Bought one of those cheapo knock off techstream cables off Amazon. Found an old WinXP laptop to slap it all onto. The goal here is to disable the auto tilt-away function because the dealership near me refuses to believe it's even possible without unplugging the motors. The problem is depending on which version of the software I use I have one of two problems.

On version 10 or newer the software insists my car is an LS430. The "choose a car" only lets me choose chassis code UCF but nothing more specific. Of course it then crashes when I try to do anything because my car is not, in fact, an LS430.

Versions prior to 10 work great but the "customize" button is completely absent for whatever reason.

Has anyone here had these issues? My tilt and telescope motors are both intermittent (I suspect an issue with the ECU itself) and it's far too cold and snowy outside to fix it properly so I just want to disable the auto tilt-away so my stupid car is usable. I'm incredibly agitated with Toyota that I'm having to stoop to pirating their horrible software and using knockoff cables to change such a simple setting because the local dealership refuses to help me (and would probably charge a hefty sum if they decided to, knowing the crooks that own it).

Any help appreciated.

 

Intermittent in what way? If they don't work when the car is very hot and then begin to work as the car cools down, that is a classic symptom of an aging motor. I fixed my vary bad ones with new motors from a low mileage(and I assume garage kept) junkyard find. They are still somewhat sensitive to temperature, but not nearly as bad as my original. You could find a double throw switch and cut one of the wires that goes to each motor and run them through the switch to at least keep the motors from constantly moving the steering wheel each time you start it up and shut it off.

 

Mine is an early 98 with the earlier style can motors instead of the later ultrasonic ones. It acts like it either has dirty commutators in the motor (easily solved with an ultrasonic cleaner) or an electrical issue with the control computer. But nobody can show or tell me how the heck to remove the panels necessary to get to the stupid telescope motor so I haven't been able to get to it. The shroud around the column came off easy, as did the lower black plastic panel but the middle one with the A/C vent, hood release, etc. is a complete mystery to me so I'm just wanting to disable the automatic stuff to prolong the life of it as much as possible in a relatively OEM fashion.

 

Sorry, my post was 95-97 based. I've never worked on a 98 and up. It would help if I was a better reader.

 

From what I can tell mine is a first-half-year of the 98+ cars, which still has the 95-97 motor system. It's a real oddball.

 

Then it's pretty simple. You simple pick one of the two wires on each motor and run it through a switch to interrupt the power going to the motors. Then when you want the motors to work- throw the switch to the other position. You could even tuck it pretty much out of sight if you wanted.

 

Yeah, that would be a solution to that particular issue, but I still really want to get the techstream working so I can change other settings such as the auto headlight sensitivity and I believe someone disabled the remote trunk release for some reason. I see plenty of forum threads from 6 years ago where people are using knock off techstream cables with their LS400s but those people have long gone from being active so I'm trying to find someone currently using one whose brain I can pick.

 

honestly i would be very very careful with techstream stuff and custom parameters when it comes to cars this old.

theres all kinds of things you can do with door lock settings lights windows etc. i wanted to change things like lock/unlock answer back chime, the auto-re lock, the headlight delay time etc. well, when a car is 20 years old and its used to doing things the same way, changing stuff can **** it off. i went into the shop, me and a buddy of mine pulled a techstream computer and hooked it up to my 2000 ucf20 and started changing stuff. it woke up all kinds of gremlins and totally freaked my car out. so bad that later that day i took it back into the shop and changed everything back to how it was before. well that didn't work. tried resetting hard resetting when you pull the battery out and touch the terminals together for 15 mins etc everything, still hasn't ever been right. to this day the door chime sounds weird once in awhile, and the alarm is over sensitive and goes off over stupid stuff constantly and the only way to shut it up is to put the key in the ignition!

this was not aftermarket techstream equipment. it was legit and this still happened. i dont even want to know what aftermarket stuff would do.

btw, yes, the steering wheel auto tilt ABSOLUTELY can be deactivated via techstream. they could all the way back to 95, as longer its a later build 95 with OBD2 and not OBD1.
98 was the first year for ultrasonic motors yes, however i have indeed seen a few really early builds (6/97-7/97) that still had the pre facelift ucf20 unsealed motor

again, changing stuff on cars this old isnt a good idea. nothing but trouble that can really freak them out. if you are still hell bent on changing things, i highly recommend you go to your dealership and have them do it with legit equipment. seriously this isnt something to mess with.

 

these cars are pre-techstream hence why the car misbehaved when trying to change something and why there is no option to even select an LS400!

 

That must be what I have, then. They certainly look like regular-old can motors. I was able to get one version of techstream to communicate (still can't change settings) and it looks like my position sensor may be what's failing. I also think someone disabled the remote trunk release using a Techstream at the dealership in the past (for security, maybe?) because the electronic release works great but my remote refuses to pop the trunk.

Wasn't that '00 car of yours just an oddball to begin with?

The older pre-v10 versions of techstream very definitely had LS400 option, but I'm unsure about programming. The attachment here details the settings that can be changed but describes a different style of scantool that I assume predates Techstream. I also assume that the functionality of this scantool was rolled into Techstream when it came out (2004-ish?), but I guess that's a pretty large assumption on my part.

Then again, stereorob does say he used techstream to change the settings on his '00 LS400, so my '98 is hopefully compatible. I may call around to some import indie shops and see if any of them have a working TS setup I can hook my car up to and at least read the Customize settings to see if my trunk remote is disabled.

 

I just have a quick question regarding the Customized Program Card 1.1. PDF. I have a 2000 LS400 I noticed that the 99 pdf shows lock when in motion not being an option. In techstream it shows it as an option but will not take. Based on this card would it mean that even though the ECU shows it as an option its still not available for this year LS400?