What "improvements" can I make to the infotainment system?

Is there any hacks or updates I can do to the infotainment system of a 2017 subaru forester?

I’d love to put android auto to it but I don’t know how? Haven’t done much with car computers!

You can get some aftermarket android auto enabled head units that also work with steering wheel controls etc. like this one: 9" For 2015-2018 Subaru Forester/XV/WRX Android 2+64GB Car Stereo Radio Carplay | eBay

Installing it is fairly easy, usually requires you to unclick the plastic trimming and undo a handful or two of screws. The wiring depends on make and model, check the ebay listing (and similar) for some more details.

1 Like

I’m not opposed to doing that kind of upgrade but when I had looked at doing that to my previous car 10 years ago I’d loose the use of the controls on the steering wheel. Not sure if it’s the same today!

Crutchfield is a good place to start.

1 Like

as other have said just buy an after market unit. there is not much you can do with the basic units installed by the auto maker. you can also get some aftermarkets with a wiring harness already made up for your vehicle for an extra 100 or so.

It depends on the specific car and head unit. In some cars the steering wheel controls just send CAN bus packets and some aftermarket head units allow you to intercept these.

That’s the catch! And since I don’t know much in the way of upgrading / modding / jail breaking / hacking cars / car infotainment systems I was hopeing that someone here had better information than just looking at amazon / crutchfield (not to say they are bad spots to look just they are not helpful when you don’t know what your doing).

Maybe find a forum with locals that do that kind of stuff? Or a car-specific forum maybe.

I never swapped the head unit but did once retrofit cruise control to a VW car, which was not that technically challenging, but did require basic knowledge of how to disassemble parts of a car.

Update: On the listing I linked before it states that it has steering wheel control support. It’s not cheap but it’s one of the least complicated things to replace in the dashboard :slight_smile:

1 Like

Yea … I was looking at the crutchfield listing and that was $300 for the head unit and then another $250 for all the other bits and pieces to make it work!

More digging down the rabbit hole I guess!

Ultimately dependent, on aftermarket producer(s). Either can be:
) Made to fit, for specific car [minimal to 0 physical modification / evidence]
) Or may have some alteration [ex. protruding outside, of console framing]
) Or may swap out some auxillary component, that has a connection to the console
[old timey ex.; taking out CD Changer, to feed in a SoC Pkg]

Why don’t you just make more money and buy a new car, like come on duh!

:stuck_out_tongue:

Charges @Phence 's credit card for a new Bugatti Chiron!

:stuck_out_tongue: :sunglasses:

2 Likes

Literally saw a mug today, with this caption neuron activation

1 Like