Upgrade your Uconnect for Apple Carplay Android Auto amp keep all of functionality

[Mark1107]

I looked at infotainment upgrade package at 2500 bucks and thought that is way too expensive for wanting apple carplay android auto. I saw they were using the Uconnect
Dodge 4C UAQ 8.4 Inch Uconnect Radio Navigation Touchscreen Apple CarPlay so I bought a used Challenger hellcat navigation system for 1100 bucks.

The unit is plug and play. But there are some items to note. Most of the units on ebay you don't know if they came from a Durango jeep hellcat charger whatever dodge product. I got lucky and got a hellcat one so the the performance pages were intact. The only thing you lose is the viper symbol logo on the performance pages but with the upgrade you get the following:

1. Android auto full functionality
2. Apple car play.
3. XM Travellink with high resolution pinch to zoom maps and traffic and weather for free.
4. Factory xm radio for free.
5. High definition navigation screen.
6. Better music quality and xm functionality
7. Lots of cool features

All dodge vehicles have a media hub. Most of the guys doing this were in the hellcat Challenger jeep ram forums. They had to upgrade their media hubs, which is the SD card USB plug aux in port, but I used my old one from the 2014 viper and AA Acplay both work!

The Uconnect horn lights location send destination functionality still works too if Uconnect sent you the old tmobile old dongle even with the new UAQ 4C radio that uses XM travel link and XMguardian. I know no one has gotten xm guardian to work as a retrofit but who cares.

There are many UAQ 4C navigation but pay attention to the mounting bracket because you may have to use a dremel on the new radio to make it fit in our dashboards.

I also upgraded my sabelt black interior to sepia and my old RA3 Uconnect had a weird issue where I could here a whirring sound 24/7 like.it never shut off which was causing a parasitic battery drain.

I think with a tazer Google it you could enable performance pages to come back and maybe even get the viper symbols on the pages and may do that. If you Google "upgrading 8.4 RA3 Uconnect to UAQ 4C RA4 Uconnect there are thousands of Mopar owners who have done it. I needed a new navigation system regardless so I figured why not try a 2018 radio? It worked and now when I go on long drives Google maps reroutes me with the best route! Plus the music surround system upgrade is unbelievable in the 17 speaker system. A huge difference. Plus the sirius xm travel link traffic is awesome too.

Cheers, Mark

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[Mark1107]

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[Lawineer]

holy shit this is awesome. I got a carbon bezel and need to take it apart anyway.

[Mark1107]

There are you tube videos on how to get the bezel out. When I swapped my center console transmission tunnel from black to sepia it took two days. The parking brake handle is beyaaatch to get the entire console out. If your only doing the bezel and potentially the Uconnect it's pretty easy to loosen it and not have to remove everything like I did.

[EZ 2B Green]

Do these advanced head units allow more outside intervention such as the vehicle shutdown features included in GM's OnStar System?

[Pappy]

What do you get on the performance pages? I don't care about any of the audio or nav features, just the performance gages like temps, oil pressure, and IAT (Viper Performance Page 2). Do you get that display? I see a "Gauges 2" page on the performance page menu in one of your photos.

[Mark1107]

No. Please Google uconnect features

[Mark1107]

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[Pappy]

No. Please Google uconnect features

OK, I did. Pretty hokey set-up (Gauges 2) for track use. I much prefer the clean, uncluttered presentation in the Viper for serious, readable on-track use. Old school, I guess. I have never turned the radio or Nav on in my 3-speaker ACR, and I carry a flip phone. LOL If I lose my performance pages down the road, I will probably try to pull the engine data off the ECU for presentation on an AiM or Motec display. All of the data should be resident in the on-board engine management electronics and should not need an external Uconnect feature to access it.

[Lawineer]

It really amazes me how many manufacturers don't get the importance of clear, easy to read gauges.

What I'm really surprised about is that no one makes a display that changes to something, once it gets too high or low
Ie: You have the standard gauges, but if oil temp gets above 260, it comes up big. I really dont care about seeing my temps or pressures unless it's creeping too high/low. But I want to monitor about 20 things. As long as everything is in the range I specify, I dont care and I just want to see RPM and fuel. Maybe mph.

