Add steering wheel radio controls?

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cruzerDave

cruzerDave

Land Shark Outfitters
10 Year
Joined
Mar 28, 2011
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Location
Bend, Oregon
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landsharkoutfitters.com
98 LC - vanilla steering wheel, I'd love to get steering wheel radio controls, anyone able to chime in what years LC & LX had these to go looking for parts, and anyone successfully converted? (airbag has me worried)

I'll be upgrading the stereo and many new ones can adapt to factory steering wheel wiring (steering wheel adapters at Crutchfield.com) once you have them;)

IF that's not easy/possible I'll have to resort to a kludge: Pioneer CD-SR100
 
I've thought about this as well. The big hiccups in my eyes are the steering wheel electrical part (name escapes me) that sends the signal from the controls to the harness in the dash. Slip ring maybe? That and the rest of the harness that completes the circuit to the stereo.

I'm sure it's doable, but might be a few hundred bucks to compile all the parts.
 
suprarx7nut said:
I've thought about this as well. The big hiccups in my eyes are the steering wheel electrical part (name escapes me) that sends the signal from the controls to the harness in the dash. Slip ring maybe? That and the rest of the harness that completes the circuit to the stereo.

I'm sure it's doable, but might be a few hundred bucks to compile all the parts.
Click to expand...

Couple hundred from junkyards, dealer, or folks parting out?

Know what model/year they added them for LC and for LX?
 
You would need a wheel with controls, airbag, clock spring from 2003+, harness for clock spring from newer model which carries the extra wires. This would all need to be wired up under the dash to bring in power etc. and then you would need a interface like a PAC unit to make the button works with your new aftermarket stereo.

In all honesty many aftermarket stereo have remotes for the steering wheels as an option. They are normally IR remotes so nice and simple with no wiring. I recall having a Kenwood unit back in the day which had two button pads each with 4 buttons and an IR sensor all stuck to the back side of the wheel out of site and it worked great.
 
I added steering wheel controls to my 08 Tacoma. I paid ~ 300 for an airbag, ~ 150 for a steering wheel with th buttons (from a Camry because I liked the look) and ~ 90 for a clock spring from a Tacoma with the controls. My truck already had the wiring between the steering column and the stereo for the controls.

All parts were sourced from eBay. Install time was roughly 1 hour.

All said, I ended up adding an aftermarket stereo and had to buy the PAC unit for them to control it. I really wish in hind sight I had just paid the ~75 for the pioneer wireless steering wheel remote.
 
@ihadmail thanks for the detail, helpful. I need to figure out now if any LC steering wheels in later years maybe used the same airbag, because I could do this for 200 but not 500...
 
The way the steering controls fit into the newer LC wheel the airbag will be a must to do the swap.

Without:
image.webp


With:
image.webp



Unless you really have to have the OEM look, you're really going to be spending a lot of money and doing some wiring for something that won't perform anywhere near as well as the wireless steering wheel remote branded for whichever head unit you have. Pioneer, Kenwood, JVC, Alpine and Jensen all sell wireless steering wheel remotes for less than $100. Not trying to be rude, just trying to save you some money and headache.

If you choose the aftermarket controls and have issues finding the one you need let me know and I'll work my 'internet-shopping-foo' for you.
 
@ihadmail thanks for the advice, not taking it as rude so no worries;) I like OEM *function* because IMHO the wireless ones dont stay put - that might just be my one bad experience- and the buttons are so much smaller I had a tough time easily changing volume, for isttance, without looking at it and I like leaving my eyes on the road.

THIS:
s-l225.jpg


IS nowhere near as easy to use as the big buttons on the wheel you showed, or my wife's Tundra has...

What year LC is in the above pic?
 
Honestly OP, don't be discouraged... I mean the difference between $200 and $500 isn't too insurmountable when you're talking about a clean OEM look. I just bought a 2000 LC and I'm thinking about the same thing as you. My purchase is for my wife (until I can get an upgrade for her an the kids... thinking 200 series :cheers:). I think you should go for it.

As for my contribution to this thread: I think you should look perhaps a 2005+ LC
iDatalink - Maestro - Search

That's what I'm considering for my 100 plus a dual din pioneer Head Unit. Either way good luck!
 
If you are intent on doing it you should cross reference the steering wheel, airbag and clock spring units as the same one was also used in the 2003+ 4runner, highlander, sienna and maybe other models. This will give you a much larger pool of sources and may drop cost as there were dramatically more 4runner and other models sold compared to the cruisers.
 
My 04' LX470 has the integrated controls on the steering wheel, I never use them. I have the integrated AC/heat/touchscreen Mark Levinson radio that I would do anything to switch out. I want to keep my truck forever and view this as one of my weakest links.
 
Milton Koenigsberger said:
My 04' LX470 has the integrated controls on the steering wheel, I never use them. I have the integrated AC/heat/touchscreen Mark Levinson radio that I would do anything to switch out. I want to keep my truck forever and view this as one of my weakest links.
Click to expand...

^this. IMO one of the few major long term Achilles Heel's these rigs have.
 
Is there anything we can do with switching the radio out? I do a search every few months to make sure that I am not missing anything. I think it is going to get more difficult as time goes by. I am an original owner with 80k miles and plan on driving it into the ground over the next 20 years. At times I think of buying a whole replacement unit and just putting it in storage.

therealdutch said:
^this. IMO one of the few major long term Achilles Heel's these rigs have.
Click to expand...
 
i've considered the same about buying one from a salvaged vehicle and just stashing it away. i don't think there's anything else to do. i have the same issue with my GX470. there was, at one point, a guy trying to engineer a work-around to it, but that ended up getting scrapped b/c the time and R&D was just overwhelming for no return.
 
cruzerDave said:
@ihadmail thanks for the advice, not taking it as rude so no worries;) I like OEM *function* because IMHO the wireless ones dont stay put - that might just be my one bad experience- and the buttons are so much smaller I had a tough time easily changing volume, for isttance, without looking at it and I like leaving my eyes on the road.

THIS:
s-l225.jpg


IS nowhere near as easy to use as the big buttons on the wheel you showed, or my wife's Tundra has...

What year LC is in the above pic?
Click to expand...

I was thinking of something like this. But then i got an iphone at work. My aftermarket radio supports iphone and i use 'hey siri' for texting and calling. Will start my music too.

Maybe try an after market bluetooth adapter?
 
therealdutch said:
i've considered the same about buying one from a salvaged vehicle and just stashing it away. i don't think there's anything else to do. i have the same issue with my GX470. there was, at one point, a guy trying to engineer a work-around to it, but that ended up getting scrapped b/c the time and R&D was just overwhelming for no return.
Click to expand...

I found a guy on YouTube who made it work in his GX470.

And have also read about that guy on Club Lexus who tried to make it work but gave up. Hopefully someday we will have a solution. I find myself trying not to even touch the thing because I don't want to deal with the future headaches. It was my wife's truck that we bought brand new and still runs perfect, never let us down in 10+ years. I consider the LX470 a reliable Defender 110, no need to ever sell it, a much better daily than my FJ60 or FJ40.
 
not so concerned with replacing the audio, or relocating the tape deck into the glove compartment. it's that the heater controls are on the NAV unit. if that thing goes out, you're hosed. $3500 later...
 
I got back from SE Asia a few weeks ago and all of the 100's there have the non-integrated setup. I wish someone made a business of just selling us the setup...
 
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