statman24 Posted January 21, 2015 Posted January 21, 2015 I've gone through all of the phone posts here, but still having a problem. What I can't figure out is how to remove the cradle wire that goes up towards the radio. Is there a plug at that end that is simple to remove? Is it connected to the radio? Thanks!
sha4000 Posted January 21, 2015 Posted January 21, 2015 I've removed my phone and can't remember a wire leading to the radio. Could you provide a pic if possible?
statman24 Posted January 21, 2015 Author Posted January 21, 2015 yea, there is definitely a wire leading towards the front. My understanding is that it must be connected to the radio and fan unit in order to mute them during a call. Just wondering if it can be easily unplugged, or whether it was hard-wired in.
1990LS400 Posted January 21, 2015 Posted January 21, 2015 There is no wire going from the phone cradle directly to the head unit. Simply unplug the cradle connector where they plug into the car's phone harness underneath the vents you see when the armrest is raised. Also unplug all the connectors from the phone ECU under the removal floor panel on the right side of the trunk, plug the two large connectors together and attach them to the white plastic bracket on the bottom of the tool box receptacle so that they don't get wet. Do not cut any cables!
statman24 Posted January 21, 2015 Author Posted January 21, 2015 Thanks 1990LS400. I did read all of your posts. I unplugged all of the wires below the armrest. There is still 1 more wire from the cradle going towards the front of the car. Almost looks like it's going down the right side ... down the foot-well carpeting. I took out the wood around the shifter... and could only follow it so far.
statman24 Posted January 21, 2015 Author Posted January 21, 2015 OK... did some more searching. First picture below is the handset with the wire. I then pulled the carpeting away from the left side of the passenger footwell. Heres' what I found (second picture). 3rd picture is the mic that was installed by the mirror. So... I think I found the endpoint for the cradle wire and also the mic. Need to determine what the last wire is in that control box and whether I can remove it.
1990LS400 Posted January 21, 2015 Posted January 21, 2015 OK, I'm typing on a real computer now - easier than typing on my phone. I don't drop by this forum much since I sold my 2000 LS400 last April. We are talking about a dealer installed Lexus branded phone system, aren't we? My experience with dealer installed Lexus branded phone systems in the 98-00 LS400 has been limited to the fixed phone system - the old fashioned fixed car phone type. Is this what you have or is yours the portable version that you can take with you? I have no experience with the Lexus branded portable phones. There should have been a cradle connector plugged into a fairly large six pin connector under the armrest vents on the driver side - the front center pins happens to be a radio mute pin but the radio can also be muted by grounding a pin on one of the phone conectors in the trunk. Your phone cradle may also have a thin antenna coax cable that connects to the car's thin gray antenna coax cable under the same vents under the armrest. You should be able to disconnect the antenna cable at a coupling under the vent under the armrest. I don't remember any cables going from the phone cradle forward to the dash unless this is the antenna cable and you should be able to unplug (unscrew) the phone cradle from it.You may have to follow the wire and see where it goes. If you need to remove the radio ahd HVAC controls, it is easy to do. It can be tricky to remove the center dash air vents without breaking them. Insert a small blade screw driver into the air vent on each side and pull the retaining clip on each side inward and then the vent should slide right out. The radio/HVAC unit is held in place by four 10 mm bolts.
1990LS400 Posted January 21, 2015 Posted January 21, 2015 OK, now I see your photos! You have an aftermarket phone system and not a Lexus phone system. You'll have to trace the wires to see where they go. I had aftermarket Nokia phone systems in both my 1990 and 2000 LS400. The Lexus dealer had the aftermarket system installed for me in the 1990 when I bought it and I installed the one in the 2000 LS400 myself. If your aftermarket phone system muted the radio and lowered the fan speed, who knows how the installer did it. He may have done it one of the tacky ways and tied directly into the head unit, amplifier and HVAC controls instead of doing it the easy way and connecting into the OEM phone system. Most professional installers don't understand how to connect into the factory prewiring and tend to conect directly to the radio, amp and HVAC system. I assume you will want to remove the cradle from the upper console tray. Assuming that the installer did not drill all the way through the upper console, the upper console tray insert can be pried out with a putty knife or plastic interior trim tool. Be careful not to break the insert because they cannot be purchased separately.
statman24 Posted January 21, 2015 Author Posted January 21, 2015 Does this mean that I don't have that phone box thing in the trunk of my car? Also, I did remove the cradle... but put it back when I could not get the wire disconnected... so I should be good there.
1990LS400 Posted January 21, 2015 Posted January 21, 2015 Does this mean that I don't have that phone box thing in the trunk of my car? Also, I did remove the cradle... but put it back when I could not get the wire disconnected... so I should be good there. Yes, you will not have a phone ECU in the trunk since this is not a Lexus phone system. Most people who haved asked about phone systems in Lexus cars have had dealer installed Lexus phone systems which was why I assumed that your car had one too. The cable you found running from your phone cradle foward towards the dash probably connects to a junction box that was part of the aftermarket phone system. It is probably not necessary to remove junction box or any other of the components of the aftermarket phone system unless they are causing problems. The junction box I am talking about will have ports for plugging in the cradle, microphone, speaker, ground and power and probably has connection for a mute wire than the installer may have connected to the HVAC and radio systems. The main connection to be concerned about is the power wire which I assume is connected to either the ignition switch or the underdash fuse box - the main reason you don't want to cut the aftermarket phone systems power wire is that you don't want to start a fire! Once you disconnect the microphone cable from the junction box, you can probably just cut the microphone off its cable and push the cable end behind the interior trim ... unless you want to do more interior disassembly and remove all the aftermarket phone system wiring and components. If he ever looks, the current owner of my 2000 LS400 is probably going to wonder what the heck all all the extra wiring is for.since I simply cut the microphone off its cable and removed the phone cradle but left all the other aftermarket Nokia phone system components in place. After giving up on the Nokia system, I mainly used the handsfree phone function of a Garmin GPS in my 2000 LS400. I had the Garmin mounted on a Pro.Fit bracket by the radio and it's traffic information receiver and power cord hidden and hardwired into the car's accessory circuit. The Garmin worked extremely well with my Samsung Android phone and I could send navigation requests from my phone (address book, Google search) to the Garmin by Bluetooth via the Garmin Smartphone Link app running on my phone. There's a thread on this forum about that from several years ago.
sha4000 Posted January 21, 2015 Posted January 21, 2015 Yes listen to 1990LS400 he has extensive knowledge in this area. I also assumed you had the factory phone system but seeing your is aftermarket I can't suggest how to remove it.
statman24 Posted January 21, 2015 Author Posted January 21, 2015 Will do. Will try to take apart tonight....
statman24 Posted January 22, 2015 Author Posted January 22, 2015 OK. Got the cradle and box out of the car. I was able to pull down the overhead light enough to tuck the hanging light up inside and out of sight. Thanks for the help!
landar Posted January 22, 2015 Posted January 22, 2015 And thanks Jim...you da guru of phone/head unit/stereo installations!
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