After Market ICE

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low610

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Afternoon all,

My Bose head unit has developed the common volume fault and my cd changer is borken so i see this as a good opportunity to upgrade.

Does anyone have any advice/info on a head unit. I'm not looking at spending alot and would like a MP3 compatible cd player. Would also like it to blend in with the car as much as possible.

Just talked to our local Halfords who have advised i need the facia adapters (was aware of this) and i'll also need a wiring adapter at a cost of £44. Thought this was a little steep. Is this correct.?

If you could show me some piccies of your aftermarket head units that would be appreciated.

It's the 99 A4 on question.
Thanks in advance,
Rob.
 
Heres mine. Best to get one with red illumination as an option so it matches the oem dials. You can see the adaptors either side of the headunit


PICT0152.JPG
 
Thanks for the prompt response, looks alot better than i thought.

Did you have to purchase the wiring adapter when fitting yours.?

I've had to use adapters in the past but not as expensive as £44.

Thanks again,
Rob.
 
1. you can get teh adapters off ebay for about £5 well i did anyway.

2. you dont need a wiring lomb, it should come with the new headunit and fits the standard audi one.
 
mawhitey what r those gadgets you've got in ya motor?
 
audi upgrades
[ QUOTE ]
mawhitey what r those gadgets you've got in ya motor?

[/ QUOTE ]

It was an Origin b2 radar/gps thingy.
I use GPS on my mobile and have slowed down now /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/angel.gif,lol

And a Brax voltmeter, its connected to the amps in the rear for moniter vlotage drop at the rear /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif
 
Just out of curisoty, how much of a monter job would it be to retro fit a fascelift centre console (i.e. with the satnav plus unit and facelift climate controls and buttons etc) to a pre facelift centre console as in the pics above?
 
i think he means the centre console not just the adaptor to convert audi HU to aftermarket HU.
 
cheers Zero, but yeah i meant the whole centre console unit, as in the S4 i'm picking up on sat has a centre console like the ones in the pics above (which i assume are pre-facelift?) as opposed to the centre console like i have in my currnt MY2000 2.8Q which looks slightly more modern and has the SatNav Plus unit with the TV.

i was just curious as to the viability of getting the SatNav Plus Unit or similar retro fitted... but looking at the pictures above, i'm guess the whole lot would need to be done, to encompass the climate controls and all the other gubbins? Has anyone tried to do this? is it too much of a monster job to even think about?

Cheers all.

JB7
 
It's an expensive task... do a search for it on here, it's been covered a few times before. You will need a whole new centre console(they're different), a new double-din cage to fit behind it (the other one is single-din), new gearstick surround(I think), new ashtray (slimline), new climate unit (slimline)etc. etc. Mega £££

I'm sure there are other ways of bodging it but I wouldn't fancy it... suffice to say that to do it properly will cost a lot of money!

I wanted to do it myself quite some time ago but when I started adding up the cost of all the various parts I would need I decided it would be cheaper to trade the car in for another with the correct unit!
 
Thanks for the info all,

I purchased the autoleads harness (model PC9-401) to connect the Blaupunkt Santa Cruz head unit. It doesn't work very well at all. I cannot get a radio reception even though the aerial connection fits directly into the head unit. I'm also getting alot of distortion through the speakers and there is obviously no permanent live connected at the clock settings don't remain.

I'm not sure if i should have bought the PC9-408 harness. This has proven to be alot more difficult than first thought. :)

Might give Audi a call direct and see what they think.

Any advice/info would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Rob.
 
The radio aerial amplifier on the A4 is built into the standard head unit - you will need to get a separate aerial amplifier to use a new head unit.

You need to switch the live and ignition wires around to keep the settings in the head unit.

Is the distortion from all speakers, or just the rears? If it is just the rears did you connect a switched output to the raer speaker amplifier? - just a guess on that one.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Thanks for the info all,

I purchased the autoleads harness (model PC9-401) to connect the Blaupunkt Santa Cruz head unit. It doesn't work very well at all. I cannot get a radio reception even though the aerial connection fits directly into the head unit. I'm also getting alot of distortion through the speakers and there is obviously no permanent live connected at the clock settings don't remain.

I'm not sure if i should have bought the PC9-408 harness. This has proven to be alot more difficult than first thought. :)

Might give Audi a call direct and see what they think.

Any advice/info would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Rob.

[/ QUOTE ]

I suspect you need an in-line aerial amplifier. The aerial is built-in to the heated rear window elements, and the signal is pretty low powered. the Standard HU has an amplifier built-in, but your replacement HU won't have one.

One of THESE should do it.
 
Thanks for all the info all,

In response to Craigm's question, the distortion appears to be from all of the speakers,

Do you also know what colour cables are live and switched ignition from the car. Just want to double check before i make any changes.

Thanks jdp1962 for the areial amp,just what i need.

Wonderful responses as always,
Thanks again,
Rob.
 
When I did mine I changed the wires on the adapter cable so that the Audi wiring was kept standard. The wires I switched over were the yellow (+ve memory) and the red (+ve ign) as they are the wrong way round.
 
Cheers CraigM, makes sense changing the adapter as opposed to the car.

Do you know if all A4's have an amplifier in the boot. I've been told that this could be causing the distortion issue with my new head unit.

Thanks again,
Rob.
 
Yeah - it makes it a lot easier to put the standard HU back in when you sell the car!

I think the amp for the rear speakers is fitted under the parcel shelf by the left speaker.
 
Just had a look,

There is no large amp but there is a metal surround under the left speaker. Just removed this and found some what looks to be a very small amp. It also has a nokia sticker on it.

There must be an aftermarket harness that takes the amps into account. :)

I bought the cheaper autoleads PC9-401 and i'm now wondering if i should have got the PC9-408.

Thanks again for all your help,
Rob.
 
Thanks to this thread i now have decent radio reception !! Didn't realise i needed an amp for the antenna when i fitted the becker mexico, bought one at halfords (13.99 but i got it straight away i suppose!) and hey presto the radio is good quality again !
 
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