By the way, another spot I'm eyeballing, only because I'm soon to have the inside naked as I'm having the seats re-leathered and a new carpet kit installed. I was just checking behind the seatbelt in the middle row on driver's side. If you pop the trim and look inside, there's a channel in the plastic on the far side, out of the way of the seatbelt. That channel looks like it might just be large enough to stuff the antenna into. Then could just run the wire under the carpet just inside the front and rear doors, then come up into the seatbelt area. That's basically what Best Buy did with the subwoofer cable for my new sound system, the blue wire in the photo.
Mod: Extending range of keyless entry
- Thread starter Ayune
- Start date
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it is, yep. I completely cut the wireless door receiver and put in an Ebay one & no difference.
There are 4 wires that are left, I need to find out what they do.
However, they can't be that important bcos they are disconnected and I am using remote and driving the car with no difference in anything.
Awesome, thanks!
Got the easy part of the job done while I was doing some other stuff in the interior. Buried the cable down below for now. I will do the hard part another weekend. But the behind dash is done. Decided not to venture into any new spots and to stick with what had already shown to work.
- Thread starter
- #147
Cool! Any chance you could raise the antenna up a bit so it sits above the metal radio bracket? The antenna has a coil inside of it that doesn’t like being right next to metal (see pic below). In post #4 you can see how the antenna is mounted as high as possible and the zip tie is on the cable below the connector. It’s ok if the gold connector touches the metal bracket, they’re both grounded. This is all just to get the best range possible.
- Thread starter
- #149
Yea, the plastic support seem to be different between our two vehicles. Perhaps mounting the antenna on the left side of the support would allow it to be positioned higher while not overlapping the metal bracket? Of course this may be splitting hairs, but if you find frontwards reception is not satisfactory you could reposition it.
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What am I missing? I’d really like to get the air vent out of the way. But I at least need to get these two wiring harnesses out of the way. But the harnesses seem to be mounted to a plastic piece that screws in from behind. I can’t really see how the air vent or the wires get out of the way without getting the outer plastic trim loose, and that seems to be one big piece with the upper dashboard trim. Meanwhile I can’t even see how to work a long 10mm through, let alone clear access with getting the vent out.
I already freed the bigger air vent that wraps under the steering wheel. But as far as the piece that wraps up to the corner vent, I can’t seem to get enough play to get it out with the outer trim being in the way.
Help! Thanks....
I already freed the bigger air vent that wraps under the steering wheel. But as far as the piece that wraps up to the corner vent, I can’t seem to get enough play to get it out with the outer trim being in the way.
Help! Thanks....
Trying to sort out how you did this. In the upper photo you’ve pulled the wiring harnesses out to gain access to that screw. In my case the harnesses appear to be attached to that back piece with a screw that comes in from behind. Not sure how you managed to get these loose as you have.
- Thread starter
- #153
Have you located the box & mounting screw by looking/feeling from underneath? If so, shine a flashlight on it while looking in from the switch panel area. That’ll help you see where you need to stick the extension. It doesn’t need much room and things in that area should yield to it.
I think Toyota installed this box immediately after the steering rack and rear shock nuts.
Honestly, if I can’t get these wires out of the way to be able to get at it from the front, I do not think I will continue ibecaise I have little confidence that I’ll be able to get it back in. Trying to go the route of getting these harnesses loose as in the photo in my quote, and even better to work the air vent out. I’ve located the bolt from underneath, but I’m just not going to attempt to loose the it from there. I’m only going to pull it if I know I can get it back in.
Not intending to rain on anybody’s parade. I have not tried this mod, and it may be a huge improvement.
I acquired a 1999 LX470 a few years ago, with just a valet key. I went through the ECU blanking process with @Mauser (thank you) to get a handful of working “master” keys with remote fobs. I used some cheap knock off keys from eBay as my master keys for this vehicle. While they did work, the range of the remote always seemed rather dismal compared to the other two later model 100 series in our driveway. I just figured that the range of the earlier models suck (it’s been a long time since I had a 98 LX).
In the “great YotaMD key conversion” at my house, where I converted all the remaining 100 series master keys to @suprarx7nut ‘s YotaMD shells, I ran across an old broken OE key fob in a “junk drawer”, that I opted to use in one of the 99 LX keys. What a night and day difference! I can lock/unlock the 99 LX halfway across the parking lot at work.
Extended antennas may be great, but aftermarket key fobs suck!
I acquired a 1999 LX470 a few years ago, with just a valet key. I went through the ECU blanking process with @Mauser (thank you) to get a handful of working “master” keys with remote fobs. I used some cheap knock off keys from eBay as my master keys for this vehicle. While they did work, the range of the remote always seemed rather dismal compared to the other two later model 100 series in our driveway. I just figured that the range of the earlier models suck (it’s been a long time since I had a 98 LX).
In the “great YotaMD key conversion” at my house, where I converted all the remaining 100 series master keys to @suprarx7nut ‘s YotaMD shells, I ran across an old broken OE key fob in a “junk drawer”, that I opted to use in one of the 99 LX keys. What a night and day difference! I can lock/unlock the 99 LX halfway across the parking lot at work.
Extended antennas may be great, but aftermarket key fobs suck!
Bomar
SILVER Star
dirtyboots
Atrocious Driving
Anyone have an answer on replacing the module altogether? I got another 1998 GS400 and want to try this mod cuz the range sucks arse compared to my previous 2006 GS.
The module is $22 on eBay and I'd feel a lot better about chopping up a donor instead of the only one that I know for sure works with the car.
I do have Techstream per the main thread here.
The module is $22 on eBay and I'd feel a lot better about chopping up a donor instead of the only one that I know for sure works with the car.
I do have Techstream per the main thread here.
