Navigation install

[Othman Oulouali]

I have a Lexus es350 2008. It came with no nav system. I found an OEM navigation system that matches my car. I called te dealership to ask them if they could help me program the nav system once I put it on and they told me that the nav would not work for my car since it wasn't manufactured for nav system. Once I install the navigation system, would I need some kind of programming?

[dewana421]

Of course they will say that because they don't want you to install GPS on their own. And some of them don't know what they are talking about. 

Min 2008 you should be able to get a GPS and install it yourself with no programming needed. I assume your car don't have a screen and you will get the entire GPS system.  It's just a matter of installing it properly. 

[gbhrps]

Otto,

You may have bitten off more than you expected. You need to do some research before you tear the center console apart and try the install.

Lexus holds its factory service manuals close to its chest, so the answers will cost you some money. You can get the FSM online from several locations, by paying  just for the Navigation system section of the manual. The entire manual in hardcover will be $600 or more.

Here's where the issues may be. The nav unit will have an antenna that is up by the rear view mirror. Do you have one? Do you have the wiring harness from it to the nav unit? Then that wiring harness will be under the headliner to one of the A Pillars and go down below the dash, and will find its way to the nav unit. But how is it routed? How much of the entire dash will you have to remove to route it? Is the wiring harness from the main fuse box to the nav unit already in your car, or will you need to buy one, and then figure out how to route it, again by taking the dash apart. And then there is the face plate surround for the nav unit. Its different from the one in your car.

I've been wrenching on cars for 45 years, and I can tell you that some things that appear simple to change, sometimes turn out to be nightmares. I've often swapped power seats and power windows into cars that weren't equipped with them, and got lucky, because the wiring harnesses were already in the doors and under the carpet for the seats. But sometimes the swaps couldn't be done cheaply, because all of those wiring harnesses had to be purchased, and then routed to wherever, only to find the the main fuse box had no way to accept the connectors.

Personally, I would tackle such a job as you're considering, but only after doing a lot of research first. That, or I have a wrecked car with all of the parts I need already on it, and all I have to do is swap them over.

You will find an aftermarket nav unit much easier to install, because everything is in the box, and there will be no surprises.

I don't mean to scare you off, but you need to know what you're getting in to before you commit. Good Luck!

[LennyF]

I just bought a portable Nav unit for under $100.  It has a 7" screen and comes with a backup camera.

I think trying to install a build in unit, like you're taking about doing, is way too expensive and too complicated.

Good luck.

[dewana421]

I so agree!!! I have done it once but never doing it again. Retrofitting an original is much harder then an aftermarket one. Just the fact that you have to install antennas wire harness and locate speed sensor to tap in to. A lot of pain but it's doable if you are smart enough but its not smart to spend all that time unless ur into experimenting like me :)