2015 Nav Unit on a 2013
 

While driving loaners during maintenance on my 2013, I noticed that the 2015's and newer have much better nav's displays and meta data on the nav screen. Can I replace my 2013 head unit with a 2015 or newer head unit?

That would be nice, I have a 2013 and 2015 and the traffic info on the 2015 is much better and free. To get it on the 2013 I have to pay XM Radio for it. It is feasible but unfortunately Lexus does not do it.

My understanding from reading previous threads asking the same question is that it would not be as simple as replacing the head unit. Instead, many other components including the wiring harnesses would also have to be switched out, and, at a minimum, doing the conversion would be very expensive.

Also, while the Generation 8 navigation system in the 2015 and 2016 ES has some nice improvements over the Generation 7 system in the 2013 and 2014 ES, the Generation 9 navigation system in the 2017 and 2018 ES has major improvements over the Generation 8 system. So, if you were going to incur the expense of attempting and upgrade, you should be considering a Generation 9 system.

Do you where I can get details on exactly what needs to be done to upgrade the nav or a company that will do it for me?

Sorry, I have no idea and do not recall anyone here doing it.

I started down the path but gave up. Unfortunately I didn't have enough time to dig through the wiring diagrams to figure out how to do it.

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/es-...15-16-a-2.html

One of the reasons I decided to lease a 2017 instead of buying out the lease on my 2014 was the improvement of the NAV display. Not that this helps the OP but if he or anyone else is in a similar situation down the road doing so to me would be a more logical choice than trying to replace the 2013 NAV unit.