the rental car nav or a portable nav.

I saw part numbers for the non-nav HVAC control on "t o y o d y i .com" in the Toyota Landcruiser section. According to the Lexus corporate website, nav became standard on the U.S. market Lexus LX beginning in 2002.

Hoser

Here's a better picture of a Middle Eastern spec '04 LC100. There was a also a another version with very simplified HVAC dial controls but that version never came to the US in any form.

SAR41WY

Thanks, Hoser. I think that what I will need.

But the deeper I look into this, the more complicated it gets. I'm afraid the wiring conversion will end up being a nightmare.

I just bought a one month subscription to the toyota tech info tis site and have been looking at the wiring digrams. It looks like it can be done, just a matter of if it will be worth all the hassle. It looks like I will have to purchase the manual climate control panel, remove the tape deck,(which is no loss) and install the climate controls there. Then the new Nav unit will have all audio, bluetooth and other features I want. Looking at Alpine and Kenwood units. Any suggestions on these would be good.

Kansas, your right about the some of the connectors, it looks like some may not match. But this is one of those jobs I will leave to the professionals. Even thou I am an electronics technician by trade, my exertise is not in the auto field. So I would rather let someone that knows more than me do this one.

I have an appointment with my dealer for some warranty work on Wednesday and I also have an appointment with Car Concepts to discuss the different options.

Thanks again for all of the help everyone.

SAR41WY

Well I have giving up!!! I ordered the Ultimate Lockpick 1. Have My Garmin NUVI 760 suction cupped by the stick shift. Have an appointment with Car Concepts tomorrow to have my Search & Rescue Radio and the Lockpick installed. After looking at almost $ 5000 to take out OEM unit, add manual climate control and after market system, redo Mark Levison system because amp would not match (or something, I lost concentration about there) and installation fees, deceided it was not worth it. Will look into the VAIS option later to get Sirius Radio intergrated with nav unit. Also have an appointment to have a clear bra put on. Putting the Clear Bra on the LX470 and also on my Ford Ranger Edge that I tow behind the motorhome. Then sit back for a while and let my wallet fill back up. I will let the OEM nav and Garmin have Nav wars for a while and at least get a good laugh. And never buy a Lexus with OEM Navigation again.

Thanks for all the help. I learned a lot. Some good and some not so Good!!

Will let you know how the Lockpick works. Plan on getting the 8.1 version and try to burn a hybrid disc with my 5.1 and 8.1 so that I don't loose the destination feature. There is a lot of added info on the 8.1 for southern California. And I have a tip planed there next month, so it will be worth it if I can get the hybrid disc to work. I loaded the 8.1 the other day at the dealers just to see what was added. But I did lose the override feature so I knew the lockpick would not allow destination input with the 8.1 but would still allow the phone features to work. Had to pull battery cable to get 5.1 to reload and bring back the override bypass. But got it working again.

lexusscturbo

iTrader: (12)

I find your signature very ironic

SAR41WY

That statement comes from part of an old Trouble Shooting chart we use to have hanging in our electronic tech shop. That was the first and last step on the trouble shooting chart. The step prior to HIDE IT, was, did anyone see YOU working on it!!

istundra

iTrader: (2)

Does your OEM Nav have some aftermarket module which enables Audio/Video input? If so, then you are half way there.

With that module, similar to one called NavTV or NavTool, you will be able to use your OEM Nav as a display for an aftermarket single din nav. This same module will also enable all audio from your aftermarket single din nav through your OEM audio system as well.

Something for you to consider if they have a module for your LX470. Goodluck!