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Had my new 120 for a few weeks, now considering some mods...

pooface

pooface

New Member
Joined
Oct 14, 2016
Messages
16
Ok, I've had my new to me 2006 LC5 120 for a few weeks now - after driving a people carrier around for a year - and there are quite a few subtle improvements over my last prado (1996).
However there are some things I think it is lacking and some things I'd like to improve upon and would love some advice please...

1 - I miss the auto headlights function I had on my previous car that came on when the daylight dropped below a certain level. Not a huge thing, but I got so used to this that I am occasionally a little lax on remembering to switch my lights on (i.e. tend to do it only when I notice it's getting dark, whereas my previous car would switch them on well before I needed them)

2 - my lights are good, but the lights on my previous car were xenons and far better. Can I just swap out xenon bulbs for my existing ones and will the headlight unit cope with the extra heat (is there extra heat?! Im assuming there is...) or do I need to replace the headlight assemblies? Can I get newer looking headlight assemblies for my 120?

3 - LED lights for the rear lights and indicators? Is this viable?

4 - headlight washer. There are blanks where this is obviously an option, but I cannot for the life of me find out where I would get an after market set. A couple of muddy treks and my headlights were plastered. It would have been nice to use the washer system to clear them instead of using the picnic blanket (which was all I had to hand and which earned me some dark looks from the other half!!)

5 - Wing mirror auto retract / open. On my previous car, the wing mirrors would open when you start the car and close again when you shut it off. I would like to find a away to do this if possible

6 - Sat Nav update. Can I swap out my current one for a newer version? the maps are really old (2004/2005) and the display is quite primitive though the touchscreen is quite good. If it's not possible to update the entire sat nav, is it possible to update the maps? I cannot see a way to do this even though I saw it mention "map dvd" when I was looking around the settings. There is a cd changer in the glove compartment but no dvd player that I can see in the front or the back...

Any help would be gratefully received.
 
pooface said:
4 - headlight washer. There are blanks where this is obviously an option, but I cannot for the life of me find out where I would get an after market set. A couple of muddy treks and my headlights were plastered. It would have been nice to use the washer system to clear them instead of using the picnic blanket (which was all I had to hand and which earned me some dark looks from the other half!!)
Click to expand...

Those blanks for the headlamp washers open when you use the headlamp washers, and the washers pop out. Well they do on my poverty-spec LC3, so I assume they do on yours. The washers are operated by pressing the button on the end of the wiper stalk.
 
Rob Cowell said:
Those blanks for the headlamp washers open when you use the headlamp washers, and the washers pop out. Well they do on my poverty-spec LC3, so I assume they do on yours. The washers are operated by pressing the button on the end of the wiper stalk.
Click to expand...

Seriously? Mine is an LC5 but it's only 2006...anyway I'll go out and check now. Fingers crossed!
 
Rob Cowell said:
Those blanks for the headlamp washers open when you use the headlamp washers, and the washers pop out. Well they do on my poverty-spec LC3, so I assume they do on yours. The washers are operated by pressing the button on the end of the wiper stalk.
Click to expand...

Ok that was an interesting experience. Found the symbol on the end of the washer stalk, but it didn't do anything as far as I could see, so got the misses to come out and check as I couldnt see the headlights from my position pressing the stalk. Still nothing. Then tried with the lights switched on and the misses is now covered in foamy washer water :D

Couldnt find any mention of the headlight washer system in the manual and where they pop out from just looks like blanks for an optional extra...

Anyway, thanks for that. Much appreciated!!
 
pooface said:
Ok, I've had my new to me 2006 LC5 120 for a few weeks now - after driving a people carrier around for a year - and there are quite a few subtle improvements over my last prado (1996).
However there are some things I think it is lacking and some things I'd like to improve upon and would love some advice please...

Mine is 120 2005,

2 - my lights are good, but the lights on my previous car were xenons and far better. Can I just swap out xenon bulbs for my existing ones and will the headlight unit cope with the extra heat (is there extra heat?! Im assuming there is...) or do I need to replace the headlight assemblies? Can I get newer looking headlight assemblies for my 120?

Fitted these http://woodypeck.com/?product=r3-led

Had them for year now, huge improvement to the originals. I'm still going to fit some extra spots, dogging them mouses in Norway could get a bit hairy sometimes.

3 - LED lights for the rear lights and indicators? Is this viable?

I replaced all bar the front indicators with LED, including the interior.

