Hope someone can help, "head unit" on Levinson system went out (lost all sound), wasn't super impressed with it anyway so used a Metra Axxess harness on a Kenwood KDC-BT565U. Lost analog NAV and Maintenance Screens, which I knew would happen and I'm fine with that. Had to keep one of the plug-ins to the Levinson head unit to preserve use of Climate Controls. Everything else kept the same (amp, speakers, etc.) and the sound was good now that I had built-in Sirius, BT and HD FM.

Here's the very odd problem, about a week after install, LF speaker went out....all else worked just fine. Backing out of my parking space, I noticed that the LF speaker came back on when car put in to Reverse and promptly went out again when in Drive (or Neutral). I checked to see if a wire was getting tugged on but that wasn't it. Confirmed that it has something to do with Reverse.

Any thoughts or ideas please.

 

maybe rewire that connection?

 

Not sure what to rewire exactly, harness is outbound to the Levinson Amp, can't get how the Reverse Switch could be intertwined with a speaker either wire-wise or circuit wise.

 

Not sure if this helps .. but if you do a thorough search for changing any ML parts, things just don't work as they have when untouched. Those that change speakers have blown Amps. This goes for other components as well. Lexus likes to monopolize all their audio parts and those that leave from OEM do have issues on this forum. I wish you luck and hopefully you can find a solution. If so.. please let us know....

 

My WAG is somehow the backup cam is interacting with the audio circuits.. I think the nav talks through the left REAR speaker, but perhaps it's the LF. One of the speakers is singled out for the phone speaker too (when you use the BT/phone call stuff).

ETA: Looks like nav uses the LF.



ETA-2: This is 2005 wiring diagram.

 

Thank you abbyNormal, if I'm reading this correctly, looks like I should be able to disconnect audio from the NAV ECU, happen to know where it's located? Your response makes perfect sense....thanks. Lee

 

Looks like in the trunk.



AN

 

Thanks a million, sure beats the "should shrugs" I was getting from the so-called "Factory Techs" at the local dealership.