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First of all I know this subject is like a dead horse that has been beaten repeatedly for over 10 years at least. Yes I have done the research. What I have is a 2004 Lexus GS with the mark levinson nav system and 6 disc changer in the glove box. I am wanting to replace this for obvious reasons. It has the Pioneer made deck, KEX-M9506ZT to be exact. My research says 100% that my amp is to be behind the glove box. Yet it is not there, it is in the trunk on the passenger side with what looks to be a single disc changer on top. What exactly do I have? Is this some bastardized system? It must have come from the factory this way because nothing looks like it has ever been touched and is fully operational, save for the vent control which accelerated this project. I had already purchased the Scosche LS02B amp bypass harness and the Metra WM-TY1 harness kit and none of these connectors fit any of those in the dash nor behind the glove box. Build date is 09/03 if that helps anyone, Where my amp should be Pioneer kex-m9506zt Nav unit Pioneer kex-m9506zt Nav unit 6 disc changer behind the glovebox, made by pioneer Amp and single cd unit? Located under the first aid kit in trunk on passenger side
The standard Pioneer amp comes mounted next to the glove box. The Marl Levinson will be mounted in the trunk
that's what I expected to find yet its not there. Does that mean I do not have an amp other than the one in the trunk for the 10" subwoofer on the rear deck? I was under the impression if I had the mark levinson nav system there would be an amp behind the glove box
I am pretty sure the one in the trunk handles all 5 channels. Only the base model pioneer stereo has the amp in the dash. The upgraded ML system moves its amp into the trunk.
I'm doing this in my car along with adding a deck mounted sub box and bunch of other goodies like an integrated backup and front bumper camera so I'm very familiar. Basically what you're trying to do is a not going to work since that only applies to the cars without the Mark Levinson amp. On those without ML, the amp is behind the glovebox. Since you have ML and Nav, in your car the ML amp is below the nav computer in the trunk (in the picture you posted above). In your car, its going to be exponentially more effort to remove the head unit and replace it. The factory nav screen in the dash controls HVAC and serves as the "master" that controls that amp in the trunk and the CD player behind the glove box. You cannot replace the factory NAV without re-wiring and replacing the HVAC plugs in the dash as the non nav HVAC controls have different connectors and different wiring pinouts. If you accomplish this your will also need to run new speaker wires from your new head unit to all of the doors and sub or run wires to the trunk as all of the factory speaker wires come from the ML amp. The easiest but a more expensive option is to keep your factory screen and amp but use an Audiocontrol LC8i to get the speaker output from ML amp. You can then send that to an amp to power the speakers in the car. The Mark Levinson speakers are all 8 ohm so they will not work properly with any standard aftermarket head unit or amp so you need to replace all of those anyway. Good luck
did you happen to notice the “related thread” attached to the bottom of this thread? A member has figured out how to keep the factory nav, and it’s controls and switch it so he can use just a single din basic stereo as his receiver. That opens up all kinds of options.
did you happen to notice the “related thread” attached to the bottom of this thread? A member has figured out how to keep the factory nav, and it’s controls and switch it so he can use just a single din basic stereo as his receiver. That opens up all kinds of options.
If you're referring to the thread below, yes you could do that but you still have to retain the factory screen to control the HVAC, nav, etc and the writeup is for a 3rd gen LS not a 2GS. While this would also work and is essentially the same thing as what I described in my last post if you swapped to the non nav HVAC, we don't have the CD changer in the dash so there is no place to put the single din unit. It might be possible to remove the stereo controls at the bottom of the nav screen although I suspect this is shorter than a single din and would almost certainly require modification to the wiring harness as well.
Mark levinson replacement issues.
