I just bought a 2001 LS430 with ultra luxury package. The car is great, the only thing I wish I had is a installed bluetooth hands free option.

I do use a Jabra speaker phone which hooks on the visor; but in this car it looks kind of cheeze.

I know it was available as on option starting on 2004 LS430.

Anyone added blue tooth option to a 2001 LS430?

 

If anyone has any ideas, please post, I have a similar question.

My car came pre-wired with the cell phone cradle in the center armrest and control buttons on the wheel. That means that there's power, audio out, a mic (hidden somewhere), and the ability to mute the car's radio all in that wire running to the center console. Has anyone ever dissected this and hooked in a more modern system?

 

Here is a link I read.

http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums...34849&hl=phone

The guy did a tremendous amount of research on it and concluded he was better off wiring up a parrot kit.

Worth reading - even the parrot kit (the way jainla wired it up) was no easy thing IMHO.

I've looked at the wiring diagrams a bit. I can't figure them out. The LS430 used a common "bus" for many signals as opposed to standard multi wire wiring. This kind of makes it proprietary.

I saw some bluetooth instructions on the lexus european website. But I believe that Europe has a completely different cell phone standard so not sure if it is worth pursuing.

 

you must be kidding!!!

this the most complected thing I've ever seen. Changing the time belt is easier than this.
After all that a small screen!!!! its not even on the same navigation screen. Totally not worth it...my opinion.

 

I "know" jainla pretty well from the forums, am familiar with his phone install instructions and understand that his Parrot Bluetooth kit install was perhaps a little more complicated than it had to be since he didn't use an interface harness. The "Quick Connect Harness" adapters for the early LS430 may not have been available when he did his install. You can buy them at http://www.quickconnectproducts.com/Find/find.php and from a few other vendors.

It's possible to install almost any aftermarket Bluetooth phone kit in your LS430 but it won't allow dialing from your nav screen. Depending on the kit, it will however accept voice commands, automatically mute your audio system when a call is placed or received and potentially play the phone call audio through the car's door speakers.

Installing an aftermarket phone kit takes some effort but any amateur can do it. I've done it several times and have just about zero electronic skills.

Since your LS430 is a 2002, I assume it had the Qualcomm based phone system. The mic is in the overhead light cluster. The steering wheel phone controls can not be used for an aftermarket phone kit. You might as well de-install the phone cradle since it isn't useful for anything. If you decide to do so, disassemble the center console and unplug it -- don't cut wires! If your steering wheel "channel/mode switch" does not work to control your audio system it is likely still in "phone mode" and can be reprogrammed to control your radio. I posted instructions on how to do this a while back in the audio section of this forum.

The European Lexus techinfo website has detailed instructions for installing the Motorola IHF1000 Bluetooth kit into some models but not the LS430. Look under accessory installation manuals: http://www.lexus-tech.eu/faq.aspx
The IHF1000 was an official Lexus dealer installed accessory in many countries and its control unit was rebranded with a Lexus logo. It was also sold and installed by European Toyota dealers and rebranded with a Toyota logo.

A month or two ago, I posted information in this LS430 forum on the Bluetooth Complementary kit sold by European Lexus dealers for the LS430 and LS460/600. I also posted diagrams of how the stubby roof antenna was used with the 2001 through 2003 phone systems installed by US Lexus dealers. The roof antenna can be used with a phone charging cradle like the ones in the Bluetooth Complimentary Kit or any other charging cradle that has an antenna connection. The charging base and interchangeable phone cradles used in the European Bluetooth Complimentary Kit can be bought on eBay -- they are a lot like the interchangeable cradles available in current Mercedes and Porsche cars. The same diagrams I posted also show the location of the phone ECU in the trunk and the location of the LexusLink ECU if your car has it.

By the way, the European phone standard is not completely different. Europe uses mainly GSM but slightly different frequencies than in the U.S. Any of the quad-band GSM "world phones" from T-Mobile and AT&T should work in Europe. CDMA (used by Sprint, Verizon) is making inroads in Europe but coverage is limited.