Installing CarPlay in an 11-year-old Audi

Required Parts and Prior Info

A few months ago, I purchased a used 2011 Audi A4 with a manual transmission (that'll be important later!). While the built-in navigation wasn't too bad for being 11 years out-of-date, it's still hard to call it great. I wanted current features like traffic reports and knowledge of construction and closed-off roads, which the Audi MMI system couldn't provide. While I could replace the entire infotainment, the existing system offers settings for the entire car and a reverse camera, which I didn't want to give up.

What I Purchased and Installation

To solve this problem of integration with the existing car infotainment, I bought a Carlinkit retrofit kit for my car. It's essentially an additional computer that uses the DVD player's video feed to the screen as well as power from the climate control to run CarPlay itself. I follow this guide to install it. Connecting all the cables was pretty easy, the only challenge was finding a place for the antenna for wireless CarPlay as well as hiding the remaining cables inside the dash. Once all that's done, it's not visibly obvious that anything has been changed to the car infotainment system until it boots up.

Features and Drawbacks

Overall, the Carlinkit kit has been quite good. The new device will kick in and display on the screen about 30 seconds after the car starts, and 30 seconds after that my phone will connect and CarPlay will initialize. Almost all features of the car remain intact, all of the media buttons still control music playback, just with the new system, and hitting the designated "navigation", "car", or "setup" buttons will return you to the Audi MMI system. In addition to CarPlay, the kit has support for Android Auto, screen mirroring from your phone (iOS or Android, it supports both), a built-in YouTube client, and HDMI/Composite video inputs if you have any additional devices you'd like to connect. 

The one downside, is that my reverse camera isn't automatic anymore. It's not that it's gone, the camera turns on and the car will make beeping sounds with proximity to anything nearby, just like before, but you can't see the camera. As the Carlinkit system has essentially hijacked the infotainment screen, it takes priority over something like the reverse camera. So I have to hit one of the car buttons such as the navigation or setup button to return to the old car infotainment. Once I am done reversing, I have to hold "navigation" for about 2 seconds to return to the the Carlinkit system. To my understanding, this is specifically because my car has a manual transmission. The Carlinkit kit is supposed to be able to detect you entering reverse and show the camera automatically, but mine does not do so. I have heard you can wire up a reverse trigger yourself if you're really set on getting the reverse camera to be automatic, but I haven't found an easy way to connect it.

Conclusion

Everything else about this system has been quite good, save for my phone sometimes not wirelessly connecting to CarPlay, but I'm not sure who I should be blaming for that one, Carlinkit, CarPlay, my phone, or myself. A reboot or re-pairing of my phone to the Carlinkit has solved it every time. It's not perfect, but it's good enough for my needs. I just wanted good maps and Spotify in my car, and now I have that.