DIY Android Auto unlock

[theandywaite]

I have decided to try and unlock Android Auto on my MY2016 MIB2 Amundsen.

 

I believe I can follow these instructions:

 

 

 

Before I do anything else, my first step is to update my firmware so I've just requested this here:

 

I'm interested if anyone else has tried this, has any advice or gotchas. I will of course update here if I manage to be successful (or not).

[User2908]

Hi @theandywaite

The latest official SW for that unit is sw253, and the options for enabling the unit are either that way or via unlock code (approx £100 from dealer)

You need to make sure the unit supports Android auto first however otherwise you won't be able to activate it

[theandywaite]

Right so did it all! It's fully working, no error codes.

 

Wanted to share some tips / tricks and what went wrong so it might be useful to someone else. It goes without saying that this is a risky process - only start if you are comfortable with what you are doing, and can fix it (or afford to pay someone to fix it) if you break it. It's also worth noting, I tried to do this myself to save the ~£160 cost of unlocking it at a dealer, but I ended up having to pay £90 for ODBeleven in order to complete the job, so didn't really save that much money in the end.

 

Note that my car is a MY2016 with MIB2 Amundsen. Remember, your car might be different.

 

Step 1 - Research

The first thing I did was read as much as I could, watched as many videos as I could, to make sure I knew as much as possible what I was doing before I started fiddling with anything.

Step 2 - Update firmware

Before doing anything else I wanted to update to the latest firmware for my unit - in this case I was running 0241 but the latest is 0253. Thanks to @varooom I got the latest firmware for my unit. I simply put this on an SD card, put it into the unit in the glovebox in place of the nav card, and ran the firmware update process on the MIB (press & hold MENU, then navigate the options - pretty straightforward).

 

Step 3 - Unlock "Green Engineering Menu" / GEM

I have a basic ELM327 OBDII-bluetooth adapter, and Carista - so I unlocked the green developer menu using that. In the Carista options, it said it was for "Discover Pro" only (which I think is VW's equivalent of the higher end Columbus) but it worked anyway. This video might help you understand how to do it, although it's based on OBDeleven, not Carista:

 

Step 4 - Load the "MIB toolbox"

This is pretty much the same as updating the firmware, but instead you need to load on this software https://github.com/olli991/mib-std2-pq-zr-toolbox/releases/tag/v1.2.1 . I encourage you to read the readme on https://github.com/olli991/mib-std2-pq-zr-toolbox - for my version of the firmware (02xx) it was necessary to copy some files around, before putting them on the SD card and doing the firmware update process. Check out this video:

 

 

Step 5 - Unlock Smart Link

Next, use the toolbox software to unlock Smart Link. Here's a video that explains it better than I could:

 

 

Step 6 - Dispare

At this point, from everything I read it was supposed to work. I had Smart Link in the menu, and it no longer told me to contact a dealer - but I couldn't get it to connect to my phone, no matter what I tried. A bit confused I had to do a lot of research. It turns out I had 2 new problems I needed to fix:

1) Turns out there is an extra step to code the stereo to activate Android Auto & Apple Carplay
2) An error code - now the car is running updated firmware, it throws an error code as the version doesn't match what it thinks it should be running

 

I was trying to get away doing this without OBDeleven or VCDS, but turns out these last 2 steps are impossible without one of those tools. So I ended up buying the OBDeleven Pro Pack for circa £90 from their website (it's 30 cheaper than Amazon).

 

Step 7 - Activate Android Auto & Apple Carplay
This video explains what you have to do in VCDS or OBDeleven to enable these options:

 

Step 8 - Remove the fault code logged in the stereo
There was a permanent fault code logged in the stereo as the stereo was running a newer firmware and something didn't like it. Another video to help fix this:

 

 

Step 9 - Android Auto

And voila! It works!
 

 

Hope this is helpful. I wouldn't have been able to do this without firmware from @varooom, the fantastic MIB toolbox or the excellent videos by mr-fix on Youtube.

Edited 13 May, 2023 by theandywaite

[ken-c]

Didn't follow your steps as I've been following mr-fix for a while. Bit the bullet tonight and did the patch and was very surprised that it worked right out the box - initially thought I would have to do swap/fec codes but nope, CP/AA/ML right out the box after it rebooted. Happy days. 

 

FYI, mine is a MIB2 with NAV (5Q0035874B) and firmware 0359. 

[Dropnflip]

On 03/06/2023 at 23:58, ken-c said:

Didn't follow your steps as I've been following mr-fix for a while. Bit the bullet tonight and did the patch and was very surprised that it worked right out the box - initially thought I would have to do swap/fec codes but nope, CP/AA/ML right out the box after it rebooted. Happy days. 

 

FYI, mine is a MIB2 with NAV (5Q0035874B) and firmware 0359. 

 

Sounds promising.

 

Can you give more info on what steps you followed when you "did the patch". I'm sure others would find this really helpful. 

[Dropnflip]

@theandywaite thanks so much for listing the steps in one place as I have been looking at the Mr fix videos and wanting to give it a go myself.

 

Have you used obdeleven for anything else? My second hand car did not come with a maps card, so could also do with removing the CID lock. 

[Dropnflip]

Update: I got sorted with the help of a Romanian retrofit company on Facebook. 50euro to unlock it all by first updating the firmware, then adding some activation codes via another software update (both sent to me for me to copy to an SD Card). 

 

He also helped me to update my nav maps, so really happy. 

 

Can she a link, if it's allowed. 

[theandywaite]

On 06/08/2023 at 17:03, Dropnflip said:

Update: I got sorted with the help of a Romanian retrofit company on Facebook. 50euro to unlock it all by first updating the firmware, then adding some activation codes via another software update (both sent to me for me to copy to an SD Card). 

 

He also helped me to update my nav maps, so really happy. 

 

Can she a link, if it's allowed. 

Apologies, only just seen this!

 

Glad you got it sorted

 

On 05/08/2023 at 10:13, Dropnflip said:

Have you used obdeleven for anything else? My second hand car did not come with a maps card, so could also do with removing the CID lock. 

 

Yes, I enabled traffic sign recognition as mine has the front view camera, nav & colour maxidot.

 

Not much else though as I already had Carista (which for simple things I still prefer).

[DuszeQ]

HI, I cannot find information so It's time to ask here. Is it possible, that this method will work on MEN2_EU_XXXXX_XXXXXL model?
I was looking for some information around the internet, but I guess I have some rare unit.

If installation requires some forbidden magic then the only option is to still using Spotify from my phone and to buy better phone holder      

Thanks for any response and have a good day