rokayjon

After the latest update, my VLINE is DOA. Anytime I go to the Grom screen, within seconds it simply goes back to the OEM factory screen. I have tried everything, including resetting to factory defaults. It is not usable anymore. Anyone else experience this?

Basically, it won't stay in the grom/vline 2 screen for long. It just goes back to the factory OEM screen on my RX350.

Help!

RXGS

iTrader: (2)

I spent 2 months going back and forth with GROM over a defective unit. They finally said sent it back. A month later, I still have no unit, no refund, and no timeline of when I will get anything.

I have been told they are waiting for an updated part, which either means (a) they are sending me back the unit I sent them, even though they said they would send me a new replacement, or (b) all similar units are defective.

I get having teething problems, but that is no excuse for 2 months of a malfunctioning unit, and one month of nothing at all, with no projected end in sight.

gromaudio

Thank you for using GROM product. We apologize for the inconvenience of the delay with the warranty replacement that you experience. We do have a backlog of the orders due to the delay at the contract manufacturer, and currently we are working to clear this backlog. If you will DM us with your information such as name, email or RMA number, we will check the status of what is going on with your specific replacement.

gromaudio

Please contact our technical team at https://gromaudio.com/support.html , we will help.

ejisfun

I've been using the VL2 for several months now on my '16 RX and thought I would share some brief thoughts. Note that I also installed the Carlinkit box before this one but returned it because it wasn't working properly, so I have limited experience with that option as well.

Install experience: I initially had some issues with the display not working properly after installation. Grom quickly fixed the issue by sending me a replacement display cable free of charge, and I haven't experienced this issue since.

To anyone worried about installing this: you can do it. If you can open a can of beans, use a screwdriver, and plug a cord into an outlet, you have the necessary skills. The only tools you need are a set of car trim removal tools (on amazon for like $5) and a 10mm socket with an extension on it.

High points:

• Wired carplay works very well. No lag at all. Usually it takes about 10 seconds to quickstart into carplay. Sometimes the VLine unit has to fully boot (not sure if it's after it's sat for a while, or under what conditions this happens) and it takes more like 20-30 seconds to get into carplay. Either way, it boots fast enough for me. By the time you get squared away and back out of the garage, it's always ready to go.
• The joystick works well. Obviously, carplay is designed for touchscreens, but I think the joystick is your second best option. It is a free-floating pointer, and the stick does not "snap" into place like it does in the stock Lexus menus. Personally, on the 12" screen, I prefer this. This joystick system also works WAY better than the Carlinkit system, which requires you to use the joystick more like a scroll wheel instead of a pointer. Protip: put carplay into night mode, it makes it easier to see the white cursor on a dark background.
• Sound quality for music seems perfect as far as I can tell. I am no audiophile, but it sounds just as good to me as playing music regularly.
• In the time I've had the unit, I've experienced only one crash in wired carplay. It booted again right away with no issues.
• Apps installed from the play store work well. I even downloaded the xfinity app and you can play TV on your RX screen!

Low points:

• This first one has been discussed a lot. Phone audio is frankly terrible through carplay for the person on the other end of the call. Personally, I rarely take calls in my car (like maybe once a month) so I can deal with rerouting the call to bluetooth or the phone itself.
• The play/pause button on the RX stereo will not actually pause carplay audio. It basically works as a mute button. This isn't a huge issue if you're listening to streaming music as you'll just miss some songs, but I listen to podcasts a lot. The only way to properly pause the podcast is to use the joystick to select the pause button on the screen, or to pause it on the phone itself. I've become accustomed to positioning the joystick over the pause button after starting a podcast, so if I need to pause it quickly, I can just press the select button. Grom stated that there is no way for them to fix this, so I would count on this always being the case.
• If your phone is also connected to your RX through bluetooth, sometimes it routes audio through bluetooth instead of Carplay (it seems like a 50/50 shot which one the phone picks). To fix this, you need to go onto the phone and reroute the audio to carplay. I believe I have seen some people who set up a Shortcut on their phones that fixes this issue, but I haven't messed around with it yet. You can also permanently disconnect your phone from the RX bluetooth if you intend to only use carplay.
• Media does not autoplay when connecting to carplay. This would not be an issue if the play/pause button worked, but this means that in order to start music playing through carplay, you have to press the play button in carplay (which isn't super quick because of the joystick) or press play on the phone itself. This might also be solvable with a Shortcut.
• Wireless carplay works...okay. Right now I would not say it is usable as a daily driver. For me it is noticeably laggy, particularly when skipping songs, and it crashed/disconnected several times in the few days I tried it out. Personally I am okay using wired carplay (especially now that the iPhone 12 Mini should fit inside our tiny little phone compartment!). Note that I have seen some people comment that wireless carplay works better with newer phones - I currently have an iPhone X. It is also possible it will improve as Grom pushes updates.

