Voodoo101

It's very stange. Been driving since I was 17, many, many year ago. Driven all sorts from cars, vans, even a concrete mixer truck. Moved to Tenerife and found it easy driving a manual left had drive car on the other side of the road for 8 years. Brought the car back and drove a left hand drive car of the uk side, no problem. Then got a right hand drive car and drove to Tenerife and back through France and Spain, no problem. Moved to and automatic and after a few days of trying to change gear, all was ok. Drove an automatic for 7 years, then 2 days in a manual which was no problem, only to have trouble looking for gear stick and clutch. Maybe I'm just getting old lol

If it just that you want UK radio and not worried about a whole new unit, then you need this Car Radio FM Band Frequency Expander Converter For Japanese Car | eBay. You need to take out the unit, unplug the radio antenna, and put this in, then tap into the power lead and there is a metal bar behind, earth it with that. If you want a complete change, they you could go for an Android head unit, which you can have DAB radio, Reversing Camera, Satvav, Music, Spotify, Youtube, Netflix, infact anything you want. You can get ones that will fit in the double din socket and be the same size, a double din with a larger floating screen or you can get a 9/10 inch unit that comes with a full new surround. Depending on how electrically minded you are and how much of a mess they made fitting that one, they are plug and play. They can even mirror onto the rear screen, although it is a bit of a waste of time when driving unless the kids want to watch the satnav on a journey, or only watch films when you stop.

Yeah, don't forget the brake lol. I have just had to borrow a car over the weekend, my van was off the road with a flat battery and needed a boost box, could not get a car close enough for jump leads. The car was manual and have been driving automatic for 4 years. Didn't have a problem with the manual gearbox or clutch. Then got back in van and my left foot was looking for the clutch.

Im no expert in Auto boxes, but I think your box will still need the fluid changed at some point. Like anything with the word "lifetime", it still has an expiration date. It might be worth speaking to a specialist about it as even with oil, mechanical parts wear, just not as quick and that then sits in the oil. With regards to using N, then going back into D. I always leave it is drive. It's not like a manual car where you hold the clutch and then worry about the clutch wearing out. The transmission has what's called a torque converter which couples the engine to the transmission. Found this online - "The torque converter has a stall speed. This means it will not throw power/torque at the transmission until the engine gets to a certain speed. Once it reaches the stall speed, power and torque will then start being applied. Stall speed will always be above idle speed. You can therefor leave it in drive while sitting at a red light without worry of damaging any internal parts or causing any extra wear in the transmission, engine, or drive train (as long as you let it idle)."

My 2009 Vellfire only has buttons on the right side of the steering wheel. My Android head unit can read these buttons through the canbus and control the volume etc. I have seen that some have both right and left side buttons. I'm guessing these are for hand's free calling. I assume that Toyota, like everything else has the wiring in for these button and will also send signals to the canbus for my head unit to read. Has anybody added these button?

That is one sci-fi looking head unit. You will probably need a convertor to find UK radio stations. You will probably have to get an adaptor for the reversing camera, it has a 6v feed that normally comes from the original head unit, it's probably not been fitted. As regards to the rear screen, this you may have to just give up with.

Any double din unit will fit with a surround you can buy, then you need a cable to adapt the plugs to the new head unit. Or you can get an Android system with a bigger screen and a new silver surround. These are a bit more work to fit because you have to change over some parts.

I didn't even know there was domestic models. I thought all Alphards and Vellfires where imported.

They are all just Android head units, just in a different orientation. The wiring is general, but you have to add a box to translate the signal that comes from the ECU to something that the head unit can understand. This is what the optical box is, it's a canbus. If you don't have the amps then you can get away with just the normal head unit, although with this you need it because it has to control the vents.

I've just purchased a wiring harness from Aliexpress with a canbus. I think the one that came with the head unit is just a standard cable and it has no canbus unit. I've spoken to the seller and he has told me the protocol setting I need. I tried them before but made no difference. This cable has an extra plug to go in the back of the unit. Skyfame Car 16pin Wiring Harness Adapter Canbus Box Decoder For Alphard 20 Android Radio Power Cable - Speaker Line - AliExpress

No I have the power plug and the speaker signal wires, they work fine, but your chart helps alot. Thanks

Yeah I saw that, but the ANH20 is different and that seems to be for the amplifier. But thanks

Another thing you have to think about is warranty. It's no good if you have a problem and then have to go to the dealer to get the problem solved. Some smaller dealers have garages that do the work for them. Believe me, there will be another one that ticks all the boxes. These are being imported all the time. Just look on Autotrader, Ebay, RAC, Parkers. They always have them listed and normally dealers will have loads to choose from. I don't know if anybody would test drive the van for you. First you don't know how qualified they are to check the van over. Secondly what happens if they test drive it and all seems well, then a week later you find they have missed something. Who is to blame? If you really want it then contact the RAC or AA, pay the money and let them to check. If all is OK, then you get it. Or better still, unless you are really desperate, or like my kids who can't wait for Christmas day to open presents, wait till you find one local. I drove an hour and half for mine, twice. Once to test drive and once to buy. It was only because the three local places I checked on was selling old vans with things wrong with them at the same price and mine was a real bargain, then the following week another car came local. A little bit more expensive but may have come down. Where do you live. Maybe people on here can help you find a local deal.

