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Buying And Fitting Secondhand Satnav


bsafirebird
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I see you can pick up secondhand Toyota SATNAV on eBay for about £90. I'm buying a 54 Plate 1.3 Yaris Blue. Could I fit one of these secondhand units easily, or do you have to change or add to the existing wiring loom and remove the dash to do the job. Any help or tips appreciated Thanks. :thumbsup:

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Firstly, take care!

I have seen a number of times, items being advertised as sat nav for a Yaris, only to be the screen/control panel in the dash... The actual computer is a DVD sized box, usually tns 200, for this and same age Avinsis. The Yaris one fits under the passenger seat and they say cut the carpet to fit... This is rubbish as the Avensis one has a dust cover/bag with a velcro underside that sticks in the boot and this also can be used under the Yaris seat to save butchering your carpet. you will also save on fitting the required brackets too, if you do this.

If you get the proper item, find out if they have the loom, too as they are either quite pricey or even obselete, now. Try to get the system intact and you will also need the aerial and the little magnet pad that holds it in place, on the dashboard.

fitting is a little time consuming and removal will be too, hence often they will be simply "unplugged" and sold without wiring. At that amount of money, I would expect EVERYTHING I NEEDED to fit it. If you find a complete system, have you also got the wiring diagram?

In lower spec cars, you also needed to upgrade the interior screen/control panel too as they were not compatible with the sat nav for some (Stingy Toyota) Reason.

That said, with a little spare time as you have to remove the dash centre, dash Speakers, etc, to wire up the system, once fitted it is a useful tool and less likely to be stolen than a stand alone system, if you forget to hide it. The only way someone knows you have it is the small aerial, which is easy to hide behind a tax sisc/ parking permit etc!

Mustn't forget, you will aslo need the C.D. that operates the system.. Try to get the latest one you can.

I have heard that the later, DVD based tns 300 can also fit and I think it is swappable with the c.d. version, not needing to change the wiring but it may need the later aerial. Not 100% there, though!

I got mine a few months after buying the car from new, off eBay for around £200 but Tom-Toms etc were dearer then and the genuine Toyota system was well over a grand, plus fitting! Still working well but as with any sat nav, roads DO change over time so they slowly become obsolete.

I would hazzard a guess that most stand alones, 7-8 years old are either giving mis-directions or are dead now anyway!

So, take care but it is worth it!

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You can download the official Toyota installation guide here, together with installation instructions for any other Toyota dealer-fit accessories.

That will give you a step by step guide of what's involved.

http://www.toyota-tech.eu/Aim.aspx?menuitem=2

Its listed under "Navigation" installation manual. I think the Yaris UK unit is a TNS300.

From reading the guide, it looks like you need to be sure you get the sat nav unit, the wiring loom and the GPS antenna, otherwise you're on a hiding to nothing trying to retrofit...

The other issue is that you will also have "old maps" and a very rudimentary Navigation system that's ten years out of date in terms of its software design.

Much better really to spend the cash on an up to date TomTom unit or other current model....

There was a chap on the forum recently was thinking of having a go, just to see if it could be done, but not sure if he went ahead....

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I looked at it. Most second hand systems are incomplete - as above you need lots of kit. And the SatNav disks are out of date and expensive.

Buy a TomTom .. cheape and better..

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Thanks for everyone's comments, I think I'll take the advice and just get an aftermarket one, eBay seems a bit too much of a risk.

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I found the TNS 200 tricky to use, & with an out of date disk I decided it wasn't worth upgrading.

I asked for a Tom Tom last Xmas, which has mostly being reliable & easy to use, give or take 1 or 2 oddball junctions.

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If I were you mate I'd just buy a Tom Tom. As Gar said the stand alone ones eventually become obsolete and can be a bugger to fix. You can buy a decent Tom Tom for £100 or there abouts, you can take it anywhere and everywhere with you, as long as you plug it into your computer every now and then you can update it with loads of user corrections and additions free. I got my Tom Tom Routes IQ edition from Argos for £140 last year and that was with a three year warranty. I've no idea where I'd be without it and its a damned sight easier to use than an inbuilt one! Also, I update it regularly so I know it won't send me up the garden path!

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