Bluetooth Installation

[Bill H]

Here is the installation instructions without the word document.

Motorola IFH1000 Bluetooth car installation in a 1997 Lexus LS400

Location of Components:

Control Module

The control module is attached to the wood console with double sided tape (which is provided by Motorola), between the traction control and heated seat buttons. It looks like the ashtray will be obstructed but because of the angle in which the ashtray opens, it is not in the way and does not hit the module when it does open.

Motorola Loudspeaker Location:

It is important to position the loudspeaker so that trim panels do not block the sound. A good mounting location is on the firewall between the emergency brake and the service brake. Like Jim I removed the two bolts holding the plastic cover to the firewall, pulled the cover back so I did not drill into the electronic module, and then drilled two small holes in the plastic to which I connected the speaker bracket with small bolts. I used the bracket as a template to drill the holes.

The Microphone

The microphone was installed on the map light housing just rear of the small center sun visor using adhesive “Velcro” tape. This mounting location picks up the voices of both the driver and front seat passenger equally well. The map light housing was removed temporarily to route the microphone wire towards the front of the headliner and then down the driver side A-pillar and under the dash to the Motorola Bluetooth ECU.

The Motorola ECU Box:

I did not take a photo of the ECU but I was able to remove the black panel above the gas and brake panel and use double sided tape to attach it there. The ECU ties all the car kit components (microphone, speaker, control module and mute wires) together.

Automatically mute the radio/CD/cassette when a phone call is received or placed.

I only found one point where the Motorola mute wire could be attached to the wiring harness of my 1997 LS400.

1) At the “yellow with black stripe” wire on the male connector mated with the female connector and attached to the Lexus phone transceiver in the right well of the trunk. I used the red splice tap and ran an 18 gauge wire from the firewall along the kick panels and behind the rear seat to the trunk.

2) A second mute terminal location on the driver’s side at the rear of the console did not work on my 1997 LS400. I don’t know if it is because mine already had the phone installed or not. I did short out the fuse to my ECU while testing this plug. I believe that I may have hit two terminals at the same time. Be careful when testing. It blew the fuse to the Power Steering, ABS, Shift Lock, Charging System and Traction Control ECU. My LS400 had two connection plugs under the center console. A three pin on the driver’s side which had a transformer on the center green wire, a purple wire and a black wire. The right side had a seven pin adapter. I tried to ground all ten terminals and none of them worked.

Tools used during the installation and Wiring Instructions

Continuity Tester

Splice Tap

Mini fuse wiring harness – This was the real time saver. I found this at NAPA auto supply. You simply remove the fuse you from the panel, place the necessary fuse for the Bluetooth adapter in the top position and the fuse you removed from the panel in the bottom position. Then you simply plug the new harness into the fuse panel. This is much better than the spades that you attach to the actual fuse. They have a tendency to separate the fuse box and you risk breaking the panel. Once this is done you simply crimp the wire to the Motorola ECU into the harness.

You will use two of these. The red wire to the ECU goes to a fuse which is switched on with the ignition and the green wire goes to a fuse which is switched to the ignition also, but needs a low current while the car is off. Find your radio 7.5 amp fuse and it will work perfectly. The reason for this is that the Motorola Bluetooth ECU lets you store contact information for voice dialing.

This job would not have been possible without help from Blake and Jim. Sorry I was unable to attach the word document.

Bill

[1990LS400]

Congrats Bill! I'll bet you are glad that you are finished with this project.

I especially like the "mini fuse" connector you used to power your phone kit -- I'll definitely use one of those on a future project. The location by the Trac button where you mounted the controller seems like a very good place -- a very short reach from the steering wheel.

Bummer about the mute connection under the console not working for you and causing electrical issues. Does the driver side connector in your 97 LS look like the one in Blake's 95 LS? --> http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...=21061&st=0

I'm also curious that you did not list a 12 volt test light among the tools you used. Does your continuity tester also work as a 12 volt test light? Mine does not so I have a separate battery powered continuity tester.

Did you leave the trunk mounted Lexus phone ECU connected to the OEM phone harness? Did you unplug the Lexus phone handset from the under console connectors?

Were both the driver side three pin and the passenger side seven pin connector under the console used by the Lexus phone? Does your LS have the Lexus fixed phone or the wireless handset?

