How I installed a Scion 1808 HU into my LX 450 (1 Viewer)

[knorrena]

How I installed a Scion 1808 in my LX 450

I recently installed a Scion 1808 in my LX 450. I could have gone with an aftermarket unit and got more features, but I wanted it to look as stock as possible because I am not into that kind of shiny bling stuff that most aftermarket stuff has. I got the unit off ebay for $150. If I were more patient I could have got it cheaper.

There were two issues I had to wrestle with: 1) trimming the dash, and 2) the wiring. The trimming was easy, but rather than use a saw or an exacto knife I used my dremel tool and a coarse 0.5" diameter sanding drum. This afforded me great control over how much I took off and avoided chopping my hand off. I wound up having to take off more than I hoped, but it looks good. In case I was not happy with the Scion unit, I got a Scion install kit from Frys that fills in the gap made by the wider than 2*DIN Scion unit. I also got a spare dash, cause I am kinda weird that way.

The Wiring was not as hard as I thought. I poured over the EWD for my truck and the scion. I concluded that its only from the Lexus amp on, that the wiring not standard Toyota. The amp I am referring to is is the amp behind the passenger side tweeter in the dash. The plug for the LX amp is an S15 (for fronts and power, and a S17 plug for rears. The back of the scion takes an R2 plug (same as the S15) and an R3 (same as the S17). To confirm the wiring would work I plugged the scion unit in and it would power up, but no sound. I got sound on the fronts once I unplugged the S17 plug for the rears. The problem was LX the subwoofer. Once the sub was removed everything worked. Here is the pinout:

LX__(S15)_____Scion_(R2)
1__FR+________FR+
2__FL+________FL+
3__PWR_(acc)__PWR_(acc)
4__PWR________PWR
5__FR-________FR-
6__FL-________FL-
7__GND________GND
8__X__________PWR ANT
9__X__________X
10_X__________Illum+

(S17)_________(R3)
1__RR+________RR+
2__RL+________RL+
3__RR-________RR-
4__WF+________Rem._on
5__WF-________Illum-
6__RL-________RL-

I did not want to cut into my stock harness, so I went to the local wrecking yard and found a R2 4runner and yanked its radio/noise supression harness. It had both male and female S15 and S17 plugs. I then cut this and extended the wires to go from the LX amp to where the Scion would be installed. I did not solder the joints. I used non-insulated butt end connectors. Have a look at your truck, do you see any soldered joints?

For the power antenna, I used the PWR ANT on pin 8 off the scion, and pin 8 on the the R1 on the LX off the LX radio (green not violet as in the ewd). This was the only place I decided to cut into my stock harness. The scion unit uses this pin for an antenna amplifier. The power antenna mini-ecu on the LX needs only a 12V signal to work and this is what the scion unit provides. It worked exactly as it did before the scion was put in until the mast broke, but thats a different story.

The scion is always lit because it uses LEDs for illumination (pin 10 on the S15). The dimmer does not work on the radio, but the light is subtle at night and dimming is not required in my opinion.

For the IPOD control I found a fellow that wrecked his scion on craigslist in Dallas. For $50 he sold me all the wires and connectors from the back of the scion unit to his centre console including the AUX plug. This harness just plugs in the back of the Scion unit. I have it wired to my centre console (now a cruiser console since there was no need for the centre console subwoofer. That little sub hardly worked at all anyway). I have not finished this part of the install yet. The wire just kind of hangs there and I plug in my IPOD and rest it on the centre console next to the tcase shifter. Nor have I finished installing the AUX plug. Its still too cold here in Calgary. Maybe next week I will finish.

Here are some pics:

 

[knorrena]

First pic is me testing the harness I built. The second is the final install. The little red thing in my lighter socket is a rechargeable LED flashlight from Spotlight:

Car Flashlight: Spotlight LED In-Car Torch Finds Fluff Down the Side of the Car Seat

 

[uabericm]

Did you determine that you would be unable to use the factory sub with the new Scion head unit? Do you think there would be any way to use the factory sub with this hu?

 

[MLX450]

Nice clean install, finally a scion unit in a LX! Thanks for the pinout diagram!
What did you do with the stock CD changer? (will it work with the scion unit?)

 

[knorrena]

The centre console sub is not powered, it would require a dedicated amp if you wanted to continue to use it. In other words, you could use the factory sub by using an amp that accepts power level inputs and 12V remote turn on signal. To be frank, that little sub is somewhat pathetic and I valued the added space I got from the land cruiser centre console more than the contribution of the sub.

I yanked the stock cd changer to make room for the land cruiser centre console. The Scion deck reads mp3s and a single mp3 cd holds more music than a 6 wav/cda cds. For some strange reason I still have the changer - sentimantal reasons perhaps? I dont know for sure if the stock cd changer would work, but I doubt it. I dont think the Scion buttons, nor the hu have the logic built in. Besides, I have a 60gig ipod sitting the centre console and have no need for the changer.

Karl

 

[uabericm]

Do you have any pics of the 1808 with the lights on at night?

Any complaints on the 1808?

 

[Romer]

Excellent write-up - added to the FAQ

 

[knorrena]

Here is a night time photo as requested:

 

[kup99]

Very .... Very...Very nice... !! great write up, and great results... I like the install!!

 

[fjfar80]

Great job...looks very clean.

 

[uabericm]

Looks good...thanks for the picture and the info.

