Audi A5 Forum & Audi S5 Forum banner

Hybrid Retrofit of Apple Carplay in 2009-2015 cars

189K views 483 replies 91 participants last post by  Dulox 
#1 ·
Hi

All just thought i would share i am getting a kit that allows you to retrofit an aftermarket carplay kit to a 3G MMI high/+ system without compromising the OEM system in my 2012 sportback A5

It's accessed via the navigation button, press and hold for three seconds to activate the carplay screen

This is something i have been looking for for ages, i hope it works, the kit is getting delivered today and if I can get pawn the kids onto the grandparents this weekend i'm hoping to get it installed

Installation pictures and video will follow if you want to follow the thread
 
Discussion starter · #13 ·
Hi All,

Sorry for lack of response I've tried to reply a few times but A5OC has a viscous 10 character password policy and none of my usual passwords comply with this so i keep forgetting it

The install (eventually) went great - i tried to do a video of the functionality this morning however when i start recording video with my iPhone it knocks off screen whatever you are doing with carplay for obvious reasons, i'm at work at the moment but i'll get my wife's iPhone later this evening to record a video demo of me using all the functions

The unit is a Chinese built model, I say this as it has a the apple logo on it with a stupid "Apple cool Play" title on it as a splash screen, once your phone is linked with carplay though you never see this again, in saying this though the graphics look very clear and sharp, the audio quality is just as good as my 3G MMI system just like you would expect a genuine carplay system to be - maybe carplay is standardised software and they just copied it to get it right? Anyway it’s the first Chinese car system (and i have been through quite a few in my years) i have ever come across that i'm satisfied with the quality of it

Now my A5 came with standard concert stereo - I'm not a car technician but have tinkered in the past before fitting my own stereo and I retrofitted the 3G MMI High system myself, those who have looked at doing this know it is a massive job not for the faint hearted but i bravely undertook it 3 years ago and it went relatively well with the exception waiting a few weeks for a wiring loom having to be custom made by a polish company. I think if my car came with 3G MMI high as standard I would've probably installed this Carplay system in 30mins to an hour instead of the 4 hours it took me trying to figure out which loom goes where and to discover that i never wired back in my AUX from the original retrofit

It didn't help that the system came with toilet paper instructions - i had to fend for myself in this area although all the cables are labelled i managed to figure it out myself, maybe it would be a lot easier if your Audi comes with 3G MMI high/+ as standard

Operation is very seamless and simple, once you have connected your IPhone to the USB port of the carplay system (see pic attached), the OEM MMI interface needs to be the in the AUX setting under your media, before switching to it you have to press MEDIA -> SOURCES -> and switch to AUX, once you have done this you simply press and hold NAV for 3 seconds and your OEM system boots into this carplay system

All functionality looks sounds and works great, you get:

Phone
Music
Maps
Messages
Now Playing
Podcasts
AudioBooks

Siri responds to just 'hey Siri' and the 5 times I ask her to do different tasks just to have a play around she worked 100% of the time!

I've only used carplay on a hire car in experience in spain last year before so not too clued up on how carplay should work but everything seems to be identical, for instance when you enter the maps application you get to zoom in and out, select previous destination, checkout points of interest, previous destinations etc, in podcasts you get to option to skip back and forwards 15 seconds, speed up slow down etc everything was identical to my car hire experience although this carplay system also has two extra options,- Spotify and ‘Return to main Audi Navigation’ although this last one is pointless since you simply press RADIO on your OEM console and it just flicks back to radio as expected

I don't have a Spotify account so could not test this out

I got a microphone with the system however this seems to be redundant as the apply car play uses my OEM microphone, everything is controlled by the standard OEM centre knob either using the joystick or the rotary knob itself. I called my wife from the system when I installed it and she said I was clear as a bell with audio so big thumbs up for phone call quality!

So the bad parts about the system

1) Doesn't seem to work with Bluetooth, i.e you can’t just jump into your car and expect your iPhone to automatically, you have to get your phone out of your pocket and plug into your lighting cable before setting off - there is loads of spare cable for you to install the USB port into your centre armrest or glovebox so not so much of a problem just a farce IMO having to do this every time you get into the car

2) I was told to voice activate SIRI you can simply press and hold the steering talk function for 3 seconds and it will activate SIRI, this doesn't work, instead you can just say "Hey Siri" (since your iPhone is plugged in it should automatically activate) - Or you can activate Siri by whatever menu you are in on the carplay system - I'm not to bothered about this since it's much quicker and easier to activate Siri by saying 'Hey Siri' instead of pressing and holding the talk button for three seconds and like I mentioned before it worked seamlessly with my voice every time I tried it

3) Cameras, it came with a front and rear camera, rear camera looks to be a proper Audi retrofit since it comes with the number plate light. They don't seem to activate when i put the car in reverse however i haven't plugged them in yet as i ran out of time fiddling with my retrofit loom but surely when I stick the car in reverse I should get some sort of blank screen, anyway i'm going to have a second attempt at this next Saturday with the cameras properly powered up before writing this off - maybe i need to activate some sort of reverse camera option using VCDS too

4) There is a loom with this kit called RADAR- I haven't the foggiest what this connects to it kind of looks like OBDC port but isn't quite the same so i just left it unplugged - It may be why the reverse camera or steering talk or bluetooth carplay isn't working. Or it might be for an option on the KIT called IPAS which i think is something to do with Intelligent Parking Activated System - my car doesn't have that so i just dismissed it as all other functions seem to work fine

Besides above (well maybe point 1 but i suppose i'll have to live with that) i am pleased as punch with it, I love my A5 Quattro I bought it with 1200 miles on the clock and I wanted to keep it until run it into the ground but lack of ever being able to have integration with it via my iPhone podcasts and crap sat nav (in comparison to Apple Maps) was niggling at me. Think this system has breathed new life into the car for me to continue to keep it for another 5 years

I did this video mid install on saturday before i figured out you need to switch to AUX for the audio to work, If kids permit I will post a better video later tonight showing all features

 

Attachments

Top