The factory installed external CD changer* and factory phone module** both need to be removed/disconnected from the car’s optical ring if you want to use all functions of the Gateway (music and phone). This is because the Gateway emulates these functions, and the car can only work with one CD changer and one phone device in the same time. If you don’t remove them, any various problems may happen like:
- Volume changing automatically / randomly within 10-15 seconds or more
- CD changer (Gateway) as a source can or cannot be selected but it reverts you back automatically to radio mode shortly (within 2-3 seconds), or you can only select the Gateway if your reset it by unplugging it from power or using the reset switch
- Function buttons are not or only partly working (e.g. FFW)
- Phone issues (section K)
- Error messages from the car
- The Gateway or car radio resets, is not available at all
Some car types also require coding, or else the Gateway can’t be reached in the car menu. A typical situation is by BMW that the CD changer can be selected, but the CDs are all greyed out. For further information about coding please read section P! If the car can only recognise the Gateway when you reset or unplug the power of Gateway, then please make sure you added constant power to the Gateway, for further information please read section T!
*Removing the CD changer: If you have a Dual FOT (xxxxMO2) version Gateway, then you can keep the CD changer if you connect it to the right side optical connector of the Gateway.
** Removing the factory phone: You can also keep the factory phone, but in that case you need to turn off the phone functions of the Gateway as mentioned in section A.
Special cases:
- The special case by Porsche #1: If you installed everything correctly, also the Gateway works properly, but the following message appears on the screen "System error: CD Changer not available." everytime when you start the car. The message can be closed if you press OK, but you can also remove the error message permanently: based on the feedbacks of some Dension installers we know, that if you decode/remove the factory phone from the programming of the car, then the error message for the CDC won't come back (this way both the Gateway's music and phone functions are still working properly).
- The special case by Porsche #2: You are using the rotary knob for selection, and you experience that you can't select some cases a menu element of the Gateway menu. This is normal. Within the Gateway menu (CD changer menu) the rotary knob is not supported, as the rotary knob is not part of the CD changer protocol. Instead you need to use the Next/Previous track buttons in the Gateway menu. If you press and hold the Next track button for 2-3 seconds, then you can select a Gateway menu element always successfully.
- The special case by Audi #1: If you installed everything correctly, but the phone menu is not working properly, the screen freezes from time to time, or the song names are not visible, then the MMI 2G of the car might have an old software, with bugs. The MMI software needs to be updated, then the problems should disappear. If the car was made in 2007 or is more younger then it most probably doesn't have these problems already.
- The special case by Audi #2: If you installed everything correctly, you can see the 6 CDs of the Gateway in the car menu (CD7-CD12 or CD1-CD6), but there is no text information if you look at CD12 (or CD6), "Gateway menu" is not visible. (And if you select CD12 then nothing happens, except that it switches automatically to CD7.)
Then please go to the settings menu of the Audi and make sure "CD-Text display" is enabled. After that you will see "Gateway menu" appearing on CD12 (or CD6), and you can select it and everything should work properly.
- The special case by BMW: The Gateway is only recognised by the car, if you reset the Gateway. Those customers who had this problem, almost all of them said that the Gateway was working properly for years before this problem started to happen. In the past we worked together with one customer, and we found out, that within the many years the car just became slower and slower, cars with more features/extras are more likely affected. This caused after some years that by the startup the car started slower than the Gateway device, so because of this the Gateway was not recognised anymore. We made some test firmware versions for this problem (they were made on firmare 59 in that time that was the latest), you can download them from below. This is not a 100% fix, as even with these test firmwares wasn't the Gateway device every time recognised, but this was that we could do from the distance, as no local user came to us with the problem yet.