Mk8 2018 - Android Auto not working after water damage to USB Port

Hi! Yesterday, some water leaked onto the read cupholder USB port where my Android Auto wireless dongle connects.

The dongle is dead, but I have a replacement. After letting it dry (it’s cold so one point is it may not have quite dried yet) the power to the dongle is fine every time, however charging my phone is basically non existent. Meanwhile the front USB port which hasn’t been affected is charging phone but only with certain cables - but there’s no android auto connection.

When the dongle is connected to back USB, everything on my phone points towards it working (android auto connected notification) but nothing comes up on the SYNC display. I’ve reset the media hub, tried loads of cables and nothing. This morning it worked fine by cable and was android autoing but after 15 mins it disconnected and not been back on since.

Hoping maybe it’ll fully dry and work again, but not hopeful - if that doesn’t work will it be a whole USB system replacement as I’d assume something is water damaged and stopping the system from working?

Any advice appreciated - I should mention that Bluetooth and all that is fine

It sounds like you might need to replace the harness for the USBs.

What do you mean by the harness?

I don’t know whether it’s fully the same on the mk8 but under the console on the mk7 the usbs connect into the sync 3 system through a wire in the harness. I’ll try to have a look online and dig up some pictures to locate where it is.

Bring it to my garage!

Take it to your mechanic