Q7 Navigation Retrofit

2013-09-02 Finally did it, it seems to work right out of the box. It’s working well for $200. DVD drive.

In order to add Navigation DVD, we need optical (MOST) cable, power cable and antenna cable.

Optical cable: either splice it from an existing one like Satellite radio or analog radio –

Antenna: need cable to the roof antenna or external GPS antenna whatever’s more convenient.

Since I don’t subscribed Sirius Radio, I can just disconnect the optical cable and the power cable and use them for the DVD navigation. I don’t have any brackets for the DVD navigation, so I use some hard packed foam as bracket, put under the cover next to the spare tire. Since the Sirius cables are not long enough, I switched the digital radio cables with Sirius and use radio cables for the DVD navigation. Everything fit just right.

     

Just remove the little cover on the side of the trunk, we can see the Satellite Radio on the top.

    

    

    

    

     

     

Buy a gps antenna with clip on built in, use a fakra Z connector to connect it. These GPS antenna sold on Ebay with the correct fakra blue connector also.

    

    

    

I liked the Audi navigation from the A8L so much, I want to retrofit a new navigation in the Q7 which didn’t have. I got a used navigation DVD from Ebay. There is the side back panel that needs to be removed to access all these electronic components. I found this great video. If the MOST optical cables are not in correctly with the position of the navigation in the MOST bus chain, you will get this error.

The amazing thing is it doesn’t need calibration, it’s right on the dot even with the cheapo GPS antenna laying on the back. Although after the first MMI reset, the Component Protection seems to come on due to the adding of the DVD navigation, but after the 3rd reset/turn off with the volume knob, all sound came back on and everything works perfect now.

 

I unplugged the optical and power cables from the digital radio since I couldn’t get to the Sirius radio, the dvd initialized but “please check the DVD” came up. Something else is going wrong. When everything is connected correctly, the message is gone.

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