Phone Controls On Steering Wheel Of 1996 Lexus 400

[wordwrkr]

Surely this topic has been covered already, but I have had no luck searching the existing forums.

I just bought a 1996 Lexus LS400 from the local Lexus dealer, (Superior Lexus of Kansas City) and the car has some steering wheel-mounted controls obviously designed for use with a phone (because there's a phone icon on one of them). The dealer has no idea what they are for, and insists it's probably an after-market modification. I'm sure this is not the case; it looks like something that came from the factory. My question is, what are these controls for?

There are three buttons -- 1, 2 and 3 -- and a separate long button behind them. When I press them, something beeps. Does anyone know anything about these controls? I've gone through the owner's manual page by page, but there is no mention of them, and the dealer is lost.

[1990LS400]

If your steering wheel phone controller - see attached photo - looks like the one in my 2000 LS400, it is for an official dealer installed Lexus phone system.

Ah, yes ... Superior Lexus ... I bought my first Lexus - a new 1990 LS400 - from Superior 22 years ago. When I visited Superior in 2003 with a question about the dealer installed 2000 LS400 phone system, I was told that they had thrown all their documentation away and that they could not help me.

OK, you hear a beep when you press a phone controller button. Is there no evidence of a phone handset cradle in the upper console tray? The handsets for both the portable and fixed Lexux phone systems were installed on the upper console tray. If you don't see evidence of one but still hear a beep, a prior owner must have removed it but left other phone system components in place.

Remove the false floor on the passenger side of the trunk and see if there is a phone ECU. If there is, unplug all the connectors from it. If there are two large connectors that will plug together, do that to complete the circuit. You may see a coax antenna cable - probably two. One leads to the phone antenna imprinted on the rear window and the other to the rear of the center console. If you have a phone ECU, you might as well remove it and toss it - it's analog and of no value. In 95-00 LS400's without phone systems, the phone system cables in the trunk are attached to a plastic bracket attached to the bottom of the tool kit recepticle.

Now ... the center console. Remove the air vents you see when you raise the center armrest and see if the handset and/or antenna cables have been cut or unplugged. If they have been cut, unplug the cables that have been chopped off.

The white driver side connector has a mute pin that can be used with an aftermarket Bluetooth phone system to automatically mute your radio during a phone call. I have my aftermarket phone kit's mute wire attached to the mute pin of a similar phone connector in my 00 LS. It doesn't hurt to leave the phone controller on the steering wheel. If you want to remove it, you may still be able to buy a plastic "blank" to fill the hole that's left ... but I wouldn't count on it still being available separately.

If you haven't found them yet, check out Exact Performance in Merriam, Kansas: http://www.exactauto.com/ Ben and his staff have been maintaining our Lexus and Toyota vehicles for about 15 years. Tell them that Jim with the white 2000 LS400 sent you - I bought the car from a friend of Ben's in 2003.

[pj8708]

EXCELLENT tutorial Jim!!!

Paul

[wordwrkr]

Thank you for that very thorough and helpful response!

Is there no way I can revamp the system for use with my current Bluetooth-enabled cellphone? Are the steering wheel-mounted controls simply worthless from this point?

[1990LS400]

Is there no way I can revamp the system for use with my current Bluetooth-enabled cellphone? Are the steering wheel-mounted controls simply worthless from this point?

Probably not. Many have said the were going to but I haven't seen anybody report noteworthy success in the 10 years I've been on three Lexus forums and following these issues closely.

It is, however, relatively easy to install an aftermarket phone kit in your LS400. Here is a thread from Blake that shows the connector at the rear (driver side) of a 95-97 center console that contains a mute pin that be used with an aftermarket phone kit: http://us.lexusowner...=1

And here is a later thread from Blake about installing a Parrot MKi9100 Bluetooth kit in his 99 LS400: http://us.lexusowner...ot&fromsearch=1

In theory it might be possible to use your steering wheel phone control with a Parrot Bluetooth kit using their additional cost UNIKA interface but Parrot has no programming or installation instructions for Lexus for the UNIKA and you would have to figure out how to tap into the factory phone harness to even try. You would be on your own including getting the UNIKA from outside the U.S.

It's easy enough to pop off the trim to install a phone kit and there is plentry of room under the dash to hide a phone kit speaker.

I keep planning to install a Parrot kit in my 00 LS but keep putting it off since the old Nokia kit I installed in early 2004 still works well and I've got two handsets left to use with it.

If/when I do install a Parrot, I will put its LCD on the instrument cluster shelf below and to the left of the temperature gauge and the controller on a Pro.Fit bracket on the left side of the center stack so I don't have to remove my hand from the steering wheel. The Parrot control box will go where the Nokia's control box is now - on the left side of the transmission tunnel behind the carpet for easy access to it. I'll run the microphone cable up the drivers side windshield pillar and place the microphone near the overhead light cluster if not inside it. I've got an extra overhead light cluster to practice on so I may try drilling two holes in the rear edge of it to stick the Parrot's twin microphones through.

The following thread I started in 2004 has a PDF about my Nokia kit -- the PDF has photos that might help if you need to remove trim to install a phone kit: http://us.lexusowner...ia&fromsearch=1

I'm in Lenexa, by the way, and could explain some of this stuff in person if you are near by - ON A WARM DAY ... BRRR!

[wordwrkr]

Thank you for that extremely informative reply. This sounds like a mountain I dare not climb.

[1990LS400]

This sounds like a mountain I dare not climb.

No, please climb the mountain and teach us something. I only wanted you to know that many people have tried and it's not easy.