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How to: upgrade 7" to 8.4" uconnect

50K views 62 replies 20 participants last post by  sajazzman007 
#1 ·
This is a how to for upgrading from the 7" to the 8.4" Uconnect. I believe it is possible to upgrade from the 5", but there are a few additional caveats.

Requirements:

8.4" screen:
This can either be the UAQ (Nav) or the UAS (Non-Nav). These can be acquired from junk/scrap/salvage yards, infotainment.com, possibly the dealer. The part numbers for these seem to be all over the place. If it starts with 682, it should be from the 2017.5-2018 model year vehicles. If it starts with 683 it should be from the 2019+ vehicles. I currently have a 683/2019 in my 2018, so I don't believe you need to match up years. I also can't say what the difference is between them yet. These are the two models I tested 68331631AJ & 68283240AK. Also if you buy from a junk yard or similar, you will need an unlock code. These can get purchased online, or maybe from a dealer?? I believe Navrepair.com can provide them.

Bezel:
You have 3 choices of center bezel to match the interior of your vehicle model. Part numbers might change for 2019+
5UT63NCCAB 8.4 INCH DISPLAY, GUN METAL ACCENT
5UT63JXPAB 8.4 INCH DISPLAY, BLACK ACCENT
5UT63DX8AB 8.4 INCH DISPLAY, PIANO BLACK ACCENT

OBD adapter and cables
If you are going to attempt to do this yourself, you'll need software and corresponding adapters to make changes to the body computer configuration and perform a proxy alignment to sync everything up. you can possibly have this done by a local mechanic with the right tools/subscriptions, or a willing dealership. I recommend using the OBDLink MX adapter, AlfaOBD, and at least the blue and gray adapter cables. For more information on other supported OBD devices, see the support page on AlfaOBD website. The easiest place to get theses cables is on ebay from the UK. The only required cable is GRAY. However, if you have a trailer tow module, you will need the BLUE one as well. I recommend buying at least those two, but for the price it's probably worth getting the whole pack. Who knows, maybe you can help out a friend/family member who has a different supported vehicle.

AlfaOBD
OBDLink® MX Bluetooth | OBDLink® | OBD Solutions
Adapter cables


Also, for some 2018+ vehicles you may need a bypass module. You can read more about it on the AlfaOBD page. As a good rule of thumb. If you have a supported adapter, and can connect to the body computer and read the system status / ID with Alfaobd demo you don't need the bypass. Since my vehicle didn't need the bypass module, I can't speak too much about it. If you require it, from my research, it would appear it needs to be installed/accessed behind the instrument cluster.
Bypass module

Removal & installation
This is pretty straight forward. I'll post a link to a video by infotainment that shows the process and also talks about some of the programming as well. But the general process is to disconnect the negative terminal of the battery. Use a plastic/nylon pry tool to remove the bezel around the current radio. There are a number of clips so it takes some force to do it. Take your time and work your way around, once loosened, it just pops right out. With the bezel removed, there are 4 torx screws holding the radio in place that need to be removed. Next, disconnect the wires and plugs and plug them into the corresponding sockets on the new unit. At this point you can re-attach the negative battery terminal. If the odometer is blinking or you get messages its OK. Those will be addressed with the proxy alignment later.



Configuration
It is not a bad idea at this point to hook up a battery charger/tender as to not run down the battery. This process needs to be done with the vehicle in the run position, but the engine off. Start the vehicle in the run position. The radio should boot up. If required, enter the unlock code. Now we need to make a few changes to allow GPS and navigation, then sync it all up to the body computer with a proxy alignment. At this point I'm assuming you can hook up the OBD adapter to the vehicle and pair it with the phone. Open AlfaBOD and connect to the adapter. If you have a trailer tow module and using obdlink, currently you MUST open the options (gears icon) and check "use BLUE adapter with OBDLink". Without this change the proxy aligment will time out. The developer was pursing this with the vendor, so this may be fixed/address in the future, but for the time being this is the work around. Choose Jeep, Compass (MP) MY2017>, Body computer, Body computer Delphi/Marelli, then connect. Once connected, on the bottom of the app (android) tap the icon of the car with its hood open for active diagnostics. For the procedure, choose "car configuration change" at the bottom. There are two options that need to be enabled for navigation (can skip for UAS radio).

