New owner, few questions..

[emerylloyd]

Hello

Picked up a 2000 (W) Audi A3 Quattro last friday. Had a few small niggles on it, just wondering what you think is suitable. Already replaced wipers with Aerowipers back and front, much improved. Plus got rid of the dump valve which was on there!

First problem, rear lights have been painted body colour, want to replace as soon as. Anyone know best place to get standard rear lights, or even better if someone has any for sale ?

Second, my Concert head unit suffering from the silly volume fault, whats best to do; get it repaired/buy new Concert off eBay, or use the Bose adaptor kit from CAD and have an aftermarket head unit ? (On that note feel free to tell me the results if you've used this adaptor kit)

Any feedback will be great, I've scanned through this site alot and have learned so much from you lot already :icon_thumright:

Cheers, Lloyd

 

[petewon]

Hello Lloyd, you could try Ebay or breakers for the rear lights. I got some for my A4 recently and saved a packet. From Europarts they were about £100 but I ended up getting mine for £60.

Not sure about the volume thing, I had the same problem on my A3 but it seemed to only affect it when it was cold. Didnt bother me enough to change it.

 

[emerylloyd]

Yea I have had a look on eBay, not much luck so far. Can you fit facelift rear lights to pre-facelift A3's. Heard you have to make your own wiring loom?

Yea my volume control thing is really bad, either loud or silent, no in between!

 

[petewon]

Try searching under "Audi Breaking" on Ebay theres a seller called motorsinmotion who usualy has Audi spares. Not sure on his prices though, could be worth an ask.

Does the volume not sort itself out when it warms up? I never had the problem in the summer, only cold winter mornings.

 

[Sinny71]

4 ring spares are another useful ebay seller.

 

[L1 HCS]

Hello & :sign_welcome: to the site.

 

[emerylloyd]

No volume stays the same all the time. Going to have to send it away get it fixed, cant be doing with the hassle of trying to get good sound out of an aftermarket unit.

Yea tried them places, motorsinmotion looks quite handy, got to have a look at the others yet.

 

[AndyMac]

The volume problem starts with the unit cold, it will then get worse & worse until it is unusable. Can be repaired for about the same price as a replacement off ebay, but no guarantee the replacement won't develop the same fault. It isn't something that goes wrong inside the HU, it is a design fault that will effect every one depending on how much the volume knob has been used. 10,000 adjustments during the course of its life and that's it, the symptoms start & will just get worse. I think it only effects Blaupunkt units (but I could be wrong). Matsushita won the contract from Blaupunkt in about 2000, so look out for a 2001 onwards. The sticker on the side of the HU will show if it's a Blaupunkt or Matsushita (Panasonic) unit.
If you replace it ensure the unit is from an A3/S3 or TT as the A4 and above use a different fascia and it won't fit properly.

 

[rodenal]

Your facelift light question - rear lights are all interchangeable, its only the front lights that need a loom made up

 

[emerylloyd]

Cheers guys. I've seen a company on eBay that you send your head unit to and they replace the chip ? Costs £95, but can anyone recommend me elsewhere where they have had it done already ?

Yea I found out after I done a search about the lights! should have looked before I asked! Cheers anyway. I'm going to get facelift lights off of eurocarparts, just a bit annoying they dont have pictures.

Anyone got any reply about the wiring kit from caraudiodirect ? Have you used it to good effect or not ?

thanks everyone.

 

[twofivenine]

I have the wiring loom from Car Audio Direct - mines connected to a BOSE system and an Alpine 9853R head unit. Sounds mint and had no problems with it....once Andymac pointed me in the right direction! Dead easy to fit, if your going to buy an aftermarket head unit, just make sure its got enough pre-outs to run the amps in the car (if you have a BOSE system that is).

Even wired a kit in for a separate sub an amp, but after hearing the BOSE decided not to bother....

 

[adbett]

I'm in a similar position myself with the faulty volume on the head unit (concert from '98 A4). Providing the original unit hasn't been tampered with Audi will do an exchange for a new unit for about £175 - not sure what guarantee it comes with in case the volume goes faulty again! But from previous post it looks like this has now been fixed.

I ended up getting a JVC unit off ebay instead (MP3, WMA, 12 disc changer £80). I tested it with a friend's adaptor and it all seemed to work OK through the car. I think the adaptor takes a feed from one of the rear speakers to power the sub (I've still got standard audi speaker set up) which isn't ideal but i'm not looking to upgrade any further.

The adaptor I tested with had some resistors wired in to the feed to the sub (filter?), this might have been something the previous owner added rather than how the standard adaptor comes.

Finally, still managed to plug my parrot hands free kit in and that works OK.

Probably a much better way to get all this kit wired in and working exactly as it should though...

 

[Lovegroover]

O E Electronics Ltd.

Address:
Unit 5-6 Four Brook Business Park
Stanier Road
Calne
Wiltshire
SN11 9PP

Fixed my volume button a couple of weeks ago (Thankgod -t'was driving me up the wall!!) Took about a week to turnaround and cost £85 all in. Very proffesional and everything was as promised.

 

[emerylloyd]

Yea I've got BOSE. After hearing that you had success with the wiring loom I think I woul rather just get an aftermarket head unit now. Was the sound any better after fitting the aftermarket unit? Not going to bother if the sound is near on the same.

 

[s3ollie]

I have some pre facelift rear lights if your interested:icon_thumright:

 

[emerylloyd]

pm sent

 

[adbett]

haven't managed to get everything fitted yet to test properly (the adaptor I used was just temporarily borrowed from a friend), to be honest it'll be a massive improvement just to have a volume control that works...

still reading through threads to see whether I should get the adaptor with separate RCAs for the sub (PC9-404) or just the standard adaptor (PC9-401)

it's all good fun

 

[twofivenine]

emerylloyd, couldnt tell you if the sound was different as the sub was not plugged in, and the audi unit wanted coding. Just by rotating the volume button I could tell it was fubar'd so decided to go along the lines of an aftermarket unit. My mate has BOSE in his 8P A3, they do sound pretty much the same though. The only annoying thing is the popping you get now and then when switching tracks or turning it on and off.