Wiring A Parrot 3400 Ls-gps Into An Is200 Sport 13906 Head Unit

[Spoony]

Hi Guys,

I thought I'd done my homework and bought all the bits I needed, but after trying to fit my new Parrot 3400 LS-GPS device into my 2003 IS200 Sport with a 13906 head unit (externally amplified system) I couldn't be more wrong.

I was prepared for a struggle. I was worried I'd damage the dash getting to the head unit. I was concerned I wouldn't be able to hide the cabling for the mic or find a decent place to locate the Parrot's screen. Nope, these were all solved easily!

The ISO loom adapter I bought to fit between the head unit and the Parrot had the wrong connectors on it. Seems the adapter I bought was for a different flavour Lexus head unit.

Further digging for the right connector has proven fruitless. I've PM'd a few of you earlier but impatience has gotten the best of me, hence my post.

So can someone help me with a way forward for this? I've found many answers but none of them seem applicable.

It would seem to me that there is no way to easily connect the two system without hard-wiring them in. I'd rather not do this unless there is no other method. Then again, I can't find what the pinouts for the connectors on the 13906 are anyway...

A challenge then. Can anyone help?

[Parthiban]

Have you got the autoleads ISO 06-913B? Is that the one that doesn't fit? I've just installed that in my 2002 IS200 and it all works perfectly..........

[Spoony]

No, I didn't buy the autoleads part, I bought a parrot branded Toyota part that someone suggested might work.

Do you have a link to the cable you bought perchance?

Thanks in advance!

[Parthiban]

Seems that's where things went wrong - there's only one lead that will work on the IS with the amplified system, this is what I bought:

06-913B

For some reason the place I bought it from has now doubled the price of it, so the one above seems to be the cheapest place to get it now.

This lead will connect between the amp behind the glovebox and the Parrot kit. This lead has standard Nokia connectors on the end of it, so you will also need to buy the correct SOT adapter for it - I'm sorry but I don't know which one is required as I didn't fit a Parrot kit.

Not sure if it helps but here's the details of the installation I did in case there's anything else you need to know:

Install guide

Please let me know if anything doesn't make sense :)

[Spoony]

Yeah I've read your walkthrough a couple of times over the last few days, but its never clicked.

I think it just did though!

I've been expecting to be messing around with the connectors at the back of the head unit, where as I should be messing around with the connectors at the back of the amp. This has been a mental block here I think as despite reading your walkthrough several times that possibility has never actually sunk in.

Am I right with this train of thought? Maybe the lead I bought WILL work if the connectors at the amp tally.

Is it much of a pain to get the glovebox out?

[Parthiban]

I'm not actually sure to be honest - as far as I knew there was only that one phone mute that works on the amplified systems, but if you haven't tried it on the amp yet, it's definitely worth a shot before you buy another cable.

Getting the glovebox out isn't difficult at all, simply squeeze in the sides and it'll drop forwards, then you can simply slide the pins at the bottom out, and remove the glovebox. The really hard part is getting the cable out of the back of the amp - it will take some patience and possibly bruised and scraped knuckles!

As in my walkthrough, I found I absolutely had to unbolt the amp and cut the cable ties to the wiring loom that runs next to it. That's the hard part though, so once that's done it should all be relatively straight forward from there.

[sparkystav]

Not to remove the glove box. but to get to the amp, yep,

If you do a search for it, its been covered a few times, but you'll need to cut the large cable ties holding the looms to get some room, and take the bolt out on the bottom left of the glove box to have a bit more flexibility.

Stav

[Geoffers]

I've been expecting to be messing around with the connectors at the back of the head unit, where as I should be messing around with the connectors at the back of the amp. This has been a mental block here I think as despite reading your walkthrough several times that possibility has never actually sunk in.

Am I right with this train of thought? Maybe the lead I bought WILL work if the connectors at the amp tally.

Absolutely. Even if the connectors physically matched at the headunit side, it would end up putting the audio back into the headunit, not the amp because of the way the male/female connectors are.

[Spoony]

Ok, just been out to the car (thank god for garages) and got to the connector on the back of the amp. Unhooked the connector and yes it matches the connectors on my cable.

Hooked it all up and tested. Audio all fine through the CD player (all speakers tested) but no output on the Parrot. Completely dead.

Unplugged the cable from the back of the amp again and reseated the connection. Still no power.

