I have a 2011 LS 460. I’m tired of plugging my iPhone 13 in and not seeing what music I’m streaming (it just says “no data” under song title).

I was hoping to find a way to hook up Apple car play to my factory screen.

any help is appreciated.

 

Look at Grom Audio. Their Vline series works very well. Used it on my LS430, worked perfectly and I got a few software updates during my 14 months of owning that car. I have the module for my 2014 but havn't installed it yet.

 

Did you have a stereo shop install it, the V2 version? or is it worth doing it yourself for a 2017?

 

Go to Grom website, there is installation info for the LS460. You can decide if it's something you wish to DIY.

 

If you’ve got a 2017, you have a lot more options than the Grom. Grom is not a great company to work with. I had a 2007 for which Grom was the only option. Mine broke just over 1 year in (out of warranty), I paid $250 to fix it, it died again just under 1 year out (this time replaced by warranty), that made it about 3 months before it died again. Throughout the process, Grom was less than “customer friendly”.

I can tell you with certainty, Grom will never get another dollar from me.

 

Can you personally recommend specific others?

 

I don’t know that I can. I just moved into a 2013 and have a Beatsonic kit on the way. From everything I’ve read, their CS is good, (and good is a giant step up from Grom). I’m willing to shell out the extra $100 and hope to not have to deal with the same crap I did with the Grom. If you’ve got the 07-12, though, there really isn’t another game in town and if I had the choice between Grom and nothing, I’d still take the Grom.

 

I installed the beat sonic one, and below is my install story. I've since received a firmware update, and the icons are now HD and crisp. Overall, I'm happy with it, but there's one major annoyance: you have to manually switch to the Bluetooth car accessory system to receive phone calls, etc. Not sure if that description makes sense, but I have to manually toggle on my iPhone to switch inputs to answer a call.

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...ay-system.html

 

Thanks - I did see your post prior to purchasing. They do have a few updates with their current version that I’m not sure you have. 1 is a conversion kit that allows you to “reuse” the factory USB ports in the center console with the Beatsonic unit (so no need to run a separate USB to the center console). The other is the addition of a module that supports wireless CarPlay. I hadn’t read about the Bluetooth issue - I’m hoping the new wireless unit and/or firmware updates will address that. I know my Grom unit (when it worked) did support using Bluetooth through CarPlay. The difference being that I had to run a separate microphone directly from the Grom unit rather than reusing the factory mic.

Did you install your Beatsonic unit in the glove compartment, or did you hide it in behind the stereo? It was absolutely necessary for me to have the grom unit in the glove compartment because it crashed regularly and the only way to get it back was to disconnect power in order to get it to reset itself. I haven’t seen people discussing the need to have ready access to the Beatsonic unit in case of crashes.

 

Recommend a Grom VL2.
make sure to pay the group buy price which they run often on their Facebook group.

 

Yes, installed it myself:

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/ls-...ay-system.html

 

Deleted

 

What is the price they usually go to for group buy?
I was looking at their website and couldn't find any deals, wrote questions and never got a response from them

 

If you’ve got a 13-17 go with the Beatsonic. Mine has been trouble free other than an HDMI cable that got a bit loose and was troubleshot with Beatsonic within an hour of the problem popping up. The Grom was significantly buggier with basically no customer service.