I retrofit MCU2, IC2, Tuner2, and FSD Computer into my HW2.0 Car

Here's my story of my DIY HW2.0 retrofit for MCU2, IC2, TUNER2, and FSD Computer:

I want to begin this post by offering the most honest caveat I can: I do not encourage you to repeat anything I have done. In fact, now that Tesla is offering the MCU2 and FSD Computer retrofits officially, I highly recommend you go do that. MCU2 + FSD is wonderful. I am presenting this post to hopefully provide some guidance and entertainment to members of this great community – a place that I’ve found endlessly fun for the past several years during my Tesla ownership. I make no claims that the guidance offered below is correct or suited to your circumstances.

Towards the end of January, late one night while tinkering with my Tesla, I had a realization – I finally knew enough about the Model S/X hardware & software architecture to attempt one of the most involved retrofits I’ve ever done on a vehicle – an MCU2/IC2/Tuner2/APE3 retrofit into my HW2.0 MCU1 Model S. After a LOT of research, and with tons of help from others in this community (thank you to those that helped; you know who you are), I wanted to share my success story of retrofitting MCU2/IC2/Tuner2/APE3 to work in my car. All told – I have a fully working MCU2/IC2/Tuner2/APE3 with all the Theater, Arcade, Caraoke, FM Radio, Web Browser, Dashcam, Sentry, FSD visualizations and other goodies you would expect.

“But Tesla now offers an official MCU2/APE3 retrofit!” you say…” Why would you want to do a retrofit yourself?” Good question…there’s a couple reasons I chose to do this myself:

• I completed the retrofit a couple months before Tesla finally came out with a public announcement that MCU2 retrofits were officially official. I’d been waiting for Tesla to follow-through on Elon’s never-ending tweets promising a retrofit was coming and finally just decided I’d do it myself.
• Tesla charges $2,500 for the MCU2/IC2 retrofit and does not include the XM/FM Tuner2. I thought I’d try getting Tuner2 to work – which I did.
• I found a person with a wrecked 2018 Model S who was willing to sell me the MCU2, IC2, Tuner2, and wiring harness out of the car – everything I needed from a hardware perspective for a reasonable price. All in, I saved roughly $1,000 doing this myself compared to asking Tesla to do it. Honestly though, I probably put 100+ hours into this project and went from knowing nothing to knowing a lot. I didn’t really save time/money; quite the contrary. I did this because it was a ton of fun.
• I got the APE3 (FSD Computer) unit on loan from a friend. I did purchase FSD from Tesla and will have Tesla install my forthcoming APE3 unit whenever they actually do it.

Come along as I take you through my journey of retrofitting the MCU2/IC2/Tuner2/APE3 hardware into my HW2.0 car.

 

[buttershrimp]

(I assume you mean ap1?) so far only with hw2.5 - hw3 is sort of hard to procure but they are looking to get one...

Sorry no, I meant to say a HW2.0 car with MCU1 getting an FSD Computer without upgrading to MCU2 or HW2.5?

 

[verygreen]

Sorry no, I meant to say a HW2.0 car with MCU1 getting an FSD Computer without upgrading to MCU2 or HW2.5?

Ah, I see. It's possible to do but Tesla does not yet officially do it.

 

[SucreTease]

While you decide to wait, it is possible that the Infotainment Upgrade may not be offered for every. We don't know the life of this paid upgrade, but it's possible that it has a end of life as the number of MCU1 vehicle decreased due to many factors...

Waiting too long may result in never being able to upgrade to MCU2 and not able to get any new features (like the Sentry/Dashcam Viewer/Games/Entertainment/etc...).

This is just bare-faced FUD. Anyone could play the game you are playing with any outcome that might be possible. Sure, it's also possible that an asteroid could strike the Earth and wipe out humanity, too. Or that Elon will be hit by a bus. Or that you are a bot or Russian troll that posts wild-ass conjecture to cause worry in others...

 

[MP3Mike]

This is just bare-faced FUD. Anyone could play the game you are playing with any outcome that might be possible. Sure, it's also possible that an asteroid could strike the Earth and wipe out humanity, too. Or that Elon will be hit by a bus. Or that you are a bot or Russian troll that posts wild-ass conjecture to cause worry in others...

Other than Tesla has a history of ending retrofits/upgrades. Like the BioWeapon defense mode upgrade on the Model X that they offered for a while and stopped. So there is a possibility that they could decide to end the upgrade at some point.

 

[bob_p]

The other factor is how long we'll be keeping a vehicle purchased over 3 years ago.

Our current plan is to trade-in our 2017 S (MCU1/AP2) for a Cybertruck - so the amount of time we'd get any benefit from the Infotainment Upgrade makes it harder to justify spending $2500 and lose the radio - which we use for almost every drive.

 

[Panjaspec]

Great post and thank you for sharing your experience!

 

[buttershrimp]

Ah, I see. It's possible to do but Tesla does not yet officially do it.

Hey green! I have a code question? do you see anything in the code that is causing rather large forced reductions in range by firmware? For instance my range dropped from 311 miles at 36,000 miles to 295 at 40,000 miles and it seems to coincide with vehicle fires and firmware nannying...

Any indication if these are real versus forced? Curious too if tesla is keeping battery in reserve hidden within the code to prevent users from pushing it all the way to 0 or to discourage owners from pushing their recharge limits into the slow Supercharging territory that goes with pushing beyond the 90% threshold?

My current theory is that it’s Tesla’s way of making us spend less time a supercharger, preventing battery fires or drastically lowering charge rate or a secret attempt to make me have Flaccid charging issues or EV dysfunction that is associated with the natural aging process (I’m asking for a friend I know, not me of course)

 

[NoMoGas]

Great detail! Thanks for your insight and post. Your post gives me hope on a solution fo the FM/XM radio problem on upgrade. I paid $2,500 for the upgrade specifically to get XM radios when I bought my MX in 2017 and it seems ridiculous to pay an additional $2,500 for an upgraded MCU only to have it removed.

