Where Is the DCM in a 2021 Lexus ES250 / ES300h / ES350?

The DCM — the Data Communication Module, part of Safety Connect / Connected Services — is the module our bypass harness plugs into. Finding it is the only tricky part of the install. Pick your vehicle and we will show you where it lives and what has to come apart to reach it.

Not sure whether your vehicle even has one? Look for an SOS or Call Toyota button near the rear-view mirror or in the overhead console. No button means no DCM — and no need for the bypass harness.

Short answer

Low in the centre console, at the base of the centre stack.

Moderate - trim panels and two 10mm nuts, no radio removal. From a customer's install on a 2023 ES 350, not a factory procedure.

What it looks like in the car

Photos from vehicles we and our customers have actually had apart.

DCM location photo - Lexus ES250 / ES300h / ES350 — Start with the leather kick panels on each side of the centre console. They unclip with a trim tool.

Where it is

At the front of the centre console, centred in the car rather than off toward the driver's side, directly below the strip of seat heater/ventilation switches at the base of the centre stack. It is reached from below, through the console side kick panels and the console trim - the radio does not have to come out. The module is held by two 10mm nuts on metal brackets, with its connectors on the back face.

How to get to it

1. Block the wheels. Roll all the windows down and unlock the doors (so you cannot be locked out with the battery off). 2. Put the car in neutral - the console trim has to rotate around the shifter - then switch it off and disconnect the negative battery terminal. 3. Remove the leather kick panels on the driver and passenger sides of the centre console. 4. Remove the small trim piece between the centre console and the seat heater/cooling switches. 5. Pull up the centre console trim and rotate it 90 degrees around the shifter. The DCM is now visible, directly below the seat heater switches. 6. Put a towel or rag under the DCM before you touch the nuts - they are easy to drop. An extending magnet retrieves them if one falls. 7. Remove the two 10mm nuts holding the DCM brackets. The connectors are on the back of the module. 8. Working from the passenger side, pivot the DCM just enough to unplug the connectors one at a time, then fit the AHH-DCM77 between them. 9. Refitting: the driver-side nut is the awkward one. Put a small piece of tape between the nut and the socket so it stays on the socket.

No SOS button near the rear-view mirror or overhead console means the vehicle was built without Safety Connect - there is no DCM to bypass and this kit is not needed.

The bypass harness for this vehicle

Our bypass kit disconnects the DCM without losing your front right speaker or the hands-free Bluetooth microphone — the two things that stop working if you simply unplug the module.

See the AHH-DCM77 DCM bypass harness »

Still cannot find it, or your trim looks different? Email us with your year, model, and a photo of your dash and we will point you straight at it.

Vehicles we have mapped so far

We are adding vehicles as we confirm them. Do not see yours? Ask us — that is how this list grows.

Looking for the harness itself? AHH-DCM77 (2020 and newer) — AHH-DCM92 (2016-2020).