Carcathan

the trouble is that the wiring from the amp to the sub is essentially speaker wire so far as i can see - and the sub is spec'd to suit the slightly unusual Lexus amp. So in principle the best solution is to replace the sub with a more standard free air model, use your head unit to power a separate amp in the boot (hence the need to wire it up the way 200h suggests) and then connect that new amp to the sub. I have read on another GS forum that it might be worth connecting the new headunit direct to the amp speaker wires as you suggest. Some people have spurred off the rear speaker wires - but that sounds like it can be fairly poor sub output and possibly damage the sub/headunit long term - not sure of the technical reasons. As my headunit has a pre-out specifically for a sub i'm going to try and connect that direct to the sub speaker wire near the old amp - there is a report on the other GS forum that it worked, and as the lead is a couple of quid i'm going to try it before going to the trouble of a new sub, amp and wiring the length of the car. No idea if it will work or work well. Should know in a week or two - unless you find a solution sooner!

I've owned this mk2 GS430 for a few months now and it truly is a fabulous car - especially for someone who likes to maintain their own car. But there are a few areas that i really wanted to change around the interior dash areas. It's not finished yet... Sorry about these images - they've decided to rotate 90 degrees, with no apparent option to straighten them again. For various reasons i was forced to updated the non-working radio and regrettably the OE satnav just wasn't going to be compatible with an aftermarket headunit. You don't appear to be able to get a double din fascia for a GS that keep the double din at the top - they're designed to replace the non-satnav radios. Looking down low to see the sat nav seems a poor idea to me, so i decided the Nav had to go in the upper section. I bought a good secondhand Kenwood stereo with bluetooth and DAB, and made up a bespoke fascia for it from 3 different pieces of stereo fascia plus the kenwood bezel, really pleased with the close fit but the final finish is yet to be sorted. I had to replace the touchscreen AC controls with a standard HVAC - but rather scarily then had to cut it down to within 2mm of the left and right hand buttons to make it fit the new location. I've seen one image of this done before so i knew it must work - but it was a nervous time fitting it. For the satnav i really wanted to use an old Nexus 7 2012 tablet that i have. The tablet is primarily a satnav and MP3 player, but i didn't really want to lock the tablet behind a fascia (which i'd also have to make) obviously i wanted to be held securely in place for driving but also be able to pick it up easily to hide it or take it with me - i use it with OS maps for hiking and as a kindle on holiday. Having just replaced the wood steering wheel with a perforated leather one (probably the reverse of most peoples taste!) i decided to use black perforated leather. The tablet is held by a Scosche Magnetic Flush Mount which really is secure, mounted on ply covered in leather. The ply is locked in top and bottom and can't be removed without removing the vents above. I have a steering wheel interface waiting to be fitted to allow me to use those controls again and just need to decide on the DAB aerial (it will be an external one) and sort out the subwoofer. Most things are bought second-hand so all of these changes should be close to cost neutral once i've sold all the SatNav/Amp/CD changer and wood steering wheel etc. Not sure on the final finish for both the HVAC and the stereo fascia - may just be satin black (stereo fascia has had a couple of quick coats), might look at using a 3m wood film if i can closely match the rosewood and do the black plastic around the gear stick/cupholders as i like that look on the other LS/GS models. I also re-covered the gear knob in the same perforated leather (not very easy as it doesn't really dismantle easily). Finally i'm trying to find the best solution to acres of dark beige plastic - it's the only poor part of the car's design in my opinion, a poor choice even allowing for its age. But I love the car's paint and trim colours otherwise. So, initially i've tried covering the insert plastic door trim in more perforated black leather to break up the beige - i like it! Again it's not an easy modification because of the tight curves and the fact that Lexus decided to make the window switch bezel part of the moulding, so careful use of a dremel was needed to allow the leather to tuck in. I think i made a pretty good job, the camera makes the door leather look more different in shade than the steering wheel leather than it does in reality but i may yet give them all a dye with liquid leather scuff dye to guarantee a match. I've yet to trim the other doors but the drivers door was the hardest one to do. I'm half considering changing the dash colour, don't really want black everywhere either - both porsche and saab have used a burgundy/cordovan type shade on dashboards that i'm quite tempted to try if i can get a spare door card! This isn't a short-term project. I've already added an LPG conversion (well worth it in my opinion), next is a cat back stainless exhaust as the current one is hanging on by a prayer and i have a lexus detachable towbar waiting to fit once the exhaust can be touched. Also been collecting suspension parts - it's only on 75k miles but i'm keen to keep it tight without losing comfort. Anyway - hope that's of interest to some of you!