NAV Presence
GPS Presence

Set each of these to Enabled and hit start. It should show the status change from "not enabled" to "enabled". There are a few other options you can set. I'll link to the other alfaobd thread for more info. Once those are done, you can choose the new procedure of "PROXY alignment", then start. If you haven't restarted the vehicle yet it will probably say the alignment is correct. If you have restarted, you've probably been greeted with a blinking odometer and maybe some warning lights/messages. Either way, initiate the proxy alignment procedure. It will start writing to the various modules to get them all in sync. Now depending on what you selected in your configuration based on if you had the trailer tow module, you will either be prompted for the BLUE cable or not. I think in the new version of the software, it has you key cycle the vehicle between cable changes. I found this isn't necessary, but if you want to do it, it works too. Just know that when you start it back up, the vehicle will alert. Let it go through all its alerts and dings and messages before proceeding with the alignment. After that, you will prompted for the GRAY cable. Same disconnect/connect process as with the BLUE. Again, up to you if you want to key cycle. Just remember to let the vehicle finish alerting before hitting OK. Also, during the gray cable it is normal to get a airbag / abs warning message as it writes to those modules. Once it finishes writing to all the modules you can power off the vehicle and disconnect the adapter and cables.

AlfaOBD thread
This is where it all started. Some good info throughout.

Finish
Now its just time to play the waiting game. The vehicle needs to sleep for a bit before the configurations will take place. If you've waited a few minutes and start it up, at this point at the very least it should not complain or throw any warning messages. If it does, you probably set a wrong option or failed to complete the proxy alignment. If that all went well, but the NAV, or travel link or whatever icons aren't showing up yet, the vehicle needs more time to reconfig. You can either turn it off and wait it out a few key cycles, or disconnect the negative battery terminal for a bit, and reboot the CAN bus.

Gotchas
If you don't see the SXM icon, the radio hasn't paired with the vehicle yet. Still need to wait, keycycle, pull negative cable.
If you don't see the NAV icon, the radio hasn't paired with the vehicle yet. Still need to wait, keycycle, pull negative cable.
If you have the nav icon, but stuck on the loading screen. press and hold the driver climate up and down buttons, + front defrost to enter dealer mode. From there look at the navigation info. It should list the map database info/version. If this is blank. The unit is probably screwed up. If you have access to the uconnect sofware that is greater than the current version, the update MAY fix it, but not tested. Best to return a unit in this condition.
If going from a 5" to 8.4" you will lose the physical volume knob and have to use steering wheel controls.
 
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#2 ·
Truely doing God's work out there! Great write up and fantastic research! This needs a sticky!
 
#4 ·
Awesome! Quick question or perhaps clarification, those of us with ESS would need to disconnect the negative terminals of both batteries, right? Both batteries are right next to each-other under the hood so I would think this should be obvious but just pointing out for posterity.
 
#12 ·
Yeah I was reading about some people doing that, but looked like only worked for some models so wanted to see if anyone did it on a Compass yet. I'm going to do some more research to see if my car has the temperature sensor and sun sensor. I don't really care about dual-zone climate, but would be nice to have the climate feature. Assuming I'll need to some fiddling with AlfaOBD as n4cr2k mentioned.
 
#11 ·
Not sure what the "For Sale" rules are here...

But I have a 68283240AK (4C w/NAV) that I have been using in my Ram. It came out of a 17.5 Compass. It works fine other than when it starts up, it shows the Chrysler symbol (showed Jeep the first time and also when I took it out and installed it back into a Compass).
 
#16 ·
Just tried upgrading from a 5" to an 8.4" and my proxy alignment failed at the Entertainment Telematic Module (LTM/ETM/HTM). The message says "The ECU has detected that the request contains parameter(s) with value(s) outside allowable range." Has anyone ever seen this message and know how to fix it? I installed the 8.4 and tried a proxy alignment without changing any settings and got that error. I then tried enabling NAV presence and GPS presence settings for the heck of it and I'm still getting that error. Every other module completes successfully.
 
#18 ·
I was able to write changes to the BCM without any issues so I don't believe I have the bypass module. I got in touch with the AlfaOBD developer and he said it's likely because I don't have something configured in the BCM that's needed for the 8.4 UConnect. I'm assuming it's because I'm upgrading from the 5" instead of the 7".

Would anyone with an 8.4" be willing to send a few screenshots of the readout of the system status on the BCM so I can compare to mine? Looking for something like the attached photo, but for the entire BCM readout.
 

