Roma Aftermarket CarPlay

When I bought my Roma a few months ago I knew it did not have CarPlay which I was not happy about. After much research I found a unit from China via EBay and had it shipped over (only took one week). Sadly it had no instructions but I did find a YouTube video with them showing an install but it was NOT from within the car. I took the car to a few audio shops but no one wanted to touch a Ferrari!
So I did the job myself! To my surprise the task was very simple and straightforward, its removing the brown power wire harness from the cars head unit and doing a plug and play from the head unit to the CarPlay unit. The harness is a one to one match! Then I had to remove the blue video wire from the head unit and connect it to the CarPlay unit. That’s it, nothing more! The head unit is located under the steering column so it’s very easy to find. I removed for twerk screws from the panel under the steering column as well as the door cover for the fuse box. I could not completey remove the panel as it oddly has one screw holding the panel to the car thats blocked by the steering column on the left side. So all I did was pulled the panel forward from the 4 removed screws which gave me room to easily unplug and reconnect the brown power wire harness. The blue video wire was a challenge as I had to lay on my back looking up under the dash from the foot well. You cannot see the backside of the head unit (firewall side) from looking up under the dash, it is blocked via the floor vent and footwell light. So I placed a small flashlight on top of the head unit and placed a small mirror above the gas peddle moving up under the dash until I could see the back of the head unit. I then taped the mirror in place as I kept hitting it and lost view. Once taped in view I use a small needle nose pliers to pinch the harness release pin while lightly unplugging the harness. I must admit it was not fun and took me many tries until I got it unplugged. Once unplugged I replugged the new wire harness from the CarPlay unit to the head unit. That was very easy as its a one to one plug and much easier to plug in rather than unplug!
That’s it….the system was installed and ready to connect to my phone. I stuck the CarPlay unit next to the head unit which I can now see if I look in the fuse panel door. Reinstalled the four screws and all done!

I do not work on cars so this was all new to me but it was very simple.

Hope this helps

 

I was honestly more concerned about having an audio shop mess with the car more so than myself. In the end I am glad I was turn away from the shops I went to which lead me to handle it on my own. I was fortunate it was so easy to install. Here is the funny thing, I called two local Ferrari dealerships and spoke with the service manager about how to gain access to the head unit. One guy said they never had experienced accessing one and said he would not want to try it, the other dealership said he had no idea as well. I asked if he would be willing to share his shop manual and he said they do not have one that shows the removal of the head unit. He gave me an email for Ferrari “help” in Italy, after drafting a long detailed email the response was visit your local Ferrari service center for help!
Now you see why I did it myself