I have a mib1 Amundsen unit and hate it with a passion. Tried getting an android powered unit but that went back for various reasons.

Now, before I go getting another android unit that actually fits, what is the easiest/most cost effective way to get android auto in a mk 3? Happy to spend £3-400 on a head unit (I like the look of the new Sony one coming out soon) but spending £7-800 on a mib2 plus coding is far too much (unless someone knows a better source?).

 

Any help or advice would be great.

If you can sit tight a few more days, my MIB2 Amundsen will be back from Poland with SmartLink enabled, among other things, and I can fill everyone in on the full costs etc. I paid £270 for the MIB2 and screen for reference. It’s being sent back to me (hopefully) on Friday, so I guess it’ll be a week from now before it gets back to me.

Thanks! That would be great. 

What did you start with?

Bolero MIB1

no nav then sasha? is that just the columbus?  wouldnt you need to change the unit in the glove box too for that?

It'll have nav when it comes back. Car is 2014 with factory MIB1 Bolero. The unit I have installed (which is the 6.5 inch screen and the glovebox unit) is a 2016 MIB2 Amundsen which will come back from Poland with all its features working. All you need to buy for a car that didn't have nav is a GPS antenna. If you are converting a MIB1 Amundsen you'll need a screen and a radio unit. If you are converting a Columbus, you'll just need the radio unit as the screen didn't change (allegedly). You can use a Columbus screen with a MIB2 Amundsen if you like, or as I will be doing, the new FL 8 inch Amundsen screen. Screens are interchangeable across the MIB2 platform; you can have a MIB2 Bolero with a Columbus screen if you like, but the NAV and TRAFFIC buttons won't work, or you can install and Amundsen and leave the original Bolero screen, just access the Nav from the main menu. The radio unit is the complex bit  

I'm waiting to see the outcome of this intently. I would love to mib2 my Columbus if it's easy enough and not too much expense. Having had an after market android auto head unit in my previous car. Being able to have texts read out to you and reply over voice command is something I miss.

Columbus is an easy one for UK markets, as most UK retrofit places will crack the Harman units, some even remotely. Other installs are a bit more rigmarole. Only the long shipping time is getting between me and an up to date audio system at this point!

I bought a Columbus unit from a uk seller. It didn't work, had no audio and couldn't be coded to my Canton system. Also it gave a permanent error on a VCDS scan "Component Protection Activated" which I was less than happy with. I'll be interested to see how you get on with yours when it returns if you'll update me.

Cheers.

is the glovebox unit locked to the screen or the car canbus? why i ask if you have both screen and cd unit it wont display protection?

The screen has no Component Protection. The Component Protection is on the glove box unit and tied to the car it's paired to. Change the screen and it has no issue. Change the car the unit's fitted in and it locks itself.

2 hours ago, Rustynuts said:

I bought a Columbus unit from a uk seller. It didn't work, had no audio and couldn't be coded to my Canton system. Also it gave a permanent error on a VCDS scan "Component Protection Activated" which I was less than happy with. I'll be interested to see how you get on with yours when it returns if you'll update me.

Cheers.

I gather that Canton is a different kettle of fish and you would need an amp from a MIB2 equipped car if you had the Canton pack. Only the units made by Harman can be readily cracked by UK sellers, so Panasonic, TechniSat etc units can’t be done. That’s not to say they can’t be done at all. My Amundsen is a TechniSat unit. Component Protection is a dealer job, you’d have to do that first before any reworking. My dealer did it for me, no problems. 

 

Before my radio was sent away I had the CP removed and it was working exactly as it should with regards radio and media playback and the Bluetooth phone function. The voice controls weren’t working and neither was the nav or the SmartLink (the main reason for the upgrade). It’s all in the main about my car here 

 

 

You can fit any screen to any car, it’s not a problem as it’s just a display and is a slave to the radio unit in the glovebox. The radio is coded to the cars VIN and plumbed into the CAN Gateway so it receives a lot more information than an old hat radio. My dealers only insistence when my Amundsen was being unlocked was that it had to be recoded to my VIN, so my Amundsen won’t work in another car without having the CP being deactivated again, it wouldn’t even work in the car it came from now as it is coded to my VIN. This is to stop me having a commercial sideline in hooky Skoda stereo’s. The Bolero that came with my car won’t even work in it anymore as that needs CP removal to work. 

