Quick question, I have a 98 LS400 with factory navigation, some climate functions are built in to the touchscreen. Is there any way I can upgrade this or am I stuck. If I get a non nav climate control such as this...
http://www.ebay.com/itm/98-00-99-Lex...812cf5&vxp=mtr
could I then get a aftermarket HU with navigation?

 

upgrade how?
I have seen a disk that you can update your maps with but I dont have nav so I know nothing about it.
If you got the non nav climate control, Im sure you could get an aftermarket hu with everything possible.
Wiring might be a nightmare though

 

you can directly swap in a non-nav climate control and it will bolt up and plug in without any hassle. You can go to an aftermarket HU with a dash kit but the only company making a wiring harness that retains the factory subwoofer is Beatsonic, and it isn't cheap.

 

Hi, DK Audio.
I have tried or should I say I am still trying what you are thinking but it was for my JDM 98 Celsior. The latest map DVD for the built in nav unit was released in 2002 and it was outdated. In stead of the old nav unit, I wanted to install a new Toyota genuine latest nav unit. Problem was the climate control and the audio connections. But I found an article written by a site owner "jt" in Japanese below and I confirmed that my idea would be OK. I actually bought a used non-nav climate control unit and already I installed it in accordance with below instructions.
http://celsiorup.com/custom20/2087multiles_aircon.htm

The result was completely OK for the climate control. But I am still struggling some to complete the audio connections. The adapter from the Beatsonic is no more available here and I need to do the all the wiring and modifications myself. I skipped the main amplifier and the sub woofer is not working. other speakers are driven directly by the new nav's amplifier unit but for fear of too much loads, I added 2.2 Ohms in series with speakers since the speaker's impedance is very low = 2 Ohm and the new nav's amplifier 4 Ohm minimum load. This reduced the audio level and it is slightly less for me.

Other than the main amplifier, the CD unit, tuner units and the map DVD unit are not used any more but all of these functions are available in the new nav unit.

As PD mentioned, same thing can be said to US models, I am sure.

 

the beatsonic adapter is still available in Japan afaik, if nothing else you could order it here in the US and have it shipped, given the JPY-USD exchange rate it probably wouldnt be so bad foryou.

 

Sorry to say No. PD.
http://www.beatsonic.co.jp/serch2/ca...duct.php?ID=66
It says,"適合品なし” or "Not available".

 

As far as I can tell the top most choice is for cars with factory navi, obviously they won't have a harness for that. but once you convert the car to a standard climate control, the audio harness you use is identical to normal pioneer equipped cars (that's how you can plug in the original pioneer non-navi headunit,there's simply an extra plug that's for the navi that you wouldn't use).

So an SLA-22 (harness+faceplate) or SLA-22AD (harness only) should be fine.

 

Hmm, so it is possible, good to know. I already took out my factory sub and installed a 12" Image Dynamics free air at the same location. I just made a leather wrapped MDF baffle and had to cut some sheet metal on the rear deck for clearance. I tapped into the stock sub amp and am using line level inputs for an aftermarket amp in the trunk. It actually sounds great. Therefore, if I get an aftermarket HU I would just use RCA's to the aftermarket amp anyways.

 

yep, the pain in wiring the LS only really comes into play when you're trying to retain the stock sub.

 

Without using Beatsonic units, I finally succeeded to drive a sub woofer. Getting the R and the L signal from the new nav unit, then I mixed and filtered them using a home made mixer / a low pass filter. Currently I set the cut off frequency 350Hz. The filtered R+L signal is sent to a digital amplifier and then to the sub woofer. All of these are home made except the sub woofer. These have been a time consuming effort but as an electronics engineer I have enjoyed the process and now I can enjoy the good sound as well as I can use the new nav which is more capable than the old original one. Of course the climate control can be controlled too.

When I open the cover of the nav unit, I decided to eliminate the 2.2 Ohm resistors to try to send more power to speakers. To make this possible I modified the amplifier in the nav unit to support the low impedance 2 Ohm or less adding a current limiter. With these modifications, the amplifier works nicely and it stops the function before the amplifier or the speakers get too much load. The sound level now is good enough for me and there is some margin to trip the current limiter.

Everything is OK now as I expected. The CD changer is not used anymore but mp3 function in the new nav unit is available and I can play the music for more than 10 hours without changing a CD.

So, DK Audio, your intention will come true if you will do the similar job as I did. It needs some extra efforts though.

 

Since I already did an aftermarket amp and sub I shouldn't have too much trouble. What about the factory amp? Do they take speaker level inputs from an aftermarket HU or do I need to run new wire to the speakers? The low impedance load also plays a part in that question.

I'll probably sell everything (factory screen, navigation drive, CD changer, etc) on Ebay and this probably won't even cost me much.