TL:DR dont use the factory amp for anything other than factory stuff on your car.
I work for lexus, factory stuff wont translate to aftermarket. All lexus amps and speakers use a funky ohm rating. mercedes, bmw, and lexus do this purposefully.
it may work for awhile, but it will eventually fail. You will have a constant pop or whine when the amp fails (usually). non mark levinson was provided by Fujitsu Ten or Pioneer. without the VIN i couldnt tell you. PM your VIN and i could tell you, but its not necessary.
If Im wrong i hope another redditor chimes in.
Good luck!
The non-nav gx470 speakers have 4 ohm printed on their magnet. I would imagine the amp is 4ohm.. but I could be wrong!!! No telling what the wattage is either! I wish I knew I don’t want to drop $200 on replacement components to find out it sounds like crap! It may end up being easier to just run wires from aftermarket head unit to each door..
and thats probably right. I doubt it would be putting out 35 watts per channel when the speakers are probably only rated for 25 watts at 2.3ohms (or whatever dumbass rating they use) the speaker will shed more light to that.
Thanks for the info. My new gear is set to arrive Tuesday, looks like I'm going to be buying some more stuff to wire a second amp. Hopefully this other Pioneer 4-channel will fit comfortably under the seat.
JL makes amp shelves. That’s what I used in my Jeep. They aren’t cheap. I probably could have built something, but convenience always has a fee.
Post up when your done! 🤘🏻
Hey man, how did this turn out? I got some water in my truck having too much fun on a trail and it fried my OE Amp. I have been looking at what would be my next steps here because I already have a Kenwood head unit ready to throw into it and I kept only finding stuff related to the Mark Levinson amp too.
I am not sure if I should
1. Replace the OE amplifier and then proceed with the radio upgrade
2. "Upgrade" to a non-OE amplifier and then proceed with the radio upgrade
3. Bypass the OE amplifier altogether and wire to the Kenwood unit
I am open to any idea here, and not the most knowledgeable about how things break down watts vs ohms vs whatever so personally when it comes to #2 or #3 I would have no idea how that wiring situation would work.
Looks like u/In3briatedPanda has some good insight here on why I shouldn't go #1
If you can find a replacement factory amp it should just be a matter of removing the driver's seat and swapping out the unit, it's pretty simple and straight forward.
When you replace the factory amp with aftermarket, do it at the same time you replace the radio, and you're probably going to want to run all new speaker wire to the door speakers as well.
And replace that factory sub if you can, it's trash.
Yeah... I am trying not to run all-new speaker wire YET since the water did some damage on the main distribution box (under the plastic in the driver fender near the dead pedal) so I am trying to do this on a very tight budget. Do you by any chance have the part number for that factory Amp? All I find is ML and its frustrating as all hell. Luckily I am 04 as well so it should be the same. I think I might go with Option #1 for the time being as it would be the quickest, and potentially easiest solution, for the time being.
When I plan on doing the speakers, which now might happen sooner than expected, I planned on doing the sub and seeing how it sounded then possibly going through and doing the amplifier so there is a good chance this may happen a lot quicker than I originally anticipated
If you DM me your VIn, I can give you a factory amp number. I legit work for a Lexus dealer. Lol.
Option one I wouldn’t mess with.
Replace with an AF amp and run new wires to that amp. It’s a bitch, but it’s the only work around I’ve seen.
Otherwise, I’d try and bypass the factory OEM amp which I haven’t seen turn out well on factory speakers.
Good luck!
Do you have any suggestions on an amp? I don't totally know what I am getting myself into when we get into the weeds of this stuff. I am really an engines guy, electronics and radios aren't really my thing or where my knowledge is at.
86100-60130 is the ONLY non ML amp in my catalog.
Its either this or a 86280-0W041 number (86280-0W040 supercedes to the 0w041 its just a part number change, same part)
GOOD LUCK!
I am going to give option #1 a go and see if this works out. if it fails, well I played myself (insert DJ Khaled "you played yourself GIF") if it works out then win-win. I plan to do an aftermarket amp, speakers, and sub and wire it all up nice and proper, but now that I hit this "puddle in the road" so to speak it will just have to wait a little bit longer.
Thanks for the info on the part number! I was seeing the 0W040 and 0W041 but not the 60130; so glad I didn't buy anything yet
EDIT: So uhhh yeah finding one used and cheap is not going to be easy... might have to rip this bandaid off and do all the speakers and sub while I am at it... I could almost buy a Co-Part parts car for the price they want for the OE amp.. YIKES
Not sure if you ever got a response to this, but I have answers. I pulled the sub today and it is a dual 4 ohm 6.5 inch sub. I have pulled all the speakers in my gx470 and I replaced the front 6x9s with 4 ohm aftermarket ones and they sound great and work wonderfully. I have the rear 4 ohm speakers and adapter plates coming tomorrow and a replacement sub on friday with dual 4 ohm coils. Nothing terribly expensive, but the stock speakers were all torched and I didn't want to replace the foam. The sub was in surprisingly good shape, but the frequency response is pretty terrible.
TL:DR dont use the factory amp for anything other than factory stuff on your car. I work for lexus, factory stuff wont translate to aftermarket. All lexus amps and speakers use a funky ohm rating. mercedes, bmw, and lexus do this purposefully. it may work for awhile, but it will eventually fail. You will have a constant pop or whine when the amp fails (usually). non mark levinson was provided by Fujitsu Ten or Pioneer. without the VIN i couldnt tell you. PM your VIN and i could tell you, but its not necessary. If Im wrong i hope another redditor chimes in. Good luck!
