Arraco

...This was batted around a few years ago, but has anyone had any success obtaining a "harness" or cable modification that would allow newer GSM/CDMA Motorola phones to be "plugged" into the OE installed phone system?

Thanks

Kansas

I guess I am a phone nut and I have followed this issue on five or six Lexus forums for several years. What I have noticed is that fewer people seem to be interested in doing this these days - or at least few people ask anymore.

As others and I have reported in the past, it is quite easy to hook an aftermarket phone kit - including a BlueTooth one - to the OEM phone harness so that the audio system automatically mutes when a phone call comes in. My aftermarket phone kit is also connected to the OEM phone antenna imprinted on the back window of my 00 LS400 and automatically turns off the handset's internal antenna to prevent interference with the car audio system.

I have not found a way to use my OEM steering wheel phone control. I gave up trying since "auto answer/hangup" and the 9 voice dials and 9 speed dials my aftermarket system provides has proven to be more than adequate for me.

PM me if you want details - it really is pretty easy if your Lexus came prewired for a phone.

Kansas

Here is a link I have posted before to a doc on how I hooked my old CARK kit in my 00 LS which shows the location of mute pins: http://home.kc.rr.com/colchester/pho...%20install.doc

Your 00 LX470 may have the same phone connectors under the center armrest that my 00 LS400 has.

I did not bother trying to play the call through the door speaker, although I think I could have made it work if I had gone to the trouble of tracing the wires in the OEM phone connectors. Instead, I used a separate dedicated speaker which was easy to install and sounds great.

I did not determine the functions of the other pins in the Portable Plus connector under the console. I do remember that, besides a mute pin, there was at least one pin that provided 12 volts - easy to find with a 12V test light. If you want to jump in your car and go, a Bluetooth kit sounds attractive. If you decide on a Parrot, I once posted a link to instructions on how to wire a separate speaker to a Parrot kit. At least one past thread on this forum showed how to wire a Parrot to play the call through the door speaker.

We'll eventually go with Bluetooth PDA/phones but by that time we will likely own cars that have Bluetooth built-in. We're going to try to make our old Nokia CARK phone kits last until then - I love the old Nokia tri-mode (GSM/TDMA/AMPS) 6340i phones which also interface to our laptop PCs via infrared for maintaining and backing up the phone's address book. The phones can even sync up with Outlook and Lotus Notes. Only an hour ago I offered to buy a 6340i from a co-worker to have as a backup. How did we ever survive without these damned phones?

cartechpr

Any updates on this??? Even if the steering controls dont work i would like to use the MIC and muting the radio and air... Possible??? What i want is to be able to use the RADIO and microphone from my lexus kit into any 3.5mm plug for the ear piece of the phone.