Have recently bought an older Hilux and want to upgrade the stereo to a touchscreen unit (for sat nav/reverse camera/phone connectivity) - I see a few on aliexpress/ebay that come with the dash moulding that are essentially plug and play- does anyone have experience of these?
Aftermarket Android head units
- Thread starter dryan
- Start date
Woodenbeam
Well-Known Member
Did you ever have any success changing your head unit?
Similar to yourself I’ve a Hi Lux & have recently thought about a new head unit allowing apple car play etc. Has anyone experience of doing this?
Similar to yourself I’ve a Hi Lux & have recently thought about a new head unit allowing apple car play etc. Has anyone experience of doing this?
A mate did as you suggest on his 2014 Ford Focus.
The installation was pretty faultless but in operation he said it was useless.
In the end after repeatedly telling the seller he wished to return it;
are but are all the seals on?
Is the screen protector still in place?
You say you cut the wires to splice into your loom!
Err yes because how would I have got it to work to find it was useless?
He managed to get a refund.
Buy carefully and from a reputable source I would advise.
The installation was pretty faultless but in operation he said it was useless.
In the end after repeatedly telling the seller he wished to return it;
are but are all the seals on?
Is the screen protector still in place?
You say you cut the wires to splice into your loom!
Err yes because how would I have got it to work to find it was useless?
He managed to get a refund.
Buy carefully and from a reputable source I would advise.
I went around this buoy with my Freelander 2. Lots of Android-based plug & play units but the more I investigated the more issues there seemed to be especially with the rate of change of the OS - there seemed to be no steady-state. The Interface with the car’s electronics was highly variable and, as the top-end FL2 uses fibre-optics to link the ICE system, it required a complex solution. I decided to go with a major manufacturer’s CarPlay unit (Pioneer) and it was flawless. Yes, I had to buy a very specific and unique to model interface unit kit (largely due to the fibre-optics) that cost almost as much as the unit itself, but it was flawless in operation and I never had any issues in 8 years of use.
You are doing the right thing in looking to learn from others who have gone down the same route but with the churn in these units, even if you do find a satisfied user, I doubt even several months down the line that you’ll be able to buy the same unit. JMVFWIW
You are doing the right thing in looking to learn from others who have gone down the same route but with the churn in these units, even if you do find a satisfied user, I doubt even several months down the line that you’ll be able to buy the same unit. JMVFWIW
Thanks, that's interesting. Having just acquired an old '08 FL2, a friend suggested I update the screen, but short of looking at a couple of YT how-to videos, this is entirely new territory for me.
Would you have a specific suggestion for this?
Freel2.com - View topic - Replacement in-car entertainment unit Lots of other threads up on that Forum about this topic.
I used a Pioneer SPH-DA230DAB to replace the factory fit radio and installed with an InCarTec adapter kit - details here
This was a few years ago and gave me a wired CarPlay which I made wireless by buying a plug in CarLinkit dongle. Even in my replacement Discovery Sport I use something similar to make LR's wired CarPlay wireless
I put one in my 2014 Range Rover, as I wanted CarPlay (head unit does both CarPlay and Android). It took all day of being very careful, as I needed to switch circuit boards from the original unit, but works as well as factory wireless CarPlay does, and looks factory
Woodenbeam
Well-Known Member
Cheers for the comments - maybe a Hi Lux forum could be the place to look
