NOTE: THIS IS FOR PRE-2016 TRUCKS ONLY
Hi folks,
Two weeks ago I replaced my battery because I hadn't driven my LX in a while and let it die. After replacing the battery, the head unit was completely blank. no screen, no control, back-up camera, no audio. I wanted to document this failure so others can benefit.
How the system works
When your 200 series system is powered up (i.e. 12V is connected to the vehicle) the receiver will initialize the first time the ignition button is pressed. Part of the initialization process is reading from a small 2.5" hard drive within the receiver. I assume this is a one-time initialization until the system loses power again, otherwise the hard drives would fail much more frequently. If the hard drive is good, everything will boot normally.
What fails?
The hard drive fails. This is NOT a problem with your screen. Unfortunately the engineers at Pioneer/Toyota decided to put a spinning hard drive in a moving vehicle. What's worse, it's not easily serviceable. What's worse than that, is it's a password protected drive that is hard to copy so you can't just borrow your buddies hard drive and clone it to a new one.
How to fix:
#1 Replace the Hard drive with an OEM formatted drive (The easiest)
Simply lookup the hard-drive part number and buy a replacement hard drive. If Toyota/Lexus still has valid part numbers for the hard drive you can order a new one. The part number is on the hard drive. My Lexus dealer acted like I had two heads when I asked about a new hard drive and refused to offer any other solution other than sending out the receiver and having it "repaired". The quote I got was for over 3K. The hard drive it not cheap either, but much less. My part number is 86271-60212 and prices ranged from $1000-$1300.
www.toyotapartsdeal.com
#2 Find a refurb or repaired receiver
Before I understood the hard drive was serviceable I made the decision to buy a "repaired" unit from the UAE for around $1000. It took 5 days to arrive and worked fine. Look on ebay and make sure you find a matching receiver. I understand there are shops that do this service, but it's nice to get a replacement and not worry about sending out your original.
#3 Buy a new receiver - This will cost about 10K for an LX (Waste of money)
#4 Clone and replace with a SSD (Work in Progress) - The ATA technology on these hard drives is so old it's now possible to remove the hard drive password and potentially create a hard drive image that can be distributed or at least make sure you have a backup if/when your drive fails again. Maybe we can figure this out in this thread.
I took my old unit apart a took a few picture for you:
Hi folks,
Two weeks ago I replaced my battery because I hadn't driven my LX in a while and let it die. After replacing the battery, the head unit was completely blank. no screen, no control, back-up camera, no audio. I wanted to document this failure so others can benefit.
How the system works
When your 200 series system is powered up (i.e. 12V is connected to the vehicle) the receiver will initialize the first time the ignition button is pressed. Part of the initialization process is reading from a small 2.5" hard drive within the receiver. I assume this is a one-time initialization until the system loses power again, otherwise the hard drives would fail much more frequently. If the hard drive is good, everything will boot normally.
What fails?
The hard drive fails. This is NOT a problem with your screen. Unfortunately the engineers at Pioneer/Toyota decided to put a spinning hard drive in a moving vehicle. What's worse, it's not easily serviceable. What's worse than that, is it's a password protected drive that is hard to copy so you can't just borrow your buddies hard drive and clone it to a new one.
How to fix:
#1 Replace the Hard drive with an OEM formatted drive (The easiest)
Simply lookup the hard-drive part number and buy a replacement hard drive. If Toyota/Lexus still has valid part numbers for the hard drive you can order a new one. The part number is on the hard drive. My Lexus dealer acted like I had two heads when I asked about a new hard drive and refused to offer any other solution other than sending out the receiver and having it "repaired". The quote I got was for over 3K. The hard drive it not cheap either, but much less. My part number is 86271-60212 and prices ranged from $1000-$1300.
86271-60212 Genuine Toyota Hard Disc
ToyotaPartsDeal.com offers the great deal for genuine Toyota parts 86271-60212 (8627160212) Hard Disc for $1336.29. All parts are backed by the Toyota's warranty.
www.toyotapartsdeal.com
#2 Find a refurb or repaired receiver
Before I understood the hard drive was serviceable I made the decision to buy a "repaired" unit from the UAE for around $1000. It took 5 days to arrive and worked fine. Look on ebay and make sure you find a matching receiver. I understand there are shops that do this service, but it's nice to get a replacement and not worry about sending out your original.
#3 Buy a new receiver - This will cost about 10K for an LX (Waste of money)
#4 Clone and replace with a SSD (Work in Progress) - The ATA technology on these hard drives is so old it's now possible to remove the hard drive password and potentially create a hard drive image that can be distributed or at least make sure you have a backup if/when your drive fails again. Maybe we can figure this out in this thread.
I took my old unit apart a took a few picture for you:
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