Investigated the cable a little further and it would seem that the power cables on the loom ISO adapter are cut before they get to the amp connector. Doh! Checked more and it does seem that the mute cable is connected, so I'm gonna leave it in situ before I lose any more skin back there.

So my way forward is to hook up the power from an alternative source. Parthiban's guide shows that he (you) connected this up to the lighter socket. Great idea, I'm handy with a soldering iron so this shouldn't be a problem, however I have two power wires - one is a 12v permanent feed and the other a 12v ignition feed.

It seems to want me to hook both up. Obviously I take the 12v ignition feed from the lighter socket, but where shall I wire the other 12v permanet feed from?

[Geoffers]

It was Parthiban himself who did the lighter socket side. About the only thing he did do mind. Only joking, he gives me more credit than I deserve, I only gave him a bit of advice - he did the rest.

Shame about the lead as this would have been the best place. Is there nothing you can tap into (either side) of the cabling? Do you own a multimeter? If so, look for :

Grey - switched live

Blue/yellow stripe - perm live

Brown - GND

Meter these first though, in case they haven't used matching colours.

You can definitely pick these up at the back of the headunit with these colours.

There are a couple more behind the dash and in the footwell but I'd need to look them up. Will do if you want to try them.

[Parthiban]

It was Parthiban himself who did the lighter socket side. About the only thing he did do mind. Only joking, he gives me more credit than I deserve, I only gave him a bit of advice - he did the rest.

Lol mate - nah didn't even figure that out for myself, it was Hando that pointed me in the right direction for that one!

I'm not absolutely sure if this will work, but the cig lighter has two wires going into it.......I used the one on the left for the ignition feed, the other one actually says 12V on it so I'd assume it's where the power comes from.

I'm not very electronically minded, so don't know whether you could tap straight into it, but it would mean no soldering for either wire. If you have a multimeter and know what you're doing, I'm sure it wouldn't be hard to figure out if you could wire both up to the two connectors on the cig lighter.

[Spoony]

It would actually be easier if i just spliced into the cable at the back of the head unit (as thats where the audio mute box is located), so I'll give that a go tonight I think.

Thanks for your help guys - I'll let you know how I get on!

[Spoony]

Well, I did it. The wire colours on the back of the head unit weren't as described above, but a few tests with a mutimeter revealed which wires I needed. A couple of blade connectors later it was all working!

Mute works a treat and the people I've called report good voice quality! All excess cable is now cable tied, neat and secure. Looks like a factory fit!

So, all in all a success - thank you all for your assistance.

Expect me back here soon when the Xeon & ballast set I ordered off eBay don't work. ;)

[Parthiban]

Nice one mate, glad it all worked out for you :)

Where are the pics? :winky:

[Spoony]

Pics? Why, sure!

The audio mute box is secured/hidden behind the head unit. I've already put all that back together and it all looks like standard, so there's no point in showing a pic of that.

Here's the ISO adapter connected to the Parrot cabling and all nicely cable tied up ready for hiding.

Here's the ISO adapter connected to the amp behind the glove box. Brought the cabling around the front so it's easier to tidy.

Now the cable is hidden behind the dash, you'd hopefully not notice it was there at a glance. The glove box opens and closes nicely without catching anything.

I fed the mic cable from behind the head unit (where the Parrot mute box is), behind the steering column, up the right pillar facia, along the roof lining at the front and stuck the supplied mic clip to the rear view mirror mounting. Proper job.

Only the tiniest bit of cable protudes before it heads up into the roof lining, never to be seen again.

I've mounted the Parrot display on the empty middle button blanking plate inbetween the headlight angle control and the fog light switch. Both switches although obscured are still accessible. This was the best place for me to mount it as my PDA cradle got in the way if I mounted it any higher...

I could have fed the screen cable through the blanking plate, but this meant altering the blanking plate more than I wanted to. I'd already fed the wire through the dash to behind the head unit anyway and didn't fancy re-doing that again. I think this is acceptable, if not completely ideal.

And voilla - it works!

Critiques and comments welcome ;)

[Geoffers]

Well, I did it. The wire colours on the back of the head unit weren't as described above, but a few tests with a mutimeter revealed which wires I needed. A couple of blade connectors later it was all working!

Mute works a treat and the people I've called report good voice quality! All excess cable is now cable tied, neat and secure. Looks like a factory fit!

So, all in all a success - thank you all for your assistance.

