Android auto on a 2015 S

My understanding was that you just need a machine to run VM. Jack's computer needs Win 7 pro, because he's the one operating (remotely, of course) the VAS device. So, I could probably even use my McBook Pro, I suppose VM works reliably on it...or not?

I use a windows xp VM running on a linux notebook for VCDS. I use Virtualbox to run the VM. I don't have any issues. USB latency is a bit higher on a VM than native but not enough to make any difference. Just make sure you configure your USB filters in your VM software so that the USB device is automatically connected to the VM when it is attached to the host machine.

Just returned from a business trip and boy, was I eager to try the new HU (after I returned the defective $30 back to the ebay seller). This works! I also believe it comes from a car with Fender because 'park pilot' appeared on the screen at some point and I'm pretty sure that means the car was either an SE or SEL trim. So, I'm hoping this means less coding trouble. I still don't have the harness and the plastic prying tools (so I didn't even attempt to install the screen). All parts look like new and I'm hoping the swap will go smoothly.

Later edit: Later today I grew impatient so I wrapped a small steel prying tool from Home Depot in electrical tape and tried to swap the screen. Total success, didn't think it was going to be this easy! The vents didn't come out with the trim, I didn't even have to pull the very top of the trim out, just bent it upwards from below while I swapped the screens. Everything then just clicked back super easily (screen, trim etc). Being that it's ROW, I had to remove two of the notches from the white plastic connector, super easy as well. I'm not gonna put the old screen back in until I finish the install (amp, HU, remove CP, activate keys etc), so I'll drive it for a little while with everything else stock MIB1 (everything shows on screen but it's only on the left half and you see two renditions on top of each other). The screen looks considerably bigger, considerably sharper image, very responsive to touch, faster etc. I tried it with the MIB2 HU too, of course, but no sound, no XM, AppConnect is showing and asking for a device but don't have the new harness yet. Notice that it shows the wrong model (hatchback), but I suppose OBDeleven can take care of that. Rearview camera works, no issues there (better resolution, crisp image).

Some photos below for those of you who haven't done this yet (what to expect when you try the MIB2 HU and screen). Looks like replacing the amp will also be a breeze (I already removed its plastic cover and saw all the connections, screws holding it and whatnot), but I didn't try to swap the MIB2 in because I don't think I can check at this point if it works properly (being that it can't be seen by the HU until CP is removed).

One more thing: can this cause burn in? Jack's not available before the end of the month, so I was planning to stay with stock MIB1 (except for screen) until then.

Honestly I'm scared to pull dash apart. Afraid I'll break something

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jason_ said:

Honestly I'm scared to pull dash apart. Afraid I'll break something

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You don't have to tell me about it; I kept reading the original paul_elstak's DIY guide. I was apprehensive. I'm normally quite adept at doing things around house, using tools and stuff, but this seemed to require much more care.

Anyway, was much easier than I thought. The piece in the middle (around the air and thermostat knobs) just snapped loose when I swiftly pulled (with my fingers, no tool) from the lower right corner. I was just probing, I was determined to wait for the specialized prying tools to arrive in the mail. But when I saw how easily that piece came loose, I made up my mind to try the whole thing. I grabbed one of these from my tool shelves (about 5in in length):
https://www.homedepot.com/p/Dasco-P...-SearchPLPHorizontal1_rr-_-NA-_-202585548-_-N

I wrapped the ends in electrical tape and just worked the big trim piece (around screen) from the bottom up (just slide the tool under, hook it and pull firmly but not too strongly). As I wrote above, you don't even need to pull it all out, just below and on the sides, then pull it up and outwards from below (like opening a door) just enough to swap screen (did it with two of those T1005 or whatever keys, first top, then bottom). Super easy.

Then push and snap everything back in, from top to bottom. Before you do the bottom, place the middle trim piece back and snap it in together with the bottom of large piece, they need to go together, overlapping (big piece over small piece). That's it.

sportwagen3 said:

In my opinion, it was well worth the upgrade since using AA is a lot safer when driving. Feel free to ask. any questions.