Overall:

• If you are looking for a wired carplay solution, I think this is the way to go. Save for the call audio issue, it is perfectly functional to use in your daily driver.
• Yes, this option is more expensive than Chinese boxes. However, you get US-based support, legible documentation, and ongoing software updates. No going back on forth on Whatsapp with "Kyle" one message at a time because he's only at work when you're asleep. No dealing with credit card chargebacks because he stops responding as soon as you ask for a refund.

wx3

So I have a good news guys.

I finally found a workaround to the Lexus bluetooth call audio screen taking over VLINE2 screen. It's quite a conincidence, but a few days ago I was using the Lexus Map and I received a call. I then accidentally pressed both the Map button and the Menu button simultaneously while I was on the Lexus bluetooth call screen (I have no idea why I did that - I guess my brain decided it wanted to go the map and the main screen at the same time...). After the screen switched to the Lexus map, I released the map button while still holding the Menu button and voilà, IT TOOK ME TO THE VLINE2 SCREEN!!! All while still keeping the Lexus bluetooth audio on!

At first I was still not clear with the right sequence so I tried to reproduce it with different combinations of actions and confirmed that is the solution - press the Map button and the Menu button together then release the Map button while still holding the Menu button. I feel like the Map button somehow caused the Lexus system to lag and VLINE button was able to take over because once you are sent to VLINE2 screen, it seems the Lexus system begins to gain back control - all the physical buttons stop working in VLINE2. The physical buttons not working is not a huge problem for me because I have plenty of ways to quickly navigate in VLINE (I will explain more about my setup), the buttons are also just temporarily disabled.

GROM no longer responds to my problem so I don't hope them to straighten this out but whatever they do in future updates, I hope my little workaround will not be broken. In fact, I probably won't update my system forver lol. I can finally use this box while still enjoying the quality of Lexus bluetooth system.

Armstrs

I installed Vline2 this week and so far it is pretty great. I have CarPlay in my 2017 RX450H now! Woohoo! I routed it to the center console and the wires were plenty long enough. Install was pretty easy and the grom install video was perfect.
The only thing I have not figured out is how to access the audio settings for this aux input. The manual says to hold the menu button in order to toggle between grom and the factory settings. BUT doing that just activates the voice assistant. Either Siri in CarPlay mode or google assistant in grom mode.
I have a three button joystick with Map, Menu and back. Holding any of the buttons does not take me to the factory audio control. I can check with grom on Monday, but if anyone knows how to adjust bass/treble/fader, please let me know.

wx3

When you are on VLINE Dashlinq page, look for "Factory UI", it will take you to the factory Aux screen with the Options button. The 'holding down menu button' does not work quite straightforwardly like they have claimed, as I explained in my previous posts.

Armstrs

Thank you so much! It was driving me crazy trying to figure it out. I never thought about needing to add a shortcut to it. Thanks again.

landij

Would you be able to provide some instructions on how you routed the unit to the center console?

also how’s the call quality on airplay and are you able to use the Lexus Bluetooth for a call while using grom?

Armstrs

First, I pretty much am never on a phone call in the car so I have not had an opportunity to try it yet. But if I do, I will post my thoughts here.

I just did not like the look of the glovebox. There was no perfect path for wires and I did not want the wires moving every time the glovebox was opened. But I’m sure it works because that is the most common install.

Ok from memory. Did not take any photos:
For the install I followed the Grom video posted here (page 1 I think?) to take everything apart. But I unhooked all of the radio connectors in order to move the radio completely out of the way. This gave me room to remove the top of the center console around the gear shift.
To remove this, first pull the hand-rest/joystick panel up and back. Disconnect the wire attached to it.
Under it there is a screw to remove and another screw right behind the gear shift.
Once the screws are out, the center panel can be pulled back toward the arm rest and then up.
I laid it toward the drivers seat instead of unhooking it completely.
The cubby under where the radio was can then be pulled out.
This opens up a path between the radio and armrest.
I popped out the armrest usb panel and unhooked the three wires to make room.
There is no existing hole to run wires to the armrest. Below the armrest usb panel, the plastic wall of the storage space curves toward the front and then down. I drilled three 3/8” or so holes right next to each other on the top of the curve and then smoothed the edges to get an oval opening. A hole in this location is not visible once it is all put back together.
The Vline box sits perfectly hidden underneath the removable armrest storage box.
I zip tied the wires to an existing wire harness running the length of the center console.