Interesting product - i might get one of these too. The reviews on Amazon state that to run it on Win7 & instead of XP that - "When installing it , I set the option to run it in XP-SP3 compatibility mode." Have you done this too? (i couldn't tell you how to do that though! - perhaps it's one of the boot options on the laptop ?) Be really good to hear how you get on with it - before i buy it!

OK, removing the wires from the ISO harness is not the worst thing so long as you are going to be methodical before putting each one back! Do you have a multimeter or a test lamp so you can establish for certain that you have power from the car 12v supplies? One is switched and one is permanent - so establish which is which and that they do provide power and then check which colour that is meant to be supplying at the stereo end (sometimes red and yellow have to be switched around). But it still won't work without the power being earthed - so check that it is the correct earth wire and then do the same check for the stereo earth wire. Once you have those three connected then you should be able to see the stereo power up and hold a settings in its memory - if not then the either the connection plugs aren't making a good connection or the stereo has blown it's own fuse (10 amp on the back?). So again use the mutimeter on the stereo end of the wiring to make sure the supply is definitely reaching the stereo and being earthed. Then use the same process for the speakers - start at the stereo end, make sure you know which two wires are for an individual speaker then follow that through to the car end and connect those two up - turn it on and use the fader/balance controls on the stereo to isolate that speaker and make sure it's the correct one. Then do that for the remaining speakers. Don't guess or assume on any wire colour as car wiring is always more confusing than you think. Lastly, if you're really struggling with these principles consider whether you are the right person to be doing wiring!! It isn't everyone's skill area - some are better at mechanical/bodywork but won't touch wiring, so it's no shame to admit defeat and get a mate in who's got more skills in this area.

I did look at connecting to power and earth directly behind the radio but when i looked at the wiring diagram the power and earth to the amp were actually better (thicker wire) and aligned with the pins on the amp end of the patch cable. That sounds like one of your blown fuses may be affecting the power to what was the amp - i'm sure one of the audio fuses only supplies the amp. The colour coding for the speaker wires is pretty easy to work out with the audio wiring diagrams that you can find here through search - so it would be worth you methodically checking both sides of the plugs at the amp end to make sure those are correct. As i'm of an age where i need glasses more and more i actually took digital photos on the plugs from several angles and then put them on the pc so i could zoom in, see the colours clearly and check them against the wiring diagram. These are the two diagrams i used (i think Tigerfish posted them on here - mine is a 2002 so these applied to me perfectly) they may not be right for your model so check the colours. But they don't show which wires go to which connetor plugs - so i recommend taking photos. Try disconnecting the speakers then bridging one pair at a time with some spare wire - that might help establish which speaker is the problematic one. But certainly sounds like you have some kind of fuse issue, which i see the others have been advising you on better than i can.