On 3/8/2018 at 20:25, SashaGrace said:

I gather that Canton is a different kettle of fish and you would need an amp from a MIB2 equipped car if you had the Canton pack. Only the units made by Harman can be readily cracked by UK sellers, so Panasonic, TechniSat etc units can’t be done. That’s not to say they can’t be done at all. My Amundsen is a TechniSat unit. Component Protection is a dealer job, you’d have to do that first before any reworking. My dealer did it for me, no problems. 

 

Before my radio was sent away I had the CP removed and it was working exactly as it should with regards radio and media playback and the Bluetooth phone function. The voice controls weren’t working and neither was the nav or the SmartLink (the main reason for the upgrade). It’s all in the main about my car here 

 

 

 

I have an MIB2 amp, and it still didn't work. Swapped the amps over, swapped the UB port, swapped the screens and couldn't get it to code in correctly for the sound system to work. Sent it back for a refund.

Edited 10 March, 20188 yr by Rustynuts

@SashaGrace

How'd the head unit go? Got it yet?

It was finished Friday. Just waiting for the money transfer to be completed and then it’ll be sent over to me. All has gone well, will write it up when it’s fitted in the car, whenever that will be.

@SashaGrace What's the consensus?

I am still struggling on with the Amundsen unit but recently looking at a new Alpine unit (Halo 9).  looks like it's an option for our weird shape dash hole. i.e. install in the lower position with a blanking plate in the upper of the '2din' hole.  I realise its not a cheap solution but looks really smart and would give me everything I'm after. 

 

Great success  In the next hour my 8 inch Columbus screen will be here and stage 2 of the stereo upgrade will be complete  If you peruse through the thread you’ll see I’ve also moved the USB and ran a cable to the centre console to have a phone plugged in with no visible wires.

1 hour ago, MarkyG82 said:

@SashaGrace What's the consensus?

I am still struggling on with the Amundsen unit but recently looking at a new Alpine unit (Halo 9).  looks like it's an option for our weird shape dash hole. i.e. install in the lower position with a blanking plate in the upper of the '2din' hole.  I realise its not a cheap solution but looks really smart and would give me everything I'm after. 

 

You do know Alpine has a specific unit for the Octavia, right?

 

Why not choose that one?

6 hours ago, Jaco2k said:

 

You do know Alpine has a specific unit for the Octavia, right?

 

Why not choose that one?

 

I do. It's a couple hundred more and I kinda like the look of the floating display on this new one.

10 minutes ago, MarkyG82 said:

 

I do. It's a couple hundred more and I kinda like the look of the floating display on this new one.

 

Each to their own, but my OCD would kill me

...I have seen the Octavia version on @Petunet car and it looks pretty nice and well integrated.

Hi all, particularly @SashaGrace as it seems you tried to do exactly what I did. I'm new to buying Skoda and am viewing a Mk3 Octavia VRs, dated between March and September 2013 - so it doesn't support Android Auto which could have been a huge selling point for me. Here is the link for the advert: https://www.autotrader.co.uk/classified/advert/201809040142862

 

I believe it's got a Bolero MIB1 head unit as standard for that model, but is anybody able to tell me how I can reasonably upgrade it to something that can support Android Auto? I understand that I'd need to replace the head unit and the radio unit in the glove box, but how much would this roughly cost, what else would be needed to do this and how easy is it to do? I'd expect a third party needs to do it, so if there's any suggestions as to how to find this service it wouldn't fall on deaf ears.

