Vehicle Guide

2016-2021 Toyota Land Cruiser Upgrade Guide

The 2016-2021 Toyota Land Cruiser upgrades that matter most start with the screen. These final 200 Series trucks left the factory without CarPlay in the years when nearly everything else on the road was getting it, and owners have been improvising around that gap ever since. Our wireless CarPlay retrofits put CarPlay and Android Auto on the factory display without cutting a wire, the ShiftPower SP26 wakes up the throttle, and sound deadening quiets the cabin. Everything here is plug and play, and everything comes back out cleanly if the truck ever returns to stock.

Wireless CarPlay for the 2016-2021 Toyota Land Cruiser

The 200 Series outlasted its infotainment by a decade. These trucks routinely pass 200,000 miles, which means a 2016 model is barely broken in mechanically while its factory navigation shows roads as they existed years ago. So owners improvise: a phone clamped to a vent mount, a charging cable draped across the console, glances down at a five inch phone screen while a perfectly good factory display shows a compass. That is the daily reality our S-Connect kits are built to end.

The retrofit puts wireless CarPlay and Android Auto on the factory screen itself, and two kits cover these years, split cleanly by model year. The LGVIF-CB4W wireless CarPlay kit fits the 2016-2018 Land Cruiser with factory navigation, the same hardware family we install in the Lexus GX 460. The LGVIF-CB6W wireless CarPlay kit covers the 2019-2021 Land Cruiser. If you are not sure which side of the split your truck lands on, or which navigation package it has, send us your VIN and a photo of your screen and we will confirm the right kit before you order.

What the install involves

The work happens behind the factory display, not at the radio. Dash trim comes off, the interface connects in line with the factory harness using OEM style plugs, and the trim goes back on. Nothing gets cut, drilled, or spliced, which is why the whole job reverses cleanly if you ever want the truck back to stock or need to hand it to the next owner exactly as Toyota built it.

Most owners handle the install with basic hand tools in an afternoon, and nearly every product we sell has an install video on our YouTube channel, so you can preview each step before a single trim tool comes out. If you would rather hand it off, book an appointment at our La Mirada, CA facility and most installs are finished the same day as the appointment.

What stays factory

Everything you already like about the interior stays put. The factory screen stays in the dash, so there is no aftermarket head unit changing the look Toyota designed. The backup camera keeps working exactly as before, the steering wheel controls keep doing their jobs, and the factory functions are still there behind a button press whenever you want them.

Audio routes through the factory Bluetooth system by design, so the volume knob and the steering wheel volume controls stay in charge, and your music, navigation prompts, and phone calls all play through the truck's speakers the same way factory sources do. And if your truck has the factory rear DVD entertainment module, the kit works alongside it, so the rear seats keep their movie while CarPlay runs up front.

Living with it day to day

The change is automatic in the best sense. Wireless means your phone stays in your pocket; the connection starts when you start the truck, and current maps, your music, and your messages appear on the screen the truck came with. Wireless CarPlay uses Bluetooth for the initial handshake and WiFi to carry the session, so keep both enabled on your phone and the truck takes care of the rest. If you are weighing connection types before you buy, our article on wired vs wireless CarPlay lays out the tradeoffs in detail.

Two honest notes before you order. The kit adds CarPlay to the factory screen, it does not replace the screen itself, so the display hardware and resolution stay whatever Toyota built. And the interface streams CarPlay and Android Auto from your phone rather than adding standalone apps to the factory system, so navigation and streaming still ride on the phone's data connection. S-Connect kits carry a 3 year warranty, and the full Toyota CarPlay and Android Auto collection covers the other Toyotas in your driveway.

ShiftPower SP26: sharper throttle response, honest expectations

The accelerator pedal in these trucks is drive by wire: the pedal sends an electronic signal, the computer decides how the throttle responds, and Toyota tuned that response conservatively. The result is the familiar 200 Series hesitation, a beat of lag between pressing the pedal and feeling the truck move, most noticeable pulling into traffic or rolling onto an on-ramp with a lot of truck to motivate. The ShiftPower SP26 throttle response controller installs at the accelerator pedal connector with OEM style plugs and reshapes that pedal signal, so the truck responds sooner and feels more awake with the same input from your foot. Multiple drive modes let you choose how aggressive the remap feels, from a subtle sharpening to a noticeably eager tip-in.

We frame this one honestly because the category invites overclaiming. A throttle controller does not add horsepower or torque; it changes when the power you already have shows up, not how much there is. In the other direction, eco mode softens the pedal mapping, which smooths your inputs and helps improve fuel economy for many drivers. The SP26 carries a 3 year warranty and unplugs in minutes to return the truck to stock. Our article on what a throttle controller does covers the technology in more depth.

Sound deadening: the audio upgrade that applies here

First, the plain honest sentence this section needs: we do not currently make an amplifier kit for the 2016-2021 Land Cruiser, so sound deadening is the audio upgrade that applies to this truck. It is also a genuinely effective one, because the factory system's biggest enemy in a 200 Series is not power, it is noise. A Land Cruiser on all terrain tires generates a constant floor of tire roar and wind rush at highway speed, and big steel door skins resonate right along with it.

Sound deadening material adds mass and damping to the door skins and body panels so they stop vibrating with the road. The payoff shows up twice. The cabin is calmer on the highway, which matters in a truck that gets driven across whole states, and the factory audio sounds noticeably better because the quiet parts of a song are no longer buried under the noise floor. Browse the kits in our sound deadening collection, and if you are booking a CarPlay install with us, pair the two jobs. We install everything we sell, including our sound deadening, and one appointment can cover both.

2016-2021 Land Cruiser upgrades at a glance

Everything below is plug and play with OEM style connectors. Nothing requires cutting a wire, and every upgrade reverses at trade in time.

Where to start: what we see in the shop

The CarPlay kit is the obvious first move, because it modernizes the thing you touch on every single drive. Most 200 Series owners stop there and are happy. The ShiftPower SP26 is the easy second step; it plugs in at the pedal connector in minutes and changes how the truck feels every time you pull away from a stop. Sound deadening is the project for owners who road trip, and it pairs naturally with an install appointment since the interior is already being opened up.

Combining upgrades saves labor. One appointment at our La Mirada, CA facility can cover the whole list, and most installs are finished the same day as the appointment. If you would rather do it in the garage, nearly every product we sell has an install video on our YouTube channel, so you can preview each job before a single trim tool comes out.