I hope this makes sense. Pictures would have been way better. I just did not think to take any.

whiteghost

I've hesitated and hesitated about adding this to my wife's 2019 F-Sport but I wanted them to get all the quirks worked out.

I originally liked the LSAILT unit but I'm kinda of liking the V-Line unit (it seems) because of the US local support, but haven't been following the forums lately.

What do you guys think?

wx3

I wouldn't count on their support. At least that's my experience with VLINE. With that said, if the system's limitation (so far not too much but there is one that bothered me a lot - unable to show VLine screen while taking call on lexus bluetooth. It's less troublesome now that I found a workaround but the workaround isn't stable) does not bother you, it's a pretty good enhancement to the RX outdated infotainment. Just don't expect them to fix anything for you.

fantasy521

I've finally installed Grom Vline Lite on my 2018 Lexus RX350 with Nav.
Vline Lite is basically a Vline Vl2 without the preinstalled apps so just supports car play and android auto it's about $150 cheaper and it boots very fast.
Thank you for answering my questions since I was very worried about the system especially shouting out to member wx3, gave me a lot of help.

Overall I think it's a good system that improves the outdated Lexus Enform system.

I want to share my experience and the issues I faced.

Grom Audio: Support is very limited they don't reach out to you as they promised. Shipping also is very slow. They really need to step up their game here.

Installation: I had my local Grom audio dealer install it for me. My dealer had about 5-6 4RX's done before myself so he was pretty knowledgeable about the system.
Labor being So-cal was not cheap I paid about $350.00.

The first time they had it done very nicely. They were able to route the Vline lite Kit next to the ECU inside the dashboard. They drilled a little hold near the passenger center console panel to mount the dual USB ports.

It was great for about three weeks and suddenly my Enform system didn't recognize the Grom system saying iPod authorization failed...

I went to my installer again and they had to take apart the dash again and this time they had it mount it inside the glove box so I can access easier and faster when I need to, the error on the Enform system was fixed by simple replugging of the unit.
They again drilled a little hole at the bottom of the glove box so the wires don't interfere with the glove box open and closing.
I don't like drilling holes but they did a great job at it so... I'm thinking like it was just a trade-off for using an Android Auto system.

-----

So pros and cons

Pros:
1. Android Auto is very stable no issues almost like the one you get at the 2020 model <- yes I drove two of them as a loaner on my two recent services
2. Audio Quality is good
3. Steering wheel control works great

Cons:
1. Phone call on Carplay has a small echo - you don't get effected but the other person at the call gets a small echo... not a big deal, Android Auto routes you to factory Bluetooth <- not been a big issue for me tbh
2. You have to go click a play/pause button on the screen to go back to the Grom screen when the back up camera is triggered <- not a big deal it's just one click with the joystick... especially it's only done once at the beginning of the trip.
3. Sometimes Lexus Enform doesn't recognize the system at startup (maybe one out of 20 times?) <- all you need to do is press the volume button long and the Enform resets and grom works again.
4. One time Lexus Enform wouldn't recognize the grom audio at all even with the resets and that forced me to go back to my installer and mount it inside the glove box <- I know aesthetic is important but you need to be able to have access to the box when needed it. Make sure when you install the system you have access to it just in case something goes wrong.
I hope this doesn't occur again. I'm suspecting I left the car doors open for about two hours cleaning my car... that somehow created an issue but hopefully it doesn't come back.

Additional Questions to users and Grom Audio:

1. I noticed the green light stays on after the car is shut off for at least a full day is this normal?
2. Have any of you guys noticed battery drainage because of the grom box?
3. Does the Vline box consume a lot of power? can I use it as the regular infotainment system to listen to music while the engine is shut off?

Hopefully, this helped you folks wanting to get the Android Auto and Apple Carplay support that really should've came stock in the year 2017 or above.
I will be regularly updating my experience.

PeeVee

I am wondering it's compatibility with the non-enform system that we have in Canada.

Where does it take its data streaming source? From my phone or I need to have a separate data plan and install a SIM chip installed in the system?

Thanks!