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Can you please give some more explicit directions on putting the USB harness in? This is the only part I'm still unclear about and I'm not sure I get George Ab's instructions.

Pull the cubby (below HVAC controls). That's one of those "just give it a good yank" extraction jobs - up and out (toward you).

Pop the MDI connector thing out; undo its connectors.

Fish the USB connector wiring from there (cubby) to back of head unit behind glove box. That one - basically, figure out what works for you. I removed a couple screws and popped away the lower centre console plastic on the passenger side (in the footwell). I just moved it from one place where I could grab and pull up to the next until I got it behind the head unit.

I had to use my little "remote claw" thing to pull it through one of the places, but I'm pretty sure you could get by without it. In a pinch, a bicycle brake or shift cable is easy to fish to where you want it; then you can tie it around whatever you're pulling and that should get help you get it through.

Nuje said:

Pull the cubby (below HVAC controls). That's one of those "just give it a good yank" extraction jobs - up and out (toward you).

Pop the MDI connector thing out; undo its connectors.

Fish the USB connector wiring from there (cubby) to back of head unit behind glove box. That one - basically, figure out what works for you. I removed a couple screws and popped away the lower centre console plastic on the passenger side (in the footwell). I just moved it from one place where I could grab and pull up to the next until I got it behind the head unit.

I had to use my little "remote claw" thing to pull it through one of the places, but I'm pretty sure you could get by without it. In a pinch, a bicycle brake or shift cable is easy to fish to where you want it; then you can tie it around whatever you're pulling and that should get help you get it through.

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So you managed to run the harness directly, without running a routing wire/cable first? Or you did run a routing cable? If so, did you run it in the same direction as you ultimately pulled the harness tied to it (cubby to glovebox)?

Yeah - no routing cable, just the claw thing to help move things along. I started at the end that was the easiest (most room / access / visibility) which was the area under the HVAC controls; got it out into the passenger-side footwell; then from footwell up behind glovebox (opened it like you would to change the cabin pollen filter); then from there to up / behind the head unit (which I'd taken out, of course).

Nuje said:

Yeah - no routing cable, just the claw thing to help move things along. I started at the end that was the easiest (most room / access / visibility) which was the area under the HVAC controls; got it out into the passenger-side footwell; then from footwell up behind glovebox (opened it like you would to change the cabin pollen filter); then from there to up / behind the head unit (which I'd taken out, of course).

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Got it. Very clear now. Thanks!

I have a friend who'd like to do this, he has a 2015 SEL, and wants to keep Nav.

Looks like he'd need 3Q0035880 (headunit), and
5GM919605 (screen), correct? Amplifier must be the same as in all MIB2 Fender units, Nav or not.

Has anyone done this with Nav?

If he has nav, he can mirror his phones screen onto the unit. It's not exactly android auto, but the principle is the same. The MIB1 discover pro units have that capability which is nice

Pretty sure my 2015 Highline (Canadian SEL) had Discover Pro (came with every option available)...and I never came across the ability to mirror phone screen. Are you sure on that?

Nuje said:

Pull the cubby (below HVAC controls). That's one of those "just give it a good yank" extraction jobs - up and out (toward you).

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Yeah, isn't it a blessing that our cars are made in Mexico? The cubby came loose a couple of days ago as I was trying to yank and pull the MDI cable out. I took it out completely today in no time (needed to pry loose the trim above it though). No need to pull it out with pliers like paul_elstak showed us in his original retrofit post.

Nuje said:

Pretty sure my 2015 Highline (Canadian SEL) had Discover Pro (came with every option available)...and I never came across the ability to mirror phone screen. Are you sure on that?

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Yea based on what I've seen online and YouTube, you can enable mirrorlink

Had to postpone the remote session with Jack, as my usb/aux socket and harness haven't arrived yet. It's been stuck in Kentucky, somewhere 300mi away from here, since Monday. USPS already assigned a tracking # for it but they claim it hasn't been passed on to them yet. Sooo frustrating...

