carlinkit 1.1

Wireless CarPlay AND AirPlay in one plug and play system for an Audi for under 400 bucks?!!? Sounds almost too good to be true, but it is. Seller was quick to respond pre-sale (from China), and package arrived in two days DHL (also China). Fastest package from China I’ve ever received. Everything is included in the box to insert this thing behind the Audi MMI unit (for my A4 E-Tron it’s the CD in the glove box). Pro tip: get an Audi CD removal tool for like 8 bucks, it makes taking out the CD a snap. Install literally took 10min to get it up and running, with maybe an extra 5min tagged on because I had to look up one plug (Audi doesn’t label anything back there- need to find manuals online). I did need to consult the dip switch settings for my car and make adjustments (see screenshot). Then the bad: it was an hour trying to read the one page instructions for how to connect phones; bad English translations with some wrong screenshots. But eventually I got everything to work. You can control everything from Audi controls (including steering wheel buttons!) and get Siri or Hey Google. (I was able to connect both Droid and IPhone, both wired and wireless). The droid took a couple tries. The screen mirroring vs CarPlay for iPhone is a little confusing, but both work. Now I just need to figure out where to mount the new box and how to run the wires. Having CarPlay in the Audi to add Waze navigation is aaawwwesome!!! Although the voice button works to call Siri and Google assistants with a long press of the button, you have to listen to Audi MMI say “canceling” every time (a minor annoyance), so I ended up just enabling “hey Siri” and making sure my phone is plugged in and skipping the button press for voice assist altogether. The screen resolution on the Audi 5.8” in kind of crappy, but still workable. And the scroll wheel and buttons work surprisingly well with CarPlay. All in all a huge fan. Was able to watch YouTube, even while moving. Couldn’t airplay/screencast HBO Go- but maps, podcasts, messaging, music apps all +++++. Take a 1/2 star off for bad directions, but otherwise a solid buy. All of the existing MMI stuff is still there, but honestly I don’t see ever using it again- CarPlay is so much better.

I'm super pleased to finally have CarPlay on this car. Other than a 5/16" socket and wrench, everything you need to perform the install is included in the box. A tool for removing the side panel and two keys for popping out the MMI/CD unit.Installation was simple, although in my case, I spent a good deal of time trying to figure out why I couldn't get audio. Turns out the audio jack dongle needs to be plugged into the center console box to make AUX appear in the MMI interface. Once that's there, all works. Yay!Now to re-wire everything so that I can put the glove box back. This step sucks. There's no simple way to figure out where all the extra cables should go to allow the glovebox to be re-installed. Were I to ever do something like this again, I'd pay an installer and save myself the time and frustration. For those of you who want to do it yourselves, I recommend reinserting the MMI unit before you put the glovebox back, so that all the cabling is inlace (and working). Then, start with the right side and the two underside screws to hold it in place and then do the interior 4-5 screws. After having to remove the glovebox again after my first re-install attempt, I elected to not bother with the screw that goes behind the MMI unit.

Overall it’s a good alternative to some of the higher rated products (most are around 400-500 bucks) This unit does offer CarPlay, android auto and airplay which is great, boot up and connectivity times are awesome and wireless CarPlay is great.As for complaints:My audio quality is not perfect, overall it sounds good but there is a light Audio feedback at all times (mostly noticeable when nothings playing but if you really focus you can hear it while playing as well)The voice command volume is not different than the media volume - every other kit similar to this on other vehicles I have used allow you to operate individual volumes, I think this has to do with how it connects to the car so it’s not a huge deal but overall kind of annoying.For the price I can live with the kinks but I will probably upgrade a full MMI upgrade in the future

I ordered this Apple CarPlay system for my 2016 Audi A3 vehicle and received it today. I’m not amazingly great at installs when it comes to car harnesses and things like that but it honestly wasn’t that hard to install!I will say that the instructions it comes with does not help you very much but there are a few YouTube videos that help with install! I finished in about 2.5-3 hours mainly trying to put the box in a good place and ensuring all the cables were placed and in the clear. I was worried that it wouldn’t look that good visually but I was honestly surprised, it looks amazing!!I would say to make sure to completely forget the connection with your MMI because if it connects to that instead of the CarPlay you won’t get any sound so just forget about it and have it connect to CarPlay, super simple!Connection process through Bluetooth was super easy, the USB doesn’t seem to work for me but I’m assuming I missed a connection maybe but it connects wirelessly so I’m not worried about it! Everything works great and my factory back up camera still comes on automatically and once I start driving it goes away and back to CarPlay.It is definitely worth getting for the price unless you want to pay to have the entire MMI and screen replaced which I’m sure is a couple grand compared to $300!Super happy with this product and would purchase again if I needed to!

Item did not work for my Audi, sound was the only thing that worked. Will be returning unless seller makes it right with a swap. Amazon provided me with a link for seller tech support and I got an email stating the email would not be sent as it was invalid. How does that work?