IainC

So as promised in a previous thread, here is a “guide” for enabling android auto in the PCM4 unit of 991s and other P cars, and also a guide for updating maps to the latest version.

A few caveats before I get started:

- My experience is on a 991.2 2017MY turbo S but applies to other cars with PCM4. It will not work with other PCMs. You need the PCM with a USB socket in the centre console
- Although the risk is very low of damaging your PCM unit, I take no responsibility for anything that goes wrong
- You will need to have familiarity with manipulating computer files, unpacking archives and copying stuff to SD cards



With that said, here goes.

1. Identify the your current software version in your car. It will start with MHI2. If it doesn’t start with MHI2, you don’t have PCM4, so stop here (sorry). To get your software version, go to Home, Set, Software update, Version Information. Write this down

2. You will need a 16GB SD card formatted as FAT or exFAT for the android auto activation. You’ll need similar of 32GB or more for map updates. In theory you should be able to use a USB memory stick, but you can’t. Don't ask me how I know

3. Go here: https://mibsolution.one/wl/?id=ct7tZ...cHmPMm8pk1YYGa and download the latest version of MIB, and the latest version of MIB patches. At the time of writing, these files were called M.I.B_3.2.0_20220314.7z (we’ll call this the MIB software) and M.I.B_Patches_20220314.7z (we’ll call this patches)

4. Unpack both files on your PC/Mac into two separate directories

5. In the directory to which you unpacked the Patches file, look for a directory with the same name as your software version that you identified in step 1. I’m not aware of any examples where a patch file is not present for any existing software version, but you could be the first! Copy this directory (not just the contents of the directory) to the patches directory of where you unpacked the MIB software

6. Now copy the entire contents of the MIB software directory to the root directory of your SD card. In this case you want to copy the files and subdirectories of the MIB software, so go into the MIB software directory, select all, select copy, then paste this to the SD card



Now to the car!



1. Put key in so PCM comes on. If you’re keyless, do whatever you need to do to get the PCM to come on and **stay on**. In my car, just putting the key in and not turning it was sufficient. Insert your SD card into slot 1.

2. On the PCM, press and hold CAR + MEDIA at the same time. This sometimes can be a bit fiddly, if it doesn’t work, press and hold CAR fractionally before pressing and holding MENU. This should open the “engineering menu”

3. Now select “software update”, SD1 and M.I.B Launcher. This may vary depending on your software version, so this is a tiny bit trial and error, but the worst that can happen here is that it won’t work

4. Select Start update. This will take a while, the unit will reboot several times and give you a few scares by appearing to hang for minutes at a time. IMPORTANT: YOUR PCM NEEDS TO HAVE POWER TO IT AT ALL TIMES DURING THIS PROCESS. So check before you start that whatever you did in (1) above, keeps your PCM on and powered for at least 10 min! And make sure your car battery is healthy enough, fully charged and not in any way flakey. I can’t repeat this enough – if your car cuts power to the PCM while updating, bad things may happen

*A note here to what happened to me: the first time round I got a load of errors and the PCM crashed. After running around in a panic for a couple of minutes, I pressed the power button on the PCM and it came back on as if nothing had happened, so I repeated the above 1-4 steps (after imbibing some alcohol for luck. Me, not the car). This may happen to you, hopefully not as it’s probably not so good for your heart (the PCM crashing, not the alcohol)*

5. Once everything has finished and the unit has rebooted, you should have your normal home screen. Leave the SD card in the slot and press and hold CAR + TUNER (same hint as in (2) applies). This should open the Green Engineering Menu (GEM). If it doesn’t, start over from (1) above

6. Now it’s all pretty straightforward. Roll down the menu with the right **** to M.I.B, then press the **** in to start it. Roll down to “flash patched image” (I forget exactly what the option says), and proceed to flash the patch. Note that selecting “activate Carplay/Android auto” without doing this first won’t work. Wait for the unit to flash (nerves required as in (4) above) and restart. Plug your phone into the USB socket in the centre console and check AA or carplay start

Map update instructions to follow!

Pb Pedis

I wonder if this kind of immensely helpful public service thread should be a sticky?

IainC

I'm still a newbie here so not sure what the form is, but if people find this helpful, that would be nice.