Nuje said:

Yeah - no routing cable, just the claw thing to help move things along. I started at the end that was the easiest (most room / access / visibility) which was the area under the HVAC controls; got it out into the passenger-side footwell; then from footwell up behind glovebox (opened it like you would to change the cabin pollen filter); then from there to up / behind the head unit (which I'd taken out, of course).

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Hey, I thought it was all clear until I saw this post on golfmk7 where the usb harness cables are routed upwards behind the screen, then they exit to the right somewhere in the middle (of where the screen would be). My impression was that you didn't go up like that, you pulled the cables down from the beginning and to the right towards the footwell. Is that correct?

Yeah - there's plenty of length on the cable harness, so I just pulled straight back from where the USB outlet would sit, down into the footwell, then behind the plastic trim of the console / footwell, and then back behind the glovebox area and from there, up to the back of the head unit.

Nuje said:

Yeah - there's plenty of length on the cable harness, so I just pulled straight back from where the USB outlet would sit, down into the footwell, then behind the plastic trim of the console / footwell, and then back behind the glovebox area and from there, up to the back of the head unit.

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That's what I thought. And that's what I'll do; I don't want to take the screen back out (with the trim around it and whatnot).

I swapped the amp in today. With the MIB1 headunit still in, I initially had sound coming out from all speakers (before I switched the ignition on, had just pressed the infotainment button). There was something different, it sounded better than before (crisper), or maybe it was all in my head (since the stock MIB1 brain was still running the show). Then, after I switched the ignition on, I only had sound on the driver's side. I suppose this means CP was activated on the amp. Am I correct? If so, I at least know the amp is in working order (looks almost new, but it's from a junkyard so you never know).

After I also swapped the MIB2 headunit in, I have no sound whatsoever. The CP message is on the screen and there's no sound (regardless of whether the ignition is on or off). Is this normal? I thought I read I should still get sound from the driver's side.

The USB harness still hasn't arrived.

I had to change one thing in VCDS coding (module 47 - change byte0 to 0x12) to get sound; but again, that was with a unit that was modified for me by APG. Not sure what you'll have to do with your setup, but you can give that a try if you like - should be able to change back if things go awry.
(But don't blame me if you can't. ).

Harness arrived today, I did what Nuje indicated and fishing it was a breeze (probably less than 10min). Once I removed the side panel I pushed the cable down into the passenger footwell. Then, from the footwell, I negotiated a hanger wire up (there are a couple of openings, I guess I was lucky to find "the right one" on my first try) until the tip showed up through a hole to the left of the box the headunit would slide into. Of course, that wasn't so lucky, as you can't connect the cables to the headunit in that situation (I mean, I haven't even tried, because it appeared that the cables would be caught in the very tight space between the casing and the headunit to the left as you push it back in). There is a hole in the back of the casing as well, so I pulled the hanger wire back a bit, twisted it slightly and pushed upwards again, and this time "Bingo!", it came straight through that one. Then closed the glovebox, cut the excess wire in the footwell, bent that end a bit into a tiny hook, hooked the cables and used electrical tape to tighten the bond. Fishing them up was a breeze, connections likewise etc (as described in George Ab's original post on golfmk7), then pushed the headunit in until locked. I actually spent more time (maybe about 20 min or so) trying to seat the cubby back in properly (it would click in but spring back out, until I figured I had to slide my hand in and push against its back panel until it locked into a round opening inside the dash, then it locked perfectly in front too).

I had, of course, spent some time prior to all that connecting the cables to the headunit and check that the harness is working. Then disconnected and did the above.

I now have CarPlay working (can make and receive calls, sound is perfect). Everything is functional (rearview camera, CarPlay, car stats etc) except Sirius XM (says I'm not subscribed, I guess I need to call them to change the radio code) and there is no sound for radio or media (other than phone calls). I contacted Jack and hope to have everything done soon!

