Ls430 Bluetooth

[alexsteininger]

I have a 2006 LS430 and I was wondering if there is anyway to make the music from my Iphone play through the ML Sound System using Bluetooth. I love it in my other car that uses Sync. I get in the car and my music plays immediately, but couldn't figure out if I could do it in the LS430. I have paired the Iphone with the ML system through blue tooth, but couldn't get the music to play.

[1990LS400]

I think 2010 was the first model year that A2DP Bluetooth audio streaming was available on Lexus cars -- certainly the LS430 never had it. There are several companies that sell aux-in adapters for the LS430 with the most popular being http://www.vaistech.com/site/home.php

Some people get Bluetooth A2DP on older cars by plugging a Bluetooth receiver into an aux-in port - a popular one seems to be the Blackberry Music Gateway - do a google.

Or you could just add an aux-in adapter and plug it's 3.5mm connector into your phone when you want. I plug a 3.5mm connector into my phone almost every time I get in my car - it's become automatic but I do have to get the phone out of my pocket to do it. Bluetooth AD2P seems to suck life out of phone batteries so I rarely use Bluetooth A2DP even in our Prius that has it as OEM.

Edit: I meant to say that I rarely stream audio via Bluetooth A2DP without getting the phone out of my pocket and plugging it into a car charger. Also, the way Bluetooth works on my Samsung Galaxy S3 phone, the phone volume is automatically set at a low level when the Bluetooth connection is initially made - I have to manually raise the volume on my phone. And since I already have my phone out to raise the volume, it's just another step to plug a charging cable into it and snap it into a holder. I particularly like the $20 iOttie Easy Flex 2 phone holder I put in our Prius - see attached. It doesn't charge my Samsung phone like the Samsung cradle I have in my LS but it can hold either my wife's iPhone or my Samsung phone in either portrait or landscape orientation.

[jainla]

Jim's right; 2010 (Gen 6 Nav) was the first BT streaming option for almost all Toyota/Lexus cars.

You can either get the Vaistech box and piggyback a BT receiver on it, or possibly fit one of the Parrot BT kits: www.parrot.com. There is a harness at www.quickconnectproducts.com/ that supposedly fits the car.

The Parrot MKi kits have a very nice iPhone/iPod interface that also does BT streaming and adds an aux input as well (some of them also have an SD card reader). You can use the Phone functionality of the kit instead of the built in Bluetooth if you want; the voice dial is much better and (I think) it will be Siri compatible.

I have the MKi kit in another car and the older Parrot 3200LS kit with the Vaistech ipod box in the Lexus; and honestly I just commissioned my old iPod classic as the 'LexPod;' it just lives in the car. Pulling the phone out to stream the BT is enough of a PITA that I almost never bother to do it; but I listen to the Ipod all the time.

[2006LS]

Is there anybody that has experience with viastech and grom?  I have used viastech in the past but grom is quite a bit cheaper so curious if it works as well?