Delete Playlists Or Tracks from HDD

In my last post, I described how to initialize the content in the HDD. If you would like to delete only specific playlist or tracks from the HDD then you can do the following:

Touch the DISC button on the HU to acces to the HDD function. Once you activated the HDD function , it will automatically play the previously selected Playlist as shown in the following screen.

Touch the "PLAY LIST" button at the top right and it will bring you to this screen.
Touch the "Next Page" (次ページ) button on the screen, it will bring you to the following screen. Touch the "Delete" (削除) button to bring up the "Playlist Delete" screen.

To select the playlist to delete, just touch on the playlist to highlight it and the touch the "Delete" (削除) button. If you want to delete all playlist, touch the "Select All" (全て選択) button and then touch the "Delete All" (
全て解除) button. In either case, when prompted on the next screen, just touch "Yes" to confirm the deletion.

Similarly, to delete tracks from the HDD, do the following:

Touch the TRACK button to bring up the Track List as shown below. Touch the "Next Page" (次ページ) button on the screen to bring up the next page.

Touch the "Delete" (削除) button to bring up the "Track Delete" screen.

The operation to delete a track is the same as those for deleting playlist as described above.

Just be careful with your selection. If you accidentally deleted any of the playlist or track, then you'll have to record them again.

Initialize the Content in the HDD

Previously I wrote a post on how to operate the HDD function on the new facelift model. Many Toyota Alphard owners like the fact that the HU has a 30GB hard disk so they can store their favourite songs into the hard disk. Normally the content of the hard disk is not erased when the cars are imported into here. Therefore there are a lot of Japanese songs stored in the hard disk. Many owners either don’t listen to Japanese songs or they don’t like to cluster the hard disk with songs that they don’t need. In this post, I will post instruction on how to erase the content in the hard disk.

If you want to erase the entire contents in the hard disk then here are the steps.

Start by pressing the G-Book (情報-G) button to bring up it main menu.

Touch the “Next Page” (次ページ) button to access the next page.

Touch the "Erase Personal Information" (個人情報消去) button and it will bring up the "Initialize Personal Information" (個人情報初期化) screen.

On this screen you can initialize the stored contents related to GPS location information, telephone phone book, songs recording etc. Touch the "Initialize" (初期化する) button to perform the initialization.

Touch the "Yes" (はい) button to confirmation the initialization process. It only take a few seconds to complete the initialization! Well I did it on my HU and I lost all the Japanese songs that I like! If you are not sure, then just touch the "No" (いいえ) button to back off.

In the next post, I will describe how you can delete individual playlist or track.

Toyota Vellfire in the Lime Light

I was reading the headline in the Sun two days ago and saw that a Toyota Alphard is in the limelight for the wrong reason. The article was on Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) probing the allegation that the wife of the Health Ministry had received a Toyota Alphard as a birthday gift from a contractor who won a ministry tender. I am not much into politic so I am not really that interested in the motives and timing of this allegation. What interest me are the details that goes behind the allegation.

The allegation was that the wife of the Health Ministry had received a Toyota Alphard which cost RM574,884.10 in January 2009 as a birthday present from a Health Ministry construction contractor. The Sun article then reported that a check by them revealed that a Toyota Vellfire (not an Alphard) manufactured in Japan in February 2008 was imported as a used car and registered in January 2009. The reported purchase price was RM384,884.10 and the loan approved by a bank was for RM250,000.00. The report even quoted the actual engine specification and the chassis number of this car! The same article also reported in this news but the difference is in the actual selling price of the car. A check with the chassis number provided in the article confirmed that this car is manufactured in February 2008. However without the full model code I can't confirm if it is really an Alphard or a Vellfire as mentioned in my previous post.

The reason I was interested in this article was that during that same time period I was actively looking for my giant. At that time the 2nd generation Toyota Alphard and Toyota Vellfire were brought in for the first time by a few dealers to sell as a new car. As I was going in and out of the Cheras Autocity dealers' premises I saw a couple of unit of Toyota Vellfire then. Just to satisfy my interest I did asked for the price of the Toyota Vellfire 3.5 model and was quoted a price around RM570K. This is consistent with what was reported in that article. Well I guess what the reporter did not do is to find out how did the buyer managed to secure the car at 35% discount from the dealer price!

