Can't hear GPS directions from my phone via Bluetooth unless a song is playing

[Sportwagen SEL]

This has been a long running problem for me -- when I use Apple maps, google maps, or Waze on my iPhone, I cannot hear any of the directions (my phone is connected via Bluetooth) UNLESS I press "play" on the infotainment screen, which plays a random song from the music app on my phone. How do I configure my setup such that I hear the directions without having to have a random track start playing in the background? (Anyone else have this problem?)

 

[Redleg02]

Why not just plug it in and use Apple CarPlay?

 

[Sportwagen SEL]

Why not just plug it in and use Apple CarPlay?

Because my CarPlay stopped working with my red light up charging cables a month after I got the car (cables are fine -- they still charge my phone when I plug them into the USB jack on my cigarette lighter.) It still works if I use the white apple charging cables but even then it's temperamental, randomly connecting and disconnecting as if there's a bad connection.

I've checked the jack itself on my phone and it doesn't appear to have any crud or dirty jammed in there that would interfere with the connection. But then again maybe there is still something wrong with it as even when I plug my phone into my computer, it still does the same thing (connects and then disconnects over and over again).