There have been quite a few threads regarding the annoying Nanny Toyota NAV lock. I have heard of a few solutions:
I did not like the Hybrid disk solution because it requires a complex set of keystrokes at startup. Although this solution is the cheapest.
The false pulse count method seems to work well, but it is not a commercial product yet and requires splicing into the harness.
That leaves the commercial harness insert. There were two I found. One is not yet available for the Highlander, so that left only one vendor at this point in time.
I was pointed to a vendor over at TundraSolutions that had a harness available. I contacted them and they provided me the last unit they had in stock at the moment and installed it this weekend. I have no connection with this vendor but wanted to post my findings here.
Their system is a harness that plugs between the factory harness and the NAV. There is no splicing or modifications to the factory harness. There are three connectors that must be disconnected from the back of the NAV and the harness plugged inbetween. They provide a switch that controls the unti and it basically allows you to fool the NAV into thinking that you are standing still and so the NAV unlocks. During the override, the truck's postion on the GPS map does not update. However, since you are either using the NAV to dial the phone, or set a new destination, I think this is a acceptable trade off. When the override is off, the NAV acts like factory.
You push one of two buttons that control the unti to start the override. The NAV unlocks as it thinks the truck is sitting still. If you forget to push the button to turn off the override, the unit will automatically disenguage after about 5 minutes. You can program the unit to be in this automatic turn off mode after five minutes or be in manual mode and not switch back after fix minutes.
Installation is straight forward. On the 09 HH, you just pull off the top AC vent and the AC control to gain access to the four bolts that hold the NAV and info display in. Pull out the nav and disconnect three of the harnesses that connect into the back of the NAV and pulg the new harness inbetween. They provide a switch which can be mounted where you desire. I mounted the switch in one of the 'blanks' in the lower driver's dash panel. That required me to remove some other panels and took a bit more time. It took me about two hours to install it with the switch going in one of the blanks on the lower dash. If you mounted the switch somewhere else, I think you could install this in about a half hour.
This until also had a feature to unlock the rear TV too. I don't have the rear DVD player, so I cannot comment on that function. But it is an added bonus for those that do. There are two bottons and the second button unlocks the DVD player.
The unit is professionally put together and it is very nice that the whole thing can be relatively easily removed with no splicing required. The only downside is the cost of the harness.
http://www.prestigioussociety.com/index.php?category=other
- There is a process to burn a Hybrid disk that enables unlock thru a set of keystrokes at startup
- A harness that plugs between the NAV and the factory harness that enable unlock
- A black box that provides a false pulse count to fool the truck that is stationary
I did not like the Hybrid disk solution because it requires a complex set of keystrokes at startup. Although this solution is the cheapest.
The false pulse count method seems to work well, but it is not a commercial product yet and requires splicing into the harness.
That leaves the commercial harness insert. There were two I found. One is not yet available for the Highlander, so that left only one vendor at this point in time.
I was pointed to a vendor over at TundraSolutions that had a harness available. I contacted them and they provided me the last unit they had in stock at the moment and installed it this weekend. I have no connection with this vendor but wanted to post my findings here.
Their system is a harness that plugs between the factory harness and the NAV. There is no splicing or modifications to the factory harness. There are three connectors that must be disconnected from the back of the NAV and the harness plugged inbetween. They provide a switch that controls the unti and it basically allows you to fool the NAV into thinking that you are standing still and so the NAV unlocks. During the override, the truck's postion on the GPS map does not update. However, since you are either using the NAV to dial the phone, or set a new destination, I think this is a acceptable trade off. When the override is off, the NAV acts like factory.
You push one of two buttons that control the unti to start the override. The NAV unlocks as it thinks the truck is sitting still. If you forget to push the button to turn off the override, the unit will automatically disenguage after about 5 minutes. You can program the unit to be in this automatic turn off mode after five minutes or be in manual mode and not switch back after fix minutes.
Installation is straight forward. On the 09 HH, you just pull off the top AC vent and the AC control to gain access to the four bolts that hold the NAV and info display in. Pull out the nav and disconnect three of the harnesses that connect into the back of the NAV and pulg the new harness inbetween. They provide a switch which can be mounted where you desire. I mounted the switch in one of the 'blanks' in the lower driver's dash panel. That required me to remove some other panels and took a bit more time. It took me about two hours to install it with the switch going in one of the blanks on the lower dash. If you mounted the switch somewhere else, I think you could install this in about a half hour.
This until also had a feature to unlock the rear TV too. I don't have the rear DVD player, so I cannot comment on that function. But it is an added bonus for those that do. There are two bottons and the second button unlocks the DVD player.
The unit is professionally put together and it is very nice that the whole thing can be relatively easily removed with no splicing required. The only downside is the cost of the harness.
http://www.prestigioussociety.com/index.php?category=other