I used these guys to supply all the bulbs except the interior, I got them off ebay. http://www.autobulbsdirect.co.uk/ I suggest calling the company tell them what you want to do and let them work out what bulbs you need. I tried doing it myself but made mistake on one of them. They were very helpful and swapped it out for me. The reason I've not done the front indicators yet because I need to add some resistors to slow down the blinking.


6 - Sat Nav update. Can I swap out my current one for a newer version? the maps are really old (2004/2005) and the display is quite primitive though the touchscreen is quite good. If it's not possible to update the entire sat nav, is it possible to update the maps? I cannot see a way to do this even though I saw it mention "map dvd" when I was looking around the settings. There is a cd changer in the glove compartment but no dvd player that I can see in the front or the back...

The Sat-Nav DVD player is under the drivers seat. When I looked into upgrading there doesn't seem anything recent, and it's expensive. In the end I thought I was better off getting a TomTom, I got the 6000, which I am very glad I did. It was solid on my recent Norway/Sweden trip.

Any help would be gratefully received.
Click to expand...

Ok, I've had my new to me 2006 LC5 120 for a few weeks now - after driving a people carrier around for a year - and there are quite a few subtle improvements over my last prado (1996).
However there are some things I think it is lacking and some things I'd like to improve upon and would love some advice please...

Mine is 120 2005,

2 - my lights are good, but the lights on my previous car were xenons and far better. Can I just swap out xenon bulbs for my existing ones and will the headlight unit cope with the extra heat (is there extra heat?! Im assuming there is...) or do I need to replace the headlight assemblies? Can I get newer looking headlight assemblies for my 120?

Fitted these http://woodypeck.com/?product=r3-led

Had them for year now, huge improvement to the originals. I'm still going to fit some extra spots, dogging them mouses in Norway could get a bit hairy sometimes.

3 - LED lights for the rear lights and indicators? Is this viable?

I replaced all bar the front indicators with LED, including the interior.

I used these guys to supply all the bulbs except the interior, I got them off ebay. http://www.autobulbsdirect.co.uk/ I suggest calling the company tell them what you want to do and let them work out what bulbs you need. I tried doing it myself but made mistake on one of them. They were very helpful and swapped it out for me. The reason I've not done the front indicators yet because I need to add some resistors to slow down the blinking.


6 - Sat Nav update. Can I swap out my current one for a newer version? the maps are really old (2004/2005) and the display is quite primitive though the touchscreen is quite good. If it's not possible to update the entire sat nav, is it possible to update the maps? I cannot see a way to do this even though I saw it mention "map dvd" when I was looking around the settings. There is a cd changer in the glove compartment but no dvd player that I can see in the front or the back...

The Sat-Nav DVD player is under the drivers seat. When I looked into upgrading there doesn't seem anything recent, and it's expensive. In the end I thought I was better off getting a TomTom, I got the 6000, which I am very glad I did. It was solid on my recent Norway/Sweden trip.

Any help would be gratefully received.

Hope that's of some help.

Regards

Gary
 
hi gary

regarding your front led bulbs, did they fit into the dust cap ok? and did you need additional resistors? I tried led on my previous car but needed buy resistors to attach which resulted in quite a chunk of wires and bits to place around a small area.

cheers
 
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Seagull-russ said:
hi gary

regarding your front led bulbs, did they fit into the dust cap ok? and did you need additional resistors? I tried led on my previous car but needed buy resistors to attach which resulted in quite a chunk of wires and bits to place around a small area.

cheers
Click to expand...
Hi

I think the resistors are already part of the wiring, If you look at the pics your see a little black box.

I cant remember using the dust cap. Probably not as there are wirer fanned heat sings on the back. Even for me I manage to get them in myself without to much trouble.

Note if I remember right you may need to remove the battery.

G.
 
Gary,
thanks for that, much appreciated. So you bought the headlight bulbs from woodypeck but all the others from autobulbsdirect?

Shame about the satnav. I was hoping a later models one would fit, but I'll try to update the map dvd instead. Not really keen on adding an external sat nav if I can avoid it tbh.

Thanks again for the help!

Ed


garygiles1963 said:
Ok, I've had my new to me 2006 LC5 120 for a few weeks now - after driving a people carrier around for a year - and there are quite a few subtle improvements over my last prado (1996).
However there are some things I think it is lacking and some things I'd like to improve upon and would love some advice please...

Mine is 120 2005,

2 - my lights are good, but the lights on my previous car were xenons and far better. Can I just swap out xenon bulbs for my existing ones and will the headlight unit cope with the extra heat (is there extra heat?! Im assuming there is...) or do I need to replace the headlight assemblies? Can I get newer looking headlight assemblies for my 120?