[Pappy]

^^^^
In my track car I have an AiM MLX2 display that can be programmed to highlight variables approaching and/or out of limits. But, I also have a full complement of NASCAR style AutoMeter gauges that can be programmed to change color at owner-set parameters (both high and low), giving you early warning of problems without having to actually look down and read the gauge. Overkill maybe, but the gauges are ultra-light, tucked out of the way, and function independently of the Motec CAN bus-driven AiM.

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[Mark1107]

Hey Pappy, we’re just trying to enjoy our cars in different ways. My GTS is a grand tourer that I open up in the mountains above Los Angeles. When driving back to the beach on a Saturday afternoon a 50-60 mile trip can take 2.5 hours in LA traffic so having a great sound system and google maps traffic is huge upgrade for me. Until I can afford another ACR (which isn’t in the budget.) as a track weapon ive gotta maximize my enjoyment with what I have. I realize my mods are only for a small segment but I’m pretty happy it can be hacked for my enjoyment. Of course this mod isn’t for ACR track lovers like yourself. Cheers. Mark

[ViperJon]

It really amazes me how many manufacturers don't get the importance of clear, easy to read gauges.

What I'm really surprised about is that no one makes a display that changes to something, once it gets too high or low
Ie: You have the standard gauges, but if oil temp gets above 260, it comes up big. I really dont care about seeing my temps or pressures unless it's creeping too high/low. But I want to monitor about 20 things. As long as everything is in the range I specify, I dont care and I just want to see RPM and fuel. Maybe mph.

And had Dodge included a simple low oil pressure warning idiot light they would have not had to replace dozens and dozens of engines due to unusual highly excessive oil consumption owners were not aware of. But Dodge so.....

[Lawineer]

It’s really shocking they didn’t. They have an lcd screen. They have an oil level/oil pressure sensor.
It seems like one of the first things you’d program in there.

[ViperNC]

Hey Pappy, we’re just trying to enjoy our cars in different ways. My GTS is a grand tourer that I open up in the mountains above Los Angeles. When driving back to the beach on a Saturday afternoon a 50-60 mile trip can take 2.5 hours in LA traffic so having a great sound system and google maps traffic is huge upgrade for me. Until I can afford another ACR (which isn’t in the budget.) as a track weapon ive gotta maximize my enjoyment with what I have. I realize my mods are only for a small segment but I’m pretty happy it can be hacked for my enjoyment. Of course this mod isn’t for ACR track lovers like yourself. Cheers. Mark

Good for you to find a replacement that suits your needs. The only thing I care about with mine is the Performance Pages and I use mine mainly for spirited driving on the mountain and country roads as well along with the occasional track day. I could care less about all this apple car play and connectivity BS and never activated the Uconnect in my Viper which hopefully will spare me with the loss of functions I actually use. So far (fingers crossed) my Viper's performance pages have been unaffected, but when/if they go I'll be quite disappointed. You would think there would be some type of software update in the future that would at least restore the performance pages for the Viper as that really should have nothing to do with Uconnect.

[Pappy]

Hey Pappy, we’re just trying to enjoy our cars in different ways. My GTS is a grand tourer that I open up in the mountains above Los Angeles. When driving back to the beach on a Saturday afternoon a 50-60 mile trip can take 2.5 hours in LA traffic so having a great sound system and google maps traffic is huge upgrade for me. Until I can afford another ACR (which isn’t in the budget.) as a track weapon ive gotta maximize my enjoyment with what I have. I realize my mods are only for a small segment but I’m pretty happy it can be hacked for my enjoyment. Of course this mod isn’t for ACR track lovers like yourself. Cheers. Mark

Thanks Mark. I understand and appreciate your efforts. I was just trying to tie this upgrade to a potential fix for the loss of the performance pages we were discussing in the other thread. No intent to offend.

[Steve M]

And had Dodge included a simple low oil pressure warning idiot light they would have not had to replace dozens and dozens of engines due to unusual highly excessive oil consumption owners were not aware of. But Dodge so.....