 

I'm really new to this so if you have to spell it out like I'm a child I'd greatly appreciate it! And thanks in advance :)

Yes I’ve swapped my original MIB1 Bolero for a MIB2 Amundsen and my swap was very simple and I have not faced the many issues that others seem to have faced when performing this swap. I used a Technisat unit, bought for £150 and I wouldn’t spend anymore than that. It doesn’t matter what car it comes out of, you can change the splash screens and car images to suit. On top of that you will need a screen, either the original screen (5E0 919 605 J) which is a 6.5 inch screen or you can use a Columbus screen as I have (5E0 919 606) which is an 8 inch screen or you can also use the new facelift Amundsen screen (5E0 919 605 M) and you’ll need the green tipped USB plug (5Q0 035 726 E) as the original one won’t work with SmartLink. These are about £22 but it’s worth finding a radio from a breaker that has a whole car; I phoned the yard I bought my unit from as they had a picture of the whole car in the advert and asked if they had the USB and they did, so offered to chuck it in with the radio and screen for free. Also you’ll need a GPS antenna. I used a generic FAKRA connection one from eBay and routed it behind the dash but I know that @JohnnyType2 has used a whole OEM shark fin antenna for the GPS so I imagine he won’t get the GPS signal fault in the radio module that I do because my non OEM one isn’t seen by the radio as working correctly even though the GPS works fine. I have a shark fin on my car for the Phonebox option so I could get another shark fin from a car with GPS and do a ‘proper’ install but mine works just fine so I probably won’t.

 

Once you have all that you’ll need to fit it in the car which is the easiest bit really. You’ll need to trim down a few connector locators as they are slightly different but they are still perfectly secure. The connections are as follows.

 

Black = DAB

Purple = GSM (phone prep)

Blue = GPS (sat nav)

White = AM/FM radio

Yellow = USB

Grey = Data to the screen

There is another plug which is the fibre optic plug for the CANTON sound system.

 

The next step is to have the Component Protection removed. I had this done by my local Skoda dealer and they had no issue doing it for me at all. I waited a few mins and the car was done before I finished downing my third free hot chocolate and scoffing all the biscuits. Others are not so lucky with this, but it’s worth getting this done at Skoda as they code the unit to the car and it means no CP errors appear in any of the modules as well as all the features like TPMS etc work as they should. 

 

The final piece of the puzzle is to enlist the help of someone to code it. The brains behind my radio swap and the man I’d always recommend is Pawel (Pab567) as the quality of his work is excellent and his knowledge of these stereos is far greater than Skoda themselves! He activated the Sport Menu on my unit and enabled video in motion etc etc. And his prices are extremely reasonable. If you can’t get lucky with the CP removal at Skoda, Pawel usually has some CP free units knocking around but he might need an auto scan of your car taken with VCDS to get the option boxes correctly ticked, or you’ll have to send him both radio units.

 

Once the magic has been worked and the unit coded you are ready to go! The total cost of my swap including buying two screens and selling one and selling my old Bolero was £440. Not bad for the features that are enabled and the extra 2.2 inches of screen 

 

Hope that is of some use to you. Please let me know if there’s anything else I can help with.

most VAG indies can remove CP for half the price of the Skoda dealer. Find a specialist garage and ask. I was quoted £128 from skoda, cost me £50 + vat.

ive used the 8" flat screen from the FL model i have a spare as well, the mark was due to my harness and not the screen.
 

 

Edited 26 October, 20187 yr by JohnnyType2

Quote

3 hours ago, SashaGrace said:

Hope that is of some use to you. Please let me know if there’s anything else I can help with.

 

Hi Sasha, thanks for all the advice! It has helped but I've still got a couple of questions, I've sent you a private message if you have the chance to look at it.

Hi all!

 

Just wanted to update you on what I did in the end.

Cheap Android units just didn't meet potential and I never seemed to find one I liked.

OEM replacement (Alpine, pioneer, etc) we're just too expensive and they haven't released newer versions for a while. Also quite a few reviews on YouTube showed how they are quite laggy.

So... After a few messages to/from Sasha I went on eBay and happened upon an mib2 Amundsen for £115. And at the same time rustynuts was selling a 6.5inch mib2 screen. It was damaged so I got it for a steal at £75.

Next was removing the component protection and getting the unit coded. £69 and €180 respectively.

As the screen surround was damaged (the price...) and I dislike the glossy look as it attracts fingerprints ( I rest my thumb on the bottom section to steady my hand when pressing the screen) I decided to get some vinyl wrap and see how I went.

The final result is a matt black screen surround on a 6.5 inch mib2 Amundsen running Android auto.

I will probably get a larger screen down the line but at the moment I'm happy with the sound and spec.