GS400KY

I am looking to upgrade my headunit and my question is i have the indash nav system which also controls the A/C etc if i pull this out what will i need to get to be able to control the a/c heat etc.. a .climate control out of another gs without the indash nav? im new to the Gs model any info would be great thanks..




-Mike

TeeLex

iTrader: (24)

Yes, find a climate control from a non-nav 98-2005 and it should plug right in. I just did this with my 2004 GS430 ( w/factory nav ) - got a non-nav climate control and installed a double din AVIC Z110BT - worked out great.

Wicked SC

iTrader: (3)

I have a 04 GS 430 and there's a unit that you could purchase that works with the stock Navi system. I'm not to educated on exactly how it works but here it goes. I hit the Disc button and the screen transforms from the Nav screen to the The TV/DVD Screen. This way the car still has the stock look and I have a Pioneer 6 DVD player in the trunk. If you want pics, let me know...I could also call my Audio guy to find out the exact name of the unit...

Edit: The unit is called a RGV Converter....

alexulan

I would also think a posting on the classified for a Swap might make you some money.

There are a ton of people that would like the factory NAVi.


I'm not one of them

Selvarace

Is it possible to leave in the factory NAV and Climate Control as is and only replace the lower tuner/cassette/volume control unit with an aftermarket head unit. Basically my audio sytem is shot. Something in the tuner makes the left side volume go in and out, but i like the fact the factory NAV and climate control unit looks and works fine. I dont use the voice on the NAV anyway. I just thought to change out the cassette head unit with a simple CD/AM/FM Pioneer or Sony head unit and new compatible speakers would solve my problem. Then I could get an iPod adapter for my head unit too. Has anyone done this? I own a shop and stereo installs are no problem, but I have never removed just the lower factory tuner unit and left in thefactory nav. we are not a specialty stereo shop, we are a tuner/engine builder. The stereos are just something we do for good customers as i dont like stocking large inventories of stereos/amps etc.

I am about ready to just yank it out and see if the NAV and Climate still works, I just didnt want to mess up any software or ruin any delicate circuits by doing this. Many thanks in advance.

Kansas

Really? Someone would like to have the nav out of a 98 GS? The 98 nav hasn't been updated in 5 years -- somebody going to use it as a doorstop? Then I've got this bridge in Brooklyn I'd like to sell. Someone could make a lot of money collecting tolls from bridge users.

alexulan

the 98 GS NAV hard drive can be upgraded to 2005.

Water off my back buddy!


---------------------------------

Have you pulled the Stock Head Unit? loose conection with your antena plug?

If anything the Shell from you Stock HU might be worth $70 on ebay.
Giving you some money back from buying the $100 Non NAV HVAC Panel.

Kansas

Really? How exactly would you squeeze several GIGABYTES of information from a 2005 nav DVD onto the 20 megabyte hard drive of a 98-00 nav? Do you understand that just one gigabyte is approximately twenty times the capacity of the hard drive of the 98-00 nav?

Do you have some technology that no one else knows about? Do you have software and hardware that can write to the hard drive of a 98-00 nav hard drive? Please explain.

Edit: The 2005 navigation hard drive update was release in July 2004 and appears to have been created with map and POI data current as of sometime in 2003.

alexulan

Did you just prove yourself wrong on the last edit?

So what it's summer 2004 or 2003 even!

My Wife has a tom tom that's older then 2003 and it has never failed her from point a to point b.

It all depends on the development rate in your area.

Things here in San Francisco don't really change that fast.

It hard to change zoning laws.

Not everyone lives in Kansas.

Selvarace

One of the reasons I wanted to keep my NAV. Iit works fine for me here in Los Angeles. I suppose if I did punch in an address the NAV didnt recognize, Id just double check the location on my iPhone. POI dont really excite me so much on my NAV, anywhere I want to go Ill know about ahead of time anyway. Maybe Gas stations, but how often is it you cannot find a gas station. Well, Maybe in Kansas! LOL! I may just swap the whole thing foe non NAV HVAC and get a nice double DIN NAV/MP3/DVD/CD/iPod deck. That Idea is starting to grow on me.

Hey, how do we get ahold of and install that 2005 update in our 98-00 GS400's? What required or do we have to go to the stealership to get it done?

alexulan

stealership would be the easiest way.

I have also heard that you might be able to download it via torrent.

But can't go further into details.

I would imagine you would need to take out the OEM Hdd mount as slave and update via the NAV 2005 DVD/CD.

How do I check the map version in my Lexus? For Generation 1 navigation owners, you may check the map database version by depressing the MENU button on the left side of your navigation screen. Once the MENU screen displays, touch the MAP Info icon to which will display your version. If your screen states Jul '04, then you have the latest update from Lexus

Kansas

alexulan, my point is that nav data from 2003 is going to be extremely out of date -- even for the San Francisco area. I'm not very familiar with your area but I remember new road construction during our last trip to the Gilroy Garlic Festival and driving around Napa and Sonoma where there were lots of new MacMansion neighborhoods.

I last updated the portable nav maps in the semi-permanently installed Magellan in my LS in summer 2007 and it's already not showing what we can sometimes tell are recent street and highway changes. My wife's Garmin, semi-permanently installed in her Camry, was updated in May 2009 and it is noticably more accurate than mine. I think we notice the these kind of issues because we travel more than most people and take our portable navs with us -- even use our portable navs in conjunction with the built-in navs in rental cars. Navs have become sort of a hobby for me.

Based on the issues we've had with our relatively recently updated navs, using a nav with 2003 data doesn't seem very worthwhile. While the 2003 nav data might do fine 95% of the time, its that other 5% that will drive you crazy. Streets that have changed to one-way, new highway cloverleaves replacing left and right hand turns. For sure, when you use a nav you can't turn off your brain. Even the navs with the best and most current updates are going to be occasionally incorrect.

The old 98-00 nav hard drive can not be updated except by replacing the hard drive. The old hard drive can be turned in to recover the core deposit. The bigger issue with the 98-00 nav hard drive system is that there is zero data for many areas although there is pretty good detail for most major cities.

It takes less than five minutes to install a new hard drive in a 98-00 nav ECU. I've posted the instructions from my 00 LS repair manual in the LS400 forum and I can repost them here if you need them.

alexulan

kansas, Good points to all.

I don't need the direction for the swap. But since you are familiar with the system. What do dealers charge for the update?

Similar to the DVD?

I have resisted the urge to get nav for over 10 years.

I'm finally getting NAV (aftermarket HU) next week and I'm pretty excited.

Can I live without NAV, Sure I have a good sense of direction and can find my way with just a hard copy of a map.

My wife on the other hand.

Let just say my blood pressure is way down since I have gotten her a portable GPS NAV and haven't had to field the "I'm Lost" phone calls.

I guess it really would not be worth the hours to pull all the OEM parts you would need to completely swap the OEM NAV with Pioneer. It it was as simple as just swapping the Head Units it might be a different story.

Kansas

Sewell Lexus online is currently charging $360 for the 98-00 harddrive update not including the core charge: http://www.sewellpartsonline.com/par...id=88792&all=Y Sewell frequently gives healthy discounts.

DVD nav update prices seem to run less than $300 for new non-pirated copies on eBay and are frequently discounted. Slight older used nav DVDs updates (i.e. from 2007) are running about $100 from Sewell and on eBay.

I'm indebted to my Lexus owning friends who told me to avoid cars with OEM nav when I went searching for and purchased my 2000 LS400 in 2003. I had no idea until later how bad the 98-00 nav is compared to just about anything that came out after 2000.

I used to think that nav was a toy or for the weak and directionally challenged. Now, I wouldn't be without a nav. I don't get lost anymore. I aways know my arrival time. I aways know what the next street is without having to look for the sometimes missing street sign. My LS doesn't have a compass. My portable nav and probably all others have a compass. The POI databases in the latest navs are huge -- definitely need to replace my "old" 2007 Magellan with a Garmin that is easily updated and has a vastly larger POI database.

One of the coolest feature of most aftermarket navs is that you can load custom POI files into them -- many available for free from GPS enthusiast websites and even from some business websites. For example, if you want to know where all the speed cameras are, download a custom POI file that has them to your GPS and it will automatically sound an alarm as you near a camera. Here is one of many websites with free custom POI files: http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/default.asp

alexulan

This is one of the many reason why I'm excited about it.