Stereo upgrade

[inchley313]

I know that the standard Lexus stereo can be replaced with a double din facia and that works very well but what I cannot find out is if there is any way to do a similar upgrade for the SE-L with the Mark Levinson Stereo?

 

Is there some kind of wiring harness interface that can be used? If so, where would I find one etc.

 

Looking at bringing the interior of my 2003 SE-L into the 21st century by covering all the dated wood with Silver Carbon wrap, having the steering wheel padded and re-trimmed and replacing the gear selector knob but there is no point to any of this if I have horrible 1990's style stereo display!

 

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[asingood]

Hi have looked at this myself, have an 2004 sel with sat nav,  read posts that say you can have problems as the touch screen controls heating and navi, there is a video on youtube showing a unit been put in ,its a few years old but there seems to be a lot of wire splicing going on as there doesn't seem to have the available adaptors which could make it more complicated sorry don't know how to put a link in ,the video is from the USA .My amp blew 16 months ago and was quoted from between £600 to £800 to replace the head unit but they would not guarantee that it would not cause problems with car controls,hope this helps

[Mr Vlad]

Yes you can upgrade to a modern looking headunit. As above there is a superb video on YouTube done by a very clever woman. It's a long but very concise video. Yes splicing of wires etc. It'll be time consuming but you have to consider upgrading the measly 12v Battery if you want to introduce an amplifier to replace the ML one.

[Herbie]

This is the video mentioned above, but I don't think her existing system is a Mark Levinson, although I may be wrong:

 

 

[inchley313]

I will watch this video comprehensively when I have a few spare minutes (or hours) and then pull my Mark Levinson head unit to see what is different between the 2 sets. If they're pretty much the same, I can't see why it can't be done and maybe even add a subwoofer to the system too!

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[Delphius1]

Have a word with a car audio specialist. On closed systems like ML and Bose, the head unit drives an amp which then drives the speakers. The level between the head unit and the amp is usually different than the levels produced by standard head units. So you need a line level convertor between the new head unit and the existing amp so you drive the amp at the correct level.