Azmp1
Senior Member
- Joined
- Mar 3, 2016
- Posts
- 111
- Reaction score
- 45
- Ram Year
- 2014
- Engine
- 5.7 HEMI
HI all. I finally finished (well almost anyway) with the upgrades i've been planning for some time on my 2014 Express. What i did was the full center console replacement, overhead console addition with homelink, new sun visors with lighted mirrors, upper glovebox, rear handle camera (aftermarket) and infotainment replacement with the chinese android unit.
Still to do EVIC cluster and heated wheel with volume controls.
What i wanted to do is add a few tips on my experience, including some caveats, i found along the way. There are plenty of DIY videos on YouTube, for pretty much all of it, so thats what i used for the most part, along with info in various threads on here.
OK here goes:
1. Console replacement
My interior was as basic, as they come, just about, so pretty much needed everything. Here's the before pic. The only thing i did previously was converting RA1 to RA2 and addition of the premium mirror with mics, in order to have BT, for which i also had to run harness (and it was all plug in play)
Before pic
After pics:
All the parts came through sourcing via car-part.com. eBay is ridiculously overpriced when it comes to these, so sourcing via junk yards is best bet. Full console (including brackets) and the glovebox ran me about $300 and it turned out to be out of Rebel which was a nice surprise.
Overall the replacement isnt hard, but here are few tips and some of the changes that i ended up making:
- Make sure you get the brackets for the console (there are two). You can pretty much reuse the rest of the hardware.
- Make sure the front bracket (if buying from junkyard) includes the console air duct adapter piece, otherwise you will need to source it. Here the part number: 55056931AB
- You will also need the Z duct adapter which goes behind the bracket and connects to the duct out place, which is already there, but closed off. so i had to cut it out. Its a pain in the ass to get in place and the only way i was able to do it is breaking that adapter in two halves (its designed for it) and getting it in there one half at the time. Here's the part number for it: 68049979AA
- You will need to move the harness that will be under the seat to where the jump seat USB hub connected to, to the front of the console, that was also kinda of a PITA.
- I ended up taking the plug labeled USB (which is only a charging plug) out from the console and moving it to the blank plate under the small right cubby (see picture) this way that plug is easily accessible. The new console did come with the 120 inverter there, but i elected not to do that upgrade, so i just move the blank plate cubby from the old console and drilled it out for the plug.
- In place of that plug i added a universal data USB3 plug which now connects to the infotainment. I had to do that as in my case the USB hub no longer functions, but if you're sticking with stock Uconnect, than that isnt needed.
- And lastly i didnt want to lose the direct battery plug, so i drilled out the place for it on the side of the console and just moved it there. But had to extended the wiring harness. I have a portiable power inverter and i though that would be a good place for it to be plugged in if needed.
All in all everything really did fit like a glove and tuned out great i think. Its like having a brand new truck!
-----------
2. Upper Glovebox.
There really isnt much to it, just few notes:
- Get the little locking clasp that goes to the front, as likely the glovebox parts will not come with it.
- There will be a light connector taped somewhere in the back, once you take out the old cubby.
- Everything pretty much just snaps in, but the door is kind of weird to get the hinge part worked in.
- Also note the new cubby is more shallow than the old one without the door.
3. Overhead console
- If you dont have one at all, you will need to get a mounting bracket for it. Part number: 55365119AC
- Cutting the hole in is easy, just measure 3 times before you cut once lol
- If you're getting the console with homelink, dont make my mistake and get one from pre 2013 gen4, if you have 2013+ as it wont work. I should have checked here first and didnt. It looks identical.
- Harnesses i made myself, lights are easy and they just run to the left green connector to the side of the dash. I used this to figure out all pin outs for variuos connections http://connectors.dcctools.com/home.htm (thanks @SitKneelBend!)
- Also i ended up taping the lin bus and power and ground wires for the homelink, right on the mirror harness, so for homelink didnt need to run the wiring all the way down to the linbus plugs. Btw, there is another linbus plug on the right side as well, thats where my mirror harness is plugged in.
4. Sun visors
- I ended up making my own harnesses for both, using 2-pin connectors off amazon and ran them over to the accessory light wire, which i tapped on the left lin bus plug.
- Other than that no biggie on those.
5. Rear camera in handle.
- Bought the aftermarket version, since i knew this was getting connected to the aftermarket head unit. Got one from Amazon and it turned out to be excellent quality.
- Swapping out the handle and locking mechanism is pretty straightforward. The camera came with nice instructions for a change.
- I tapped the reverse light wire with ground onto the boddy with self tapping screw inside the tail light cavity.
- Running the harness to the front is not a biggie either, just takes some time. I ended up zip tying it along other lines on the left that run to the front and had it come out from the plug that foot brake cable uses.
