Retrofitting PCM 4 and CarPlay in a 95B.1 Porsche Macan

Introduction

CarPlay is something Porsche added in 2017 in most of their cars. With this Macan being a 2016 it just missed the cutoff.

There are various aftermarket options for retrofitting CarPlay while keeping the PCM 3 unit in place (JoyeAuto, Isudar, Mr12Volt, etc…) but all of them have quirks and caveats that make each a less than ideal solution. Additionally, the PCM 3 screen is fairly low resolution and has a very rudimentary touchscreen that doesn’t mesh particular well with the controls used by CarPlay.

Instead, we’ll be moving forward with retrofitting the original PCM 4 system from the 2017-2018 Macan!

The PCM 4 retrofit has been done by a handful of people in the 911, 981, Cayenne, and other cars which originally came with PCM3(.1), but there hasn’t been much activity with the Macan specifically.

The existing Bose amplifier won’t be usable with the new PCM, as PCM 3 uses MOST25 optical whereas PCM 4 uses the newer MOST 150 spec. The goal is to try and replace the factory Bose amplifier with the updated version to keep everything as factory as possible.

Assembling the kit

There are quite a few parts required for the retrofit, and it pays to have everything ready ahead of time. Some of the items were sourced new while some of the other bigger ticket items were found on eBay to keep the total cost down.

A PIWIS 3 setup will also be required to handle the firmware updates and coding. It’s unlikely a dealer would ever be able/willing to help with this since the process has not been documented by Porsche…so thankfully we are able to stand on the shoulders of giants here.

Parts list

• PCM 4 unit – 95B-035-891-J
• PCM 4 screen – 95B-919-606-E
• PCM 4 screen bracket – 95B-035-464
• PDC unit – 95B-919-475-L
• Topview camera module – 7PP-907-556-AL
• PCM screen cable (part of a take off harness bundle)
• Test Drive Scotland custom PCM harnesses
• Center console storage bin – 95B-857-232-C
• Center console USB port – 5G0-035-222-E
• PIWIS 3
• CarlinKit 5.0 wireless CarPlay adapter
• Bose amp – 4G5-035-223-E
• Bose amp harness (takeoff)
• Rennspec amplifier wiring adapter
• Bose subwoofer – 95B-035-481-B
• Bose amp bracket – 95B-035-251

Starting the process

First step was to remove the air vents and get the physical PCM 3 unit out, and swap in the PCM 4 unit. This was all fairly straightforward which leaves us with an empty hole with some wires sticking out.

The trickiest part of the physical install is the removal of the center console storage which is required in order to replace the USB port. This meant taking the rear vents off as the center console top is snapped into the vent tube running to the back. This tube has a lot of flex so you need to physically hold it down in order to get the clips to release.

An alternative here would be to run the new USB cable to the glovebox which spot for the USB port which can be easily cut/snapped out. This is sort of a personal preference on where you want it. Some cars may have USB ports in both places…but this requires adding an extra USB hub module.

Once the center is out we can route the new USB cable and connect the new plug.

Note: In this Macan the center console storage had the USB port pointing straight up, with the 12v outlet at an angle. This does not have enough clearance for the new style USB plug, so a newer stye storage compartment was ordered which has both on an angle. PN 95B-857-232-C

PCM4 is in and powered up! 🤩

Time to run MIB to update software and enable features.

We are in business! 🙌

The PCM4 screen is a huge upgrade over the old one.

PCM is not talking to cluster yet, but we can fix this.

Time to hook up the charger and fire up PIWIS.

Yep, 3.1 is too old. We need 3.3.

In progress…time to go get coffee.

~20 min later and the cluster and PCM are now best friends.

Looking good, but the parking cameras are no longer working. 🤔

It turns out we need to also swap the Topview camera module with a newer version.

The newer style module looks exactly the same, but has a revised letter ending. It’s not clear if there are hardware differences here or if it’s just firmware. PIWIS actually has the newer version of firmware present, but there were too many unknowns about the hardware it didn’t make sense to try and flash the old module.

The surround camera module is located directly behind the Bose amp in the driver side rear quarter panel. It’s fairly easy to access and within a few minutes the swap is done.

Time to head back to the driver’s seat and hold your breath while putting the car into reverse…

SUCCESS!!! 🙌

PCM 4 is now fully installed and working in the Macan! 🤩

This is a very factory setup and all systems work as they did before. CarPlay connects automatically within about 10s of starting the car, steering wheel volume controls and joker button (to skip tracks) both work, and the car’s GPS works flawlessly for CarPlay.

After clearing the faults via PIWIS (originally caused by disconnecting and reconnecting modules) there are no errors or warnings anywhere in the cluster or PCM.

Note: There are lots of wired –> wireless CarPlay modules on the market, but Carlink 5.0 is the only one that allows you to continue using the car’s GPS antenna for navigation. This helps dramatically with saving your phone’s battery life.

Finally, the audio…

The original plan was to swap the factory Bose amp with a newer version which would work with the new PCM. Sadly this turned out to be a no go due to Porsche’s built in Component Protection feature. Component Protection is something that can be disabled by a qualified service center, but in this case the 2016 model is not on Porsche’s list of approved models so the process stops before it even starts.

Without disabling Component Protection, the amp outputs fuzzy audio out of the left speakers when playing music, but works flawlessly from all speakers when making phone calls. There are also errors in PIWIS confirming CP is in fact enabled.

The fallback option for now is to use the included optical converter box. This setup is ok and with a bit of tuning is probably fine for anyone who wants to keep costs down when doing a retrofit like this. There are some tuning options available within PIWIS to adjust the output levels which can help. There were some adjustments made here, but the easiest option to get decent sound was to reduce the bass and adjust the fader so output wasn’t quite so high before it got to the converter box. With this, the system sounds pretty good unless you get the volume up to very loud levels. This could likely be improved further with more adjustments fiddling in PIWIS.

However, the goal is to keep a fully digital audio pipeline, so now the next step is to move forward with installing a replacement Audison amplifier. 🙂

Coming up next…

• Researching differences between Base, BOSE, and Burmester speakers
• Replacing factory BOSE speakers with Burmester
• Installing an upgraded Audison AF C8.14 amplifier