InRBigness

So after totally changing every bulb in the car, I felt confident enough to put in my Prestigious Society Nav override. My RX has 200km on it.

It went very well at first, instructions were fantastic, and then I hit a snag. I dropped a bolt in behind the radio. GRRRRRR! No way to get it out with your hand and it falls into a place that wont fall to the floor. I used a extension thing with teeth on it to grab it and back off to the races we go.. Okay it took me a half hour to fish it out but by the time I tell the significant other about this escapade it will be down to only a few minutes. If you dont tell, neither will I. She cant under stand why I am taking apart a perfectly good car thats brand new. No point trying to explain to her, either you are a car guy ( non sexist term) or you are not.

After getting out the bolt, I litterally unplugged 3 clips from back of the nav system, inserted the Prestigious Society override in line and plugged them back in. Total time to take apart, plug in and put back together the dash and radio would have been maybe 45 min... oh plus the 10 min for the retrieval.. (shhh! this is our story and we are sticking to it).

All goes back together, I reset the radiio stations and a few other things that get errased when you remove the radio and all is good. Or is it? The back lift gate no longer opens automatically.

Damn it, what did I miss? I figure it has somthing to do with the fact that radio and nav and switch for door are removed. I call the dealer and tell him my kid left radio and door open and battery died and can they reprogram the door? Sure no problem bring it in.

I go there, play stupid (social engineering at its finest, okay so not a stretch) and the tech pulls out the computer thing. He resets it and .... nothing. Hrmmm. He checks the motor and the switch via the computer and they are all working. He does a full reconfigure of all the settings figuring this will help... nothing. Okay starting to sweat, wondering what I screwed up. He figures after about a half hour we will do the "Lexus Factory Reboot" He undid the battery and we had a coke and waited ten minutes.

Still nothing. Now I am really starting to think dark thoughts. He is totally perplexed. Then he walks over to the passenger side, opens the door and pushes the button in the glove box. All is right in the world again.

He was awsome, told me a bunch about the car, said he forgot the RX's have that as some Lexus's don't and appologized for taking so long.

So the moral of the story is, Override is simple to put in but use magnatized sockets to remove bolts and make sure you dont hit the secret switch in the glovebox. Honestly without the bolt issue I am sure it would have taken me less than an hour to do. To activate you use the volume buttons on the steering wheel and deactivate same way. It reverts to off if you stop the truck. Worth every penny and all the grief as I have used the overide already to let my passenger enter a restaraunt in the nav system while driving.

kitlz

So, how long did it take to install the nav override including the trip to the dealer It might have been better spent reading the manual, LOL!

MEP7557

Great story. It was a good read.

So you don't have those funky after market buttons stuck to the dash to turn it on and off?

InRBigness

Anita, I thought about reading the manual but that would have taken way more than the 20 min to drive there and the 45 min I was there. Besides I got a one on one tutorial with the tech about the car and the systems and how they work. He was awsome, and free.

My time including bolt retreival ( is the date listening?) was about 90 minutes start to finish. Honestly the panels are so well made they just pop off. There are 4- 10mm bolts ( tricky bastards that like to fall where they shouldnt) and two #2 phillips screws. The rest are pop of panels. Ther is no extra switch to turn off and on as before. Just the vol control on the steering wheel. You can not tell its even installed unless you take it all apart, which I thought I may have to do to get my hatch working.

I have used it a few times playing with it and I can say I 100% endorse this product. To install you unplug 3 clips from the Nav, insert the override in line. All the conectors work as is. What went into the nav goes now into the override and then goes back to the Nav. No splicing, no extra wires, no grounds, no extra switches. Plug and Play at its most basic. If you are thinking of somthing, this works.

tapau

Congratulations InRBigness ... I'm planning on getting my override for X-mas. I've always been very hands on with my cars so I don't have a problem trying to install myself. My only concern is with breaking one of the clips that hold in the panels when i pull them off, especially on the front silver panel. What are the chances of that?

kitlz

Well, I'm sure you'll never forget about that button in the future

Probably a few of us have jumped into a project and had things not go quite as planned. Even the manual is no sure fire way of figuring it out. That was me a few months ago trying to get the DRL covers off. The instructions were not very clear. At least you received a nice tutorial from the dealer so you can tell us how to do everything

BTW, congrats on the install.

InRBigness

If you pull the panels staight out I am not sure you could break them. It is hard to explain but the panels all have very substantial clips that pop into square slots. Once you have one off you will understand what I mean. The radio part was super easy. The one I was nervous about until I got them all off was the passenger side triangular cover by the radio.

I would start on the drivers side and pull the panel off the end of the dash by the door rubber. It comes off fairly easily and once you see how they are put together you will have your confidence. I used a "fid", which is a nylon tool used to press the foil down on stained glass, as a pry tool if needed (you really dont). Tools needed are a 10mm socket and a #2 phillips and a small slotted screwdriver to put car in neutral.

tapau

Thanks for the response, I feel more confident now. One quick question ... if you use the volume up/down button on the steering wheel to turn the override on/off does that mean that you can no longer use the button to raise/lower the volume as normal?

InRBigness

Not at all. It is the sequence of the strokes that make it work. It acutally changes the volume as well when you do it but as you are going two in one direction and two in the other so the radio stays the same. It really is nice as it also allows you to scroll through the folders on a USB stick.