Jenny Smedley

Hi - we have the same unit as you, but we had a different problem in that it was locked - that being caused by the battery being disconnected at some point. It's taken us a couple of months to get it to work at all. So, in fact you probably know more than we do at this point, but hopefully if we share what we discover we'll get there. We know how to get the CD to play and have tuned the radio into Radio 2. Which is not as much as you know! Yesterday we put the car in reverse for the first time since 'waking it up' and discovered we have rear view cameras! The lady chattering away doesn't bother us as we tell people our Alphard can speak but I think it might become wearing in the end. We do have a manual for the radio, but it is in Japanese of course. Unlike the car handbook there are no translations available. I got an app on my phone that can read Japanese symbols, but it's only of limited use as whole sentences seem to turn into gibberish! I had a book translated by a Japanese publisher so today I'm going to contact them and see if they can put me in touch with the translator - even if we can get certain pages translated it will be a big help! I think your radio is an HDD Navigation System NHZN-W57 Keep in touch!

Thank you - I paid Shareef $20 by paypal. I followed the video he sent us, which starts off like many others holding down (in our case, this varies) the MEDIA button while turning the side lights on and off, quickly 3 times. The radio flashes and the screen (finally) starts up! The next bit was a bit tricky following the video through several steps, and pausing now and then to to catch up, pressing this and that Japanese buttons, until a number appears in red at the top. You send this to Shareef and he immediately send you a code, which you enter and then miraculously all the buttons work

See my new thread

Apologies to those who suggested things to me before, I got very confused, sorry if I lost your advice! Good news is, we did it!! We are now sitting in our Alphard with CD and radio!!! Amazing. This is the GENUINE person who helped us. (20+) NavigationDisk - Japanese Car Radio Unlock Solutions カーラジオとナビゲーションロッ | Facebook His name is Shareef - we trusted him and he didn't let us down, paid $20 by Paypal and followed his instructions, we got a number on the screen, sent it to him and he translated it into our code. Entered the code and that was it! The radio does what it's told Of course we still have to learn the Japanese controls, but CD and radio are easy to find.

I did find the man you said but he needed a code from me to get the code from him. His video says to press the 'power' button while clicking the parking lights on and off 3 times. This should give you a number to give him. But when we do that nothing happens.

I have managed to get hold of someone who claims his code will unlock it even if it is locked by a personal password. As you said, might be worth a try.

Halfords couldn't/wouldn't do it. Useless pillocks! Still waiting for refund!!!

I'm not fit to drive all the way to Birmingham, sad but true.

The guy I just spoke to here says if it's asking for my pet's name then 100% not a product lock out, but a personal password. He's having a look at photos etc and if he can sort it he'll come here - he's mobile. Get satnav from Auto Installations (auto-installations.co.uk) Have a look.

Not at the moment, but maybe later I have found someone who sounds promising in Norfolk so we'll check them out first

Got a reply from bean - he thinks he could help but we'd have to take the car to him, which isn't possible right now.

[Used]Toyota Genuine navigator NHZN-W57 HDD full Segou terrestrial digital wide option - BE FORWARD Auto Parts

Thank you again. I'll start from the beginning. When we turn on the ignition the screen momentarily appears with a Logo on it, then it quickly changes to be as in the photos. It appears to be open on a Japanese keyboard. There is no talking lady and no beeping. A few keys work, like the third from the left at the bottom which changes the keyboard characters to English (but that's only temporary.) Writing appears in the top bar which appears to say 'What is your pet's name?' in Japanese. I can then type in the box in English. The people who say they can give you the password, normally ask you to press a button on the right, just below MENU and while holding it switch the side lights on off on off on off, at which point a number should appear in the box. That number can then be translated into the unlocking password. When we do that nothing whatsoever happens. Yes the dealer was upfront and told us the 'radio' would be all in Japanese and wouldn't be much good to us. We accepted that thinking we could make do with it or get it changed. We can't get it to open and show the CD slot, which would be half way to what we want, or display any radio frequencies. We're not interested in the navigation system itself. And we can't (so far) get anyone who can change the unit for an English one - just a stereo/CD player would do. Hope that helps! We have the manual which is of course in Japanese. Someone has scribbled what could be a password in it, but the translator has trouble with it. It appears to be Runa Awaku, which means pale moon. I haven't had a chance to try it yet - but of course I can't write it in Japanese except by copying scribble, which won't be easy, or in English which probably won't work.

The only problem we have, and the reason why I didn't try one of these people before is that although everyone seems to think the radio's locked because the battery was disconnected or something (although the dealer says no) the unit keeps asking me what is my pet's name. So is it not working because it's locked with a manufacturer's password or the owner's password? I other words this guy might be genuine but it still might not work, unless manufacturer's password overrides personal password?

Sounds worth a shot. Thank you for your time! It would be good to find out if these people are for real.

Thank you!

Found him! beanbean280r

Sadly ebay no longer has a 'find member' facility I don't think. I can't find one anyway.

It's called an HDD Navigational System with the letters NHZN-W57

That's right it was an experimental option from 2006 in Alphards and Estimas.

I contacted Ben, thank you but he didn't respond yet.

I've always been confused! The reason we're now saying HDD is because we found the manual for it tucked away in an unnoticed storage nook. Great idea about Malaysia thank you. I will also look up the chap you mentioned in Birmingham although it's a long way!

Trying Japan and New Zealand.