Due to the high price of these high end models there were only a handful of units were available but even then they get snapped up pretty fast by those who can afford it because of the exclusivity of owning one. Then about 3 months down the road, I heard from some of the dealers that they have stop selling these models as these model cannot be sold as new car under the Approved Permit system. Since the 2nd generation Toyota Alphard and Toyota Vellfire was only launched in May 2008 in Japan, it has not reached a minimum of one year period at that time to qualify as an imported used car. Therefore for a period of I think 3 months from April 2009 there were no dealers bringing in these models. Then in late July 2009 only some dealers started to bring in these models into the country again. By then the price of these model has started to drop as the demands pick up.

Back in late July 2009 I think the top of the line Toyota Vellfire was still going for about RM490K and recently in my last visit to Cheras Autocity, it has drop to about RM440K. Even the lowest spec model, the 2nd generation Toyota Alphard 2.4L model, has finally dropped below the RM300K mark beginning of this month.

In fact in the last visit to Cheras Autocity, the number of 2nd generation Toyota Alphard/Vellfire on display has actually out-numbered the 1st generation Toyota Alphard. Look like the dealers are now focusing on selling higher priced model to try to catch the demands while it is still hot.

ICE Setup Photos - Part II

This is the 2nd part of the photo sequence of my ICE installation process.

Step 14: Before the center console panel is removed to access to the wiring behind the HU.

Step 15: Once the panel is removed, released the two screws on each side of the HU and the HU can be detached as shown

Step 16 - Look at the cluster of wiring behind the HU. Not easy to identify which is which if you are not familiar with the wiring!

Step 17 - The default wiring will turn off the LCD when the car is on the move. Jumpered the wire on this switch to by pass this feature.

Step 18 - Connect the wires from new DVD player to the wire-clusters at the side that run to the side speakers and the rear speakers.
Step 19: Lay out all the wires that connects the DVD player, amplifier and the speakers below the console box between the two front seats

Step 20: Mount the DVD player. My original plan is to mount the player inside the tray underneath the center console. However the DVD player is too wide to fit into the tray so I decided to mounted it here instead.

Step 21: To power the DVD player, the installer tap the power from the back panel behind the center console box which provide power source to accessories like external DVD/CD player or game console.

Step 22 - Here is a close up of the power source from the back panel.

Step 23 - Mounted the Bazooka tube subwoofer behind the 3rd row seats. This arrangement allow me to remove the subwoofer (if needed) to maximize the space at the rear of the car.

Step 24 - I also installed a voltage meter next to the battery to give me reading of the voltage that is supplied to the car.

Hope these photos give those who plan to ICE their giants a sense of what is involved in such an installation.

Cheers

ICE Setup Photos - Part 1

Here are the photos I took during my ICE installation process. Enjoy.
Step 1 - The driver seat is removed

Step 2 - The driver side side step is removed

Step 3 - The Amplifier is mounted below the driver seat

Step 4 - The seat bracket is reinstalled Step 5 - The driver seat is reinstalled. To access to the amplifier, just slide the driver seat to the front.

Next is to replace the door speakers and the tweeters.

Step 6 - After the door panel is removed. The main speaker is now visible.

Step 7 - The speaker is removed. Prepare to install sound damping materials on the front doors.

Step 8 - Here is a comparison between the original speaker and the new component speaker. The original speaker is make of thin paper while the new component speaker is make of aluminium die-cast and micro fiber composite cone.

Step 9 - Sound damping materials installed. I used the following sound damping materials Step 10 - The sound damping materials used on the two front doors.

Step 11 - Re-tape the original plastic cover

Step 12 - Install the new component midrange speaker

Step 13 - This photo shows the size of the original tweeter. Since the new component tweeter is too big to fit into the original location, it is mounted on each side of the dashboard as shown below.

I planned to mount the tweeter onto the pillar in future.

Step 14 - New speaker cable is ran from the new DVD player to the tweeters on the dashboard.

I will post the rest of the photos in the next post.