Fitted these http://woodypeck.com/?product=r3-led

Had them for year now, huge improvement to the originals. I'm still going to fit some extra spots, dogging them mouses in Norway could get a bit hairy sometimes.

3 - LED lights for the rear lights and indicators? Is this viable?

I replaced all bar the front indicators with LED, including the interior.

I used these guys to supply all the bulbs except the interior, I got them off ebay. http://www.autobulbsdirect.co.uk/ I suggest calling the company tell them what you want to do and let them work out what bulbs you need. I tried doing it myself but made mistake on one of them. They were very helpful and swapped it out for me. The reason I've not done the front indicators yet because I need to add some resistors to slow down the blinking.


6 - Sat Nav update. Can I swap out my current one for a newer version? the maps are really old (2004/2005) and the display is quite primitive though the touchscreen is quite good. If it's not possible to update the entire sat nav, is it possible to update the maps? I cannot see a way to do this even though I saw it mention "map dvd" when I was looking around the settings. There is a cd changer in the glove compartment but no dvd player that I can see in the front or the back...

The Sat-Nav DVD player is under the drivers seat. When I looked into upgrading there doesn't seem anything recent, and it's expensive. In the end I thought I was better off getting a TomTom, I got the 6000, which I am very glad I did. It was solid on my recent Norway/Sweden trip.

Any help would be gratefully received.

Hope that's of some help.

Regards

Gary
Click to expand...
 
Lc5 were all sold with washers. Its on the toyota spec. Has your truck had a replacement bumper?


W.r.t the nav, you can get a newer cd from toyota-europe. They have a 2014 edition out. Otherwise swapping the system might be hard since a fair bit of the electronic systems are controlled via there.
 
There was a map update floating around on the internet for the older units. I'll see if I can dig it out. Another LC5 owner tried it but if memory serves it did not work.
 
Crispin said:
There was a map update floating around on the internet for the older units. I'll see if I can dig it out. Another LC5 owner tried it but if memory serves it did not work.
Click to expand...

I have the 2012 update, works fine.

just checked and they seem to have a 2016/2017 edition out as of 3rd Oct - 125 Eur, or about £500 given the exchange rate at the moment. ( http://www.toyota-mapupdates.eu/ )

if you meant actually replacing the entire head unit, yeah - I cant see that working out too well on a LC5. Surely the amount of work needed to create an entire functional clone unit would far outweight the small number they would ever sell.

regards,
 
GeekOKent said:
just checked and they seem to have a 2016/2017 edition out as of 3rd Oct - 125 Eur, or about £500 given the exchange rate at the moment. ( http://www.toyota-mapupdates.eu/ )
Click to expand...
Gulp. Sorry, not sure what toyota are thinking here. The maps and data is no longer a premium thing. Volvo send me updates every 6 months for free, TomTom et al cost almost nothing...
I wonder if there is another copy floating around for it.

GeekOKent said:
if you meant actually replacing the entire head unit, yeah - I cant see that working out too well on a LC5. Surely the amount of work needed to create an entire functional clone unit would far outweight the small number they would ever sell.
Click to expand...
You can get a double-din unit to replace it but on the LC 5 you lose functionality so pretty stuck.


The reverse is also no possible - @TonyP tried a LC5 unit into the LC4 and wiring loom was mostly different.
 
that's another reason I got a TomTom, cost of the Toyota upgrade was nearly twice the price.

G.
 
garygiles1963 said:
Hi

I think the resistors are already part of the wiring, If you look at the pics your see a little black box.

I cant remember using the dust cap. Probably not as there are wirer fanned heat sings on the back. Even for me I manage to get them in myself without to much trouble.

Note if I remember right you may need to remove the battery.

G.
Click to expand...
Did the same Led conversion to my 60, headlamps now stonking. Reverse lamps excellent too alrhough now have infrared reverse camera too. BUT indicators without resistors flased very fast so changed back to normal lamps for MOT. The truck is 24v so resistor availabilty is reduced and £7 each x 6 quite expensive so will leave as is for now
 
Archie said:
link no longer exists, what is the name of the item purchased ?
Click to expand...
Sorry took me a while to get the details. Purchased from a company called Optima-Choice, and is was simply called "Auto folding mirrors kit - AutoRetract for your Toyota Prado / Land Cruiser(LC120/125)
Item Number 400"

But as you rightly point out, company looks to have ceased trading.

Take a look at this thread where @Crispin did something similar to his 150, they may do something for the 120:https://www.landcruiserclub.net/community/threads/auto-folding-mirrors-on-the-150.147141/

Good luck
 
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