I've also (finally) just updated my PCM software after my dealer wanted ~$700 for plugging their USB stick in, but that's significantly more nerve-wracking. Can do a post for that as well if there's interest though

6speeddave

Definitely interested in the PCM software update guide!

worf928

That would be cool.

There’s a thread in one of the General forums on swapping out the hard disk for SSD. I need to get off my but and do that too.

IainC

I think that one is a bit beyond me, but I'll also look into it and if I come up with anything useful will be sure to post it

IainC

As promised, brief instructions on how to update your maps. Compared to the MIB patch above, this is risk-free as far as I can see (although no responsibility taken from me if things do go wrong).

First, you need to have done the above patching to give you unlimited map updates. Having a subscription to the Porsche online update service will not allow you to manually update maps as described below.

Second, get your map. There are some here: https://mibsolution.one/#/1/15/MHI2(Q) and here https://www.macanforum.com/threads/f...talled.183629/ but you may need to search to find the region/year that you need. I can provide alternate links if people really get stuck, but a quick google search will likely get you what you need. These will all download extremely slowly and probably need re-starting (to pick up where the download left off) a lot. Be patient.

Third, you need a 32GB SD card formatted as FAT or FAT32. Here's where my experience comes in useful - an SD card formatted on a Mac will not work, period. An SD card formatted on a mac using 'SD-card tools' (downloadable) will also not work. You need access to a windows machine - I have not found a workaround to this (sorry mac users - I am one so this was a pain in the *** for me). The really important step - UNPACK THE DOWNLOADED FILE DIRECTLY TO THE SD CARD. Your choice of unpacker is up to you, but point the target directory as the root of the SD card for unpacking. I wasted dozens of downloads and unsuccessful attempts to update finding this out - even a careful copy of an unpacked directory on my PC hard drive to the SD card did not work.

Now to the car. Your software version of PCM4 has no bearing on whether this will work, so don't worry if you're still on the original software. PLEASE SEE STEP 4 OF THE PATCHING INSTRUCTIONS ABOVE - YOU NEED YOUR PCM TO BE CONTINUOUSLY POWERED FOR THE ENTIRE TIME (at least an hour and sorry for the caps). In this case, I turned my key to the Acc step, connected a battery charger to the car battery, and turned off my headlights. Your solution will vary, but if your car shuts down the PCM halfway through, you will need to start over.

Insert SD card into slot 1 or slot 2. If you still have your MIB SD card in slot 1, slot 2 for this is fine. Go to Nav, options, map updates, select your SD card and let it rip. That's it.

If your PCM tells you that there is no updatable files on the SD card, you have either downloaded a region which does not match your current one (change in MIB if you want), you have downloaded a "Columbus" map (not compatible), or, more likely, you have not correctly formatted your card or not unpacked the downloaded file directly to the card.

Let me know how you get on, happy to answer any questions I can

6speeddave

I know it may not interest you, but I would pay you for supplying both a PCM update as well as a 2022 Map update on ready to go SD cards.

Pb Pedis

Ditto...

IainC

Tempting though it is, the map update won't work without patching the existing software (or the new software if you update), but the faith in my skills appreciated. Nonetheless, my intent with my guides was to help people be able to do this stuff themselves - I suspect my lack of skill in writing something easy to follow will still dissuade folks from having a crack at this themselves.

While anyone paying me to do stuff (outside of my full time job ) is kind of off the menu, I am at your disposal with any questions you have that I can help with.

Pb Pedis

I still think your contributions merit a sticky thread....

eecsdude

Could you give more pointers on which file to download? The first link has quite a few with NAR in the filename, but not clear they are for MIB2. Alternate links would be greatly appreciated!

2fcknfst

Agreed.

Kyrosnick

Tempting, but got an Ottocast and been using wireless android auto for past week. Zero issues so far. $110 off amazon, and works great. Until it dies, I'll probably just keep doing that.

IainC

The NAR file in the MHI2 directory is the 2021 map. The 2022 version can be grabbed from the Macan forum links- many of them have been taken down though so a little wading through the options will be required. If I can find a direct download link I'll PM you as it seems every publicly posted link gets taken down pretty quickly