I can't remember his forum name offhand but "George in Hawaii" removed the Lexus handset from his 99 LS and glued a portion of a thin black mouse pad to the top tray insert of the center console lid to cover up the holes left after the handset was removed. The last time I checked, the dealer parts guy told me that the upper console tray insert was not available separately -- one has to buy the entire assembly to get the insert.

Thanks for taking the time to post the info about your project.

[blake918]

Looks great Bill!!! You are really going to love it!

Did you leave the trunk mounted Lexus phone ECU connected to the OEM phone harness? Did you unplug the Lexus phone handset from the under console connectors?

It sure looks like it is in the pictures! I bet this is why he had some issues when he was probing the phone wiring harness, and we didn't. Finding the mute pin with my ghetto test light was the easiest part of the install! LOL

[Bill H]

Congrats Bill! I'll bet you are glad that you are finished with this project.

I especially like the "mini fuse" connector you used to power your phone kit -- I'll definitely use one of those on a future project. The location by the Trac button where you mounted the controller seems like a very good place -- a very short reach from the steering wheel.

Bummer about the mute connection under the console not working for you and causing electrical issues. Does the driver side connector in your 97 LS look like the one in Blake's 95 LS? --> http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...=21061&st=0

I'm also curious that you did not list a 12 volt test light among the tools you used. Does your continuity tester also work as a 12 volt test light? Mine does not so I have a separate battery powered continuity tester.

Did you leave the trunk mounted Lexus phone ECU connected to the OEM phone harness? Did you unplug the Lexus phone handset from the under console connectors?

Were both the driver side three pin and the passenger side seven pin connector under the console used by the Lexus phone? Does your LS have the Lexus fixed phone or the wireless handset?

I can't remember his forum name offhand but "George in Hawaii" removed the Lexus handset from his 99 LS and glued a portion of a thin black mouse pad to the top tray insert of the center console lid to cover up the holes left after the handset was removed. The last time I checked, the dealer parts guy told me that the upper console tray insert was not available separately -- one has to buy the entire assembly to get the insert.

Thanks for taking the time to post the info about your project.

Jim,

I had the exact same connectors in the console that you and Blake had and both were pluged in to the phone. I do not know why there was no mute. I had the portable plus phone and maybe that is why but did remove the cradle and unplug everything under the console. I left everything in the trunk hooked up and just ran a mute wire along the drivers side under the door plates. Ther is a lead hole already coming up the rear seat on the drivers side to push it thru. I then pulld the fabric mat on the upper trunk pan and ran it over to the phone ecu.

My tester is a circa 1975 tester that I bought a NAPA in Kansas City growing up and has a light bulb in the handle with one lead wire going to an alligator clip. It lights up like a charm and doesn't let me ground out anything.

As far as the tray went, I mixed JB Weld to fill the holes, then painted them with Testors flat black paint and then went to Michaels and go a piece of felt paper with self adhesive backing to put on the plastic. It worked like a charm.

The location of the button works perfect in the location. It looks like the ash tray will hit it when opening but it doesn't. My only word of caution with mounting there is to remove the wood from the console. In one post they said just to pull the ashtray up hard and it will come out. NOT on the 97. It is bolted in and if you pull it you will be buying a new one.

Again Jim, thanksfor all of your help

Bill

[1990LS400]

Bill,

Thanks for replying to my questions. My only other suggestion is to unplug the two cables from the trunk mounted phone ECU and plug them together - just in case something goes wrong with the old phone ECU that could impact your audio system. It doesn't seem to be necessary to remove the command module from the steering wheel - I guess the command module has nothing to communicate with once you disconnect the other phone components.

[gx00850]

Hi Bill,

I ran across your post on the Motorola IHF1000 completely by accident (I was looking for a cigarette lighter repair). Anyways, I am in the middle of installing the Motorola IHF1000 and could use a little help. The first is simple - What do I need to purchase in order to wire in the ignition and battery wires to the fuse box?

Secondly, how do I find the correct wire to splice into in order to get the mute feature to work? I do not have any phone installed in the car using factory wiring. Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. As you can tell wiring is not my specialty.

Thanks,

Billy

[1990LS400]

It looks like Bill H has not been to this forum since August 2006.

