First impressions:
I’m coming from using the older CarLinkit wireless CarPlay adapters and then one of those Wireless CarPlay boxes with a full Android 13 system in them.
This blows them out of the water. No comparison. Can’t go back.
The car starts in Sensus by default. Long press to swap to the box. Click once to return to Sensus. While in Sensus single clicks do what they always did. In CarPlay there’s a tile that lets you drop into the box’s interface.
You need to pair your phone to the car’s Bluetooth directly. Phone calls and media go directly to the car. This is a MAJOR improvement over the previous boxes I was using because they all impacted sound quality and noise cancellation significantly. Even though the sound is being routed through Bluetooth, CarPlay controls for calls and media work as they should.
Installation:
Install took me about two hours, but that’s just because I was taking a lot of care with cable routing. I could probably do a basic install in 30 minutes easy.
In my case before I started I chose to wrap the entire Canbus cable in cloth harness tape. I also taped the fuse holder to stabilize it.
Removing the vents and the screen was remarkably easy. Much easier than I expected.
I thought I could snake the wires down without removing the volume controls but changed my mind. It was much harder to pop out than I expected.
I chose to route the Canbus wire next to the existing harness and use the same hole in the carpet. Getting the connector off of the seat so you can access the wires is a major pain. Once I had the vampire clips on I stabilized them with more harness tape, then taped the wire to the existing harness so it would move with it. You can’t tell there’s anything added looking under the seat.
After that it was just finding a good spot to stick the box and putting things back together. I ended up putting it under the passenger carpet where they did in the video, except pushed pretty far forward to keep from interfering with the panel.
Is it an easy install? Yes except for the CanBus. It’s a pain in the ass working under the seat and the connectors are all super tight with virtually zero slack. I can’t help but think there must be a better place to access the CanBus signals as they’re literally all over the car.
Anyway, it’s all buttoned up now and working.
11/10. Would highly recommend.