Done! I have everything up and running. Jack was very patient and walked me through everything I needed to install on my son's PC laptop (I have a MacBook). I initially misunderstood that all he needed was some Virtual Machine app so I had installed Virtual Box. Turns out that you actually need the following:

1. Install Vmware Player 14;

2. Install Teamviewer and communicate to him the Id and password that you set for it;

3. You also need to download the vas_cp_vm.rar file from https://mega.nz and run it under vmware. I wasn't able to do that, I was prompted to open an account on the mega.nz website and after I "downloaded" that software I couldn't find it anywhere on the PC.

So I ended up doing 1 and 2 only and then Jack took over and took care of everything. Once I plugged the ODIS device into the car port and connected it to the laptop via the provided USB cable, Jack worked his magic. He removed CP from both the headunit and amp in a matter of minutes. So, I had sound and radio but the bluetooth, voice command, CarPlay were gone (they'd all ask for FeC's). It took Jack over half an hour to install the FeC's (wireless connection dropped once too). The whole session lasted about two hours, but the fact it was so long was partly due to my not having everything ready (as I wrote above) and to my inadequacy with Win 10.

He asked me to relay a message to people on forums: do not buy your own activation keys for CarPlay or stuff like that and ask him to install them for you. He can't do that. He wrote: "some people buy useless codes. when you change your ori unit then its useless. for code MIB unit must be ori one from factory for that vin". I quoted him exactly because I don't want to give you the wrong info (in case I interpret incorrectly what he says).

I suppose "ori" is abbreviation for "original", and he means that he needs to fish in the system for the exact codes associated with the VIN of the car the MIB2 unit you are retrofitting came from.

In any case, I'm very happy I did this! And the installation, I can't emphasize enough, was low difficulty level. It is true that I read and re-read many posts on different forums (and asked questions, most of which were kindly and very informatively answered), so I may have familiarized myself well with what was in store before I even started buying the hardware.

Good to hear. I'm already running Windows on my old laptop so I won't have to worry about that. Reached out to Jack on Skype, just waiting on a response now. I'm ready to get rid of my MIB I, it's practically the only thing I don't like about the car.

Edit: If you don't mind my asking did you just send him a message on Skype? I sent one in the evening (his time) a couple days ago. Not rushing him in any way, I realize he's doing this as a favor for all of us, for the record. But I also know how weird it is to get random Skype invites/messages. I hadn't been on Skype in a year-ish and had to delete about 20 conversations, no idea who they were from, haha. Just checking to see how people were making contact. Thanks.

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Cuzoe said:

Good to hear. I'm already running Windows on my old laptop so I won't have to worry about that. Reached out to Jack on Skype, just waiting on a response now. I'm ready to get rid of my MIB I, it's practically the only thing I don't like about the car.

Edit: If you don't mind my asking did you just send him a message on Skype? I sent one in the evening (his time) a couple days ago. Not rushing him in any way, I realize he's doing this as a favor for all of us, for the record. But I also know how weird it is to get random Skype invites/messages. I hadn't been on Skype in a year-ish and had to delete about 20 conversations, no idea who they were from, haha. Just checking to see how people were making contact. Thanks.

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Yes. Look up the user Jack Kirry and send him a request to add you as a friend. You may want to include a short message introducing yourself and explaining why you need his help. I did that and he responded relatively quickly. It’s probably a good idea to also mention the fact that you already procured the necessary hardware or that you installed it in the car already. That shows commitment and may make him more receptive.

As to your comments about MIB2 vs MIB1. Yep, it was the reason I was waiting for the 2016 tdi’s in 2015. Well, we all know how that turned out. But hey, now I have my 2016 NAR TDI! It did take a couple of years lurking and posting on forums, plus about $900 (or a couple hundred less if I manage to sell my original mib1 hardware on eBay) but I think it was worth it (I did it, and learned a lot in the process).

Later Edit: BTW, the only thing I needed to code (with my obdeleven) was the vehicle icon that shows up on the drive stats screen. Used to be a regular Golf hatchback (probably the car the headunit came from), and I had to change that to SportWagen (very straightforward to do with obd11, I couldn't find instructions on that so I basically fiddled with some values under "information control unit"/"long coding" until the right car showed up on the screen).

