aftermarket radio

[chucky scott]

hey guys havin trouble with the original 6 disc changer so decided to go for aftermarket so visit to  my local Halfords to be told double din head unit wont fit so opted for single din jvc unit 

have wiring loom as well  but after taking dash to bits the lead does not fit the wiring on the car after reading various posts in the forum how do i find out if my car has the amp in it pics would help as i am about to tear my hair out with the whole lot 

[LeoLex]

A double din should fit. I place on in my IS200. Anyhow, if you remove the glove compartment you should be able to see if the amp is behind it and lower to the footwell of the passenger side. Should it be there you'll need to unplug the lead and attach it to an already purchased bypass lead in order to connect this to your shiny new set.

 

I hope this helps.

[rich1068]

Bad advice from Halfords.

[Dean1309]

Hi, that is bad advice from Halfords, you need this stereo facia:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lexus-IS200-2001-2005-Single-or-Double-Din-Car-Stereo-Fascia-Facia-Fitting-Kit-/201512923501?epid=0&hash=item2eeb1b316d:g:46MAAOSwSv1XkgTf

which comes with the amplified bypass adapter.

Remove the glove box and there will be an amplifier to the left of the glove box, if i remember correctly its 3x 10mm bolts to remove and then unplug both leads into the amp, connect the larger cable to the bypass lead and run this to the headunit and connect it all up.

Hope you get it all working soon.

Dean

 

[chucky scott]

7 minutes ago, Dean1309 said:

Hi, that is bad advice from halfords, you need this stereo facia:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lexus-IS200-2001-2005-Single-or-Double-Din-Car-Stereo-Fascia-Facia-Fitting-Kit-/201512923501?epid=0&hash=item2eeb1b316d:g:46MAAOSwSv1XkgTf

which comes with the amplified bypass adapter.

Remove the glove box and there will be an amplifier to the left of the glove box, if i remember correctly its 3x 10mm bolts to remove and then unplug both leads into the amp, connect the larger cable to the bypass lead and run this to the headunit and connect it all up.

Hope you get it all working soon.

Dean

 

cheers dean ye found the amp going back to Halfords later to get my £££ back and get the new double din that i wanted 

[scudney]

Good luck 🍀 hope you get it sorted, halfrauds are a pain in the backside at the best of times lol

[rich1068]

And pictures. We'll need pictures!

[rich1068]

On 10/9/2017 at 10:12 AM, Dean1309 said:

Hi, that is bad advice from halfords, you need this stereo facia:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lexus-IS200-2001-2005-Single-or-Double-Din-Car-Stereo-Fascia-Facia-Fitting-Kit-/201512923501?epid=0&hash=item2eeb1b316d:g:46MAAOSwSv1XkgTf

which comes with the amplified bypass adapter.

Remove the glove box and there will be an amplifier to the left of the glove box, if i remember correctly its 3x 10mm bolts to remove and then unplug both leads into the amp, connect the larger cable to the bypass lead and run this to the headunit and connect it all up.

Hope you get it all working soon.

Dean

 

Reviving this one.

I might be looking at putting a double din aftermarket unit in mine. I take it by the above that the factory amp has to be bypassed regardless? ie all IS200/300 have this factory amp and it's surplus to requirements when fitting another headunit? Sorry, the fitter confused me a little. 

[Dean1309]

Hiya,

Yes when fitting an after market stereo to the IS200, the factory amp becomes purplus to requirements. This only applies to I think the SE, LE and Sport models. The base S model has no amplified stereo. You can either remove the amp completely or leave it there and just leave it unplugged. If I remember correctly there are two plugs that go into the amp, one of which is connected to the bypass lead, the other if left unconnected.

The other end of the bypass lead runs behind the glove box to the headunit.

Dean

[rich1068]

So if I understand correctly, the Lexus head unit (in my case the 13906 CD/cassette/tuner) uses a separate amplifier but an aftermarket head unit has one built in of equivalent or better quality? The reason I ask is because I do like how the stock set up sounds and I don't want to take a step back and have to start messing around with new speakers.

(Tbh, I did pick up some new Alpines for the front but after fitting the GROM AUX kit and getting decent sound from Spotify I didn't see the need and put them on eBay.)

[Dean1309]

Yes you are correct. The standard head unit uses a separate amplifier and you will be using your new head units built in amplifier. As for quality I cannot comment on whether it would be the same as this is down to your head unit.