 

[Romer]

I am doing this Mod as we speak. Thanks for the tips. I bought the ends that connect to a Toyota Radio at a junk yard and the other end that plugs into the Toyota Harness or the connectors to the amp as you describe above. I am currently building my Harness and it seems pretty straight forward. I have one question

I understand on the Scion R2 connector you took pin 8 and found the wire in the lexus Harness and tied to that, leaving the input to this pin on the radio blank. Hopefully thats correct.

My question is on pins 4 and 5 below. Seems your tying two signals to the wires that good to the woofer or does wf stand for something else. The way I read it is I build a ling harness connecting pins 4 and 5 all the way from the amp connectors to the radio itself. Wanted to verify that. I got the impression from above not to wire those based on the woofer, but then what gets connected to REM-on and Illum-


(S17)_________(R3)
1__RR+________RR+
2__RL+________RL+
3__RR-________RR-
4__WF+________Rem._on
5__WF-________Illum-
6__RL-________RL-

 

[Romer]

I built the smaller harness with just 4 wires and then plugged the connector that went into the amp in the other spot, effectively eliminating the woofer which the Electrical diagrams confirm go straight to the woofer.

Put a CD in and viola it works great with my infinity speakers. Your method is a pretty easy one. Now just need to see if I need to wire something at those two pins going into the SCION. I am guessing 1 is for memory and the other ties the lighting scheme to the headlights. I'll check out the wiring diagram and post up what I caome up with

 

[NLXTACY]

Ok I need to clear somethings up for my own sanity. I actually bought this set up from KNORRENA last Oct. The only thing I didn't get was the new cable he made. So now I am stuck with deciding between making my own cable or extending the wires. Personally I have no issue extending the wires and I really have no way of getting the connector from the junk yard anytime soon.

From everything I read, the LX amp is tossed out completely. So I removed it. Now what I am trying to wrap my head around is which connectors am I connecting to the SCION radio? There are three connectors that use to attach to the factory amp, and there are two connectors that use to attach to the factory radio. Do the old factory connectors not get used at all anymore?

Also I do not have an LX wiring diagram only an LC wiring diagram which is of course different so I have no way of confirming what connector to cut up and use. I did go out and buy the Toyota universal pigtail kit, but it obviously only has one side. You'd think this would make more sense to me but frankly stereo systems scare me

 

[NLXTACY]

Also something else I dont remember reading was the brackets for the radio needing to be trimmed down. Maybe it was in one of the write ups but I don't remember it and just in case someone else is thinking about this setup, for the LX anyway, I've added pics.

EDIT: I didn't have any of the cool kid's metal working tools so I just sat for about 30mins using a hand file to work it down. It needs a skotch over 1/16" to be taken off.

 

[NLXTACY]

And then, assuming I can actually get this figured out....

What are these two ports for? I am assuming one is Sat Radio but what is the other?

 

[Romer]

I have it all wired up just not bolted in and its working fine. On my SCION, one of the two connectors you highlight are for a Satellite Radio, I would guess the other for a CD changer.

I have a setup I bought that plugs into the Satellite connector and just hooked up my Ipod and tested it using the Sat mode controlling the ipod and seeing text while I do it. I also hooked up an Aux port so my Dell could be used to play movies or even MP3's. I'll keep an eye on trimming the brackets.

Now I just need to layin the harnesses, figure out where I want my Ipod and bolt in the radio. Then check my trim job on the bezel.

I did not connect the two wires I asked about and the Radio is holding its memory from the other always on Power line. Don't really care if the illumination changes with the lights on. This one changes colors upon selection and is pretty cool.

I got an 1805 with a built in 6 CD changer that plays MP3's

 

[NLXTACY]

I have it all wired up just not bolted in and its working fine.

From where to where, that is what I am having brain fade about and I haven't seen any CLEAR images to show.

 

[Romer]

From where to where, that is what I am having brain fade about and I haven't seen any CLEAR images to show.

I didn't have to trim the tabs as you said above and tested it before installing in the radio. To see take the amp out and two connectors will plug into the back of the Scio, your basically extending those and cutting the Woofer wires to make it work. You can cut the woofer wires and plug it in at the amp to test and then maybe you can visualize it from there.

I built a harness from the back of the radio to the output of the amp.

For the Radio connection, I cut of connectors from an 80 to the Radio and then I went to Best Buy and bought the connector set for Toyota's 1987 and up. They are perfect mates by them selves since the output of the amp will plug into the back of an 80 series Radio or Scion. I then built a harness between these two connectors. The amp is inside the Glove Box behind the little speaker. Basically wire it pin for pin except don't use wires in the slots he listed above for the woofer (WF) or the Illum or mem.
I spiced the power antenna from the lavender wire in pin 8 of the connector that went to the Lexus Radio and the power antenna works just fine.

I hooked up an Ipod adapter I bought to the satellite connector on the back of the radio and routed that harness to the Glove Box.

I have the Radio and the Bezel installed and everything sounds great. I tossed the amp.

Need to clean up the glove box area tomorrow then I'll take a picture. Still have the harnesses dangling in the glove box area and that should be fairly quick to finish the routing there in the AM

 

[NLXTACY]

AHA! So the connectors to the old radio are not used at all anymore? I think thats where I was getting hung up.

Interesting that you didn't have to trim the brackets. I guess it changes depending on the model SCION radio.