ES350 HOW-TO Guide

Introduction: There are 3 sections to the information that you purchased.

Section 1 is the guide to Enabling access to the Music Folders, Phone Dialing, Calendar and Maintenance Menus

Section 2 must be completed after Section 1. This is for people with the ML system who want to enable DVD while in motion

Section 3 is a guide to Enable the Navigation Functionality while driving

INTRODUCTION

WHAT YOU GAIN

DISCLAIMER: WHAT YOU LOSE

WARNING:

HOW IT WORKS / WHAT THE MOD CHANGES

1. The first way is non-permanent and is what I recommend. This is also the only method I describe in detail in this guide. This method involves removing the individual pins from the connectors and just swapping them around. No soldering needed. This method is non-permanent and could be completely reversed if necessary potentially saving your butt if you ever need to take your Nav system in for service.
2. The second way is permanent. Instead of removing pins, you cut, strip, solder and heat-shrink wires. If the dealer ever has to go in there for something, they’re going to see the work you did. However, after you see what a pain in the butt it is to remove pins, you might opt to cut wires even though I recommend you don’t…
3. Similar to #2 above, expcept that you install a switch to turn the SPD signal on/off to the Multi-Display as you wish. Instead of leaving it "permanently" disconnected, install a switch that will alow you to return the system to a pre-modified state at the flip of a switch. This mod is quite nice, but it does require cutting wires and making permanent edits to the original wiring. By using this method, you can restore SPD to the Multi-Display, thus restoring the ability to switch directly to the Speed Dial menu from the steering wheel. This will also restore your ability to use ASL while the bypass is switched off (meaning SPD is connected to the Multi-Display).

CONVENTIONS USED IN THIS GUIDE

• “NAV:P2-4” means “Navigation ECU, connector P2, Pin 4”
• “MULTI:E62-14” means “Multi-Display unit, connector E62, Pin 14”
• “STEP X-Y” refers to a picture, illustration or diagram linked off-site. “X” is the step and “Y” is the sub-step. I didn’t want to get too carried away putting pictures or illustrations in the actual instructions because it bloats the guide too much and makes it more difficult to read. NOTE: Please don’t steal, repost or recycle my pictures or my instructions without my permission. Make your own like I did.

WHAT YOU NEED / PARTS REQUIRED

1. 1/8” Heat Shrink Tubing (NOT adhesive lined): Used to insulate the Orange SPD signal pin that was originally attached to NAV:P2-4. If you’re re really cheap, you could use electrical tape. That way if you ever need to replace this pin, you’ll have the intense displeasure of cleaning all the crap adhesive left on the pin by the tape when you try to peel it off. Electrical tape sucks. Use Heat-Shrink instead.
2. A small flat-blade jeweler’s screwdriver: Used to lift up the connector locks that secure the pins inside these connectors.
3. Plenty of light: Don’t attempt to do this mod in the dark or with a flashlight. You’ll need sunlight. Trust me.
4. A small needle, at least 1” long, with the sharp point broken off: This is going to be your make-shift pin pusher. This “tool” is absolutely imperative to have when removing pins from these connectors.
5. Needle-nose pliers: Used to push the needle into the connector to force the pin out the back.
6. 10mm HEX Socket with a screwdriver extender: Used to remove the four 10mm bolts holding the center console in place. I HIGHLY recommend you get a magnetic version of this!!
7. Thin, flat, straight metal blade, like a 1” spackle knife with duct-tape wrapped along the edge: Used to remove interior body panels; the duct tape keeps you marring the finish.

STEP 1 – REMOVE THE MULTI-DISPLAY & NAV ECU

1. Turn the car off and SET THE PARKING BRAKE. You will be placing the car into neutral during this procedure, so SET THE PARKING BRAKE!
2. Eject the navigation map DVD disc. If you don’t know how, consult your owner’s manual or do a search.
3. Remove the shift-lock override tab cover. See
   
4. Press the parking brake, then press the shift-lock override button down and pull the shift level down into neutral. This is to allow you enough room to remove the center console which would be blocked if the shift lever was in park.
5. Remove the Shift-Knob by turning it counter-clockwise. See
   
   Again, this is to allow you enough room to remove the center console.
6. Using the flat metal blade with protective tape on the end, remove the upper console panel assembly with front ash receptacle. See
   br> Disengage 5 claws and 6 clips, then disconnect the connector and remove the entire assembly out. Be careful not to damage or mar the wood finish.
7. Remove the Left-side Instrument Panel Finish Panel by disengaging 3 clips. See
   
