nevergivup99
Registered User
- Joined
- Feb 20, 2011
- Messages
- 27
- Reaction score
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Finally bit the bullet and decided to change my roof liner (on my three door, 2007 Audi A3) from the silver version to the all black style, now before you ask, its cos I wanted to and was confident I could.
And what a difference it has made, the whole look of the interior has improved; it looks sportier, and classy.
It wasnât easy, and scared the hell out of me thinking about what I was about to embark on.
I have the latest version of Etka and Elsawin, so a lot of the required instructions were in place and reasonably self explanatory .Anything I was unclear about, I asked on this forum and the answers were duly supplied, (thanks for all the advice)
I must Admit that Elsawin was absolutely spot on ,and it took a few days of carefully removing and labelling the panels and more importantly the screws and fixings used at the various points ,this is important because some are re-used and some replaced and some are supplied already fitted to the new panels .
I have a spare room upstairs so cleared that and decided to store the removed panels, seats etc, in there, out of harms way.
This is the bit that scared me because as I was removing the panels and laying them carefully in the spare room, I was astounded at how big the panels were once removed from the car, and how quickly I was running out of space to lay them out
The final task of removing the headliner (According to Elsawin) requires the vehicle to be lifted 30cm/1ft off the floor ,this task is best done on a four poster ramp ,with no obstruction to the front of the passenger door , I was lucky because where I live there is a garage/service station that had workshops and a ramp , and Mark the boss there was very obliging and allowed me to use the ramp for the final task of removing the headliner panel , this is were I deviated from the Elsawin instructions and removed the passenger seat to be able to lay on the floor of the car and with the help of a second person ,carefully remove the headliner.
As a precaution I wrapped a towel around my MFSW and a towel over the dash board and radio.
Be Careful at this stage because the roof in this state is fragile and not very forgiving to bending or forcing , and at £200 + is a costly mistake if you rush removing it ( if the roof is re-usable ,you may be able to sell it to recover the costs of your new panels )
The removal of the headliner took approx 20 minutes to complete overall.
I wasnât in any rush to complete this project so took my time, OCD kicks in labelling and cleaning everything, I completed the strip out in three days.
A bit of advice ,its now time to clean all the threads on the M5 fixing holes, this is described in detail in the Elsawin instructions , basically I used an M5 bottoming tap through all the screw threads I had previously removed the fixing screws from.
All the new parts arrived and were checked off the list, these were stored in a downstairs room till required, take note the roof liner is delivered in a huge box, 5ft by 6ft by 1ft.
While the panels were removed I upgraded the shark fin roof antenna , installed a rear view reversing camera, installed the vanity mirror light harness ,hardwired a forward facing GPS driving event camera ,wiring for auto dimming rear view mirror and the wiring harness for the SDS upgrade.
While all the panels are off, I checked and fitted additional cable supports to wiring harnessâs to stop any rattles, checked for grommets missing and replaced and actually found a crash sensor loose and wrapped in foam (this appears to be done after a previous repair carried out by an un-named stealer).Checked and fitted any missing sound proofing and sound damping materials and finally, hoovered any dust or rubbish.
Once you are happy you have installed and checked everything and cleaned up, itâs advisable to do a VCDS check to make sure you havenât disturbed or damaged anything whilst installing any extra kit or cables, and to code and test any new pieces of kit you have changed or installed before you refit the new panels.
Once you are happy that you have completed all the tasks you set out to do, and did a VSDS check and recode, its time to refit the new headliner and panels.
So its back up the ramp to fit the headliner, itâs advisable to leave the plastic bag on the new headliner until itâs almost in place, this acts as a sacrificial lubricant (slides better) without damaging the headliner, this task is best carried out with a second person.
Once itâs almost ready to clip into place, carefully remove the bag and follow the Elsawin instructions.
The refitting instructions should be followed because itâs important that the main headliner is centralised and located and aligned carefully before all the other panels are fitted and secured.
The fitting of the new panels was carefully done over the next few days and completed in two days; again I wasnât in any rush to finish so really took my time.
Once again, do a VCDS check to make sure you havenât disturbed or trapped anything, and take you car for a test drive, to check for rattles etc, now donât forget if you have disconnected the battery your steering angle and your ESP light on the dash will show a fault, until the car is driven for a few yards and resets its-self
I think the new headliner looks fantastic and was worth the hard work.
Now I am left with a silver headliner and associated roof panels , that are in a reasonable condition given the age of the car and re-useable , so please PM me if you are interested in any of the panels , I would rather supply it as a total kit rather than split but , we will see what anybody individual requirements are . The centre front roof light module is the latest version with the ambient light module already fitted, its part number is 8E0 947 135 D 9NQ, and there is also available its matching rear lighting module that includes the reading light units. I would rather offer these items to fellow members first ,before advertising them on Flebay !!!