6. And finally the android head unit. I wont post the link to it, because frankly i think i spent too much on figuring out the correct operations and i think there are better options there, but if you want it DM me.
- Let me be clear: If you want perfect and seamless integration, upgrade your Uconnect lol. If you're willing to deal with few small issues then, i think this is a great upgrade and most importantly cheap as i only paid $135 on ebay for the 2gb RAM, 32gb ROM, android 11 unit.
- Install is pretty straightforward and you dont really need to use horrible chinese translated instructions, is almost all is plug and play. But you can also have a shop do it of course.
- For the most part everything works fine, just takes a bit of tinkering. Here are some impressions:
- Overall look and feel is great! it fits like a glove and looks awesome IMO. The only thing i'm not a fan of from physical perspective is i the volume controls are kinda small. I wish it was knob.
- Canbus decoder supplied with unit was a Hiworld brand and the only correct profile that will ensure canbus communications for this one was Jeep - Domestic Renegade. There is no profile for RAM... and the instructions told me to use different one and it didnt work, until i found the one that did. But this will vary unit to unit, depending on the decoder brand. Other than that, it pulls the main engine stats, AC screen will automatically comes up and reflects the change when I adjust the manual A/C knobs as well.
- The default apps preloaded are fine and work pretty good, but the most important thing for me was CarPlay! It connects fairly quickly and works very fast ever over wireless. Overall, the unit is pretty damn fast. It turns on almost instant and take another maybe 5 sec for BT and than another 10 or so sec and CarPlay to start.
- Wifi works fine to for when you're at home and want to upgrade apps for instance. You get full android play store on it.
- Steering wheel integration i cant test yet, as i dont have volume controls (coming next).
- One crappy thing, is you wont be able to use stock mics. The unit comes with one built in, and so far testing isnt terrible, but it also does another external mic our in the back, so can always get a good mic if needed.
- The unit came with two USB connections, for which they give you adapters and even gave the mini-USB adapter so i could reuse the original mini-USB cable that goes to the original USB hub, so i ended up just adding a mini-USB to USB adapter there to be able to use the universal plug i bought, as you see on the pic above. The other USB connection, i used for the front ADAS DVR, which works great with the unit.
- If anyone has any specific questions about the install or operations of this unit, id be happy to answer.
Overall, if anyone has any questions about everything i posted above, post up, or DM me. This forum has always been helpful to me, so hopefully i'm able to give back a little.
Oh and lastly, i know some folks, actually need to do the opposite conversion to have the jump seat, so if anyone needs i can sell you the full package you need to do the opposite conversion - all parts in great shape!
Still to do EVIC cluster and heated wheel with volume controls.
What i wanted to do is add a few tips on my experience, including some caveats, i found along the way. There are plenty of DIY videos on YouTube, for pretty much all of it, so thats what i used for the most part, along with info in various threads on here.
OK here goes:
1. Console replacement
My interior was as basic, as they come, just about, so pretty much needed everything. Here's the before pic. The only thing i did previously was converting RA1 to RA2 and addition of the premium mirror with mics, in order to have BT, for which i also had to run harness (and it was all plug in play)
Before pic
After pics:
All the parts came through sourcing via car-part.com. eBay is ridiculously overpriced when it comes to these, so sourcing via junk yards is best bet. Full console (including brackets) and the glovebox ran me about $300 and it turned out to be out of Rebel which was a nice surprise.
Overall the replacement isnt hard, but here are few tips and some of the changes that i ended up making:
- Make sure you get the brackets for the console (there are two). You can pretty much reuse the rest of the hardware.
- Make sure the front bracket (if buying from junkyard) includes the console air duct adapter piece, otherwise you will need to source it. Here the part number: 55056931AB
- You will also need the Z duct adapter which goes behind the bracket and connects to the duct out place, which is already there, but closed off. so i had to cut it out. Its a pain in the ass to get in place and the only way i was able to do it is breaking that adapter in two halves (its designed for it) and getting it in there one half at the time. Here's the part number for it: 68049979AA
- You will need to move the harness that will be under the seat to where the jump seat USB hub connected to, to the front of the console, that was also kinda of a PITA.
- I ended up taking the plug labeled USB (which is only a charging plug) out from the console and moving it to the blank plate under the small right cubby (see picture) this way that plug is easily accessible. The new console did come with the 120 inverter there, but i elected not to do that upgrade, so i just move the blank plate cubby from the old console and drilled it out for the plug.
- In place of that plug i added a universal data USB3 plug which now connects to the infotainment. I had to do that as in my case the USB hub no longer functions, but if you're sticking with stock Uconnect, than that isnt needed.