8. Remove the Right-side Instrument Panel Finish Panel by disengaging 1 claw and 4 clips. See
   
9. Remove the air register assembly above the Multi-display. See
   
   Apply protective tape to the area shown in the illustration. Using your flat metal blade, gently and slowly pry out the whole register assembly by disengaging 4 claws and 4 clips. Disconnect the security light connector and set the register assembly aside.
10. Remove the four 10mm bolts holding the center console in place. See
    
    WARNING: Maintain 100% positive control of each bolt as you remove it. Use a magnet or tape or whatever to make absolutely certain you don’t drop the bolt as it comes out of the threads. If it drops, it will vanish into the abyss and you’ll be damn lucky to retrieve it. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
11. Lift the entire center console up & out, SLOWLY, to disengage 2 claws and 4 clips as shown in
    
    Do not yank it out more than about 5 inches – you’ll need to disconnect

    all

    of the wires and connectors attached to the Multi-display and Navigation ECU. WARNING: Be extremely careful here and make certain you get ALL the connectors and wires, including the antenna connectors! If you miss one and pull the unit out, you will destroy that wire and possibly the equipment.
12. You should now have the entire Multi-display and Navigation ECU assembly removed from your car. Proceed to step 2.

STEP 2 – REMOVE SPD SIGNAL PIN FROM CONNECTOR E62

1. Open the picture
   
   
   This shows an extreme close-up of the side of connector E62 which is where the SPD signal comes to the Multi-Display unit on PIN 14 (Sky-Blue wire color). The area circled in red is the connector “lock” mechanism. This block has plastic legs that extend into the connector holding each pin in place. This block does NOT come out – it only lifts up about 1/32 of an inch. To lift it, use your jeweler’s screwdriver connector and gently pry up the plastic Pin Lock. Do one side at a time. The center section may look more recessed than the ends; don’t worry about that. To see what a connector looks like when UNLOCKED, open picture
    
   This connector is a bit mangled on the right side – pay attention to that. It’s easy to damage the plastic on these connectors so be careful! Also note that when the lock is disengaged, it’s VERY EASY to accidentally re-lock the pin lock by pressing it back inside the connector.
2. Open the picture
   
   
   Insert your dull needle into the front end of connector E62, PIN 14 (the Sky-Blue wire). Just to be certain, make sure the pin lock is unlocked again. Using your needle-nose pliers, gently try to push the sky-blue SPD wire out the back end of E62. You can also gently tug on the wire while pushing the needle in. Do NOT yank on the wire to pull the pin out. If you do, Jesus will kill a kitten and you will be in a world of 5hit when the wire rips out of the connector. You’ll hear me laughing at you all the way from Washington state! Be patient with this step – it’s an exercise in frustration, but the wire WILL eventually come out in one piece. Did I mention you need to be patient?
3. You should now have something that looks like
   
   If so, proceed to step 3.

STEP 3 – REMOVE SPD SIGNAL PIN FROM CONNECTOR NAV:P2-4

1.  
   
   Remove the entire P1/P2 wire harness assembly from the back of the NAV ECU and Multi-Display Unit. Using the same procedure described above, remove the ORANGE wire that goes to NAV:P2-4 (The Nav ECU is the unit on the bottom). Locate connector P2 (

   NOT P1!!

   ), unlock the PIN LOCK, and remove Pin 4 using the needle as you did in
   
2. You should now have something that looks like
   
   If so, proceed to step 4.

STEP 4 – HEAT SHRINK INSULATE OLD WIRE NAV:P2-4 (ORANGE WIRE)

1. Use heat-shrink and your heat gun to seal the P2-4 pin, then bend it around and stuff it back into the wire harness sleeve. See

STEP 5 – INSERT & LOCK SKY-BLUE SPD WIRE REMOVED FROM MULTI:E62-14 INTO NAV:P2-4 POSITION

1. 
   
   Remove the electrical tape holding the wire harness sleeve around the E62 connector.
2. Gently peel open the side of the wire harness sleeve about 2 inches back.
3. Pull the Sky-Blue SPD wire out of the side of the harness giving yourself about 2 inches of new slack. Reseal the side of the E62 harness sleeve.
4.  
   
   WARNING: PAY CLOSE ATTENTION TO THIS STEP. Note the design of the Sky-Blue SPD pin. It has a small metal tab that extends off to one side. Using the
   
   picture as a guide, put the Sky-Blue SPD wire into the NAV:P2-4 position, but make sure the pin tab is facing towards the other row of wires in the connector (away from the P2 connector lock tab). If you fuhk this step up, you’ll also fuhk the connector up – especially if you jam it down inside the connector and lock it!
   
