A pillar trim removal

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Jw92

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Hi there,

Trying to remove the A pillar trim for hardwiring of a dash cam. I’ve got piggyback fuse in passenger footwell.

I’ve had a search online and found a couple of tutorials/explanations but nothing seems to work.

It looks as if there is a bolt holding the trim to the pillar but no way to access it (no air bag clip even though there is an air bag). I’ve been ale to get a few clips loosened but that’s all...

Any help appreciated.
 
I managed to squish the cable in the gap between the windscreen and the trim, I have sone trim removal tools. There is absolutely no cable on show. If you want pic just ask
 
Yeah that would be helpful. I don’t mind just feeding the cable in behind but then I don’t know how to feed it down into the footwell.

I’ve got the trim off the side of the dash and that was how I was going to then feed into the pillar trim but that is on the door side of the trim not the window side.
 
audi upgrades
These are very useful
 

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I will take pics tomorrow, I have blackvue fitted, very discreet.
 
I haven't taken the A pillar trim off my S4 but every other VAG car I've owned (Golf, A3, A6) has been the same - remove air bag label to access T30 retaining bolt then pull trim, HARD! If there's no air bag label, can you see where the bolt is?

Reinstallation is (naturally) the reverse of removal, but trickier because the damn thing never wants to line up correctly...!
 
Thanks tonye60.

Dave - that’s what I’ve read but as no airbag label. You can see the bolt from the outside looking in when I’ve loosened it off. I’ll try and get some pictures of what I can get to and see tomorrow.

Cheers
 
Filpao the bolt in your last picture is the one I see. I couldn’t be sure where it was with the white plastic clip closest to roof.

I can clip it off a little bit but it seems to get stuck half way and won’t pop all the way out. Did you have to do anything other than pull?
 
@Jw92 those are not my pics, I still didn't get there, but from what I've understood you have to pull hard and the cheese head will "unpop". Sorry can't help you further!
 
I installed a Blackvue on my first A4 B9 two years ago, not got round to fitting it on my current one.

As mentioned previously the A-Pillar pops off that bolt half way. A VAG workshop tool (like a hook type of tool) is required to release/unhook the trim completely.

If I remember correctly from Elsawin it says that clip needs to be renewed every time it’s released. Something to do with ensuring it’s not damaged as it stops the A-Pillar detaching when the Airbag deploys.

4BC95040 829C 4E86 B83A 5F14B3C4387B


Anyway once you release the clip the trim should just pull upwards and outwards.

When I installed mine I didn’t know any of this until afterwards. I managed to get the trim to pop half way. From there I just run the cable away from the airbag between the A-pillar and windscreen, and then carefully pushed it between the bottom of the A-pillar where it meets the dash.

Don’t install it like this video as the cable may stop the airbag deploying properly, chances are the airbag would break the cable, whereby it might whip or break off at high speed due to the detention of the Airbag.



I’ve used that video to take of screenshot of where I managed to carefully push the cable between the dahs and bottom of A-Pillar. From there I fed it behind the glove box and into the 12V socket outlet below the Climate Control.

71176C6C 4AAD 4BB6 9EDB 1BCDC99A0135


Hope this helps but as with anything to do with something near Pyrotechnics (Airbag) be careful, disconnect the battery first and discharge any static from yourself by touching the chassis.

I didn’t do this and I’m sure majority of people who have installed dash cams haven’t either as it’d probably throw fault codes/lights when reconnecting the battery. But the proper way would be to disconnect and discharge any static from yourself to the vehicle chassis
 
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This is exactly how I did it, no need to remove the a trim and something I didn’t want to get involved in
 
f1nny said:
I installed a Blackvue on my first A4 B9 two years ago, not got round to fitting it on my current one.

As mentioned previously the A-Pillar pops off that bolt half way. A VAG workshop tool (like a hook type of tool) is required to release/unhook the trim completely.

If I remember correctly from Elsawin it says that clip needs to be renewed every time it’s released. Something to do with ensuring it’s not damaged as it stops the A-Pillar detaching when the Airbag deploys.

View attachment 172471

Anyway once you release the clip the trim should just pull upwards and outwards.

When I installed mine I didn’t know any of this until afterwards. I managed to get the trim to pop half way. From there I just run the cable away from the airbag between the A-pillar and windscreen, and then carefully pushed it between the bottom of the A-pillar where it meets the dash.

Don’t install it like this video as the cable may stop the airbag deploying properly, chances are the airbag would break the cable, whereby it might whip or break off at high speed due to the detention of the Airbag.



I’ve used that video to take of screenshot of where I managed to carefully push the cable between the dahs and bottom of A-Pillar. From there I fed it behind the glove box and into the 12V socket outlet below the Climate Control.

View attachment 172472

Hope this helps but as with anything to do with something near Pyrotechnics (Airbag) be careful, disconnect the battery first and discharge any static from yourself by touching the chassis.

I didn’t do this and I’m sure majority of people who have installed dash cams haven’t either as it’d probably throw fault codes/lights when reconnecting the battery. But the proper way would be to disconnect and discharge any static from yourself to the vehicle chassis
Click to expand...