The sixth photo Bill H posted shows the wire lead he used to tap into the fuse box -- it's the little cable with the fuses at the bottom of the picture. Check with an auto supply store or a car stereo installer to find one.

The ground wire for your phone kit can be connected to a screw or bolt under the dash -- or at least that's what I did on my phone kit.

I wouldn't give up on finding a mute point under the center console just because Bill did not find one. If you have an OEM phone, be sure to unplug the connectors to the phone ECU in the trunk and plug them together to complete the circuit. Unplug the OEM handset from the connectors under the air vents in the center console.

Personally I think a better place for the microphone is to the rear of the sunroof tilt switch where it conflicts less with electrical switches.

[gx00850]

Thanks.

I did not have an OEM phone and there are alot of wires under the dash. How do I know which wire is the one that controls the mute feature?

By the way is there any way to use this system with the stereo speakers?

Thanks again

[1990LS400]

Thanks.

I did not have an OEM phone and there are alot of wires under the dash. How do I know which wire is the one that controls the mute feature?

By the way is there any way to use this system with the stereo speakers?

Thanks again

You can find the mute pin in the driver's side OEM phone connector under the center console vent by probing the pins in the connector with a grounded test light (not a battery powered continuity tester!) while the radio is on. The radio will mute when you find the mute pin. As Bill H. said, there is also a mute pin in the phone harness in the trunk. And, depending on which radio, you can find a mute pin either on the amp or the headunit. However, probing an amp or headunit for a mute pin is a bit more risky than probing the OEM phone harness.

Yes, the OEM speakers can be used with the phone kit although doing so substantially complicates the install. Here is an excellent tutorial from jainla on how he did it in his LS430: http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...showtopic=34849

Profession phone installers in the U.K. usually tie an aftermarket phone kit into a door speaker by intercepting the wire between the radio or amp and the chosen door speaker. I've seen details on how to do this on various forums but I doubt if I could find information very quickly. You might try searching clublexus - I remember a thread where someone did this on a GS.

In case you haven't seen it here is my lame thread about my phone install and the mute pin -- it has a link to an install doc I prepared: http://us.lexusownersclub.com/forums/index...791&hl=mute

Also search for information from Blake918 about his phone kit install and how he found a mute pin.

---------------

gx00850, I just noticed that you have a 97 ES instead of an LS. I don't know how much of this would apply to your ES. In my wife's 98 Camry, I found a mute pin in the 12 pin data port on the back of the radio. Although Camry's and some ES cars both have 12 pin data ports, people on this forum have documented that they do not work the same.

[jainla]

Thanks.

I did not have an OEM phone and there are alot of wires under the dash. How do I know which wire is the one that controls the mute feature?

By the way is there any way to use this system with the stereo speakers?

Thanks again

Hey there GX...what you will want to do is poke around on techinfo.lexus.com (and pay the $10 for the one day access) or go down to your local library and see if they have a Chilton or other repair manual for your car (I believe the ES and Camry may be the same one). In the wiring diagrams you'll see the layout of the stereo system and the pinouts for where the mute wire could be; almost always one can be found on the back of the radio somewhere.

I know that many LS models have the stereo head unit and amp separate; that's why it's such a PITA to wire into the speakers because there is no easy way to intercept the feed to them without going into the trunk (or under the seat) or going into the door itself.

With the ES you have a better probability of having the amp and headunit being integrated; there may be someone who makes a wiring harness that would connect to the back of the stereo and then to the Motorola and your speakers.

You could also do what I did; pull the unit to check the connectors and then order connectors online and try to make your own. Be warned however that Toyota and Lexus pinouts rarely match up; so if you do find a Toyota harness that seems to fit you might have to do some surgery (hope you're handy with a soldering iron) to make it work with the ES.

I'm not sure if it's worth it to use the stereo speakers; OEM Lexus phonekits usually had one speaker to minimise the chance of echo (although the DSP units in todays kits are much better at cancelling it out). The only reason I went to such trouble to use the OEM wiring was that I couldn't really find an easy place to put the aftermarket speaker; although everybody seems to find a place under the dash near the pedals (I knew I would probably kick it one day so I didn't put it there). Use of that speaker will make your installation much easier.

Good luck.

[gx00850]

Thanks guys. That was excellent help. I had an ES but now have an LS. I appreciate the fast and thorough responses.