I couldn't agree more

 

[TrevTremaine]

Great write up. It's got me pondering the upgrade as a whole. If you get any the new software updates, how are you finding the drive comparative to the MCU1/AP2.0? The tuner issue is making me think twice since I listen to the radio a fair bit but I've got no idea of how the 2 different configurations work comparatively.

 

[KyleDay]

Great write up. It's got me pondering the upgrade as a whole. If you get any the new software updates, how are you finding the drive comparative to the MCU1/AP2.0? The tuner issue is making me think twice since I listen to the radio a fair bit but I've got no idea of how the 2 different configurations work comparatively.

Mcu2/ic2 doesn't change driving dynamics at all. The FSD computer (ape3) doesn't seem to change autopilot driving for me yet, though rolling out today is 2020.12.6 which supposedly does stoplight and stop sign reactions - not sure that'll change driving dynamics though compared to ape2.0

 

[sangmaster]

Kdday,

Kudos on your work. I've been looking for someone that has gone through this kind of work, though my aim is a bit different. I owned a Model X 75D 2018, and got it replaced for the performance Model X 2020. I was able to do all the work on the car as previous, except for this one critical matter -- Aux-in through AM/FM Radio. Considering the huge difference in sound quality being wired vs bluetooth, this is a must have, but I found no way to do it now with the Tuner2 (SOP6 on the wiring diagram, where 2018 model had SOP5 where AM/FM Tuner had an analog out to the center unit).

The question is, is that analog wiring still at the back of the center console? Can I go from Tuner2 to Tuner1? Do you have any suggestions to get access to analog line in through the radio as before?

Thanks in advance.

(the work on vehicle, though much are pics of the 2018 X, is at teslaxsur.com)

 

[KyleDay]

Kdday,

Kudos on your work. I've been looking for someone that has gone through this kind of work, though my aim is a bit different. I owned a Model X 75D 2018, and got it replaced for the performance Model X 2020. I was able to do all the work on the car as previous, except for this one critical matter -- Aux-in through AM/FM Radio. Considering the huge difference in sound quality being wired vs bluetooth, this is a must have, but I found no way to do it now with the Tuner2 (SOP6 on the wiring diagram, where 2018 model had SOP5 where AM/FM Tuner had an analog out to the center unit).

The question is, is that analog wiring still at the back of the center console? Can I go from Tuner2 to Tuner1? Do you have any suggestions to get access to analog line in through the radio as before?

Thanks in advance.

(the work on vehicle, though much are pics of the 2018 X, is at teslaxsur.com)

You cannot use Tuner 1 with mcu2.

 

[sangmaster]

Thanks for the response.

Any suggestions on how i may get direct audio input to center console somehow? Some thoughts:

1. If analog connections are still available in center console, tap into that... but i think you are saying that is not possible (i imagine it is bc sw recognizes tuner2 config and will no longer accept the analog signals...)

2. Any way to use that two-wire "ethernet" signal to emulate audio signals? I actually thought this was a standard spdif signals and tried various brands of spdif output and concluded it was some proprietary tesla signal, but learning it is ethernet, i wonder if there are ways to tap into that.

3. Any other thoughts?

The aux-in is important for audiophiles. We need to solve this. =)

 

[sangmaster]

Do you happen to have pic of back of mcu? Im wondering if mcu2 has a different set of inputs/outputs. One thing i saw in the new electric diagram (SOP6) is a new connector x176, where previous (2018 SOP5) did not have that, but rather x170 with the analog signals. However, the new diagram with tuner2 (SOP6) still shows x170 is there.

If you have, i would like to verify existence of x170 and if there is a new input/plug for x176.

 

[Waldek]

Wow! That's impressive great job and really great information!

 

[sperlaky]

Kdday,

I am making a digital FM/XM radio harness for MCU. Maybe you covered this, but do you think using the “sx-updater” and “factory redeploy” after a new MCU2 is installed and I connect the digital radio to it via the harness would work? Is the best way to get on the network through the hardware Ethernet (I thought was disabled) or wi-if?

Thank you,

Sperlaky

 

[KyleDay]

Kdday,

I am making a digital FM/XM radio harness for MCU. Maybe you covered this, but do you think using the “sx-updater” and “factory redeploy” after a new MCU2 is installed and I connect the digital radio to it via the harness would work? Is the best way to get on the network through the hardware Ethernet (I thought was disabled) or wi-if?

Thank you,

Sperlaky

Tuner will not work, even if you add it and physically wire it, unless you modify the Tuner configuration setting in the Gateway. Only way to do that (that I know of) is with root access that is hard to come by. So no, wiring it won’t help. Gotta enable the functionality within gateway AND have tuner wired for it to work.

 

[scottf200]

Kdday, I am making a digital FM/XM radio harness for MCU. Maybe you covered this, but do you think using the “sx-updater” and “factory redeploy” after a new MCU2 is installed and I connect the digital radio to it via the harness would work? Is the best way to get on the network through the hardware Ethernet (I thought was disabled) or wi-if? Thank you, Sperlaky

Kdday and others helped with this page where the configuration info is too.
tuner | Search Results | TeslaTap

 

[rob4448585]

Can we do the hardware swap then use this Toolbox to make the configuration change? (seems like Tesla offers a 24 hour access for for $200)
I have the cable to plug in from the car to the computer

 

[KyleDay]

Can we do the hardware swap then use this Toolbox to make the configuration change? (seems like Tesla offers a 24 hour access for for $200)
I have the cable to plug in from the car to the computer

Where does tesla offer 24 hour access for Toolbox?