I might not even have to change anything because the car my unit allegedly came from is a regular golf like mine. I sent a message to Jack Kirry in Poland. I introduce myself as a member of these forums and told him the part number of the unit I bought. I didn't tell him that it was already installed or that I have a laptop setup and the cable, I'll add that tomorrow evening his time.

I also saw a Jack Kirry that shows Frankfurt Germany as his location. Maybe I'll reach out to that user tomorrow also.

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Cuzoe said:

I might not even have to change anything because the car my unit allegedly came from is a regular golf like mine. I sent a message to Jack Kirry in Poland. I introduce myself as a member of these forums and told him the part number of the unit I bought. I didn't tell him that it was already installed or that I have a laptop setup and the cable, I'll add that tomorrow evening his time.

I also saw a Jack Kirry that shows Frankfurt Germany as his location. Maybe I'll reach out to that user tomorrow also.

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No, this one's definitely in Poland (looks like his Skype handle is jacekk993).

If I may, what part # is the headunit you bought? I tried to stay away from 3Q00345844A because there was some feedback that the A revision doesn't accept the app-connect activation key. Still, I wonder if he can work with that too.

It's an 844A... GolfMk7 forum member treybyday had an 844A activated by Jack after his dealer buggered something up after removing component protection, I think he was the first one to be told the 844As were a no-go but Jack got everything up and running for him... his experience is why I was comfortable grabbing an 844A, that and there were only 844As available on eBay when I purchased.

I initially bought two of the $30 844s on eBay. From all the threads on all the forums I only read one success story with these. Both that I ordered reset constantly although they do show start up screen and let me scroll radio stations for about 5 seconds. Seller refunded within hours of my request and said not to bother sending them back. I'm an aircraft electrician by trade and have done component repair in the past. When work slows down I'm gonna pop both of these units open and see if I can fix them. If I can they'll both go in the classifieds for the cost of shipping.

Getting the MIB II is almost the last piece of my stereo upgrade puzzle. Need to terminate my amp power/ground and sleeve some speaker wire... built an amp rack for amp/helix soundbox/LC2i to go with an Uberstealth box with Stereo Integrity BM MkV shallow mount sub. I'm running Infinity components in the doors off of the helix amp/DSP and the helix sub out into the LC2i to remove the low frequency roll-off and feed my amp.

This is off topic (I've been meaning to start a car journal thread) but the whole deal fits nicely under the hatch floor.

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Cuzoe said:

It's an 844A... GolfMk7 forum member treybyday had an 844A activated by Jack after his dealer buggered something up after removing component protection, I think he was the first one to be told the 844As were a no-go but Jack got everything up and running for him... his experience is why I was comfortable grabbing an 844A, that and there were only 844As available on eBay when I purchased.

I initially bought two of the $30 844s on eBay. From all the threads on all the forums I only read one success story with these. Both that I ordered reset constantly although they do show start up screen and let me scroll radio stations for about 5 seconds. Seller refunded within hours of my request and said not to bother sending them back. I'm an aircraft electrician by trade and have done component repair in the past. When work slows down I'm gonna pop both of these units open and see if I can fix them. If I can they'll both go in the classifieds for the cost of shipping.

Getting the MIB II is almost the last piece of my stereo upgrade puzzle. Need to terminate my amp power/ground and sleeve some speaker wire... built an amp rack for amp/helix soundbox/LC2i to go with an Uberstealth box with Stereo Integrity BM MkV shallow mount sub. I'm running Infinity components in the doors off of the helix amp/DSP and the helix sub out into the LC2i to remove the low frequency roll-off and feed my amp.


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Looks sweet! Although I must say that my stock setup with new MIB2 amp definitely sounds better than before. I just switched my SXM subscription last night over to the new radio ID and I can tell there's a clear improvement.

Yeah, you know I tried one of the $30 units too and had to return. I am now convinced that that eBay seller knowingly sells defective units (not from salvage, but swapped out units due to malfunction) and am bewildered because I thought there'd be some law against that.

Anyway, I believe you're correct about the A revision. Jack will have no issues with it.

So what is everyone paying just for the parts, without having to pay for component protection to be removed