The reason I routed the cables like that was because I had 2 cables and one was going to the back of the car for the rear camera and it was the shortest distance. Not sure how it would effect the air bag deployment but I’m not a specialist in the area. However I will look at it when I get time and see if the cable is restricting anything. I done that video as a guide as so many people we asking how to do it.
 
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Baj257 said:
The reason I routed the cables like that was because I had 2 cables and one was going to the back of the car for the rear camera and it was the shortest distance. Not sure how it would effect the air bag deployment but I’m not a specialist in the area. However I will look at it when I get time and see if the cable is restricting anything. I done that video as a guide as so many people we asking how to do it.
Click to expand...

When I first installed my dashcam incorrectly as I routed it across the top of the A pillar and tucked in into the join like below. I apologise if your video isn’t showing installing it that route.

84D3F1A0 17F2 493C BBF2 45B578CA91CA


It wasn’t until I came across the Euro ncap video that I realised the Airbag deploys from there.

From 53 seconds in you can see it deploy.

 
@f1nny i have had a go this morning.

Got the cables going down side of trim okay but the going between dash and bottom
Of trim is extremely tight. What did you use to push in the cable? What did it look like in the end? I’m having trouble the closer I get to the centre of the roof as well that the roof lining is getting tight and hard to pry the cable in between.
Thanks for all the help
 
Jw92 said:
@f1nny i have had a go this morning.

Got the cables going down side of trim okay but the going between dash and bottom
Of trim is extremely tight. What did you use to push in the cable? What did it look like in the end? I’m having trouble the closer I get to the centre of the roof as well that the roof lining is getting tight and hard to pry the cable in between.
Thanks for all the help
Click to expand...

It was very tight when I pushed it between the dash and bottom of the A-Pillar. I used one if them orange trim removal tools. One which was the least sharpest. I just pushed it slowly and cm by cm. I also did it in summer as well so the dash was softer and more pliable. I suppose it also depends on the thinckess of the dashcam power cable. Mine was Blackvue.

At first I just routed it along the dash next to bottom of the A-Pillar and tbh it didn’t look too bad.
 
f1nny said:
It was very tight when I pushed it between the dash and bottom of the A-Pillar. I used one if them orange trim removal tools. One which was the least sharpest. I just pushed it slowly and cm by cm. I also did it in summer as well so the dash was softer and more pliable. I suppose it also depends on the thinckess of the dashcam power cable. Mine was Blackvue.

At first I just routed it along the dash next to bottom of the A-Pillar and tbh it didn’t look too bad.
Click to expand...


I think I’ll just route it along edge of dash and order some of the trim tools to get it down the gap. Looks 100 times better now with it hidden down the pillar anyway.
 
Myself and @andyhud struggled to try and get that trim off in my S5 for at least an hour, its almost impossible without the correct tool.

We ended up running the Audi UTR under the airbag in the headliner to ensure it didn't affect any of the airbags.

This is what the manual says, we couldn't get it off though....

A pillar1 A pillar2
 
Thanks for all your help. I’ve attached some photos of what I’ve ended up with in case anyone looking for this in future wants to know.

Maybe needs a bit of tidying up when I have a bit more time but certainly does the job and is better than all the wires dangling about the place.

Regarding getting the A pillar trim off, I tried for a while (before seeing the above post) trying to ease the clip of the retaining bolt using a variety of tools, with no luck. Much easier routing the trim as advised in several posts above.
 

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Looks good Jw92. If you don't like the suction cup mount, look on eBay for a shop called stealth mounts. He 3D prints various mounts for dash cams which stick on with a 3M pad, a bit more 'permanent'. Think it was about £2.99.
 
Continuing the dashcam fitting theme, I've just done the hard work with mine. All cabling is routed for my front and rear Thinkware F770, the front xamera is mounted, but I can't for the life of me find the remainder of my 3M double sided tape for a little square to mount the rear cam.

One small trim casualty...the left hinge cover for the tailgate us cracked, with a little chunk out of it - seemed very brittle plastic- looks like I levered it off correctly when I looked inside to see how it clipped in. Guessing £8-10 to replace.

Power feed, the cabling is sticking out of the fuse box in the front passenger footwell, I need a switched live and a permanent live fuse to tap into - any suggestions for the large fuses as they're the only piggyback fuses I have?

I'm guessing if I do have to buy the piggy back fuse holders in mini size, the Alarm fuse (B1) is the obvious choice for permanent live. Anyone concur or offer any alternatives in the large fuses sizes?
 
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Well I managed to sort out the fuses for the dashcam, by getting a £1.99 auto circuit tester from toolstation, I didn't realise they were so cheap. If anyone needs a pic then let me know. There was a surprising number of permanently live fuses to choose one. I unlocked the car and left the passenger door open ajar for 30 mins to ensure the fuses aren't ignition switched with a delayed drop of power to appear like they're permanently live.

The 2 fuses selected were full size so no need to delay fitment as I could use the piggy back circuits I already had.

Only thing I'm missing is a tiny square of 3M tape to mount the rear camera - will have to get that off ebay.

Expecting availability of stop-start to tail off as parking mode eats into the car's battery spare capacity.
 
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