eBay Center Screens (12.3") for CT4 - Anybody tried it?

[Seth]

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I'm curious to know if it's a good fit, it also gets rid of that ugly plastic piece.

 

[1BadTundra]

I have one of these Android powered screens in my Tundra. It's the biggest piece of shit I've ever bought. Idk if I would mess with the Cadillac OS just to get a bigger screen. My truck screen is laggy, it constantly needs to be rebooted, it drops connection to my phone constantly, just another piece of Chinese Ebay junk

 

[RKS]

Is the GM/Cadillac OS incorporated into the OEM screen or is it just a "dumb" display? Could you potentially remove the Android OS and just have the OEM OS?

 

[Seth]

The one I linked says you can still use the "original car function" instead of the Android OS. 99% of the time I'm running CarPlay anyway.

 

[MatthewAMEL]

Considering the agony one of our members went through trying to get the OEM CT5 screen to work in the CT4, I'd say the chances are zero.

retrofitting CT5 display in CT4

I lasted 6 months before prying panels off so I'll count that as a win. ever since seeing the larger screen in the 5, I have been annoyed at the small display in the CT4. I drunkenly ended up buying some pulled displays from wrecked cars off eBay and decided to see if I could do a swap. The...

www.cadillacvnet.com

 

[G.Newt]

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I'm curious to know if it's a good fit, it also gets rid of that ugly plastic piece.

I did some searching on eBay. There are some with an 8-core Qualcomm CPU, 8G of RAM, and 128G of storage which are decently beefy specs. They most likely won't lag or have performance issues. I may have to try it and take it to the Audio Shop on Lamar in Austin lol.

Even better, you could have the Android screen connected to the unlimited hotspot in the car and run native Google Maps and Apple Music/Spotify. That's the part that intrigues me. Toyota/Lexus have these 2 things built into their infotainment system.

I did reach out to one of the sellers to confirm they'd work for manual transmission cars. I may take a chance. $600 isn't a lot to solve my major complaint with the interior: the small screen.

 

[G.Newt]

Considering the agony one of our members went through trying to get the OEM CT5 screen to work in the CT4, I'd say the chances are zero.

retrofitting CT5 display in CT4

I lasted 6 months before prying panels off so I'll count that as a win. ever since seeing the larger screen in the 5, I have been annoyed at the small display in the CT4. I drunkenly ended up buying some pulled displays from wrecked cars off eBay and decided to see if I could do a swap. The...

www.cadillacvnet.com

Those are 2 different things. That's trying to retrofit a screen that was never designed for our cars vs a product that is specifically for the CT4's. My previous experience with these aftermarket screens is positive. Good fitment and performance.

 

[Seth]

I did some searching on eBay. There are some with an 8-core Qualcomm CPU, 8G of RAM, and 128G of storage which are decently beefy specs. They most likely won't lag or have performance issues. I may have to try it and take it to the Audio Shop on Lamar in Austin lol.

Even better, you could have the Android screen connected to the unlimited hotspot in the car and run native Google Maps and Apple Music/Spotify. That's the part that intrigues me. Toyota/Lexus have these 2 things built into their infotainment system.

I did reach out to one of the sellers to confirm they'd work for manual transmission cars. I may take a chance. $600 isn't a lot to solve my major complaint with the interior: the small screen.

Oh man, let me know if you follow through with this and also how much the Audio Shop charges. I’m really curious, I think it looks a lot better.

 

[seattlecubes]

This looks awesome…such a small change that would have been really nice to have in the car originally!

 

[Jack Tors]

I've installed these generic chinese android retrofit kits in a number of older cars that either didn't have screens to begin with, or were lacking android auto.

The bezels are fairly cheap but not bad and look decent enough.
The unit has an entire OS that can run its own apps as well as android auto and apple carplay.
The benefit for older cars that didn't have a screen to begin with is that you can add features like carplay and a backup camera.

Note that these are generic android screens / processors that are mounted to custom bezels to fit specific vehicles. You can find them on aliexpress as well, but not many available for cadillac. They come with specific wiring harness adapters and are sometimes missing modules needed to fully interract with the vehicle (such as the steering wheel controls). Support is very poor, so you are basically on your own.

