In-car display changed to Chinese

Your new custom-fit Android headunit went in without a hitch. You have it all up and working, but there is one odd thing- the wrong language is displayed on the car display.

The in-car display is now in Chinese.

It is known to happen to some Vauxhall and Chevrolet models, but there may be any number of manufacturers affected by this strange change to the language setting of the car display. Just the installation of the Android head unit can trigger this strange behavior. Unfortunately, navigating the Chinese menu is virtually impossible.

CAN BUS

Your new custom-fit Android headunit comes with a CAN BUS box programmed to communicate with the particular model of car it was destined for. The box’s communication link with the car’s onboard computer network brings a lot of information from the car into your headunit. The headunit can also communicate with the car over the CAN BUS via the box, and any form of misconfiguration can affect the car.

Misconfiguration

This misconfiguration of the settings in the Android headunit that are sent over the CAN BUS to the onboard car computer sets the display to the wrong language. The default language is Chinese, which you get on the in-car screen. Even if the Android headunit shows English, a second hidden menu is misconfigured for the CAN BUS.

Fix the Language

It is a relatively simple fix if you know where to look.

The CAN-BUS configuration is the place to search for the language selection.

Try looking in:

  • Car Info
  • Original Car Set
  • Language Settings
  • Change from Chinese to English

PIN CODE

A PIN CODE may block these settings. In the first instance, try the code: 126

If the code above is not accepted, you don’t know the correct code for your advanced Android features to pass. You can use our Android Headunit Passcode list to help you access the hidden secret yet necessary menus.

Instructions

Chinese language in-car display fix

Pie-Man
Pie-Man
Android guy who loves his android head units as much as he loves his cherry pie.

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13 COMMENTS

    • You need to pop the old head unit back in, it then turns to english, the put the new one back in.
      Only way I could fix it

  1. This has happened to me, only fix I found is to plug the original stereo back in, and immediately it changed to English, then put the new one back in.

    Please note that a month later, it has changed back to Chinese (FML).

  2. Has anyone had any fixes for this issue yet. Putting the old unit back in does change the language back however it then changes to Chinese again. Also i still have no steering wheel controls?

  3. Not yet, mine has gone back in Chinese after 4 weeks, even with the canbus set to no canbus.
    Canbus setting is RAISE old English low or something like that.

  4. After being in Chinese again, I tried a factory reset, I was then able to change the language from Chinese to English using the above steps (please note that it used to say it was in English when the car was in Chinese). Been a month and so far so good. Hope this helps someone.

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