retrofitting CT5 display in CT4

[jonnywaffles11]

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 screen is definitely larger and fills the space more. I will need to figure out a few mounts which won't be too hard. The big hangup is that while the connectors are identical and everything plugged right in, the display itself is tiled and not outputting the signal to scale. The digitizer is detecting touch inputs according to where they should be for the size screen so its purely a video output issue which should be easier to troublshoot. I'll welcome any advice on this from more electrical engineering minded people. If I can get that to output right, I will likely be doing a carbon fiber surround since everything will need to be custom sized to the smaller opening of the 4 vs the 5.

 

[DustinEarnhardt]

Hey!! Cool start. Subscribing to this one. Good luck with it!

 

[Deneed4spd]

If you can figure out a way to remove the dark grey plastic part and replace it with carbon fiber like the door trim. That would be $$$. That little plastic piece sure throws off the interior so much!

 

[rubberduck]

That black sparkly piece is pure cheese. Every time the sun shines on it I think what the hell were they thinking.

 

[jonnywaffles11]

I have a ct4 and ct5 extra screen with those dumb plastic panels, I plan on doing a carbon fiber skin assuming I don't have to scrap or molest all of them together to make it fit. If all goes well, I'd likely be selling the spares to highest bid to offset all the extra stuff I'm doing. It comes off quite easy, the hard part will be getting the center home button to look ok. I either have to overlay carbon on that to make it flush with the rest of the panel, which would loose it's illuminated home icon, or leave it black and non raised. I'm not sure which will look worse tbh

 

[GTANotch88]

Or wrap the button separately with this "carbon fiber tint" and the home icon should(maybe) show through.

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[flipray]

Got a guide on how to pop the assembly off? Didnt wanna pry it and not know its screwed down somewhere.
I wanna run a cable thru the back for my phone holder.

 

[jonnywaffles11]

Got a guide on how to pop the assembly off? Didnt wanna pry it and not know its screwed down somewhere.
I wanna run a cable thru the back for my phone holder.

Here's the PDF guide to remove the ct4 assembly. Basically pry tool to the top of the little plastic triangles and pull out to release the single clip. That exposes a screw on each side and then there is a central clip on the rear of the screen and 2 hinge style clips. It's in there good. Took some effort to pull out and pull from the bottom below where the screws were mounted

 

[jonnywaffles11]

For the ct5,
You need to pop off a bit more of the dash, there are 3 clips that hold this screen in..both screens have 2 cables attached to the back with barely any slack to them so access is fun. Both are locking clips that need a small screwdriver to release and then a secondary release to remove. This was the hard part

 

[jonnywaffles11]

For both 4 and 5, To get the front sparkly black piece off, you will need to remove all screws on rear of screen plastic. Pry tool to release clips all around between back black panel and chrome bezel. Once off, release ribbon cable. This will then allow whole assembly to slide straight out, then start removing screws. The front knobs just pull straight off. There are 2 inner shells in the outer shell that come out with screw removal and flexing the whole assembly to release clips sufficiently to pop off.

 

[G.Newt]

The headunit is probably expecting the resolution or some parameter/handshake between it and the screen. With this car being so new (and frankly little aftermarket support) and with everything being very locked down and secure, you'll need to find a clever way to read and alter values from the infotainment module and try coding it.

I wonder if you could separate the circuit boards from each and swap them.

 

[jonnywaffles11]

The headunit is probably expecting the resolution or some parameter/handshake between it and the screen. With this car being so new (and frankly little aftermarket support) and with everything being very locked down and secure, you'll need to find a clever way to read and alter values from the infotainment module and try coding it.

I wonder if you could separate the circuit boards from each and swap them.

Yep that was my next thought. Output resolution should be the same so I was hoping it would accept it as is. The boards are slightly different. There also are like 20 different p/ns for these screen assemblies so not sure if there is a hangup sure to some earlier revision. Most of my electrical engineers at my work are off until January so I'll likely wait until then to try this again. The fact that the digitizer is correctly placing touch inputs is promising in my opinion so hopefully some types of manual resets of systems will allow it to function. I don't think there will be anyway to play around with programming if it's on globalB architecture

 

[Throat Yogurt]

Wow, Jon, this looks like a cool project...thanks for posting.

Is the goal to display the same info on the 5 screen as was on the 4 screen, only larger?

 

[jonnywaffles11]

Wow, Jon, this looks like a cool project...thanks for posting.

Is the goal to display the same info on the 5 screen as was on the 4 screen, only larger?

Correct. As some would say, size does matter. Goal is to make it look as factory as possible..hoping to work out the kinks with display output and then can move on to the fun part of custom molding carbon fiber trim pieces to fill in the now weird gaps between ct4 and 5 dash layouts.

 

[flipray]

Correct. As some would say, size does matter. Goal is to make it look as factory as possible..hoping to work out the kinks with display output and then can move on to the fun part of custom molding carbon fiber trim pieces to fill in the now weird gaps between ct4 and 5 dash layouts.

The smaller screens on the 4BW is one of my larger gripes with the car. My blind ass could barely see things on it while using carplay. The 5BW is just perfect, just figured they didnt opt to put the same screen into the 4BW since the dash is narrower.

 

[Dubbed.theB]

I wonder if there is a 5BW module that you would need to swap to make it plug and play.

 

[GTANotch88]

This mod/upgrade reminds me of my own mod I did back in 2010 on my '05 CTS-V.
That factory screen was the Bose radio, but also a lot of the driver information and navigation. It was all in one.
I wanted to upgrade the radio to usb input, bluetooth, amp outputs etc.
I managed to keep all the driver alerts, navigation, bose amp, factory speakers, added jl amp/sub, and was actually able to watch 2 movies at once(only 1 had sound though at a time, lol).
I only gave up the factory in dash 6 disc changer, and the ash try flipout. Climate controls moved down, and bezel was trimed and wrapped in matte black vinyl where needed to match the rest.

I dont know where my in-progress pics are currently but I did just find this one which shows the final product. Keep in mind I did all the work in my army barracks room, or in the car itself, no shop, no garage.

 

[Seth]

How’s this been coming along @jonnywaffles11

I wanna do this so bad

 

[PrimeTime]

Hmmm.

 

[jonnywaffles11]

I've tried it a few more times with various attempts at getting the signal to register and no success yet. It's still tiling the output signal but the digitizer is working and registering touches at the correct spots. The boards are different sizes too and I couldn't flex the ribbon cables enough to get the larger screen with the ct4 board without tearing them. I didn't get a chance this week to pester anyone at work for advice but may try next week. Worst case if I decide to abandon it, I have a ct4 and ct5 complete trim assembly that will be getting the carbon fiber treatment.