In that case I have no idea where to get one lol

I posted this in general chat, but then thought it may be better in the forum. I have an Android head unit but it seems that all the features do not work properly, mainly to do with reading the canbus, so I removed the unit to check the wiring and I have one connection spare coming from the head unit. This is not really surprising as I have never found a car yet that has the same connections, so it may just be a common adaptor, but I have three wires in the car that I have no idea what they are. I was hoping somebody could identify them. One lead does sort of fit in the spare connector, but is not the same size. Sorry about the fussy pictures, my phone is on its way out.

I have an Android head unit but it seems that all the features do not work properly, mainly to do with reading the canbus, so I removed the unit to check the wiring and I have one connection spare coming from the head unit. This is not really surprising as I have never found a car yet that has the same connections, so it may just be a common adaptor, but I have three wires in the car that I have no idea what they are. I was hoping somebody could identify them. One lead does sort of fit in the spare connector, but is not the same size. Sorry about the fussy pictures, my phone is on its way out.

I have a 2009 which has remote boot. It will close electrically in the car, with the keyfob and with the button on the boot, but will only open electronically with the keyfob or in the car, which is strange in itself but normal. I don't know why they did not wire up the handle as they did with the rear sliding doors. This is my keyfob. You can get them cheap on Aliexpress and code them, but not sure how. I am sure there is a post on here to tell you somewhere.

I wouldn't rush to get a certain one. I live in the south of England and saw one in the north past Manchester. Thought it was the perfect one and was going to drive to see it. Then I found loads of different places online that was nearer and bought the same thing cheaper. There are a lot coming in the country because they are so popular, so just keep looking.

Looks nice. Question for you, what is the optical box for. I have just installed and Android Head unit and it all works, but dont have the optical box, but I do have an extra plug that seems to go nowhere, top

The extra wires are just for things that you do not have. Manufactures like Toyota have the same wiring loom for all the cars, they build the cars on a conveyor and put in the basics, and as it goes by they add things depending on spec. The wiring is there so it works out cheaper and quicker. It looks like one of those wires might be the GPS cable if you don't have GPS on the head unit. I may be wrong. The reversing camera lead is a white plug with four wires coming out. Have a look at this video below. If all the wires are plugged in, then the other thing is to check to make sure 6volts if getting to the camera. I have no idea how you get to the camera, maybe somebody else knows.

It could be that the person who owned it Japan had an aftermarket head unit, and when they sold it put the original one in and forgot to connect the rear camera. Might be worth pulling the head unit out and checking

I have just installed a new Android head unit and it connects up to the steering wheel controls no problem, however as I delve deeper, I have found out that it can control various other things a relay data, the same as car scanner. It can also show when doors are open on the screen and from what I can gather, show parking sensors. Now the problem. To do this it needs to connect up to the correct Canbus protocol and there are loads to choose between. Does anybody know the correct protocol. CarScanner seems to work on JOBD JDM CAN, but this is not on the system.

You can get Android head units that have a video output that you can connect up. The other option is to get a separate unit at the back that has audio out, then connect that to and Aux connection on the main head unit. If it was me I would go for a nice Android unit then you can store movies directly on it or even stream Netflix. It is supposed to be possible to have both showing different things, but have not tried it. I have just put one in mine, but in the middle of trying to sort out the mess of wiring the previous owner made when fitting another unit. I think they thought the wires for the roof mounted screen was the revering camera and decided to cut it up to fit. If I get it sorted I will add pics.

I have an Android unit that has the lead marked for the reverse which is the signal in cable. Then I have another attachment with a female phono connector and has two short wires coming out of it. I picked up an adaptor from ebay for the Alphard which has a male phono connector and positive / negative connectors on, with a resister to lower the voltage. It's just trying now to find the feed to tell the unit that I am reversing. The car had an aftermarket stereo in that was badly wired up. It had the option for the reverse camera but did not work, so I have no idea if the cable is actually still there or been cut off. I found a video online that looks like one of the plugs, but it has four wires. I'm hoping that is the one, but have to pull the new unit out to try it.

Yeah some of those settings are not available on CarScanner app. Mainly the ones for locking the doors.