Retrofitting CarPlay in an Audi

Retrofitting CarPlay in an Audi

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Discussion

Sim75

Original Poster:

912 posts

146 months

Sunday 18th September 2022
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I’m looking at doing this in a Gen 1 A1 (8x)
Has anyone done this? Reversing camera also.

There seems to be a host of companies all selling the units, some at £200 on eBay, some £500 elsewhere. - the more legitimate looking outlets.

Obviously don’t want to pay over the odds, but also don’t want a dog slow interface either.

Reason? I just think the standard system is pants looking. For a 2018 it’s woeful tbh.

Do you need to route the wires from the camera all the way back to the HU? They sell it as a *plug n play* £50 add on.

457892345

406 posts

83 months

Sunday 18th September 2022
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The easiest thing to do is buy an aftermarket android head unit, for my car there was a Chinese made unit designed to look oem on Ali express that ended up costing £400 or so but was well worth it and basically a vital mod in my eyes,i suspect there will be similar for an a1.

Alorotom

12,141 posts

194 months

Sunday 18th September 2022
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Yes. I did it in my A5 - I bought one of the big screen kits from AliExpress about 12mths ago and the install was very straight forward and there are plenty of YouTube tutorials for it … the results …







catso

14,854 posts

274 months

Sunday 18th September 2022
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I fitted the kit from; https://unique-ad.co.uk/product/audi-a4-carplay-bo... in my S4 and it works great, also fitted the reversing camera at the same time.

Integrates really well considering the car was never designed for it, even has a touchscreen overlay for the carplay side and it does both wireless and plugged connection (though wireless kills your phone battery).

Works equally as well as the OEM carplay in my Wife's Q2 and, other than the lack of a dedicated carplay button on the centre console (it 'piggy-backs' the existing buttons plus has the touchscreen that the Q2 OEM doesn't and of course voice control/siri), you'd never know it was a retrofit.

Not the cheapest option but works very well and been 100% reliable.

And, yes you need to run the cable from the (tailgate catch) rearview camera to the unit under the dash - this was the hardest part of the job.

Edited by catso on Sunday 18th September 13:04