DIY Lexus GX470 Beat Sonic Double Din aftermarket stereo install
 

DIY 2005 Lexus GX470
installation of a Clarion NX702
with a Beat Sonic SLA-81 kit

*** THIS IS NOT A DEFINITIVE GUIDE, MERELY A REFERENCE POINT TO EASE THE INSTALLATION. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. ***

So I purchased a 2005 Lexus GX470 without navigation and without the Levinson stereo upgrade. That means that it was only equipped with the factory six disc stereo with steering wheel controls. I wanted to have the ability to use the Bluetooth feature on our iPhone 5’s, use Pandora, play movies, navigate, and play mp3’s; so I chose Clarion. I have good success with this brand, so I chose them again.
There is only one real option for those that want to upgrade their factory stereos in the GX, and that is the Beat Sonic kit. The kit for my complete stock and base stereo was the SLA-81.

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1. Shows the trim bracket as it came from Beat Sonic. It is darker than the factory pewter grey and is more of a matte black finish.

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2. This is the Clarion NX702. Chose this over my original NX602, based partially on the fact that people had so much trouble with the 602, prior to the latest software upgrade.

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3. All the accessory plugs for Clarion add-ons are on the lower left of the unit, lower right is the Clarion harness, and the SLA-81 interface box and harness are on the far right. Sorry for the lovely red table cloth!

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4. *** AT THIS TIME I WOULD PUT THE FACTORY STEREO IN SHIPMENT MODE (see photo 16), AND THEN DISCONNECT THE BATTERY.***
Starting from the center of the vehicle, slowly and gently pry up the center console wood trim in the direction of the arrows. You can use a small screw driver or plastic trim panel tool. Those are the only two pieces you will be removing from the center console. Remove the two Philips bolts on the vertical trim pieces to the dash.

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5. Start at the bottom and slowly pry upward, BE MINDFUL OF THE CABLES! These are located behind the hazard switch and airbag light. The trim pulls straight outward after a point.

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6. Once the vertical trim pieces are removed, you can see the cables that were attached to them. If I remember right, there are six (6) Philip head screws. (see picture 11) Work from the bottom up.

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7. The ash tray and 12volt plug should be first to be removed. You will need to disconnect the wiring harnesses. Set it aside once completed.

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8. This is the wiring harness behind the HVAC unit. Again, disconnect them from the back. The HVAC, stereo and clock cluster will come out as one unit. I don’t have a picture of it, but the stereo harness is secured to the left (driver side) of the stereo. Remove the plastic keeper and it will give you more room to disconnect the rest of the harnesses on the back. The harness bundle kind of looks like a shepherd’s crook.

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9. Shows the harnesses and how the clock cluster, stereo and HVAC all come out as one unit. The tan foam on the right side of the picture leads to the shepherd’s crook and plastic keeper on the side of the stereo for the harness.

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10. Close-up detail of the stereo harness. When you’re finished, you will only use the biggest far right harness and receptacle. The other two will remain free/unused (see photos 24, 25 and 32). The harness off of the SLA-81 interface box plugs into the right plug.

DIY 2005 Lexus GX470
installation of a Clarion NX702
with a Beat Sonic SLA-81 kit

*** THIS IS NOT A DEFINITIVE GUIDE, MERELY A REFERENCE POINT TO EASE THE INSTALLATION. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. ***

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11. Better detail of the locations of the six Philip screws holding the stereo, cluster and HVAC in.

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12. Support bracket holding the clock cluster to the stereo. You will remove the three (3) Philip screws from the bracket. Support the radio so the clock cluster tabs don’t break off from the stereo trim face. The other side (driver side) has additional screws to remove from its support bracket.

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13. What it will look like with the support bracket removed.

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14. There are two (2) Philip screws that hold the clock cluster to the clock trim face. One on either side. Remove them and be careful to not break the plastic tabs when splitting the cluster from the clock trim face. (see photo 15) You will be re-installing the clock trim and cluster to the Beat Sonic trim face.

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15. Closer detail of plastic tabs. There are actually four (4). (see photo 16)

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16. The fourth tab. Also reference “SHIPMENT MODE”. I had no intention of ever re-installing the stereo, otherwise I would’ve placed the stereo in “shipment mode”.

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17. There are six (6) Philips screws holding the HVAC unit to the HVAC trim face. Remove them and separate the trim face from the actual controls.

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18. Detail of the Philips screws holding HVAC unit to HVAC trim face.

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19. The two plastic tabs on either side of the red rectangle in the middle secure the HVAC trim face to the stereo trim face. Release the two tabs and separate the stereo trim from the HVAC trim. Once completed, then remove the clear plastic screen protector from the factory HVAC trim and place it on the Beat Sonic HVAC trim face. You will not need/reuse the FACTORY HVAC trim face.

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20. You can see the color differences between the factory and Beat Sonic trim faces. The red rectangle show the screen that is removed in photo 19. The clock cluster is NOT attached to the Beat Sonic stereo trim face.

DIY 2005 Lexus GX470
installation of a Clarion NX702
with a Beat Sonic SLA-81 kit

*** THIS IS NOT A DEFINITIVE GUIDE, MERELY A REFERENCE POINT TO EASE THE INSTALLATION. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. ***

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21. This shows the clock cluster trim face attached to the Beat Sonic trim face. Again, the detail of the color difference.

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22. Attach the two supplied Beat Sonic spacers to the sides of the stereo. These were used with the Clarion unit, not sure what the final measurements were, so you may not need them. I did NOT use the Clarion supplied stereo trim, as it did not fit with the Beat Sonic trim. ***ALSO, take note of the Clarion supplied “SHIPMENT MODE” screws on the top of the stereo. Make sure to remove them when you are ready to install.