When installed in a vehicle that already has a screen and a UI, you have the ability to switch between the car's default UI and the custom android UI by holding a menu button for a few seconds. I put one in a 2018 bmw to add android auto compatibility and it is awkward to have to switch back and forth to gain various features. Also in a BMW you can code in the screen size and resolution so that the screen ratio isn't stretched or distorted.

I wouldn't expect this to work well in a CT4 as we already have the features and vehicle integration. I am not aware of a way to code the cadillac to change the screen aspect ratio or resolution, so it may look stretched or have huge bars on either side while in the cadillac UI. If you spend your time in apple carplay or android auto in the head unit's UI, then it will look better, but you won't see any of the car settings or even volume indicator unless you manually switch back to the cadillac UI.

That said, It would be neat to see how it works out if you've got spare time and spare money. You can always pull it back out if it doesn't work well.

 

[G.Newt]

The support so far has been great. They've answered all of my questions. All steering wheel / drive knob controls are retained. I ordered one with a small discount.

I too retrofitted something similar in a 2016 BMW. I rarely had to switch between the UI's. Once I set the settings I want (usually in the 1st week of owning the car), I usually never have to mess with anything.

What vehicle integration? The only thing that integrates really is the stock navigation (not even Maps+ integrates LOL) and music in the cluster/HUD. The Android UI will use the stock camera UI, and the parking sensors show up in the cluster. I'm willing to lose stock navigation and music integration, considering I never really cared for either.

 

[1BadTundra]

Get some pics of of this thing... Good luck, I hope it retains all factory operation.

 

[G.Newt]

It arrived today (2 day shipping from China). I hooked it up but didn't full button it up yet, need to route the audio cables.

They didn't come with any instructions but it was well packaged. Okay here's my observations:
1. You'll need to do wireless CarPlay/Android Auto. It comes with 2 USB cables to connect to for wired CP/AA but you don't want to use them (you'll see later).
2. For audio: this part wasn't super obvious. There's a small dock box included. You'll connect an aux cable (included) from the back of the screen to the box. Then plug the box into the USB port under the center armrest. Then you'll connect your phone to one of the empty USB slots. This is the only way to get audio.
3. Phone calls: this was also a bit tricky at first. So your phone is connected wireless for CarPlay/Android Auto, but your audio is being played through the USB to an aux cable. The phone doesn't know how to deal with that. So you'll want to connect to the stock Cadillac bluetooth. The phone can be connected to wireless CP/AA and the Cadillac bluetooth at the same time. Calls work great, just need to switch it to the myCadillac setting.
4. Switching between the Android and Cad

I'm going to drive around for the next 2 weeks since there's a 30 day return and see if I'll keep it or return to the stock screen.

 

[Jack Tors]

The support so far has been great. They've answered all of my questions. All steering wheel / drive knob controls are retained. I ordered one with a small discount.

I too retrofitted something similar in a 2016 BMW. I rarely had to switch between the UI's. Once I set the settings I want (usually in the 1st week of owning the car), I usually never have to mess with anything.

What vehicle integration? The only thing that integrates really is the stock navigation (not even Maps+ integrates LOL) and music in the cluster/HUD. The Android UI will use the stock camera UI, and the parking sensors show up in the cluster. I'm willing to lose stock navigation and music integration, considering I never really cared for either.

Integrations would be modifications to drive modes like steering, suspension, brake, engine sound, etc. as well as seat settings adjustments, etc.
I found switching UIs in the BMW as well as the unpredictable way it decides to switch on its own to be frustrating, but looking forward to hearing if this works any better.

 

[Seth]

It looks a lot better but the audio thing is a real bummer

 

[G.Newt]

Update:
Wired CarPlay / Android Auto then bluetooth to the Blackwing. This is the best solution so far since the included aux cable/box doesn't work (waiting on support to respond). Music/phone calls come through the car and music will show up in the cluster/HUD. When plugged into to the Android screen's USB, it auto loads CarPlay, which is convenient. The screen looks great and with the included mount/bracket, looks OEM.

I routed the 2 USB cables and aux (in case I need it) behind the start buttons and under the steering wheel (there's a convenient opening). Then under the plastic on the center tunnel on the driver side where your right leg rests. The cables then resurface up by the seatbelt buckle/armrest. They're only exposed a little under the steering wheel and then disappear. This is a semi-professional installation without taking apart the entire center console. I got some cable clips in today to really tidy it up.