Proud New Is200 Owner With A Specific Radio-Related Question

Lvw2000 · August 30, 2011

Hey guys,

After a year of saving I finally managed to make my childhood dream come true last Sunday and I bought a Lexus IS200. First registration July 2002 and I suspect it's a base trim level (it has fully cloth seats).

However, I bought it without a radio. The original CD player broke, of course, and the previous owner replaced that with an aftermarket double DIN Pioneer touchscreen system that he didn't want to sell with the car. I contacted him and he said the original unit was of the bottom loading type with the cassette deck up top. I found one of those for cheap, but now I'm wondering if it'll just fit?

I've read stories here about amps behind glove boxes being bypassed and whatnot, so I'm not sure if the wiring on my car is still bone stock, and if any unit with a cassette deck will just work, or if there are even differences between those. The owner also didn't know, he had the system installed at the audio shop and I don't know if they had to change anything to the original wiring.

Can anyone here help me out please?

Many thanks in advance.

(PS I'm from Belgium, but I don't know if that'll make much difference regarding trim levels and model years)

clossie · August 30, 2011

Hiya and welcome to loc. Best bet would be to take a photo of the connector blocks you have and post them up here. I'm sure someone will be able to eyeball them and let you know if they are standard or have been replaced. My advice for what it's worth would be to get a cheap aftermarket double din unit and use that as it's likely it will fit straight into the hole and use the sAme connections as the pioneer did.

Also have a quick search through the audio visual section, there's loads of good stuff (including pictures) which may help you identify what you have got.

Lvw2000 · August 30, 2011

Yeah was actually thinking of doing both. I could get a rather inexpensive aftermarket unit to which I attach a hard drive with my entire music collection, but at the same time the dash looks so neat with the original radio in place... So if possible I'd get the cheap original one with broken CD-player right now (I can get it for 20 quid) and keep that just incase and save up a bit for a decent aftermarket unit. But if that means messing with the cables and connectors I wouldn't do it of course.

I'll try to get a picture but I don't have access to the car until friday (I'm out of town).

In the meantime, could someone tell me what color I got here? Of all ISes I checked I thought this looked the neatest, so I bought it

jay_russell · August 30, 2011

i have one here in sweden, removed from my 04 without problems on the unit, just sitting here getting dusty. pm me if you want it, you pay the postage

Arcane · August 31, 2011

The colour is Granite Sky I think. Nicest colour in my opinion.

:)

MärkJ · August 31, 2011

Yeah that's Granite Sky. Same as mine.

Good luck with finding a bottom loading OEM player that still works. My original one died a couple of weeks ago and I was told that the top loading one has different connections so wouldn't work. In the end I went for aftermarket.

Pioneer stereos (as do all modern ones) use the ISO connections so you should be able to plug an aftermarket player straight in.

The amplifier is behind the glove box (at least it is on RHD models). The ISO lead should have been plugged into the speaker connector that was originally plugged into the back of the amp.