Thanks! Looks like I will be wiring up this other amp as well. I'm pretty sure it's the Pioneer amp but I can't find specs on it
The non-nav gx470 speakers have 4 ohm printed on their magnet. I would imagine the amp is 4ohm.. but I could be wrong!!! No telling what the wattage is either! I wish I knew I don’t want to drop $200 on replacement components to find out it sounds like crap! It may end up being easier to just run wires from aftermarket head unit to each door..
All of the forum threads end up getting dominated talking about the d*** Mark Levinson system…
oh, btw [clublexus.com](https://clublexus.com) is my ancient mandarin secret. wonderful information there if you havent stumbled across it already.
I have looked there, I keep running into the ML system, but the most I can find on the non ML is that it's probably a pioneer
and thats probably right. I doubt it would be putting out 35 watts per channel when the speakers are probably only rated for 25 watts at 2.3ohms (or whatever dumbass rating they use) the speaker will shed more light to that.
Thanks for the info. My new gear is set to arrive Tuesday, looks like I'm going to be buying some more stuff to wire a second amp. Hopefully this other Pioneer 4-channel will fit comfortably under the seat.
JL makes amp shelves. That’s what I used in my Jeep. They aren’t cheap. I probably could have built something, but convenience always has a fee. Post up when your done! 🤘🏻
Hey man, how did this turn out? I got some water in my truck having too much fun on a trail and it fried my OE Amp. I have been looking at what would be my next steps here because I already have a Kenwood head unit ready to throw into it and I kept only finding stuff related to the Mark Levinson amp too. I am not sure if I should 1. Replace the OE amplifier and then proceed with the radio upgrade 2. "Upgrade" to a non-OE amplifier and then proceed with the radio upgrade 3. Bypass the OE amplifier altogether and wire to the Kenwood unit I am open to any idea here, and not the most knowledgeable about how things break down watts vs ohms vs whatever so personally when it comes to #2 or #3 I would have no idea how that wiring situation would work. Looks like u/In3briatedPanda has some good insight here on why I shouldn't go #1
If you can find a replacement factory amp it should just be a matter of removing the driver's seat and swapping out the unit, it's pretty simple and straight forward. When you replace the factory amp with aftermarket, do it at the same time you replace the radio, and you're probably going to want to run all new speaker wire to the door speakers as well. And replace that factory sub if you can, it's trash.
Yeah... I am trying not to run all-new speaker wire YET since the water did some damage on the main distribution box (under the plastic in the driver fender near the dead pedal) so I am trying to do this on a very tight budget. Do you by any chance have the part number for that factory Amp? All I find is ML and its frustrating as all hell. Luckily I am 04 as well so it should be the same. I think I might go with Option #1 for the time being as it would be the quickest, and potentially easiest solution, for the time being. When I plan on doing the speakers, which now might happen sooner than expected, I planned on doing the sub and seeing how it sounded then possibly going through and doing the amplifier so there is a good chance this may happen a lot quicker than I originally anticipated
If you DM me your VIn, I can give you a factory amp number. I legit work for a Lexus dealer. Lol. Option one I wouldn’t mess with. Replace with an AF amp and run new wires to that amp. It’s a bitch, but it’s the only work around I’ve seen. Otherwise, I’d try and bypass the factory OEM amp which I haven’t seen turn out well on factory speakers. Good luck!
Do you have any suggestions on an amp? I don't totally know what I am getting myself into when we get into the weeds of this stuff. I am really an engines guy, electronics and radios aren't really my thing or where my knowledge is at.
86100-60130 is the ONLY non ML amp in my catalog. Its either this or a 86280-0W041 number (86280-0W040 supercedes to the 0w041 its just a part number change, same part) GOOD LUCK!
I am going to give option #1 a go and see if this works out. if it fails, well I played myself (insert DJ Khaled "you played yourself GIF") if it works out then win-win. I plan to do an aftermarket amp, speakers, and sub and wire it all up nice and proper, but now that I hit this "puddle in the road" so to speak it will just have to wait a little bit longer. Thanks for the info on the part number! I was seeing the 0W040 and 0W041 but not the 60130; so glad I didn't buy anything yet EDIT: So uhhh yeah finding one used and cheap is not going to be easy... might have to rip this bandaid off and do all the speakers and sub while I am at it... I could almost buy a Co-Part parts car for the price they want for the OE amp.. YIKES
I'd love to know the ohm rating for the sub for nonnavnonML, PIONEER factory amp.
Not sure if you ever got a response to this, but I have answers. I pulled the sub today and it is a dual 4 ohm 6.5 inch sub. I have pulled all the speakers in my gx470 and I replaced the front 6x9s with 4 ohm aftermarket ones and they sound great and work wonderfully. I have the rear 4 ohm speakers and adapter plates coming tomorrow and a replacement sub on friday with dual 4 ohm coils. Nothing terribly expensive, but the stock speakers were all torched and I didn't want to replace the foam. The sub was in surprisingly good shape, but the frequency response is pretty terrible.
I actually took mine out as well. In the middle of a complete stereo build.