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Upgrading MMI to Carplay or Android etc

Posted: Mon May 18, 2020 5:47 am
by pisstron
Hi all,

It's my first time posting here and I own a 2009 RS6 Avant in black and I am in Hong Kong. It's fairly stock but with a mild tune and 2nd cat delete, and in pretty good condition throughout and with under 40,000kms... but it feels dated when using CDs and SD cards etc.

I tried ordering an AMI from ebay with a bovee Bluetooth connector but haven't been able to get it to work.

Thinking of a different approach, is there any way to replace/upgrade the ageing MMI unit to something more modern, perhaps with CarPlay or Android etc please? Would like it to remain looking fairly stock.

Cheers in advance!

:blackrs4:

Re: Upgrading MMI to Carplay or Android etc

Posted: Mon May 18, 2020 10:44 am
by welwynnick

Re: Upgrading MMI to Carplay or Android etc

Posted: Mon May 18, 2020 1:06 pm
by pcorpe
I've done this on mine, similar to the 4th URL posted above (though sourced elsewhere)
it was a pita to get done, just not enough room, and needing 4 hands etc, but the outcome has been great, i wish i'd gone with a wireless carplay on hindsight and will like swap out when i have the time and built a reserve of patience.

It's not as good an approach to the truly built-in and modern systems, but to get you most of the way there i've really enjoyed the results...

Re: Upgrading MMI to Carplay or Android etc

Posted: Mon May 18, 2020 1:57 pm
by welwynnick
pcorpe wrote:
Mon May 18, 2020 1:06 pm
I've done this on mine, similar to the 4th URL posted above (though sourced elsewhere)
it was a pita to get done, just not enough room, and needing 4 hands etc, but the outcome has been great, i wish i'd gone with a wireless carplay on hindsight and will like swap out when i have the time and built a reserve of patience.
It's not as good an approach to the truly built-in and modern systems, but to get you most of the way there i've really enjoyed the results...
Did you get a right hand drive unit?

Where did you get it from?

Cheers,

Nick

Re: Upgrading MMI to Carplay or Android etc

Posted: Mon May 18, 2020 2:16 pm
by pcorpe
not sure i had a 'handed' version not even sure there is such a thing...?
my rs6 is RHD but question the relevance?

the mod i had required a box of tricks hidden in behind the glove box, which (using connectors) spliced into various circuits etc. the only wire i had to splice into was on the aircon unit in the central dash (to get a canbus feed i think)

the system behaves 99% of the time, occasionally i get temp display issues with revering camera view but not enough to cause big issue.

Re: Upgrading MMI to Carplay or Android etc

Posted: Tue May 19, 2020 1:18 am
by pisstron
Thanks - some of them look pretty good but all of the descriptions seem pretty high level and without specifics for installation instructions etc unfortunately! Might be beyond me.

Some of the Seicane ones look good but as mentioned look to be for LHD.

Re: Upgrading MMI to Carplay or Android etc

Posted: Tue May 19, 2020 7:51 am
by pcorpe
think i have the instructions somewhere if useful, it's not overly technical, the 2 biggest issues i had was getting the glove box back in (it's fully of other electronic stuff so fair weight and lining the holes up was way harder than i'd expected) and fitting the box of tricks as it's a fair size locations to hide it were limited.

Re: Upgrading MMI to Carplay or Android etc

Posted: Tue May 19, 2020 7:58 am
by pcorpe
not seen the Seicane one before. the factor i was worried about mine was to keep the original MMI functions etc. though the Seicane looks to be LHD, i don't think it replicates the MMI for example showing heated seat controls or setting the car options, or inbuilt tel/nav etc. for me i had to retain that, else might just as well replace the whole system. it's a personal preference thing, but worth keeping an eye out for if you'd not spotted.