Curr

Update!

So I decided to do it myself, as I have a hard time spending cash paying people to do stuff I can do, even if I'm worried.

Ended up putting in new OEM speakers, and getting the Beatsonic MVA12L and putting in a Pioneer 4100NEX.

The one saving grace was reading a post by someone who did something similar who said to add at least 8" inches of wires to the connections between the MVA and head unit. I'll go one further, I used 8" extension, and I would say don't go less than 12 inches. I still had to do a fair bit of fiddling to get the radio all the way back in, and tuck the MVA unit underneath.

I ended up putting the mic just to right top of the speedo cluster, ran the wire down the right side, and up under the trim piece to the radio. Everything works great, and the call sound is crystal clear (a lot better than the built in BT in our Infiniti M37).

Great radio, wife is thoroughly pleased, as she's a Pandora girl and gets to rock out at will.

Thanks for all the tips / tricks / guides here on CL!

Bgw70

Did you purchase new Lexus speakers?

Any photos of the new system?

Curr

I did, as both of the sub-woofers were really ragged looking, I figured I'd just get new ones as she plans on keeping the car at least another 5 years. Got them off eBay for around $175 each. The mids and tweeters looked good, and I didn't muck with the rears. I kept the old ones, and I'll probably get them fixed and hang on to them for a bit, and ebay them if I don't need them at some point.

Also, I forgot to mention, I used the Metra kit and kept the door assembly, and following the Metra kit's instruction for keeping the door worked like a charm. I did have to use a couple new screws (supplied by the kit) for attaching it to the radio chassis itself, as the Toyota screws didn't work in a couple spots. It's really obvious which ones will work and which ones don't.

Overall, the hardest part of the whole thing was taking the panels apart. I'm always super leery about snapping off the clips that hold the pieces to the car. Fitting the radio + MVA unit in was tight, as previously mentioned I'd add a minimum of 12" inches of wire between the radio harness and the MVA, that will make it a lot easier to tuck out of the way. I did 8" and it was still tight.

My1998LS40

iTrader: (1)

I changed mine out with the 8100NEX unit using BeatSonic kit. Didn't add any extension and it fit in tight with little push and shove. the stock ML system are great for me. And the door still works. Wonder why you need the Metra kit. Didn't your BeatSonic kit come with the dash kit?

Bgw70

I would second what you said, BeatSonic provided all of the parts for install.