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Change Language On Display Unit And Car To English?


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Firstly, a great big helllo to everyone here!

The forum is a great big wealth of information and very informative as well.

I managed to get my grubby paws on a Lexus GS350 lately and it will be delivered really soon.. i got it at a good discount too so which made the whole process seem really worthwhile.

The car is a 2006 Lexus GS350 from a local "gray" importer here in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

I understand that this car was previously owned in Japan and destined for the Japanese market and somehow was exported here and resold for a discount which is how i came across it.

I have a few queries which i was hoping i could get answered.

1. The odometer display (the one in the middle of the RPM/Speedometer) is in Japanese. Basically is the door is open or the trunk is open etc etc, all warning msgs are in Japanese.

Is there anyway to change this into english? Would buying a UK spec/Australia spec odometer which displays english solve the problem?

2. The center EMV display unit displays everything in Japanese. Even the buttons surrounding it is in Japanese.

Can replacing this unit alone to a english based on from a UK/Australia GS350 fix this problem?

Or is it merely a display and replacing some other unit will enable it to display english? If this is the case, as long as the display is in english, i could live with the Japanese buttons.

I was really wondering as i dont think Lexus would make this screen and the ODO display only in Japanese just because it was destined for the Japanese market. What if i was a English-speaking expat living in Tokyo and i wanted to drive one of these.. I'd have to learn heaps of Japanese to just get around the system and know that one of my doors is ajar?

Im sure there is a way to change it without changing any parts but if i have to, i dont mind i suppose. Does anyone have any experience here with this?

3. The radio frequencies are only Japanese with 79.90 - 89.90. Is there anyway to make this work with the rest of the world being 89.90 - 107.90?

If there is any way at all to make this happen, please let me know.

Would be great to be able to convert all this information into english and be able to really enjoy this car and know whats happening instead of reading incomprehensible text.

If there are items that need to be replaced, if possible, please also provide me with the part number so i may purchase these items.

Once again, thanks so much for all the help in advance! I've recently contacted Lexus Australia and Lexus Hong Kong. Now awaiting some feedback from them but if i find out, ill post it here. :)

Best Regards,

Kenny

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To be honest can't really help on the first two questions but for the third you would probably be able to use a band expander which just shifts the channels s even though the radio would still display the lower frequencies, it would pick up the correct range. Only found out I myself could pick up local radio recently as didn't know it had one fitted!

Not sure if it helps but someone recently did some testing on a Toyota Aristo import which was the old name for the Lexus GS in Japan and they tried replacing the Jap satnav with a euro satnav using a harness they made up themselves and it changed over to English - there's a thread over on Club Aristo about it :) Dealer price would be scary so you'd have to probably look for a crashed car and take the bits out of that?

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aido: thanks so much for the quick response!

thats the thing, i would imagine that if i was a english speaking expat living in tokyo, it would be pretty daunting buying cars seeing as they only sell them in Japanese?

I think thats highly unlikely especially for a Lexus. Im sure there is a way, maybe by settings that i can change the language to english? Is there anyone with a 3rd gen GS that can change his language from english to anything else at all?

I think the dealer prices would be madness as well. I have a friend down here with an english based GS and i might swap around the parts with him and see if that works out. hopefully hes up for it.

Just so im not mistaken, for the EMV unit in the middle, to swap out would mean swapping the EMV unit itself, anything else? any computers or little boxes that feeds information to the unit that needs to be swapped out as well?

And with the ODOMETER display unit, in my s-class, that can be changed from Japanese to English so im sure that it should be possible for the GS as well? ANy way to change the language here?

Thanks once again in advance for all the help! Really appreciate it!

:)

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Thinking about it in the MK2 it was actually the unit in the boot that required replacing - the bit up front still retained all the buttons in Japanese!

This was the thread in question - I'm guessing it would probably be very similar in the new model - you'd need to check in the boot area if the hardware is all located there as well in the new model though?

http://clubaristo.net/forums/showthread.php?t=17153

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aido: Thanks so much for the response and that thread.

Will give that a look and see if anything comes up.

I was originally hoping that i could change the settings somewhere and not go into any hardware changes?

:)

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Just thought actually, might be worth dropping Dave Ellen a PM - his username is Prolex-UK on here, but he has an imported IS350 from Japan so may be worth asking how his looks as I assume this will be the same outcome as they're the same generation and he should be able to point you in the right direction :)

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