monch

Hi 2nd gen owners, I'm going to upgrade my wife's 2004 rx330 with aftermarket double-din head unit, and searching for appropriate setup (harness/adapters) for it. The car has ML sound system with Nav, and rear seat entertainment system. I searched the forums here and couldn't find any topics that would cover this setup. Would you mind please to help with what should I get to make this happen? Did anyone success with this type of upgrade?

NVAKeith

iTrader: (1)

Crutchfield.com is my go-to for figuring out what is needed for upgrades like yours.

alchemist

iTrader: (1)

see my thread:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/rx-...ine-920hd.html

I linked these to the factory head rest screens

monch

Thanks for the info! One concern I have, is the ML sound system. I read in one of the topics that metra harness works only with JBL factory amp, not with ML... Crutchfield though shows the same Metra adapter for my setup, TYTO-01. That's why asking if anyone had success with ML sound system. I think I'll call crutchfield to see what they say. Thanks alchemist for the link, that's what inspired me to start this upgrade as a gift to my wife

csxian

I used audiocontrol LC6i (years back then) on another car that I cannot lose the factory headunit but I want to have ipod input, subwoofer and aftermarket speakers.

Check out some interface from audiocontrol that enable you to keep your factory setup.

monch

Thanks for the feedback! I was actually looking for a double-din aftermarket replacement, to get the new high-tech features unfortunately this project is postponed for now, as the nav/AC unit died couple days back. Need to fix it first, opened another thread to get some help ...

NVAKeith

iTrader: (1)

Sucks about the nav crapping out. Would've sucked even more if it happened right after or during the radio upgrade because then you'd be wondering if the radio install was causing the nav problems!

monch

You bet, the display gave me a whole week of non-sleep nights researching here-there for fixes/diagrams/datasheets. And it paid off, I fixed it yesterday , by myself. Cost me $0 (well, still need to order the $5 crappy SMD fuse and tear down the nav again, to replace it). I'll post the update/solution in the original thread, may be helpful to someone. So, will be back on track with this once fixed that thing properly.

monch

Well, after a while, finally got some time to complete this project. Thanks a lot to this video creator!
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/rx-...ight-dome.html
This helped a lot to do my upgrade. Just wanted to share the specifics related to my vehicle, might be useful for someone.
I did slightly different setup from the video but most of the work was accomplished by using it as a guidance.
Have to mention right away: rear seat entertainment will NOT work after such an upgrade. Some more details below.

Here is what I installed:
Radio: Alpine ilx-207. Supports both Apple Carplay and Android Auto. HD radio enabled. No CD/DVD but who needs them these days . HDMI input/output support, which I used for the alternative rear seat entertainment. Parametric equalizer, capacitive touchscreen, additional GPS antenna to help with phone maps etc. Overall I'm very satisfied with this unit.
Adapters:
- TYTO-01 to integrate with OEM amp and wiring,
- iDatalink Maestro SW to retain steering wheel controls (requires programming through their website),
- Microbypass for parking brake emulation.
68Ohm resistor to enable OEM navigation/climate control. Sound of OEM navigation works just fine.
Faceplate: Metra has one shown in the video, but I found another JDM-style faceplate from ebay for around $60, per me the design is better than Metra but the quality is not so good.
Also, needed some work on faceplate mounts so that radio sits flush. Not just plug and play ...
Alpine universal remote RUE-4202, mainly for rear passengers. This radio doesn't come with a remote control, purchase separately if you need it.
USB+HDMI extension cable, installed in place of the cigarette lighter and connected to the usb/hdmi inputs of the radio.

Couple of points specific to my vehicle setup, maybe would help someone:
1. Mark Levinson sound system works just fine with aftermarket radio + TYTO-01 adapter. The electric circuits of both ML and non-ML for RX330 show that the radio's audio-output signals are exactly the same (same quantity, same pins). Even though the radio on my Lexus has the logo "Mark Levinson", the outputs of the radio itself are the same as non-ML. It's the amplifier that is widely different, not the radio itself. So, TYTO-01 integrated to OEM wiring with no issues. Balance and fade worked just fine.
2. Forget about OEM rear seat entertainment (RSE), it will not work after the upgrade. It uses CAN bus to talk to OEM radio to exchange all commands and signals controls, including ON/OFF. Once OEM radio is removed, rear seat system will be dead. You can only load/unload DVD, but nothing else will work. Display will not turn on, no response to any buttons. I did tons of research about CAN bus to see if I could emulate those signals using maybe an Arduino board, but came to a conclusion that it didn't worth it. One should have a CAN bus analyzer to record the transfer signals between the radio and rear seat ECUs, then build a custom board to program these signals and hookup to rear seat ECU, to make it turn on and boot up. Then, one must find a way to enable the right sound signals of RSE to feed to aftermarket radio's AUX input, which is not trivial. If interested just check the electric circuits, you'll see what I mean. Lots of time and money to be spent, to drive a very old DVD player with crappy display!
I simply came up with another solution for rear passengers: bought asus t100t transformer book cheap online, which is basically a Windows tablet. Got a holder and micro-hdmi to hdmi cable to connect the tablet to the radio's hdmi input. Now I can download whatever I want into a microSD card and insert into that tablet, and rear passengers will enjoy wide variety of movies on a 10" HD screen while we use google/apple maps on the radio's screen. I can store the movies in any format I want, the tablet supports wide variety of them. Much cheaper, easier and with unlimited capabilities vs OEM RSE.

Just wanted to update this thread with successful results If you want more photos or details let me know. Good luck!

scotty6766

Looks Great! We did the same thing in our 2006 RX 400h. Needed new speakers since 1 was blown and Best Buy charges $69.95 per set to install...sales guy said for $20 more, you can cover any installs you might have in up to 3 cars for the next year. We knew we wanted to update the stock radio so we went for it. 2 weeks later, I had all the parts I ordered online and BB installed for us and did a fantastic job!