I removed the amplifier and run all new speakers and cabling into both doors with 2.5mm core vann damme cable, new DLS performance 6.5" components and DLS 6x9's in the back running off a 5 channel Genesis amplifier in the boot.

You might lack some bass as the standard amplifier and speakers are run at 2 ohms and normal car speakers run at 4 ohms. And I think by using the bypass lead you lose the 2 ohm subs which are built into the rear speakers.

This is why I decided to install a whole new sound system. I'm sure if any info I have provided is incorrect someone on here can clarify this. 

[rich1068]

Cheers Dean. A big help. If I do replace the Lexus unit I'm looking at an Alpine replacement which I assume will be of decent quality. By lacking bass I assume you mean sounding as it does now? The bass is adequate for me. But I don't like the sound of adding the bypass and losing what bass I have from the rear 

[Dean1309]

No worries. Always happy to help if I can. Yes I am referring to the bass as it is now with the Lexus standard head unit. The rear speakers have a built in 2 ohm sub which I think gets lost as it no longer gets the 2 ohm feed from the amp as it would take 4 ohms from the new head unit. The only way to get back the bass would be to fit a new set of 6x9's that have more bass and operate on 4 ohms which normal 6x9's do. Or fit a sub in the boot. 

 

Please bear in mind if you replace the speakers you will need spacer rings to mount the new speakers on to. Unfortunately AutoLeads do not make them for the IS200, or at least they didn't 3 years ago when i fitted mine. I had to make mine out of MDF and mount the new speakers to them. The same goes for the rear speakers. 

[rich1068]

Thanks again Dean and food for thought I think.  Losing that bit of bass from the back doesn't sound good. I really didn't want to go as far as new 6x9s too. And from what I can gather replacing the rear speakers is a bit of a cow.

[Dean1309]

It's not too bad. The bottom of the rear seats lift up and out. The back of the rear is secured with 4 13 or 14mm bolts and then lifts up and out. The rear shelf then just slides out. And you then have 4 10mm bolts holding the rear speakers in. Can all be dismantled within 15 minutes. Maybe 30 minutes if first time doing it. 

[rich1068]

I had another chat with the fitter yesterday and he had a look at the rear speakers. Mine are just regular 6x9s (?) with no factory sub so as long as the factory amp is bypassed I'm good to go.

[petewright]

Would appreciate some advice. I disconnected the plug from the amp and used the bypass cable to connect an aftermarket head unit. For some reason the clock and light for the clock panel stayed illuminated even when key switched off and car locked. This drained the Battery in no time as the radio stayed live too. Is this because I didn't disconnect both cables from the amp? Or is there something else wrong?

When I reconnected the amp and put the lexus radio back the power went off with the key and no Battery drain. Please help as I cannot get a replacement lexus unit and have no cd or tape so have to rely on the radio which is not good.

Thanks

[ligurt]

On 7/13/2020 at 8:55 PM, petewright said:

Would appreciate some advice. I disconnected the plug from the amp and used the bypass cable to connect an aftermarket head unit. For some reason the clock and light for the clock panel stayed illuminated even when key switched off and car locked. This drained the battery in no time as the radio stayed live too. Is this because I didn't disconnect both cables from the amp? Or is there something else wrong?

When I reconnected the amp and put the lexus radio back the power went off with the key and no battery drain. Please help as I cannot get a replacement lexus unit and have no cd or tape so have to rely on the radio which is not good.

Thanks

Hi, have you fixed now? What oem lexus radio model do you need?

[ridgerkollyn]

We'll need pictures!

On 10/7/2017 at 8:44 PM, chucky scott said:

hey guys havin trouble with the original 6 disc changer so decided to go for aftermarket so visit to  my local halfords to be told double din head unit wont fit so opted for single din jvc unit 

https://showbox.bio/ https://jfi.uno/jiofilocalhtml https://adminlogin.co/tplinklogin/

have wiring loom as well  but after taking dash to bits the lead does not fit the wiring on the car after reading various posts in the forum how do i find out if my car has the amp in it pics would help as i am about to tear my hair out with the whole lot 

 

[Hadrian]

Although we live right next door to a Halfords, I'd never take a car of mine there to have anything done.

I've used a local firm to fit radios for me in the past, and they are often called in by Halfords to sort their problems out.

[RobbieLees]

Hi there don’t know if anyone is still checking this ahahaha but I did everything here and for some reason the radio still won’t come on ?