Rx350 Se-l 2007 Ipod Integration Options

[James King]

Hi All,

Just bought a 2007 RX350 SE-L (hence with the Nav, ICE and Mark Lev), on test driving one with the Lexus Ipod kit I discovered that it didn't do text and I could not see the normal ipod menus i.e. the artists/albulm/playlist selector, despite pushing text and the CD buttons lots of times. Music came out but other than skipable there wasn't much to it. I have 60GB video ipod, anyone know of what my current options are for this, what they provide in terms of functionality and if they are compatible with that ipod? Any tips and tricks with it would be good, e.g. set-up playlists like this and enable disk usage mode etc for all of the above to work.

Don't really mind buying another ipod that is just for the car if it offer the full menus/selection through the nav screen.

Thanks for any info in advance,

James

[jaroph]

I fitted this to my RX400h and it is a far better solution than that offered by Lexus

http://playlistmag.com/reviews/2006/06/sondlinqsli/index.php

I am not much of a technical person but I am patient and managed installed it myself using these instructions. (I installed my iPod connector via the glove box though - much safer)

http://sr1.clublexus.com/forums/showthread.php?t=227901

Bought my unit from:

http://www.cheaptoyotaparts.co.uk/componen...id,26/vmcchk,1/

They can also fit the unit for you in an hour. Took me 4 but like I said, I am not a technical person - plus the last thing I wanted was to to mess up a car I just bought! Luckily all went well and the system has been excellent for a year now.

There is a lot of information on the US forums. Look up a chap called lexuslover - he has a great deal of useful advice and information

[stevemate]

Great thanks - does it show the music track names?

[James King]

Thanks for the info and tips.

[JayKay]

USE IPOD TOUCH TO CONTROL INTEGRATION KIT

I had lexus southend fit an Ipod integration kit into a 06 Rx350 SE with Ice (and mark levinson) for about £200 as part of a service. They put the ipod connector cable in the glove compartment so that the ipod is out of view. The sound quality is much better than any FM tuner solution and indistinguishable from a CD played from the head unit. Whilst the head unit and steering wheel can forward and advance a track and can forward advance a playlist (up to a maximum of six) the BIG problem is that you can not select tracks on the Ipod as all you can see on the ipod screen is a lexus brand. Bummer. 13,000 songs on my ipod classic and no way to find a favorite song direct !!

The good news.....

I also have an ipod touch and found this neat work around.

If you connect the ipod touch to the lexus integration kit, the ipoT screen says accessory connected but does not show the lexus logo. You can still play songs via the headunit, steering wheel as before BUT.....

...If you press the home button on the ipoT .....

you can select playlists/tracks etc in the normal ipod way using the ipoT screen for navigation to the track that you want. When you play a track on the ipoT the sound WILL play through the Lexus sterio. You can see what you are selecting - even using coverflow for example.

The downside is that the headunit/steering wheel controls of the ipod stop working unit you press the disc button twice on the headunit. This then reverts to the standard (non-navigatable/random) control of the ipod using the playlist that you'd most recently been playing.

I have bought the Griffin Tuneflex which has a passthrough ipod dock connector (into which I can plug the lexus dock connector) and flexible neck which I can use to position the ipot

Chuffed. I will play with the settings (to see if I can get the headunit back working with the IPOT) and post a pic.

Regards

jay