Expect me back here soon when the Xeon & ballast set I ordered off ebay don't work. ;)

Glad you got it working. Great stuff.

Interesting though. What were you getting on those colours? What year is the car and what colours did you use? Just want to add it to my notes for future ref - never come across one with different colouring to spec. Ta.

Always a better feeling when you do it yourself I think!

[Parthiban]

That looks excellent, really neat job (should've used some of those cable ties myself, where do you get them from?)

Really like what you've done with the mic - I've moved mine next to the hazard switch now, which seems to be working quite well audio wise and hiding the cable was easy, wouldn't mind trying up by the mirror but can't be bothered to get it up there and then find it doesn't work as well!

Got a quick question for Geoff here: If mine needed those big blue relays to switch the audio, how does this one work? Doesn't seem to have anything but wires.......or are they hidden away somewhere

Btw Spoony, does your car have satnav?

[Geoffers]

Got a quick question for Geoff here: If mine needed those big blue relays to switch the audio, how does this one work? Doesn't seem to have anything but wires.......or are they hidden away somewhere

I was thinking that myself actually. My immediate thought was that the headunit output is muted (not the amp input) and the ext. audio is put onto the input lines to the amp.

Can't see this really because without it being switched out, the audio would back feed into the phone unit. This in theory should never happen as there's no audio out unless during a call but the mute would be on then also.

I'd have to see one. I do hope they don't do it this way.

[Spoony]

Geoffers: I'll be taking the dash apart again to get to the CD changer socket and connect the mute there too (as rear speakers aren't being muted by the Parrot box atm it would seem - thanks reeves1985!), so when I do I'll get some pics and make a note of the colours.

Parthiban: Cable ties are available from just about everywhere! A quick googling reveals a bazillion choices. The mic was a doddle to fix - you just need to take off the door rubber (pulls off real easy) and then just poke the wire behind the pillar fascia and roof lining edge. There's plenty of room back there and its easy to do. I do not have a Lexus SatNav - I use TomTom on my pda/phone (which is what the cradle is for above the Parrot!).

It would seem that having the Parrot in that location does have a drawback, specifically the lack of GPS signal. I've ordered an external antenna tonight so should be fitting that before the weekend with any luck. I'll let you know if it improves the reception problems!

On another note, I received my Xenon HIDs with ballasts yesterday and fitted them last night. It was the cheap £46 quid set off eBay. Fitting was a doddle and the worked fine once I turned the connectors round. Driving home tonight in the dark was an entirely different experience!

[Geoffers]

Cheers Spoony.

Yes - the first time I got HIDs I couldn't believe the difference. One of those mods you are pleased with every time you switch on.

[Spoony]

No worries!

They seem to flicker a bit when first turned on. Is this normal? Seem fine once they've warmed up a little.

[Haylands]

(as rear speakers aren't being muted by the Parrot box atm it would seem - thanks reeves1985

Spoony..

I've got the same parrot in my LS430 and mine only mutes the front speakers, I think its normal

And before someone asks yes it has got Lexus sat nav, I use tomtom on my phone with spoken speed camera alerts, stick it it my top pocket and let Lexus tell me where to go and Nokia how fast to go!!!!!

Pete

[Spoony]

I've got the same parrot in my LS430 and mine only mutes the front speakers, I think its normal

Normal it may be, but I don't want it like that!

It would seem that is is perfectly feasible to mute the rear speakers using the CD changer input on the back of the 13906. I'm gonna have a go when my new socket set turns up so I can get the head unit out!

I'll post details of my success (or lack thereof) in due course. ;)

[Parthiban]

My autoleads cable mutes all the speakers without going anywhere near the headunit so it's got to be quite easily done if you know what you're doing.

If you're getting a new socket set because of the restricted access to the bolts, you can use a large screwdriver to get them out, that's what I did :)

[Spoony]

My autoleads cable mutes all the speakers without going anywhere near the headunit so it's got to be quite easily done if you know what you're doing.

If you're getting a new socket set because of the restricted access to the bolts, you can use a large screwdriver to get them out, that's what I did :)

In hindsight I should have bought the autoleads cable. I'm not going to buy another cable though, partly because of the crazy price they are, but mostly because I value my hand and don't want to injure it further messing around at the back of the amp!

I think I'll just wait till I have the right tools. The guy whose socket set I borrowed now has them back.