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23. There are six (6) Philips screws that support the stereo and clock cluster to the support bracket. The last screw is in the lower right corner of the picture. Sorry I did not highlight it.

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24. Once you have the clock cluster, clock trim and HVAC attached to the Beat Sonic trim face; you can head back out to the GX. Obviously you will need to have wired and soldered up the harnesses and attached the SLA-81 interface box. These are the factory stereo harnesses that are in the vehicle. You will only be using the harness labeled “CCCCCC”. The other two will remain disconnected.

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25. Detail of the back of the factory stereo. Mine was a six disc, NON-Levinson, NON-navigation unit. I have no idea what any other factory stereos look like.

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26. Close-up detail of the label on the back of my factory stereo.

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27. The wiring harnesses hooked together. Excuse the typo on “stero”, it was late when I photoshopped last night. I also wired a parking brake bypass in, you can’t really see it in this picture, as it’s laying flat on the bench top. If you can figure it out, based on the picture, good for you. ***I WILL NOT TELL YOU HOW TO DO IT. ***

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28. Close-up of my parking brake bypass. I purchased it on Amazon and it works perfect. ***I WILL NOT TELL YOU HOW TO DO IT. *** The supplied instructions are self explanatory, and if you can’t understand it, you probably shouldn’t be modding it in the first place.

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29. Prior to actually putting it all back together, I tested my soldering connections and wiring skills by plugging in the harness. ***YOU SHOULD REMOVE THE FACTORY “SHIPMENT MODE” PINS OR SCREWS NOW. ***

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30. Here is the Clarion NX702 in the Beat Sonic SLA-81 trim face, just about ready to go back in. The SLA-81 interface box was place in the cavity behind the clock cluster. There is enough space, but might need a little extra motivation to stay in that area. The “shepherd’s crook” part of the harness is to the left of the stereo in between the steering and stereo. White rigid plastic that attaches via plastic keeper (see photos 8 and 9).

DIY 2005 Lexus GX470
installation of a Clarion NX702
with a Beat Sonic SLA-81 kit

*** THIS IS NOT A DEFINITIVE GUIDE, MERELY A REFERENCE POINT TO EASE THE INSTALLATION. USE AT YOUR OWN RISK. ***

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31. Here it is powered up. You can see the shepherd’s crook thing better too. It is the main harness for the stereo.

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32. This is looking on the back of the Clarion stereo. These are the two (2) plugs that are NOT used from the factory stereo harness. (reference photos 10, 24 and 25)

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33. Here is the final reassembly of the Clarion NX702 in the Beat Sonic SLA-81 trim kit, testing the dimmer and parking lights.

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34. You can see the difference in colors, however I think it’s a great tradeoff for considering the Clarion’s capabilities!

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35. And finally navigation. You can see the Beat Sonic spacers that I attached to the stereo before placing it in the Beat Sonic trim face. There was really NO clearance on the top of the stereo for the Clarion supplied stereo trim face. I don’t notice it missing.

Thanks to ClubLexus “Kermee”, Beat Sonic for taking back the TVK I accidentally ordered and their good customer service. AGAIN, THIS IS ONLY A GUIDE!!! I am NOT RESPONSIBLE if you catch your GX on fire or fry your ECU. I will be adding the AXXESS ASWC to my setup when I have time, and yes I’ll do an amendment to this tutorial then. If you have anything informative to add, please do so for the benefit of others to follow.

That is Sweet! Great job. Lol you dont even want to know what those 2 little wood trim pieces cost----

Thank you so much for this detailed explanation. Can you control the rear entertainment system from your new stereo?

Rach,
I pm'd you but will answer it here. I would STRONGLY suggest contacting Beat Sonic concerning your question. My GX did NOT come with the rear entertainment option. I use iPads in Akron iPad mounts, that were still cheaper than the $2500 the dealership wanted for the single DVD player and screen!

Is there any way to install an aftermarket stereo without the beat sonic harness kit? Can you use the existing factory harness instead?

This is pretty cool. I like the video feed screen. So it's allowing you to stream music via bluetooth? Do you have the added option to connect you're idevice to it? Does it automatically update the GPS with new maps or is it a paid upgrade? And finally - did you integrate you're steering wheel controls with it?

Good work -

Will,
You would have to have a wiring diagram of the three harnesses that come off the back of the factory stereo. Then you would have to figure out some way to trick the factory amp into letting you run the aftermarket stereo through the amp. Lastly you would need to find someway to actually mount the aftermarket stereo in the dash, as the factory one does not remove itself from the actual trim piece.
Urzh,
The Clarion has hook ups for rear auxillary, headphone jack and USB. As far as I can tell, it auto-updates the GPS. I say this because I get live traffic updates and can bypass the trouble areas. I will be integrating the steering wheel controls when I get another long weekend. I'll be using the AXXESS ASWC "steering wheel control". I'll add it to the install pics when it's done.

This is a fantastic write up, well done.

Very well documented - thx for sharing! I'm searching for a preowned GX right now and it's nice to know my options in case I come across one w/o Nav unit.

head unit with 10.4" vertical screen for Lexus GX470 2004-2009
 

head unit with 10.4" vertical screen for Lexus GX470 2004-2009 from the following link
tesla vertical screen android autoradio car multimedia stereo gps navigation dvd radio audio head unit sat nav lexus gx470 gx 470 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009

@ Canavie, am I right in assuming this works on units with the built in AC controls?

some one with a 07 nav should install this and post in detail on here about it. ;)