And what a difference it has made, the whole look of the interior has improved; it looks sportier, and classy.
It wasnât easy, and scared the hell out of me thinking about what I was about to embark on.
I have the latest version of Etka and Elsawin, so a lot of the required instructions were in place and reasonably self explanatory .Anything I was unclear about, I asked on this forum and the answers were duly supplied, (thanks for all the advice)
I must Admit that Elsawin was absolutely spot on ,and it took a few days of carefully removing and labelling the panels and more importantly the screws and fixings used at the various points ,this is important because some are re-used and some replaced and some are supplied already fitted to the new panels .
I have a spare room upstairs so cleared that and decided to store the removed panels, seats etc, in there, out of harms way.
This is the bit that scared me because as I was removing the panels and laying them carefully in the spare room, I was astounded at how big the panels were once removed from the car, and how quickly I was running out of space to lay them out
The final task of removing the headliner (According to Elsawin) requires the vehicle to be lifted 30cm/1ft off the floor ,this task is best done on a four poster ramp ,with no obstruction to the front of the passenger door , I was lucky because where I live there is a garage/service station that had workshops and a ramp , and Mark the boss there was very obliging and allowed me to use the ramp for the final task of removing the headliner panel , this is were I deviated from the Elsawin instructions and removed the passenger seat to be able to lay on the floor of the car and with the help of a second person ,carefully remove the headliner.
As a precaution I wrapped a towel around my MFSW and a towel over the dash board and radio.
Be Careful at this stage because the roof in this state is fragile and not very forgiving to bending or forcing , and at £200 + is a costly mistake if you rush removing it ( if the roof is re-usable ,you may be able to sell it to recover the costs of your new panels )
The removal of the headliner took approx 20 minutes to complete overall.
I wasnât in any rush to complete this project so took my time, OCD kicks in labelling and cleaning everything, I completed the strip out in three days.
A bit of advice ,its now time to clean all the threads on the M5 fixing holes, this is described in detail in the Elsawin instructions , basically I used an M5 bottoming tap through all the screw threads I had previously removed the fixing screws from.
All the new parts arrived and were checked off the list, these were stored in a downstairs room till required, take note the roof liner is delivered in a huge box, 5ft by 6ft by 1ft.
While the panels were removed I upgraded the shark fin roof antenna , installed a rear view reversing camera, installed the vanity mirror light harness ,hardwired a forward facing GPS driving event camera ,wiring for auto dimming rear view mirror and the wiring harness for the SDS upgrade.
While all the panels are off, I checked and fitted additional cable supports to wiring harnessâs to stop any rattles, checked for grommets missing and replaced and actually found a crash sensor loose and wrapped in foam (this appears to be done after a previous repair carried out by an un-named stealer).Checked and fitted any missing sound proofing and sound damping materials and finally, hoovered any dust or rubbish.
Once you are happy you have installed and checked everything and cleaned up, itâs advisable to do a VCDS check to make sure you havenât disturbed or damaged anything whilst installing any extra kit or cables, and to code and test any new pieces of kit you have changed or installed before you refit the new panels.
Once you are happy that you have completed all the tasks you set out to do, and did a VSDS check and recode, its time to refit the new headliner and panels.
So its back up the ramp to fit the headliner, itâs advisable to leave the plastic bag on the new headliner until itâs almost in place, this acts as a sacrificial lubricant (slides better) without damaging the headliner, this task is best carried out with a second person.
Once itâs almost ready to clip into place, carefully remove the bag and follow the Elsawin instructions.
The refitting instructions should be followed because itâs important that the main headliner is centralised and located and aligned carefully before all the other panels are fitted and secured.
The fitting of the new panels was carefully done over the next few days and completed in two days; again I wasnât in any rush to finish so really took my time.
Once again, do a VCDS check to make sure you havenât disturbed or trapped anything, and take you car for a test drive, to check for rattles etc, now donât forget if you have disconnected the battery your steering angle and your ESP light on the dash will show a fault, until the car is driven for a few yards and resets its-self
I think the new headliner looks fantastic and was worth the hard work.
Now I am left with a silver headliner and associated roof panels , that are in a reasonable condition given the age of the car and re-useable , so please PM me if you are interested in any of the panels , I would rather supply it as a total kit rather than split but , we will see what anybody individual requirements are . The centre front roof light module is the latest version with the ambient light module already fitted, its part number is 8E0 947 135 D 9NQ, and there is also available its matching rear lighting module that includes the reading light units. I would rather offer these items to fellow members first ,before advertising them on Flebay !!!
I was tripping by the end of it 