HI, i'm just in the process of bypassing my 2002 GS430 OE stereo set up, switching to a replacement Kenwood headunit. Assuming that the people selling the bypass cable have got their wiring right then yes, this is essentially plug and play - of the connectors that plug into the existing amp, there are only two that will fit the two white connectors shown on the bypass cable - so you really can't go wrong once you've disconnected the plugs from the amp. Once the amp is disconnected then it won't work - i just removed mine. That also means any related items (like the Rear Sub and SatNav if you have it) probably won't work either (or atleast i couldn't see how to keep them working). So in my case i've removed the Amp, CD disc changer, Radio and SatNav unit - all because the radio was no longer working and it simply wasn't cost effective to replace. I'm using the headunits own internal amp for the speakers as it's a decent Kenwood model and i'll be replacing the rear Sub (no longer connected) with a replacement Sub (and Amp i think) powered via the Kenwood headunit (how that works depends on the headunit you choose and will be a different set of wires if done properly). The ISO connectors on the bypass cable will work with most stereos - so again that should be plug and play. The only two connectors that probably aren't catered for are the Dimmer/Dash Lights' connection and the Aerial Power connection. On the OE SatNav version that i have i just identified the two wires at the back of the current radio that provide those and made those connections there. In my case there were 3 wires to the aerial - i found that powering the black/white aerial wire operated the aerial so i've left the other two disconnected. I think the Dimmer/Lights was a light green wire - easily found with a multimeter by turning the lights on and off. But you need to check the wiring diagrams for your existing set up and your new stereo. But neitehr of those will stop you playing a CD/USB/Aux in connection on the new headunit to test that the basic system is working. At least on mine everything is working on the new stereo - it's just the other spin off work that's taking the time as i'm changing the location of the replacement AC controls to a non-standard location (as my AC was originally controlled via the SatNav screen), i've made a small one-off fascia for my stereo (sucker for punishment!) and i'm just working out how to mount a Nexus 7" tablet in a way that suits me. None of which is probably relevant to you - sorry! But really nothing to stop you now you have found that bypass cable - assuming you haven't blown some other fuses, but that's a different issue.

This is the link to the listing http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/321688626225?clk_rvr_id=887318438432&rmvSB=true and the thread on the other forum was headed 'Sway bar kit' in the GS 2nd Gen section - in case anyone finds it useful.

I noticed that there was an aftermarket ARB from *bay stateside getting positive feedback on the clublexus.com forum (am i allowed to mention them?!) - seemed a reasonable price too, until you added interntional shipping. I'll see if i can find the link again. Owners replacing the ARB on pre-2003 cars seemed to really rate the improvement, but i assume that if the 2003 UK model changes were done here rather than in Japan then the US cars would still be stock post 2003. Anyway, thanks for all that useful info - still trying to find a local 2003 Sport owner though....... A seemingly nice low mileage one sold locally just as i started looking and it was too soon for me to go for it, but i assume it left the area.

Thanks for that offer - i occasionally work over in the Reading area, so i'll see if that is likely soon and may be in contact. The '01 Sport just has the UK dealer uprated springs & shocks rather than the ARBs too - or have i got that wrong? I know the '03-04 Sport 430 numbers must be fairly low - be interesting to see if there are any locally.

Hi, i've been researching buying a GS430 for several months now but haven't yet found a Sport model on a forecourt locally to look at in more detail - where i won't be wasting the time of the private seller / street dealer. Any chance that there are some 430 Sport owners in the Kent/Sussex/SE London area that might be willing to show me round their car, so i can get a better appreciation for the real diffferences between Sport and SE and pre/post 2003 models. Is there a regular club meet that 430 owners attend in the SouthEast? I presume that most cars hitting 100k + are going to need shocks, springs and other suspension parts anyway - but i'm worried that the uprated ARBs really make the key difference and will be expensive/difficult to source. So it's really to see whether a 2003/04 Sport has a combined package 10 years on that still make it worth waiting for over say a 2001 SE. Hope that makes some sense - look forward to hearing from anyone willing to spare some time, either week-end, daytime (if i'm free) or after work to suit you. - just out of interest - as i'm not over keen on the standard Sport front/rear spoiler set, but love the look of the replica JP 3 piece rear spoilers - are these really as expensive/hard to find in the UK as they appear? Thanks, Richard