jmarenusb

Hello all. I've been lurking on the forums for a while now and finally decided to register. I have a 1996 Toyota Celsior that was just imported from Japan a couple months ago. It is the Type C model and has the factory navigation (which still works great thank god). The amplifier is a pioneer and is located under the drivers seat on this model. I'm having an issue with the radio/audio system in the car. There is no sound coming form the speakers whatsoever, the volume **** is inop, and the button lights on the radio receiver assembly do not illuminate with all the other dash lights. I have been troubleshooting so far with the US wiring diagram books for the LS400 (a 1996 book and a 1998 book. The 1996 LS400 didn't have navi as an option but the 1998 did). I have checked the following fuses for the circuit listed in the US diagram: Dome (JDM has dome front and dome rear fuse?), Radio No.1 and Radio No.2. All 4 fuses have continuity through them. I took a look at the harness connectors on the amplifier and the wire colors and connectors themselves do not match up with the US wiring diagram. I have also done the ole hard reset by unplugging the battery for a good 20 minutes and reconnecting. I'm curious if anybody has dealt with something similar before and has pointers or better yet, a way for me to get ahold of a JDM wiring diagram for this circuit. Looking at the other threads I found most people attempting to install aftermarket head units, amps, speakers, etc. I would like to keep all of my factory components if possible, especially since the HVAC controls and audio controls are also integrated in the navigation touch screen. Thank you all in advance,
Jonah

Arsenii

Hello,

Phew, that was a task, there is really not a lot of information regarding Celsiors, since it all is overshadowed by heaps of service manuals for LS400, yet I still managed to dig out that diagram. The quality is terrible and it is in Japanese, but beggars can't be choosers..

I would start by bench-testing the components separately, checking where you are loosing the sound. By that I mean take the component out and connect directly to it with terminals that can be found at any junkyard, since they are standard (here you can find information on how to de-pin a connector), then see if it works as intended. My guess would be that, in your case, it is the Radio/Navigation Screen that is bad, since there were issues with soldering joints going bad, capacitors leaking, etc.

The good news is that you should still be able to connect a regular climate control off of LS400, at least if this article is to be trusted, which could give you a chance to fabricate a temporary solution until you will be able to locate either a new unit, or a repair shop; I've heard a few good things about Tanin Auto Electronix, albeit never I used their services myself before. With that, I am not sure if they would be willing to play around with a foreign import, but it still won't hurt to ask..



Hope this helps and best of luck!

jmarenusb

Thank you so much for finding that. Now I can get at least a general idea which wire/connector is which. As far as the head unit/Navi screen goes it should be noted that they are separate components in this car. I am of the assumption that my nav screen and amplifier are ok for now. This is because the screen controls, climate etc work as they should. I am also assuming the amplifier is good because I was able to get noise (robotic Japanese words) from the drivers door speaker when I was messing with the GPS on the nav screen. This leaves the head unit. (Radio receiver if we’re being technical). I’d like to bench test it but have no idea how to test the audio output. If I can determine that the head unit is bad, I’ll send it out to be repaired. Thanks again for your help so far.

Arsenii

That is actually what I was alluding to in my previous post, even though the Multivision screen may look like one unit, there are actually three separate systems - Navigation, Climate Control and Radio. While some systems can work fine, others may have issues, just like in your case.

As for how to bench-test the unit, what I did a while back is used a headphone speaker and a battery charger to see if the radio works or not. I used terminals from the junkyard to connect B+, ACC and Ground terminals, and hooked up a headphone speaker to one of the channels I wanted to test; since there is no amplifier, the sound will be pretty quiet, so don't expect it to blow the windows out of your house. With that, I never tried this method with Multivision systems, so proceed only on your own risk. Considering that other systems seem to operate as intended, I would probably not try my luck with a unit that you will have quite a time looking for in case if something were to go wrong, and send it straight to the repair shop ... if they are even willing to go after it that is..

Hope this helps and best of luck!

jmarenusb

Hi again,
I ended up shipping the head unit and the amplifier out to OEM Auto Audio LLC in New York. They were able to properly bench test and determined the amplifier to be fine. However the head unit had some bad capacitors which corroded away some of the connections that went between two of the boards. The boards and connections were repaired and all capacitors in the head unit were replaced. The unit was then bench tested again for proper operation. The repair included a 1 year warranty too which is nice. Both units are being shipped back to me so I will post an update once I get them back in the car and let you all know if my problems have been solved!

jmarenusb

Success! Looks like that was it after all!