NavUnit Radio meltdown

[reinhard]

I have a 2007 Camry Hybrid, about 2.5 years old with 49k miles. The car came with the factory radio/nav unit. For most of its life the car was used for daily job commute, no long rides since long rides (family stuff) was reserved for the mini-van (more room, particularly for baggage since trunk in hybrid is limited). Daily commute was about 30 miles one way ... so never was really in the car for much more than 45 minutes. About the only thing I noticed was that the ASL didn't seem to work, but I was not all that sure, didn't really care, so I did not do anything about it ... BIG STEENKEEN MISTAKE!!!!

Got a new job that involves driving all over the state (Texas, basically a country in and of itself! :P) On my first trip I noticed some oddities in the radio, particularly *extremely* slow response to the command controls (up/down volume, change station, etc) ... both on the steering controls and the radio button controls. The nav unit also began to 'white out' ... displaying the current position icon on an empty white screen, generally with some of the command and info icons remaining (like miles/time to destination, etc), but I would often lose the icons as well. The slow response was something like "click the volume button, and about 20, 30, 40 seconds later ... it would change.

The behavior has been relatively intermittent, particularly the onset time (from when I turn the car on to the time the malfunctions begin). Once it starts to malfunction, it continues (even when powering the car off, like gas stops) pretty much until I park the car for an extended length of time. My guess is that it is somehow tied to heating up of the unit.

Would be interested to hear if anybody else has had this problem.

When I found the problem, I was just barely beyond the 36k warranty, so I appealed to Toyota that basically told me TOUGH CRAP BUDDY! (OK, they didn't use those words, but it is all the same, right?) The dealer told me the replacement is *extremely* expensive, on the order of $2-3k, depending on whether or not I get a brand new one vs. a refurbished unit.

At this point I am pissed beyond compare. I have had decades old vehicles with hundreds of thousands of miles on them where about the only thing that did work was the radio ... of course those radios didn't cost several thousands of dollars. I had no option to be able to get this car without the most expensive unit, hybrids were in high demand and you took what you got (rumour had it that Toyota did not even bother to ship anything that was not completely decked out), I suppose the better part of that is that I don't have to kick myself for buying this garbage since I HAD NO CHOICE! The disk I received was at least 3 years out of date when I received it, and I almost lost my mind to find out that a new disk was $300 ... incredible rip-off ... and also 3 years out of date. It is a big problem because I live on the outside edge of the DFW complex and everything around me is < 5 years old, so about 50% of the side roads are missing on even the newest versioned disks.

I would tell anybody that is looking at buying this to think again.

[reinhard]

BTW ... I have seen a couple of aftermarket units that seem to fit in the same space ... and one that seems to be the original equipment (but nowhere near the $3k the dealer was talking about). Anybody that has any comments on replacement radios would be welcome to comment. Here are the issues:

1) fit and function ... want radio, CD, and nav. Anything more (like maintenance, etc)? Any special hardware to install?

2) bluetooth ... does it have it (complete, like not requiring mic, et al), how well does it work, does it disable music to handle calls, etc.

3) do the remote controls (steering wheel controls) work?

4) does the rest of the stuff work ... particularly the different controls / monitors on the speedometer LED screen

Thanks!

[dapqam]

Sorry to hear you sad story. What I take from this is - Keep cars as simple as possible.

I also heard that changing the spark plugs on a 6 cylinder motor is a very difficult and expensive operation. (One quote was $300 from a dealer). Whereas on th 4 cylinder I can do it myself in 1/2 hour for the cost of the spark plugs.

I think people with hybrids will be sorry when the cars get to the age where they need replacement batteries too. Very expensive. I wish our auto companies would go the diesel route like Europe has done. Better fuel economy and wonderful reliability (from years of development and refining) and better safety (diesel is much less flammable).

Since you are doing a lot of driving maybe you will be able to truly benefit from the hybrid gas mileage. Unless you are doing highway driving where the hybrid advantage is not so great. If you are doing lots of city driving it will really pay off.

I wish you the best. Again, complicated systems are problems just waiting to happen, unfortunately.

[Leighcm]

The least expensive repair may be the new nav disc. The firmware on your nav system may have some issues, and basically wiping everything out and upgrading the system may help. See if you can find a slightly newer one on eBay. You don't have to buy the brand new one to try this.

As for your questions on aftermarket head units: you can pretty much count on the bluetooth/steering wheel controls, etc. not working with an aftermarket product.

[Naz]

leighcm is right forget about useing the bluetooth with an aftermarket, however i have seen some stereo's from pioneer that offer adapters to utilize factory steering wheel controls, don't know how well they work though never tried it :/

[Leighcm]

Sound quality's not so great...got an aftermarket bluetooth in the Porsche. The factory one is MUCH better.

Have you considered checking eBay/junkyards, etc. for a used replacement OEM unit?

Or maybe these guys: http://www.oemvalue.com/request/toyotanav.htm

I haven't purchased anything from them, but it looks like they have the real thing...and they've been around awhile, which is always a good sign.