- And lastly i didnt want to lose the direct battery plug, so i drilled out the place for it on the side of the console and just moved it there. But had to extended the wiring harness. I have a portiable power inverter and i though that would be a good place for it to be plugged in if needed.
All in all everything really did fit like a glove and tuned out great i think. Its like having a brand new truck!
-----------
2. Upper Glovebox.
There really isnt much to it, just few notes:
- Get the little locking clasp that goes to the front, as likely the glovebox parts will not come with it.
- There will be a light connector taped somewhere in the back, once you take out the old cubby.
- Everything pretty much just snaps in, but the door is kind of weird to get the hinge part worked in.
- Also note the new cubby is more shallow than the old one without the door.
3. Overhead console
- If you dont have one at all, you will need to get a mounting bracket for it. Part number: 55365119AC
- Cutting the hole in is easy, just measure 3 times before you cut once lol
- If you're getting the console with homelink, dont make my mistake and get one from pre 2013 gen4, if you have 2013+ as it wont work. I should have checked here first and didnt. It looks identical.
- Harnesses i made myself, lights are easy and they just run to the left green connector to the side of the dash. I used this to figure out all pin outs for variuos connections http://connectors.dcctools.com/home.htm (thanks @SitKneelBend!)
- Also i ended up taping the lin bus and power and ground wires for the homelink, right on the mirror harness, so for homelink didnt need to run the wiring all the way down to the linbus plugs. Btw, there is another linbus plug on the right side as well, thats where my mirror harness is plugged in.
4. Sun visors
- I ended up making my own harnesses for both, using 2-pin connectors off amazon and ran them over to the accessory light wire, which i tapped on the left lin bus plug.
- Other than that no biggie on those.
5. Rear camera in handle.
- Bought the aftermarket version, since i knew this was getting connected to the aftermarket head unit. Got one from Amazon and it turned out to be excellent quality.
- Swapping out the handle and locking mechanism is pretty straightforward. The camera came with nice instructions for a change.
- I tapped the reverse light wire with ground onto the boddy with self tapping screw inside the tail light cavity.
- Running the harness to the front is not a biggie either, just takes some time. I ended up zip tying it along other lines on the left that run to the front and had it come out from the plug that foot brake cable uses.
6. And finally the android head unit. I wont post the link to it, because frankly i think i spent too much on figuring out the correct operations and i think there are better options there, but if you want it DM me.
- Let me be clear: If you want perfect and seamless integration, upgrade your Uconnect lol. If you're willing to deal with few small issues then, i think this is a great upgrade and most importantly cheap as i only paid $135 on ebay for the 2gb RAM, 32gb ROM, android 11 unit.
- Install is pretty straightforward and you dont really need to use horrible chinese translated instructions, is almost all is plug and play. But you can also have a shop do it of course.
- For the most part everything works fine, just takes a bit of tinkering. Here are some impressions:
- Overall look and feel is great! it fits like a glove and looks awesome IMO. The only thing i'm not a fan of from physical perspective is i the volume controls are kinda small. I wish it was knob.
- Canbus decoder supplied with unit was a Hiworld brand and the only correct profile that will ensure canbus communications for this one was Jeep - Domestic Renegade. There is no profile for RAM... and the instructions told me to use different one and it didnt work, until i found the one that did. But this will vary unit to unit, depending on the decoder brand. Other than that, it pulls the main engine stats, AC screen will automatically comes up and reflects the change when I adjust the manual A/C knobs as well.
- The default apps preloaded are fine and work pretty good, but the most important thing for me was CarPlay! It connects fairly quickly and works very fast ever over wireless. Overall, the unit is pretty damn fast. It turns on almost instant and take another maybe 5 sec for BT and than another 10 or so sec and CarPlay to start.
- Wifi works fine to for when you're at home and want to upgrade apps for instance. You get full android play store on it.
- Steering wheel integration i cant test yet, as i dont have volume controls (coming next).
- One crappy thing, is you wont be able to use stock mics. The unit comes with one built in, and so far testing isnt terrible, but it also does another external mic our in the back, so can always get a good mic if needed.
- The unit came with two USB connections, for which they give you adapters and even gave the mini-USB adapter so i could reuse the original mini-USB cable that goes to the original USB hub, so i ended up just adding a mini-USB to USB adapter there to be able to use the universal plug i bought, as you see on the pic above. The other USB connection, i used for the front ADAS DVR, which works great with the unit.
- If anyone has any specific questions about the install or operations of this unit, id be happy to answer.
Overall, if anyone has any questions about everything i posted above, post up, or DM me. This forum has always been helpful to me, so hopefully i'm able to give back a little.
Oh and lastly, i know some folks, actually need to do the opposite conversion to have the jump seat, so if anyone needs i can sell you the full package you need to do the opposite conversion - all parts in great shape!
Last edited:
