Hi
Not had my Lexus (IS300 sportcross) too long but am really enjoying it. There are a couple of things I miss from my old car (406 coupe) on the audio front. No MP3, I had added a 6 disk mp3 changer to the old car and no stalk controls. I didn’t think I would miss the stalk controls so much but I really do.
Add to this the Lexus CD player skipping when driving on poor surfaces and I decided it was time for a new headunit.
After reading a lot on the LOC about the Pioneer FH-P80BT I thought this looked just the job. Only problem was that I didn’t like the look of the pioneer wired remote.
Didn’t fancy the idea of having this ugly thing clamped to my steering wheel.
I bit of googling revealed that the pioneer and sony wired remotes share much of the same functions. By all accounts the Sony RM-X4C should work and looked much more the sort of thing I was looking for so thought I would give it a go.
Ordered all the bits (inc bypass cable and facia adaptor)
Big thanks to Rob for the tray removal guide and to Hando for the headunit removal guide. Used aztecbandit1s guide to removing the amp and fitting the bypass cable. I had a really hard time getting the amp free so that I could get to the back to unplug the speaker connector.
I struggled with this for quite a while eventually getting it free by unclipping part of the dash to get more room. The annoying thing was my amp was the other way round from the one in the guide (Toyota sticker visible). So the speaker connector was on at the bottom and I could have just unplugged it by reaching up from underneath. :tsktsk:
Eventually got the HU installed and fired it up to check I was getting sound, thumbs up!
What did i do with the facia trim?
I just popped the mic up through the top tray for just now. (will have to find a better spot for it)
and ran the usb cable into the glovebox.
Now finding a good spot for the sony remote. I wanted it on the right hand side so plumped for just below the wiper stalk.
Remote didn't come with any instructions but fitting was pretty straight forward. Wasn't sure which way round it is supposed to be mounted (base is sort of rectangular so could be mounted up and down or front to back.) I went for front to back as i liked the thumb indent on the volume control to be on the front.
(may experiment)
I may also move the stalk a bit further forward as it turns out to be a bit close to the ignition. Ran the cable down the side of the column and through to the HU. It just pluggs in with a mini din headphone socket. (added a bit of black tape over the wire since pic)
I had a good run last night and used wipers, cruise and audio stalks with no problems. Easy to find and use without taking eyes off the road.
Sony stalk will control:
Global : source, volume+-, att (partial mute).
CD : track+-, ffw, rew
Tuner : tuner scan+-, tuner preset+-,
USB : track+-, folder +-
Not tested phone yet (will report back)
Overall very pleased. Currently filling up an 8Gb usb stick with my tunes.
Next jobs are facia smothing (a la Wozza) and changing dash lights to blue LEDs (currently in the post).
This stuff could get addictive :winky: