I had to buy this 01 LX470 that I found because it had a mint interior, relatively low miles (144k), it drove great, and it was white. At the intro the car salesman was being slick and said, "Lemme start the engine for you" so I never even noticed the key until after I fell in love with the truck. Mind you, this isn't tape holding the key together, the keyfob is encapsulated in epoxy. Another problem was it was the only key in existence for this truck.
When I came back from my test drive and pointed out the key, he replied, "It's a 2001, it's gonna have normal wear and tear" ... yeah, normal wear and tear for military combat. I leveraged the key to get another few hundred knocked off my already negotiated price. Car salesmen, seriously.
Knowing this key was on borrowed time, I already had Lexus cut a new master and valet key and I took care of programming the transponders and the remote function. The original key will be put on a plaque and hung on the wall of my mancave.
Besides the fubared key the telescoping steering was binding so I coaxed it to the desired position with some force before making it permanent by unplugging the telescoping motor.
Lastly, it seems like all speakers are out except for the two front midranges, so I'm actually suspecting it's the Mark Levinson amp at fault. No worries, I searched this forum and found the thread where members pfran42, RobRed, and redjet collectively came to a solution for retrofitting the non-nav system.
Instead of springing for an expensive double-DIN HU, I'm going minimalist with the Kenwood KAC-M1824BT and putting a universal phone/tablet mount system where the double-DIN would be. These days I only listen to Spotify or Pandora. This Kenwood is a Bluetooth gateway with volume control and an amplifier (with preamp outputs) so I'll just mount my phone up on the dash and it would send music to the Kenwood wirelessly. Just think of a mechless headunit but in a compact package and the only source of music is via Bluetooth or an aux cable. When I upgrade my phone in a few years I'll have something new on my dash with updated Google Maps and all of my music. With the exception of Bluetooth technology, my desired setup is future-proof.
Just thought I'd share my facepalming car purchase scenario, I look forward to contributing to this forum.
When I came back from my test drive and pointed out the key, he replied, "It's a 2001, it's gonna have normal wear and tear" ... yeah, normal wear and tear for military combat. I leveraged the key to get another few hundred knocked off my already negotiated price. Car salesmen, seriously.
Knowing this key was on borrowed time, I already had Lexus cut a new master and valet key and I took care of programming the transponders and the remote function. The original key will be put on a plaque and hung on the wall of my mancave.
Besides the fubared key the telescoping steering was binding so I coaxed it to the desired position with some force before making it permanent by unplugging the telescoping motor.
Lastly, it seems like all speakers are out except for the two front midranges, so I'm actually suspecting it's the Mark Levinson amp at fault. No worries, I searched this forum and found the thread where members pfran42, RobRed, and redjet collectively came to a solution for retrofitting the non-nav system.
Instead of springing for an expensive double-DIN HU, I'm going minimalist with the Kenwood KAC-M1824BT and putting a universal phone/tablet mount system where the double-DIN would be. These days I only listen to Spotify or Pandora. This Kenwood is a Bluetooth gateway with volume control and an amplifier (with preamp outputs) so I'll just mount my phone up on the dash and it would send music to the Kenwood wirelessly. Just think of a mechless headunit but in a compact package and the only source of music is via Bluetooth or an aux cable. When I upgrade my phone in a few years I'll have something new on my dash with updated Google Maps and all of my music. With the exception of Bluetooth technology, my desired setup is future-proof.
Just thought I'd share my facepalming car purchase scenario, I look forward to contributing to this forum.