It’s really shocking they didn’t. They have an lcd screen. They have an oil level/oil pressure sensor.
It seems like one of the first things you’d program in there.

They did include a simple low oil pressure warning idiot light.

I saw one going off in a video on YouTube, and I was able to reach out and warn the driver to check his oil level.

Video here (fast forward to 6:00 and watch the oil pressure gauge):


https://youtu.be/0R7sWj0UAes

Even made a whole thread about it: https://driveviper.com/forums/threads/30110-2015-Viper-Oil-Pressure-Drop

The owner responded to my comment on YouTube, and verified that the car was indeed low on oil (and not just an oil pressure sending unit problem). He topped it off, and the pressure drop went away.

The real problem with any sort of idiot light is whether or not the driver is paying any attention to it. In the video, clearly the driver didn't notice (although the driver isn't the owner). I'm not sure I would have either if I was doing any sort of spirited driving...my eyes stay on the road, where they should be.

[Mark1107]

Thanks Pappy. Cheers. I’m thinking about getting a Tazer and see if I can get viper performance pages working again.


Thanks Mark. I understand and appreciate your efforts. I was just trying to tie this upgrade to a potential fix for the loss of the performance pages we were discussing in the other thread. No intent to offend.

[Leanmass]

I’m only interested in Apple car play. Is there a unit that would fit 2014 viper that is cheaper?

[Lawineer]

They did include a simple low oil pressure warning idiot light.

I saw one going off in a video on YouTube, and I was able to reach out and warn the driver to check his oil level.

Video here (fast forward to 6:00 and watch the oil pressure gauge):


https://youtu.be/0R7sWj0UAes

Even made a whole thread about it: https://driveviper.com/forums/threads/30110-2015-Viper-Oil-Pressure-Drop

The owner responded to my comment on YouTube, and verified that the car was indeed low on oil (and not just an oil pressure sending unit problem). He topped it off, and the pressure drop went away.

The real problem with any sort of idiot light is whether or not the driver is paying any attention to it. In the video, clearly the driver didn't notice (although the driver isn't the owner). I'm not sure I would have either if I was doing any sort of spirited driving...my eyes stay on the road, where they should be.

Yeah, that's my point. When something like that happens, whether it's low pressure, low level, high temp, whatever- it should become a predominant message on the screen. I mean, it beeps at me if I dont put my seatbelt on. Why doesn't it beep if I dont have engine oil?

[Steve-Indy]

Agree !! I would favor an oil monitoring system that sounded a loud alarm...much like a depressuization alarm in an aircraft.

[Mark1107]

Yes Leanmass. If you Google "UAS 8.4 uconnect navigation " and go to eBay you can find the UAS screens cheaper than UAQs because they don't come with factory oem navigation BUT they do let you have apple car play and android auto. You may need a new media hub but those are only 100 bucks. I learned everything from this hellcst thread: https://www.hellcat.org/threads/how-to-get-the-2017-interface-on-a-2016.74937/page-28#post-4529589


I’m only interested in Apple car play. Is there a unit that would fit 2014 viper that is cheaper?

[Mark1107]

I know we've had our differences on here VJ but I definitely agree with you on this. I've let my oil get low once and it freaked me out, now I religiously check it on every drive.



And had Dodge included a simple low oil pressure warning idiot light they would have not had to replace dozens and dozens of engines due to unusual highly excessive oil consumption owners were not aware of. But Dodge so.....

[Mark1107]

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[Mark1107]

I know the performance pages are a big deal to everyone. I'm going to buy a 300 tazer and see if I can backwards engineer the viper PP. What's a game changer for me was the higher quality music with the 17 speaker system its night and day different and the speed increase of music sound the faster you go, I idk the name for that and the pinch to zoom system in the new xm navigation and actually the cool traffic updates that the new uconnect system has that is almost as good as Google maps along with Google maps traffic and better access to music when I go out and enjoy my car in the mountains of LA. I guess this is more geared to the GTS grand tourer crowd versus the hard-core track rats. But that's the beauty of how versatile our cars are.