BaseCamper

Has anyone performed a hands-on direct comparison of the VL2 and Lsailt units for 2014+ ?

I wanted to compare them both and currently have the Lsailt installed but have had very poor communication from Grom regarding my order with them for VL2. In the process of waiting 10 minutes+ for a supervisor to acknowledge my request for a refund on their live chat after numerous ship by dates coming and going. I think the primary reason I wanted to compare was for the stateside support, but the lack of communication thus far is enough to end my desire to continue with a back to back hands-on comparison that I was hoping to do.

Anyone else experience the same or have something to add about either unit from a balanced perspective?

ObsidianBl

@BaseCamper
I don’t think you’re alone.

https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/gro.../post-13480026

I mainly went with the LSAILT unit due to availability and a lot better pricing. At the time, the Grom unit was non existent and only seen via a couple social media pics (for the 14+). Nothing for sale to the general public.

BaseCamper

@ObsidianBl thank you. I am happy with LSAILT unit as it is for now. I primarily use carplay so that works fine. I think now that I’ve finally canceled my GROM VL2 order I’ll just move on and revisit the threads occasionally.

WCopeland

Good afternoon, I am new to the forum.

I have a 2014 GX460 (wife's car at present). Her only complaint is the factory infotainment. I purchased a GROM VLine LEX8TVL2 at the reccomendation of a local radio shop. When I took it there to get installed, they told me that they have had problems with the unit and wouldn't install it. They stated that one of the units they installed broke the factory backup camera in a Tacoma. I pressed them on this a little and they seemed nice, but I cannot tell if there was something going on.

I called GROM and they state that the unit I have is fine and to have a different shop install it. I called an installer in Atlanta (2hrs away) and they said they had good experiences with the units. I currently have an appointment with the alternate shop here in Chattanooga to get the unit installed. However I am still a little unsure of what I'm getting into after I read all the errors of firmware problems, screens not displaying propertly at the bottom and navigation voice commands being cut off.

Can someone please tell me if the VLine units are good/reliable or if I am wasting my time and money having it installed? All I want is to add Apple CarPlay to my wife's GX so I can be a hero.
Many thanks,
-Bill

Otherone

I just installed the Grom unit yesterday and I like how they mounted the USB ports in the stock location, but the unit charges slowly so I wouldn't recommend actually replacing it. It would be like trying to charge from the stock media usb where it will barely maintain existing battery. I'm hoping they enable wireless android auto soon then I'll just charge from a usb adapter in my cigarette lighter. I had one issue that I had to rest the unit when I was testing it, so time will tell if it happens again. I wish they put a button on the side to make it easier than having the pull the harness out of it.

WCopeland

@Otherone did you install it on a GX460? If so is it working properly and does the backup camera still work along with other factory features? Also was yours a GROM VLine LEX8TVL2?

Otherone

I installed in on my 2016 GX and yes its the LEX8TVL2, but make sure you get the correct one for you year since that is for 2014+. The install was quick and simple. I've taken the dash apart before to install crawl control, but the video above does a great job detailing it out. I think it was in and booted up in a little over an hour and a half. I did take out the front speaker to give a little extra room to route the cable for the GPS sensor, but its just two screws and took my time to keep the cables tidy. The hardest part for me was just working with the short cables on the back of the stock unit and finding the release buttons to remove them.

WCopeland

And does everything work? the Apple CarPlay through the Aux function, the backup camera, the factory radio & nav, etc? The only reason I ask is that for some reason a local repair shop was hesitant to install it.

Otherone

I don't have an iphone so i can't comment on carplay. but everything else works as intended. You can always install it yourself...

bbqsoup

Carplay works almost with wired and wireless on my 2010. There are some other quirks but carplay is solid. The backup camera works 99% of the time. The installation is easier than it is. Watch a couple of youtube videos and you can do it.

bohlander

I have a 2016 GX460 and am having some trouble installing the VLine2. I hooked everything up, but when I turn the car on, the display flashes a bunch and I can see the 'Lexus Enform" logo, some more flashes occur, and then the display goes black. If I disconnect the blue cable that comes from the vline2 and return it to stock the display works fine. Any ideas what I might be doing wrong?

NothingNew

Sounds like a bad unit to me.

Open a ticket now with GROM. They'll have you do 15 different things then offer to ship you a replacement.

You get to pay for the shipping, of course.

bbqsoup

It could be a bad cable. It happened to others that had flashing screen and they sent them the new cable.

2_xplicite

iTrader: (2)

I had the same thing happened to me a couple months ago. The blue display cable that came with the unit was bad and nothing appeared on the screen. So I contacted them about the problem and they were able to ship a new one out at no cost. After installing the new cable, the monitor was able to display the interface from the unit but got very finicky after a while. It started to flash every 5 minutes and the volume keeps on lowering by itself when listening to music. It became very dangerous driving at night when the monitor flashes like a strobe light so I decided to revert it back to stock. At times, I was unable to go back to the OEM interface to control the climate menu. I've contacted them again a couple days ago about the bugs I've been experiencing and they acknowledged that the cable they received was a bad batch and will send another one out this week.

gx460slc

Did they resolved this? Just installed my VLine2, I'm also having the flashing (only on OEM screens, vline works alright)