Fitting used OEM speaker system to 2007 A3 sportback

[Invigiator]

Hi all,

Was struggling with this on my own and thought I'd ask the experts. I have a 2007 A3 sportback that to my horror has no rear speakers. I have upgraded the head unit (I think it was the chorus originally) but would like to fit some rear door speakers (plus maybe tweeters and sub in the boot). Looking for your recommendations but I was thinking of buying used OEM equipment that will fit right in.

I have the following questions:
1) Will a used OEM rear sub unit fit without modification into a car that shipped with no rear sub in the boot? I.e. are all the mounting points there and it fits behind the standard plastic cover?
2) Does the rear sub amp power the rear door speakers as well? How can I work out the wiring connections on the sub unit?
3) Do the rear door handle tweeters connect to a powered or unpowered system? How?
4) If I buy only the used rear OEM door speakers do I have to have the amp as well? Or can I just connect them up passively to the head unit if I don't buy the rear subwoofer unit?

... or should I just buy some new cheap off-the-shelf passive speakers for the rear doors with integrated tweeter and glue them in place?

Many of you must have fitted rear speakers to a factory front-only car, so what's the best route to take?

Thanks in advance for any help!

 

[JJ.Foulds]

Hi all,

Was struggling with this on my own and thought I'd ask the experts. I have a 2007 A3 sportback that to my horror has no rear speakers. I have upgraded the head unit (I think it was the chorus originally) but would like to fit some rear door speakers (plus maybe tweeters and sub in the boot). Looking for your recommendations but I was thinking of buying used OEM equipment that will fit right in.

I have the following questions:
1) Will a used OEM rear sub unit fit without modification into a car that shipped with no rear sub in the boot? I.e. are all the mounting points there and it fits behind the standard plastic cover?
2) Does the rear sub amp power the rear door speakers as well? How can I work out the wiring connections on the sub unit?
3) Do the rear door handle tweeters connect to a powered or unpowered system? How?
4) If I buy only the used rear OEM door speakers do I have to have the amp as well? Or can I just connect them up passively to the head unit if I don't buy the rear subwoofer unit?

... or should I just buy some new cheap off-the-shelf passive speakers for the rear doors with integrated tweeter and glue them in place?

Many of you must have fitted rear speakers to a factory front-only car, so what's the best route to take?

Thanks in advance for any help!

in reply to question:
2. yes it does.
3. in mine i have the locations for the tweeters etc in front but it doesnt have them as standard, i think the bose version has tweeters. But i would guess they are passive.
4. you could, DEPENDING, on the Ohm of the speaker and the Ohm output of the amp.

But id just buy some aftermarket speakers tbh. non bose speakers are like cheapy tacy **** anyway.

Is it an audi headunit you have now? or just a normal aftermarket car one?
Because normal aftermarket car heads normally have 4 speaker outputs, where some of the audi ones only have 2 (because of the rear amp powering the 2 rears) if its after market you could just wire the rear to the head like normal.

 

[Invigiator]

Wow! Thanks for quick -if partial- reply. The head unit is aftermarket with 4 speaker outputs, but I also bought the powered speaker bypass cable thingy (PC9-401) before I realised that I had no rear speakers to connect.

If the rear sub and amp just drops right in (question 1) then it's still tempting because fitting an aftermarket sub would not be cheap and would take up space.

 

[JJ.Foulds]

Wow! Thanks for quick -if partial- reply. The head unit is aftermarket with 4 speaker outputs, but I also bought the powered speaker bypass cable thingy (PC9-401) before I realised that I had no rear speakers to connect.

If the rear sub and amp just drops right in (question 1) then it's still tempting because fitting an aftermarket sub would not be cheap and would take up space.

IF i was you, id probably wire up the rears to the head unit. and buy an aftermarket amp and sub to go in the back.
But id be buying one of the audi 10' made to fit boxes so you can still place it in the hidden position and then just wire up the amp like a normal car. It would probably be easiest this way.

The box i think is around £80, (expensive i know, but its a weird shape to cut)
Sub speaker, £30 (for a cheapo, but will be far more bass'y then the lightweight paper cone as standard)
wiring kit , £15-20.
Extra wire for rear speakers to head unit, £3-4.

So weigh it up with the OEM stuff, but id deffo be going after market, and if you dont mind loosing space the box would only be £20


EDIT - link for A3 8P box example
Audi A3 8P 2003 Custom Fit MDF 8" Sub Box Subwoofer Enclosure Bass | eBay

 

[Invigiator]

Thanks for the link; that box looks good but the OEM one used is about £30-£40 and includes the sub speaker and amp (I think) so it's hard to compete.

