Since my car is a US-spec one with the top MIB2 that supports a SIM card, I wanted the car to have internet access. But after inserting a Ukrainian carrier’s SIM card, I didn’t see any change on the MIB2 screen — a second mobile signal indicator was supposed to appear.
After some googling, it turned out that mobile network frequencies in the US and Europe are completely different — US-market cars get LTE modules tuned for US frequencies, while European cars get their own. The only frequency that overlaps with ours is 2G, but just plugging in a SIM card won’t make it work. To get even 2G working, you need to connect to control unit 5F via VCDS and, in the adaptations, disable using the built-in SIM card — yes, the US MIB2 unit has a built-in SIM, basically an eSIM.
IDE10668-Internal SIM card: application - NeverAfter this change, a second mobile signal indicator and a 2G icon appear.
Having any internet in the car is neat, but 2G barely gets any signal, and from what I’ve read they’re planning to shut it down entirely — plus the speed is basically nothing, reminded me of the days of WAP sites.
I decided to order a European LTE module from AliExpress. Let’s take a look at the current one first — to do that, pull the MIB2 unit out of the glovebox area; the LTE module is mounted top right on two bolts:
unscrewing and taking it apart, we see the following:
the marking shows it’s a CINTERION ALS6A-US LTE module. A bit more googling revealed there’s the exact same module, but for Europe, marked CINTERION ALS6A-E. The pinout is identical, so all that’s needed is to reflow (reball) it and it should just work.
We type the module’s marking into AliExpress search, find a listing, and order it:
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005113636545.html – $35
After a three-week wait, the module finally arrived. It was packaged well. It looks different from the old one — different marking and a silver color instead of gold:
Next I found someone who could reflow the old module onto the newly bought one. Then I picked up the module and ran off to check — put everything back together, connected it, booted up MIB2, and finally saw the LTE icon:
Once the car got internet access, Audi Connect license information immediately loaded — almost all of it had already expired back in 2018, presumably a free six-month subscription that came with the car purchase
Free of charge among the available features is Web Radio
Next I’d like to get Audi Connect hooked up, but the last step of linking the car to the myAudi service requires the US Audi dealer to identify you as the owner (VAG keeps separate databases per region). I’ve written the dealer a few emails, but they won’t confirm it since the car is no longer in the US — maybe it’ll work out eventually, and if it does, I’ll write a separate post about it.
After enjoying the fact that everything worked, I decided to check the fault codes on the control units just in case. And it turned out I had two new faults
Fault 01556/B200087 about a software/hardware mismatch, and a second fault, 01559/B126B01, about an electrical fault in the cooling fan(???) and it not working ????. The first fault is easy to fix — download the current firmware version, put it on an SD card, go into the “red” menu and update the LTE module firmware (it will be automatically selected in the update list)
A couple of minutes and the firmware updates for the European module; after that you’ll need to fix error 1555 / B201A, which shows up after any update via the “red” menu.
As for the second fault, that one showed up thanks to my own clumsy hands — the MIB2 unit is pulled out with special keys, and the left key went in really badly, so I applied a bit of force, and it turned out I’d pushed the key against the board and knocked off some capacitor (whoever designed this thing???). I had to pull the unit again, fully disassemble the MIB2, and solder the capacitor back in place
Handed it back to the guy who reflowed my module — he fixed it as best he could in about 30 minutes. I put everything back together and installed it in the car, checked whether the fan spins — it starts spinning once the MIB2 heats up to about 40°C — met that condition, and everything worked. Checked the fault codes again and it all came back clean.
And that wraps up the LTE module swap.