Swapping the Nissan Leaf Head Unit

[gregory.opera]

I have a 2018 Nissan Leaf (Japanese import) that has had most of the digital / electronic stuff converted to English - pretty much the only things that haven't been converted are some buttons on the head unit (which I don't really care about), the navigation (which is still completely in Japanese, with Japanese maps) and the audio feedback, which is exclusively in Japanese... My car also has all the "smart" stuff enabled, such as automatic parking and Pro Pilot automatic steering / lane control / etc.

But when I use Apple CarPlay, it defaults to Japan for its location.

I have discovered that if I set a destination on my iPhone and then connect it to my car, after a bit of "fighting" with the head unit - jumping back and forth between Japan and Australia - it eventually settles on Australia, following the directions I previously set whilst disconnected from the car. If the navigation ends or I have not set a destination, the head unit will fight with my iPhone for several minutes, before finally choosing the location of the iPhone.

My question is twofold:
1. Is there a way I can configure the head unit to default to Australia for GPS coordinates?
2. If I was to purchase a 2018 English head unit from somewhere (e.g. eBay) and get my car audio guy to plug it in, would it work - whilst keeping all the "smart" stuff and Apple CarPlay?

That's all I really need; if I could get an English head unit that has local navigation / charging stations / etc, it'd be even better... But I don't really need this, as I have Apple CarPlay, which does this for me.

 

[Systemic]

2. If I was to purchase a 2018 English head unit from somewhere (e.g. eBay) and get my car audio guy to plug it in, would it work - whilst keeping all the "smart" stuff and Apple CarPlay?

JDM and EU/UK variants have different pinouts on the connectors. They're the same connectors, but the pinouts are different. You can DIY an adapter however, but I don't think anyone's done this.

I do use a JDM 2019, and when I use CarPlay with it, it defaults to my location on Apple/Google Maps. Not anywhere in Japan. Have you tried disconnecting the GPS cable? I've not done this and it works fine, however if you've issues, it's recommended you do that.

 

[gregory.opera]

Have you tried disconnecting the GPS cable? I've not done this and it works fine, however if you've issues, it's recommended you do that.

I'm almost certainly going to replace the head unit entirely early next year, as I work out of my car and need something pretty reliable... But I might try this over the Christmas break.

I assume it's just a case of pulling the head unit forwards and disconnecting the relevant cable on the back? Is it labeled or indicated which is the GPS cable?

 

[igloo77055]

It pretty obvious which is the GPS cable, there are two similar cables, round with a retaining clip. should be blueish in color.

This is a later model JDM Leaf, it has some extra connectors for live TV, not sure what everything is for as I can't find a pinout or service manual.
But you'll see the blue GPS Antenna connector

 

[gregory.opera]

This is a later model JDM Leaf, it has some extra connectors for live TV...
But you'll see the blue GPS Antenna connector

This'll be mine, because I have physical buttons labelled "TV"... Thanks.

 

[Artem]

Hi all, just reading this topic and I had same story with location jumping to Japan. As I`m using iPhone this is started straight after new iOS update landed. Story is Apple decided that since now main GPS data will be taken from Head Unit and only after from Phone (mostly done to bring stability for wireless carplay).

Just disconnect GPS antenna cable (blue) from your Head Unit and it will work as normal again. (till next update I believe).

PS: Just one of nuances I did additional is set up notifications on the head unit navi (not car play - the official one), switch all of them off because car navi still will be thinking its in JP

 

[gregory.opera]

PS: Just one of nuances I did additional is set up notifications on the head unit navi (not car play - the official one), switch all of them off because car navi still will be thinking its in JP

Yeah, I did that too, and it seemed to help a fair bit... Basically I switched everything in Nissan Connect's navigation off, along with anything that looked even remotely related to GPS or navigation in Nissan Connect.

Still gotta remove the GPS antenna; but I'll pay somebody to do that, because I've gotta take half the car apart to get to it.

On a sidenote, it's curious that nobody has uploaded the software to change everything (including the Nissan Connect navigation and compass settings) to <insert English region>... From what I can see online, it appears that the process is probably done via a software-based method using an SD card - yet seemingly, nobody has uploaded the appropriate files to some dark corner of the Web.

Which leaves us paying several hundred dollars to have this all changed, if we can't work around it.

 

[Artem]

Its very easy to remove gps antena cable, basically a few screws and 20 minutes to do (check youtube - there are a lot of tutorials)

did your nissan connect app work?

regarding head unit - in general I`m hoping there will be option to replace it with android based unit and forget about that outdated screen and interface

 

[gregory.opera]

Its very easy to remove gps antena cable, basically a few screws and 20 minutes to do (check youtube - there are a lot of tutorials)

I looked it up on YouTube - you need to take half your dash apart to get to it... And I rely on my car for work every day, including navigation (via Apple CarPlay), so I can't afford to fudge it up.

did your nissan connect app work?

Was that directed at me? I don't think I mentioned anything about Nissan Connect (I have it on my head unit, but it's all in Japanese for the Nissan Connect stuff...)?

regarding head unit - in general I`m hoping there will be option to replace it with android based unit and forget about that outdated screen and interface

In theory, there shouldn't be any reason why you couldn't just swap the head unit... You'd loose access to certain functionality - such as the automatic parking and energy usage information - but it should just work, in theory.

We're going through a bit of a tight spot with money at the moment and have an awful lot going on, but later in the year, I hope to talk to my car audio guy that we've had do a lot of installations over the years, to find out exactly what I can or can't do with an after-market / third-party head unit (I'm hoping to get the Kenwood DMX9720XDS that we have installed in my partner's car, and I had installed in my previous car).