I just purchased a GS 350 2008. It came with a Mark Levinson sound system and a HD player.

How do I get XM radio? The SAT button is there, but nothing happens. Is this a fix that I can do myself? Does this means that I have to spend more money or something? I did a search, but everybody's car is different. Mine is a '08

--Al

 

Do you have the satellinte antenna on yours?

 

yes the 08 has the antenna on the roof (shark fin) but that doesnt mean you have the receiver for XM. You need to get this from one of a few places, eBay, your local Lexus dealer, or one of our Lexus Parts Vendors. You may find one in the Classified section from a member also. I got mine from Sewell and the service was great and the price was in line. Easy to install it yourself.

G/L

 

What brand makes a good xm receiver for the GS350 '08?

--Al

 

OEM is the best and its plug and play. It will also work with all your OEM radio buttons. You dont need an aftermarket one. Here is the link for you

http://www.sewellpartsonline.com/par...0&all=Y&view=1 this shows all the models for the cars

you only need the receiver since you have the shark fin so i believe this is the correct one but please confirm with them.

http://www.sewellpartsonline.com/par...id=90059&all=Y

 

OEM?

What the difference between OEM and an after market one? Forgive me, because I am learning.

Can I install it?

--Al

 

no problem Your OEM radio is XM ready. It means you just need to purchase the receiver box to receive the signal and channels. You have to call XM once you have this installed in your car. They will give you a 3 mos trial period for free then from there you have different payment options. In your trunk your car is pre-wired for this and yes you can install yourself. You just have to remove the liners in your trunk and Sewell will have the instructions on how to install.

once you have this you can use your Radio to control these features just as if it was your FM/AM or CD changer. So no extra gadgets or things needed to make it work.

here are the installation instructions:
http://www.sewellpartsonline.com/imp...S_XM_shark.pdf

 

Great!!

I will order one ASAP!

Thanks!
--Al

 

You can get a receiver from the dealer, through the link pass provided or through retailers like Best Buy or other stereo installers. As long as you are buying a receiver/tuner for sat ready car, you'll get very similar equipment no matter where you buy it. I"m talking about the receiver that is usually mounted inside the trunk, behind the lining. The heavy lifting is running the lead wire from the receiver/tuner to the head unit so you can control it through the stereo like FM/AM etc. You will need a connector wire to attach the shark fin lead to the tuner as well.

A ton of places sell after market tuners about the size of an ipod that you can sit on your dash or console and get sat radio but matching the sat tuner to an FM frequency and listen to it as if it was an FM station. The hunt you are on is much better way to go. Good luck.

 

Yeah...
I just want a plug'n play unit for my navigation Mark Levinson system. Nothing complicated or I'll have to return it back to the dealer because I am not very good a fixing thing.

-Al

 

Al,

I just bought a GS350 this last week w/o SAT, walked over to parts and picked up the receiver and kit (tell them you have a M/L and they'll look up the part numbers for you), cost $280 with tax. There will be two boxes, both branded Toyota of course, one is the tuner (metal box) and the other are the cables, brackets, cushion tape, hardware, and cable ties.

The instructions are linked elsewhere in this thread, print these out, these are the ones that you want to look at. The reciever that they will give you will have a slightly different number than what is on these instructions, that is OK, it'll work. Just take your time and do the installation methodically, it will be enjoyable. It took me about an hour and a half, where some of that was spent making grilled cheese for the kids......

Don't do any aftermarket recievers, you'll ruin the beauty of this car, and this is the exact same way that the dealer does it, better to have the integration the way that it was designed. It is absolutely insane that they usually want to charge ~$700 for this install.

As a quick recap of the installation, you'll do the following:
- remove the trunk lining (be sure to use a clip removal tool - dealer or auto parts store)
- hang the tuner with the bracekts provided (it goes on the top side of the trunk)
- run the wires to the bottom of the trunk to the amp (they show you exactly where to put them)
- you'll remove some connectors from the amp and plug them into the new harness. I might suggest that you remove the amp at this time, it'll make it easier to do this step and will prevent you from doing any harm to the connectors. (This step is not in the instructions, there are three 10mm nuts holding it down)
- plug the connectors from the harness into the amp
- cable tie and cushion tape a few items
- put the liners back in.

I didn't have any major problems doing the work myself, I did however, bust one of the clips holding the right rear side panel to the the center panel. Would suggest that you be careful around this clip, go at it from the underside and hit the tabs that allow it to be pulled out. It is not your regular panel retaining clip (the ones with the bendable fins), but rather a true clip that expands once in the hole. Luckily for me, I only chipped off a side piece of the rim of it, so it was salvagable (and it is covered up by the rear center panel anyway and it is not loose at all).

The only other problem that I did run into was that the new harness was assembled backwards, which caused me to contort it a little more than I would have thought been needed for something like this. Somebody must have had a bad day on the harness assembly line.....

Enjoy, this will be easy.........

Michael

 

Thanks Michael!

I can't wait to pick one up and I am printing your instruction. I'll let everyone know the results.

--Al

 

Would you be able to get sirirus now using this same method? Didn't they merge?

 

They have merged, the channels are now the same, sort of. Music channels are exactly the same 70s, 80s, 90s etc. they each used to have variations of the same thing, now they both use the same feed. same for other things like comedy. same channel but it's 104 on sirius and 150 on xm. Where they still differ is on some of their signature channels. sirius had howard s, nfl and so forth while xm had exculsives on mlb and others. not all of that has crossed over. you can get a lot of the other's programming but upgrading to a 'best of' package (so if you have sirius and you upgrade programming you get several more xm channels that are crossed over to your sirius tuner.).

so while most programming is the same, some isn't so look carefully before you decide. both have web sites that detail programming.

Lexus used to sell either a sirius or xm tuner. both were compatible with the head unit. I don't know if they still sell both now that the companies have merged. if not, other suppliers will still sell both.

The xm signal is more reliable based on my exeperience with both. If you use the sharf fin, should be ok either way.

 

I have a question if anybody can answer this... i have a 2006 GS430 ML/NAV with XM... my satellite antennae is not the shark fin but the ugly square black box on my trunk...i just purchase the shark fin atennae and wanting to covert into my OEM XM receiver in the trunk... Where can i buy the wiring that connect from shark fin antennae to the recieiver... i was thinking of opening the black box and take the chip inside of it and put in the shark fin atennae but i rather buy a wire that connects to it instead of trying to be an engineer... any help would be appreciated !!!