I think you're right that the aftermarket rear speakers connected to the head unit make most sense, maybe I'll just have to forget about the sub. It's already going to be a nightmare routing the wiring properly, and adding the rear sub means I'll probably have to strip (and probably snap) more trim!

 

[JJ.Foulds]

Thanks for the link; that box looks good but the OEM one used is about £30-£40 and includes the sub speaker and amp (I think) so it's hard to compete.

I think you're right that the aftermarket rear speakers connected to the head unit make most sense, maybe I'll just have to forget about the sub. It's already going to be a nightmare routing the wiring properly, and adding the rear sub means I'll probably have to strip (and probably snap) more trim!

Nah i wired mine really easily and quick, might not be u to other standards but i just pushed it under the trim, didnt even remove most of it.
Tho i wired it thru the passenger door to the battery lol so you can partially see the wire when doors open.

 

[manor13]

Is the case for all sportbacks no rear speakers. My audio sounds weird but it's far down the list for the mo

 

[Invigiator]

To answer my own question, the Bose subwoofer fits perfectly in an A3 sportback that had no subwoofer (or rear speakers) factory fitted. In fact the rear door speakers (including the tweeters in the handles) drop right in also. So you can get the factory systems on Ebay and fit them to a car that never had it. None of the wiring harness is there, so the big challenge is running the wires, but mounting and fitting the actual speakers and subwoofer requires no extra parts and no modification.

However I've got a big question?? People with factory-fitted subwoofer in the boot, is it completely covered by the trim/paneling inside the boot? Or is there a speaker grille in the boot lining covering the subwoofer? I am wondering whether I need to cut a hole in the boot lining material to let the sound out.

 

[JJ.Foulds]

No, its a hidden sub, so no grill. You dont need to because its bass, and it just spreads like a fart anyway.

 

[manor13]

is it easy enough to retro fit the sub?

 

[Invigiator]

Super-easy! I recommend it. It's barely even a retro fit because all the mounting bolts and holes are there.

A few caveats:
1) there's no wiring loom for it, so you'll have to run cables yourself, and I hate taking off trim. But I managed it so I'm sure you can.
2) you'll need to amplify it. If you get the non-Bose one I think the amp is built in (you may want to check this), but I got the Bose one from Ebay and bought a cheap amp 500W 35W RMS CAR MOTORCYCLE MOTORBIKE 2CH 2 CHANNEL SPEAKER AMP AMPLIFIER w/ USB | eBay
I got the subwoofer for £30 and the amp for £9, but I think I got a bit lucky on the subwoofer so you might pay more.
3) you'll have to buy one bolt and two nuts of the right size to mount it (unless you can persuade the breaker to include it).
4) you won't have the right connectors, and may not know which connections do what. I didn't bother with connectors and just soldered it in; I'm not going to take it out any time soon. If you need help working out the connections, just ask. The Bose one has two channels so you can hook up left and right channels to get mono sub output (if you have a mono sub out from your head unit you can just use that on one channel or double it up like I did).
5) work out how you're going to connect it to your head unit before you start. I was doing this with a £300 replacement head unit from China that includes GPS satnav, reversing camera, DVD player, bluetooth phone connection, USB, iPhone connection, SD card input etc. etc.. My head unit has a 'sub out' RCA connector that provides the input for the amp. You might need to do it differently.

I also got the rear door speakers and tweeters off Ebay and fitted those. You can just connect the tweeters in parallel to the door speaker because they've got a high pass filter (capacitor). As with the subwoofer everything just drops perfectly into place, but you'll need to remove the blanking plates that get put in at the factory instead of the speakers.

It is such a huge improvement for less than £100 all-in (not including the head unit). The standard front speakers in the car are dreadful for any kind of music.

 

[fangio]

Is the case for all sportbacks no rear speakers. My audio sounds weird but it's far down the list for the mo

No, mine has 10 speakers and is f/fitted, no Bose. Mid-range in centre of dash, tweeter and bass in 4 doors plus the sub.

It sounds better than my Denon/Tannoy set-up in the lounge!

 

[dizzly]

Hi guys. I am looking to do this but just adding the rear speakers to an aftermarket headunit.

How did you route the cables? Where / what trim needs removing?

Thanks!

Sent from my ONEPLUS A6003 using Tapatalk

 

[abmat]

What unit do you have?

 

[dizzly]

Planning to get the Sony carplay one xav-ax3005db (who names these things?)

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[abmat]

What I would do is install an amp and rear speakers.

You’d have to run a rca cable from the hu to the amp, power from amp to battery, ground, ignition live and feed from amp to speakers.