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#19 ·
I was able to figure it out. I'm not exactly sure which setting did it, but I changed a few different ones in addition to the GPS presence and NAV presence that n4cr2k outlined in the OP:

RADIO type: Level 4
HVAC Zone Control: 2 zone
SDARS Presence: enabled
Infotainment Configuration: Mopar

After I changed those, I was able to successfully proxy. I did have a weird issue where I wasn't able to hear any audio, but I disconnected the battery for a few minutes and that solved that problem.

I have a 2018 Compass Sport and was upgrading from a 5" UConnect without XM for anyone looking to upgrade in the future and running into the same issue. I did buy a cheap GPS antenna on Amazon so I could get navigation, but didn't bother with Sirius since I won't use it. Appreciate all the help throughout the process!
 
#58 ·
I was able to figure it out. I'm not exactly sure which setting did it, but I changed a few different ones in addition to the GPS presence and NAV presence that n4cr2k outlined in the OP:

RADIO type: Level 4
HVAC Zone Control: 2 zone
SDARS Presence: enabled
Infotainment Configuration: Mopar

After I changed those, I was able to successfully proxy. I did have a weird issue where I wasn't able to hear any audio, but I disconnected the battery for a few minutes and that solved that problem.

I have a 2018 Compass Sport and was upgrading from a 5" UConnect without XM for anyone looking to upgrade in the future and running into the same issue. I did buy a cheap GPS antenna on Amazon so I could get navigation, but didn't bother with Sirius since I won't use it. Appreciate all the help throughout the process!
I was able to figure it out. I'm not exactly sure which setting did it, but I changed a few different ones in addition to the GPS presence and NAV presence that n4cr2k outlined in the OP:

RADIO type: Level 4
HVAC Zone Control: 2 zone
SDARS Presence: enabled
Infotainment Configuration: Mopar

After I changed those, I was able to successfully proxy. I did have a weird issue where I wasn't able to hear any audio, but I disconnected the battery for a few minutes and that solved that problem.

I have a 2018 Compass Sport and was upgrading from a 5" UConnect without XM for anyone looking to upgrade in the future and running into the same issue. I did buy a cheap GPS antenna on Amazon so I could get navigation, but didn't bother with Sirius since I won't use it. Appreciate all the help throughout the process!
Hey I had a question. I am doing a similar process. What antenna did you buy and how did you add it to the vehicle? Im look for some suggestions. Thanks for all the help!
 
#22 ·
yea i cleared all the codes and even disabled nav presence and disabled gps module presence and its back to normal, but when i try to re enable and proxi align again eveything works except for the abs module "The ECU has detected that the request contains parameter(s) with value(s) outside allowable range
 
#23 ·
Are you upgrading from a 7" or 5" and do you have a satellite antenna? When talking with the AlfaOBD dev, he was saying that error code is usually b/c of a mismatch between the hardware and your BCM config. He suggested tinkering around with the settings to try and get things to align and that's when I tried the stuff in my above post. If your old stereo works and you get no errors when you proxy align, then my guess is it's the same sort of thing.
 
#24 ·
update: i cleared all codes i found in bcm and abs and still had issue with proxi alignment failing at ABS, so i went to mopar dealer to get a proxi alignment from them and no more flashing odometer. however no NAV is displayed on the system just the regular radio functions :( please help
 
#26 ·
This might be a dumb question (sorry), but you do have the curry colored cable to connect to the back of the stereo right? That's the GPS/XM antenna. I did not have it so had to buy a GPS antenna.

I can send you my BCM config so you can compare to your settings to see if there's something you need to change/enable.

Also, if you bought the stereo from Infotainment, I would reach out to them as well if you haven't already.
 
#29 ·
The unlocking of the NAV was for older year models. The only possibility might be if you have the UAS 8.4 (non-nav) and change the sales code via alfaobd to be the UAQ, enable NAV and GPS. Could also require cross-flashing the latest UAQ files to add the maps. All purely speculation, I've never tried it.
 
#37 ·
okay guys i was able to finally write the nav and gps presence and performed a proxi alignment successfully, i just tried it on a different android device and it worked, also i would like to add that if you want to keep up to date with the radio software and happen Not to have the original donor vin associated with the radio, i found a solution.
what i did was following:
1: go to apps and look for GO (activate services)
2: go to option enter email and enter a valid email
3: you should receive a activation link
4: once you click the link at the very top, you will then see the year model and make and VIN

ive only tested this on a jeep compass 2018 with a 2019 uaq 8.4 nav

hope this helps someone
 
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