Abzal

Hello Dear Fellow GX470 Owners!

I am new to this forum and club. Recently bought 2003 GX470 with 200K miles. I used to own 1999 LX470 and put 600K miles to her with no major issues and that's why I love these cars.
Overall my GX470 is in great shape, Florida car from day 1 so no salt caused corrosion underneath and I am pretty happy with her.

Only thing bothered me is the car came with Tesla style Chinese head unit that previous owner installed few years ago. Unfortunately he got rid of the original head unit and I have no idea what was there before. The Tesla style had two major issues that made me want to replace it - first is touch screen wasn't working. I could live with that since I still can control the system by attaching regular computer mouse via USB port. But the second issue bothered me much more - sound quality was horrible probably because Tesla style unit was not communicating well with car's ML amplifier. That was when I decided to buy original head unit and replace the Tesla style screen.

I did some research and based on the fact I have CD changer in the glove box I assumed that originally this car had a head unit with screen since the units without screens have in dash CD changer. I am pretty handy but apparently not smart enough - I bought the head unit from 2007 GX470. When installing I was unpleasantly surprised that connectors that go into screen itself don't match. Climate control and radio connectors are the same, but 3 that goes into the screen are different. I could never think that 2003 and 2007 models even though they look absolutely same on the face side will have differences on the back. Picture attached is the connectors of my car for reference.

Sorry for long read but I wanted to give the whole picture.

So my question is am I right that 2003 and 2007 had different harness connection in the back of the display?
Or maybe I am wrong and my car had unit without display originally? Then how it goes along with CD changer in the glove compartment?
Is there a way to make this screen work on my car?

Please advise! Every and any input is much appreciated.

Thank you!

IanB2

Ya, different gens of navigations systems, not backwards compatible. You'd need a head unit from an '03, possibly an '04 would work as well (I have my '04 nav head unit I'd sell if you still want to go this route).

What I'd recommend instead, is to convert to non-nav, and add a double DIN aftermarket head unit of your choosing. Brings the multimedia current tech-wise, the OEM nav maps are outdated and the whole system is obsolete IMO.

Abzal

IanB2, I knew I screwed up somehow. Thank you for confirming

I actually not very concerned about navigation and other stuff. The only thing is now I don't see temperature and cannot control the climate fan speed, airflow direction, basically anything except for "Auto" mode and blind changing the temp. How much you want for your 04 head unit?
Also if I go 2DIN aftermarket head unit will that work fine with existing ML amp and speakers? That's the only thing that important for me. I commute a lot - 4 hours a day at minimum and need to listen to music, podcasts, whatever else without being annoyed by poor sound.

Thanks for responding!

IanB2

GXOR group on FB has a wealth of info on this topic in the "guides" section, check out some of the resources there for all the info you'd ever want on converting to non-nav and adding an aftermarket head unit:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/Lexu...06953879836839

Abzal

Thank you!