help needed.....its been stolen....again.....

[Indian999]

Hi

First of all, sorry if this is posted under the wrong section but I wasnt sure where it belonged.

ok, so this morning, I went shopping with the wife only to get a phone call 10mins in from the police asking if I was the owner of a black A3 quattro. Long story short.....the car had been broken into and the sat nav nicked from a busy shopping center car park in the middle of the day (1pm). Now, to say I was a little peeved is an understatement seeing as tho this is the 3rd one ive had stolen in 3 years (1st one almost 3 years ago to the day).

I am sick of these w***ers breaking into my car but know I cant watch it 24/7 so am stuck. I dont want to sell the thing because I love it so am resigned to the fact of now buying a basic system so I wont have to replace the glass yet again. My wife (who is expecting our first) is terrified of someone jumping her if I get another so wont let me buy a 4th rns-e and I dont really blame her tbh.

So my question is this-if I buy a basic system (I dont even know what that is-a concert 2?) Would I need to get anything additional to make it work or would it just fit right in the big hole in my dash? I have a bose system and bluetooth phone connection with the rnse. Would I need to buy a surround or is it the same physical size? Wheres the best place to get one? Sorry for the questions but I never thought I would be downgrading so don't know much about this.

For the rest of you, if you have a sat nav installed, please be careful as these b****rds are still out there theiving, right in the middle of the day. I live in leeds by the way.

thanks in advance for your help.

 

[desertstorm]

Seems to be a very common thing looking at the net. It's a self perpetuating crime though because people will probably end up buying a second hand item that has probably been lifted from somebody elses car. You might even end up buying your own back.
This seems to be really prevalent in the Manchester / Leeds / Sheffield area .

Karl.

 

[CADMonkey267]

That really sucks.... And as desertstorm said it is a very common issue in the leeds area...

I recently changed the concert 2+ radio in my A4 B7 to an RNS-E from a Seat Exeo (same dash as the A4 B7). To get this to work, all I had to do was move the BOSE pin & K-line pin on the quadlock connector to the correct position.
I have the concert 2+ radio if you are interested, but it is obviously for an A4 dash, so you would have to change the faceplate.

If you do manage to source a concert 2 radio from an A3 with the correct faceplate, it will fit directly in the double din slot where your RNS-E used to be, and after moving the bose & k-line pin it should be fully functional.
The antenna system on the RNS-E is different to that on a concert 2, however I believe it would still work.
You would also need VCDS to change the coding on the steering wheel to tell the car it no longer has RNS-E.

There are lots of Concert 2+ units on ebay, probably from people selling it after upgrading to RNS-E.

 

[Indian999]

Hi CadMonkey

Thanks very much for the reply.

I have managed to get a Concert 2 (reputable company, receipt, 12 months warranty etc) but haven't had a look at getting it installed yet! I'm not sure what a K-line or BOSE pin actually are but think i will spend the rest of the evening on Google doing some research!!

The place where i got the stereo want £40 to install it but said they cannot guarantee that the bluetooth will work - is that expensive or should I just pay them to fit it?

Cheers for all the help mate, very much appreciated!

H

 

[CADMonkey267]

H,
I think 40quid is quite reasonable for an install, however it is more than easy enough to do yourself.
Most of the retrofit guides on this forum are to upgrade from concert2 to RNSE, you will have to follow the procedure in reverse.
I hope the thieving f**kers have at least been nice enought to unclip the quadloack connector (main large square connector for RNS-e, has 3-4 sub-blocks of cables going in to the back), rather than cutting the wires. If they have cut the wires, get a company to install it.

When I upgraded to RNS-e from concert2, I followed this guide: http://www.audi-sport.net/xf/thread...xeo-led-rns-e-media-system-into-a4-b7.126757/
Very usefull guide, this also explains the bose pin. Disregard my earlier comment regarding the K-line pin, as you have an A3 you will not have a K-line pin as you car's diagnostic work over the can-bus. Long story short, if you have a bose sound system fitted you will need to move a pin. If not, the concert2 should be plug&play.
If you have factory fitted bluetooth, the concert 2 should work with it, not sure if its an aftermarket system.

Instrument cluster & multi-function steering wheel should be re-coded with VCDS, but it might work without doing this.
If the company are including the coding modifications in the 40£ and you dont have a VCDS cable yourself, its wort it.
If not, then they are basically just charging you to plug in the connector and antenna and shove the unit in the hole, definitely not worth 40£.

Cheers,
T

 

[Indian999]

Hi T

Thanks for all your help. Spent the day in the car looking at the wiring diagrams and installed wires and have come to the conclusion that I'm out of my depth!!!

On the green plug, I don't seem to have a connection for the AU PL (top line, 3rd from left) or the K-LTG (top line far right) although i think you said i don't need this?
On the blue plug, I'm missing the BOSE connector (even though my speakers have BOSE written on them), I'm missing the AUX and and AUX-L.
On the main black plug, i don't have a connection with the +UB, the DSP EIN or the CAN/L

Safe to say, none of the above makes any sense to me! I don't have the brown/tan colour plug at all.

When I plug it in as it is, I get power to the disc changer in the glove box (can load/unload discs fine), but the unit itself won't power on - so frustrating! Reading around, I think I need to 'piggy back the DI SENS connection so it goes to the +UB' as well but whether this is all i need to do to get it to work......god only knows! I'm normally quite a good DIY-er but never done anything with a car before so will probably leave it to someone who knows what they are doing (I'll probably end up knackering something!) They connections/labels may as well be written in French for all the sense they make to me!

I don't have a MFSW and i think the bluetooth is factory fitted (anyway to check?) so hopefully, once I have power, I'll have music again!




Thanks for all of your help mate, its very much appreciated

Cheers
H

 

[CADMonkey267]

H,

All you really have to worry about is moving the bose pin, the rest of the pin-outs should be the same.
On your wiring loom (because it is still configured for rnse) the bose pin will be on B7, you need to move this to B5 (correct position for bose pin for use with concert 2)
Have a look at the attached pin-out diagram for an rnse.

However, the unit should turn on (bose pin moved or not).. Did you check the fuse in the unit (should have 10A fuse by the connector) and the fuses in the dash?

 

[Indian999]

Hi

Just thought I'd let you know, had the unit fitted today and it was the +UB - it needed power to it and the DI SENS apparently!

The only problem I've got now is the radio reception is terrible!!!!!! It seems to kick in and out, even once it has tuned and is working fine, the next time I turn the ignition on it loses all of the signal and wont scan any stations. I've been told the antenna may have been damaged when they stole the RNS-E and its another 60 quid to sort that out......not sure what to make of it because 40 quid to install it, another 60 quid to fix the aerial (if that is actually the problem?) and I've paid double the amount to install it as i did for the unit itself! AM seems to work fine, its just the FM stations that I keep losing.....do you think it could be a damaged connection on the back of the unit?

Cheers

 

[CADMonkey267]

If the problem was a connection at the back of the unit you would probably have no signal at all. I would let a garage sort it out. I am surprised that down grading from RNSE is more difficult rather than the other way round... hmmmm