5. Assuming you put the pin inside the connector and it seated all the way down, lock the PIN LOCK by pressing it back into the connector with your finger. If it doesn’t lock or won’t lock, the pin you just added may not be fully seated. Use you needle nose pliers to “wiggle” the wire down as far as it will go. It should go relatively easily if you put the pin in the proper way…
   
6. Gently tug on the sky-blue wire to ensure it’s really locked into the P2 connector socket.

STEP 6 – HOOK EVERYTHING BACK UP

1. You’ve got a lot of wires to reconnect. Make sure you get them all! Hold the Center Console back into position (it helps if you have a friend holding the unit while you reconnect wires). Reconnect all the wires removed in the first step.
2. Check for any wires that fell back into the console. Check each and every connection on the back of the console to ensure a tight and snug fit.
3. Specifically look at P2 pin 4. Make sure the Sky-Blue wire you placed at P2:4 didn’t push out when you reconnected the P2 connector. If it did, you didn’t lock it properly or it didn’t seat…
4. Place the center console back into position.
5. While maintaining 100% positive control of the 10mm bolts, screw each of the four bolts back into position. See
6. Remove the protective tape from around the air register assembly. Plug in the security light connector in the Air Register assembly and snap it back into place. It should perfectly fit in place.
7. Replace both the left and right instrument panel finish panels. They can be tricky to re-install. Be patient.
8. Reconnect the connector then snap the upper console panel assembly with front ash receptacle back into place. It should also perfectly fit.
9. Screw on the Shift-Knob, and while pressing the brake, move the shift lever to PARK.
10. Replace the shift-lock override tab cover.
11. Disengage the parking brake.

STEP 7 – TEST IT OUT

1. The Navigation MAP DVD should still be out of the car. Now’s your big chance to load new firmware (or re-load a Hybrid-DVD containing a v5.1 over ride command, if you have one!). Turn on the car, insert the map DVD when prompted and verify it loads properly.
2. After a few minutes, verify the Nav system has a valid GPS input from multiple satellites. This will verify that you remembered to reconnect the GPS antenna that a lot of people like to forget for some reason…
3. Verify the radio works as expected.
4. Verify the Air Conditioning works as expected.
5. Verify the Multi-display functions normally while parked.
6. Take the car for a drive. While driving, try to access one of the previously locked-out features, like MP3 folder viewing, etc… If it works, then you have successfully completed this mod.

For those people whith ML and want to enable DVD while in motion, all what they have to do ALL OF THE STEPS ABOVE PLUS grounding the E-Brake wire (which is discribed here)...

The E-Brake wire is located in the same connector that have the speed signal... It's a yellow wire Pin#23 (NOT Pin#13 and NOT Pin#25)...






Now, cut that wire... After you cut it, you will have two ends... One end is going to the car, the other end is going to the Display ECU.. Tape off the end that is going to the car, we don't need it... We need to gound the end that is going to the Display ECU... The closest ground wire in located in Pin#10 in the same connector (Black/White wire)... DO NOT CUT the ground wire!! All what you have to do is to "add" the yellow wire (going to the Display ECU) to the ground (Back/White) wire then solder the wires and tape off the yellow wire that is going to the car...

Warning: If you accidentally gound the yellow end that is going to the car, you MIGHT damage your car and you might get the ABS, VSA lights and you MIGHT have to visit your dealer!!

SECTION 3 - ENABLE NAVIGATION WHILE DRIVING

HOW TO ENABLE THE GRAYED OUT NAV SYSTEM FEATURES WHEN DRIVING

 

No removal of the NAV head-unit itself and no wire cutting is needed in this procedure. If you’re interested here is a detailed description on how to do it.
This “non invasive” fix will allow using all the NAV system features when driving.

On the ES350 the NAV DVD is immediately below the NAV screen. You will see a plastic cover strip with LEXUS written on it in gold letters. You just lift/push this up and pull out very gently from the bottom of this plastic cover strip. It will come off easy. Use your fingernails so you don't scratch anything. Once it's off you will see the slot where the NAV DVD resides in its "super secret" location.

To eject the DVD in your Lexus and press the start button once so the car is on ACC (don’t start it). Press the MENU button to the right of the screen. Touch “Map DVD” in the upper right corner of the screen. Touch DVD in lower left corner of the screen so the current DVD will be ejected.

I burned a dozen disks learning so here goes. Not all DVD media works. The DVD that I know works is: Memorex DVD+R DL (Double Layer) 8.5 Gbytes, 240 min, 2.4X. Do not use Dual Layer. Dual Layer is a DVD-R, don’t use it. I mention this because these Double Layer DVDs cost $1.80 plus each so no need to waste them.

