Long time owner, first time posting here!

I have an 06 GS300 and I been getting the error "unable to read disc" etc for a few days now. The dvd would load periodically for a few seconds then fails again so I'm pretty sure it's the drive. Which brings me to my questions:

What year did Lexus move to using HDD instead of DVD? Can I simply find a newer unit and swap it out? If not, does anyone know when they switched to BT audio for music playback? Would those units be compatible with what I got?

Lastly, if all else fails, anyone know if I could just pick up a DVD drive and swap it out?

Thanks in advance!

 

Lexus never went back to HDD navigation. It was a hassle to update. They did move forward to microSD which you cannot retrofit into our generation of GS.

2010 is when Lexus introduce BT audio on the GS. You could possibly switch out the Headunit and display.

 

Interesting... Wonder if it will fit in an 06, having BT audio is nice... 2010 is still works off DVD? Any place that I might be able to find the dimensions for 2010?

 

2010 is still DVD based. The HU\display will fit. It's still the same vehicle. Just an updated interface and hardware to support BT streaming, usb and aux. I'm planning to swap to an 07+ unit so I can mirror my phone via VAISTech hardware.

 

Not that is easy buddy. Its not just swap out plug n play. I've remember seeing a mememberon here doing it before and it look like it is a big task and headache.

 

And from what i remember, the harness from the 06 to the 07 and up is different.

 

If you're going from a non nav to nav, then yes it's more involving. But from a non nav to non nav shouldn't be too involving. I'll have to double check on the pins for both units. I know the 2010-11 is a lot more involving than the older models.

​​​​​​The only reason I'm doing a non nav to non nav is the blue video interface connection that's present on the '07 up.

 

Oh crap. I went a bit off topic. I forgot that we're talking about an existing nav unit swap. Not a non nav to non nav. Yes a 2010 nav unit is a bit more complicated than the 06 unit. You'll definitely need all the harnesses.

 

So if you had a Nav unit from a 2010 with the factory bluetooth streaming audio/ML audio, how big of a massive headache is it to swap it into an 06 with factory nav/ML audio?

 

You're looking at 3x more connectors than the previous units. I've pull my '06 unit out and you only have 4 connections for the display and about 4 for the radio. I've also looked at some of the 06-09 nav units on ebay and compare that to the 10-11 nav units. The harness is totally different in the 10-11. It's more hassle to find all the harness from the 2010 unit and splicing it into existing harness. Someone did mention a guy on here who can point you in the right direction but I also think he said to stay below the 2010 units.

If you want bluetooth stream, you can pick up a vais tech unit. It's a lot more simpler to install and the sound quality is like the built in BT on the newer units.

 

I bought the Grom Audio BT streaming setup. I'm pretty happy with it.