ddehooge

Is this possible? I'm looking at an RX330 with OEM nav and I'm wondering if I could upgrade the 4th Generation Nav unit to a 5th Generation unit out of a RX350? Is this doable? is this "Plug & Play?"

I've searvhed everywher and came up empty thus far...

Any help would be appreciated...

Thanks,

D

sportsfan8

I'm sure it's possible, just really expensive.

ecount00

would agree it would be expensive if it's possible. i don't know if it is at least without a lot of hacking. for plug and play, the the 08/09 which has the gen 5 would need to be identical in terms of speed sensor, nav plugs, dash mounts and so on. i know the rx hasn't been materially changed in years but i don't know if there were any electronics changes for the gen 5 unit that would get in the way of this.

LBCDan

I was told by one of our navigation engineers that all you have to do is disconnect the Gen 3 CPU and plug in the Gen 4 unit. The connections are the same and it should work fine. The cost will be several hundred dollars for the CPU though so consider the cost vs. benefit before you do it.

ecount00

the above sounds reasonable. on the other hand check out q 6 on the link

http://www.sewellpartsonline.com/import/faq.html

i guess i'd be sure you can return the new nav if it doesnt work or at least know it's a bit of buyer beware. i think at best you'd be buying from 'some guy' on ebay.

ddehooge

Thanks guys, good to know, would feel better if someone else had already done it, but with that said this sounds promising...

Rich27

iTrader: (9)

Bump.

Has anyone been able to do this upgrade?

jakenbake

I have looked into this a few times hoping I would find a different answer....But when they went to Gen5, they changed all the wiring and connectors. They added some wiring and took away some of the wiring. So it is not just a matter of replacing the nav unit and the screen. You would have to rewire the entire system. Wahwah. :-(

MrBruin09

It is possible, but the cost associated with everything is around $1800 dollars. I had looked into this in the past.

mowmow

I inquire about this 4 years ago and found out there is a guy on Lexus owners forum will do it and give you a trade + $1k for a Gen 5 setup, he also will make the new harness for you. I no longer remember the guy's username nor do I know if he still does it on the side

MrBruin09

Mowmow, you and I had a conversation about this topic 4 years ago. Here was your response to me.

"You would have to switch both screen and computer and I would custom make gen 4 to gen 5 adapter harness. Cost is $2500.00. Would give you $1000.00 trade in of old equipment. So the total would be $1500.00 to switch systems. That includes shipping and any tech support that you may need. Yes the 5th gen nav system went to higher pixel screen and colors increased from 256 to 32,000"

mowmow

adam8065, so are you going to pull the trigger on it ? I don't know if the guy is still on the Lexus owner forum anymore though

TucsonLJW

Any recollection of who the person was that offered to make the harness? I have been after this for years, but this is as close as I can find to proof of concept...

rlx101

is it not possible to go with aftermarket carplay unit instead? still no budget solutions available for models with navigation?

TucsonLJW

Hi rlx101! Thank you for responding! I have done exactly that, install a wireless carplay unit (pictured). I love having two screens instead on one large one (the android mods seem cheep and buggy in addition to ruining the coherency of the interior) and would like to have the nav work as well as possible on the factory display and then use the car play unit for other things. I know that the functionality is not very different, but the ergonomics and retention of OEM parts is very valuable to me. I actually bought a multi-display and nav controller from a gen5 and have been studying the wiring diagrams, is seams very doable, but the harness pins would need to be shuffled around, which is obviously a bummer as that means either splicing into the factory harness (least desirable) and making some kind of custom harness (but I cant buy an OEM one as I would need the reverse socket which the do not make (to my knowledge). I know that many people have commented on the cost being unreasonable for the outcome, but I don't see it that way. I love my car, I have only ever owned two vehicles in my life and I am 43. I intend to keep this car until there are no replacement parts to get. I don't like the new models (or many new cars in fact) as they are too big, the bulk of the car body makes the vehicle feel unwieldy and alienating from the driving experience. Anyway, that is all to say money is not really my prime concern. In my mind the best thing would be to find a custom fabricated harness to mod the pins and then run a new line if I need to for the M13 line. It may be a moon shot at this point, but I am determined, lol! I will update here as it progresses, utter failure or otherwise! Thanks for the comment!