Not all burners that can burn double layer DVDs work. For example my D: CD drive and my external Memorex Double Layer 16X DVD + - RAM 510L v1 would NOT burn this NAV DVD correctly. Finally, I bought a Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-K14RA (the K15RA works too) for my laptop’s D drive because my wife’s laptop had that specific burner and it burned a workable double layer NAV DVD. This Pioneer model works. The only other burner that I know of that works is a NEC ND-3540A. If yours will not work using the above media you’ll have to buy a new burner or use a friend's double layer burner.

Put your nav disk in you your burner and drag and drop the all the folders and files into a new folder on your PCs fixed disk. It may take 40 plus minutes because you’re moving approximately 7.3 Gbytes. Make sure ALL the folders and ALL the files are copied to your PC, count ‘em. One of my failed disks was because one file was not moved over.

Next you have the file LOADING.KWI 46,956,000 bytes from here: right click and save

Here is when you will remove the Version 6.1 LOADING.KWI file (71,684,000 bytes) from the folder on your PCs fixed disk and replace it with the LOADING.KWI file (46,956,000 bytes) from the link above. So far, using the loading file above, we can enter addresses, POIs, and all those other NAV features that used to be grayed out when driving. It’s Great!!!

I used Sonic System's Roxio Easy Media Creator 9 to burn the DVD. Sorry, I do not know how to do this using NERO. Start Roxio 9 and choose DATA and then DATA DISK. Use the Roxio command ADD DATA to move the folders and the files from the folder on your PCs fixed disk to Roxio. I first added the folders and then the files. Double check they were all added. Check that you removed the V6.1 and in its place have the V 5.1 loading file (LOADING.KWI). Now choose OPTIONS (lower right corner) and use the following:

TYPE: Track at Once (TAO), Open

Mode: Mode 1

File System: ISO+Joliet (106 character file names)

Choose the BUTTON that says, “I only need to use disks for one recordng, etc.”

Checkmark, Verify data written to the disk after burning.

Click on OK to go back one screen.

Look at the lower left corner to see if the DVD symbol says, “Estimate 7.3 GBs plus or minus.” This tells you that the burner expects a double layer DVD.

Last but not least, try to notice when it starts whether it is burning at 2.4X which is the Memorex DVD media speed. It will be so don't worry.

Finally, click on the BURN symbol in the lower right corner and go get a coffee, lunch, and dinner because it takes an hour to burn and verify a 7.3 Gbyte double layer DVD.

Once you have the new DVD go to your Lexus and try it. To install it first disconnect the negative battery cable for 5-7 minutes. This is supposed to erase the NAV system memory and loading loading file or whatever. Reconnect the battery cable. If you do not want to do this an alternative is to remove the NAV system fuse for a few minutes. It is: FUSE TV 7.5 amp in the driver's side fuse box. Don't forget to reinstall the fuse.

Remember at this point the original Ver 6.1 NAV DVD may not be in the NAV system DVD reader but if it is eject it by pressing the start button once so the car is on ACC (don’t start it). Press the MENU button to the right of the screen. Touch “Map DVD” in the upper right corner of the screen. Touch DVD in lower left corner of the screen so the current DVD will ejected.

Next insert the newly burned V5.1/V6.1 hybrid DVD. On mine I had to push the DVD in a bit, very gently, so the DVD changer would finish pulling it in.

BEWARE: you’ll probably get a screen that says to see your dealer and some Japanese characters below it but be patient. The loading will start within 20 to 40 seconds and your heart will again start beating at its normal rhythm. If it flat out says CAN'T READ DISK, the disk probably did not copy properly but wait another minute or so anyhow.

After it's loaded here is how to UNLOCK the navigation system features. The following can be done either when you’re parked or when the car is moving so you do NOT have to do this before starting to drive.

To enable all the NAV system functions that were grayed out because the car is moving do the following:

Press the MENU button to the right of screen.
Touch VOLUME at top center of screen.
Touch Upper Left Corner of screen.
Touch Lower Left Corner of screen.
Do it again…
Touch Upper Left Corner of screen.
Touch Lower Left Corner of screen.
A service menu will appear.
The bars are black but turn turquoise when you touch any bar.
Touch and hold the OVERRIDE bar until you hear a beep (about 6-8 seconds).
When you lift you finger from that bar it will turn BLUE, you’re done.
Touch the Upper Right Corner of the screen to close the service menu.
Then press the MAP (voice) button to go back to the NAV map.

You can now enter addresses, POIs, and so forth when the car is moving and you also have the latest Version 6.1 maps, POIs, and so forth.

If you turn the engine off you must do this again but remember you never have to stop because you can do this while the car is moving. In fact I don't UNLOCK the Nav systems features every time I drive because I seldom use the NAV system in my own city neighboorhood area.

For your informaion there already has been one person who has successfully burned a hybrid DVD using the 5.1 loading file and the latest 7.1 maps.