Hi I'am looking to change my standard Audi chorus head unit in my 2007 a3 with an aftermarket kenwood one I've found one on eBay I like just wondered if anyone else has it and also what I would need to fit it and if it would be plug and play
Looking to replace my chorus radio with aftermarket
- Thread starter G19rnt
- Start date
to fit it you need the fascia and leads adaptors (ebay), then you need to see if you get the bose system or not, in case you got it, you need to diy adaptors from pre-out (rca) to audi'a plug (cause that I know there aren't any adaptors). You may need to check if it compatible with your steering wheel commands (if you have)
millsy4002
Registered User
have a search on the forum mate. myself and others have done similar and all the info is here 
Thanks for your advice guys think it should be quite easy then as I don't have Bose or steering wheel controls and I have a parrot handsfree already so would have the harness (assuming it would be the same one)so would just be the fascia I would need.i'll go and have a search now thanks again
Would anyone have a step by step fitting guide I've had a search but haven't found a definitive guide
1st step put some clothes on your console (so you don't rig any plastic )
2nd step with radio removal tool take off the radio gently, if is double din you got 4 holes for it
3rd put it on the clotch on the console and un pin the cables.
4th take somewhere the radio so you got more space to work on it
5th using the instruction added to your adaptors and fascia, attach fascia and adaptors, in case you don't got the manuals tell it.
6th take your new aftermarket radio and if you need to use the cage put the cage on it and then pin it to adaptors, then put the radio in the cage and mount the surrounding.
Ta daaa!!
Work is done
2nd step with radio removal tool take off the radio gently, if is double din you got 4 holes for it
3rd put it on the clotch on the console and un pin the cables.
4th take somewhere the radio so you got more space to work on it
5th using the instruction added to your adaptors and fascia, attach fascia and adaptors, in case you don't got the manuals tell it.
6th take your new aftermarket radio and if you need to use the cage put the cage on it and then pin it to adaptors, then put the radio in the cage and mount the surrounding.
Ta daaa!!
Work is done
Thanks a lot mate much appreciated I've looked on eBay for the fascia etc but it seems to have a cage too and cable but I already have the cable would that be the kit I would need its £60 or £70 which seems a tad steep
Just thought I'd add my recent experience of changing the Chorus radio on my 2011 A3 Cabriolet with something more up to date. The sound from the radio was pretty feeble although the sound from the CD player wasn't too bad but some CD's were skipping so time for a change.
I bought a Pioneer SBH-EVO64DAB double din radio as the replacement and used the A3 fitting kit from Halfords. The hardest part was getting the cage into the space vacated by the Chorus as the cage width appeared to be greater than the space but with a bit of brute strength it eventually went in (unlike the video on Youtube where the guy just slides the cage into place as easy as pie).
The new radio came with a USB cable, a GPS aerial and a microphone cable and these had to be threaded through into the space behind the radio first. The USB cable and GPS aerial went through to the glove compartment and the microphone went through to the drivers footwell via a gap and attached nicely to the side of the footwell, out of sight. I had to undo a few bolts on the glove compartment first to enable some room to thread the two cables through.
Before pushing the radio into place I had to push all the wiring down into the space behind to enable the radio to fit.
I'd thought about the aspect of the DAB radio aerial beforehand and didn't really want a windscreen aerial. I'd read that the A3 AM/FM aerial was in the windscreen pillar. I eventually found a post somewhere on the web where a guy had used the original A3 aerial for both FM and DAB by using a splitter so I decided to give that a try and bought one on ebay for about eight quid.
So I wired it all up and got the radio in place. This radio comes with wireless Android Auto and Apple Car Play and can display Waze as the Satnav. After pairing my phone with the unit, the satnav worked perfectly with the GPS aerial just sitting in the glove compartment and the hands-free phone works perfectly with the microphone in the footwell so no obtrusive wiring around the dashboard, everything is hidden.
However, I was disappointed with the radio reception - no DAB and crackly FM. Disaster! So I took the radio back out and had a good look and realised that I hadn't connected the blue wire from the aerial booster to the remote wire (blue with white stripe) so there was no power to the powered aerial amplifier. After joining the two wires - success - perfect FM and DAB reception without a dedicated DAB antenna.
The only minor disaster was by taking the radio back out, the plastic trim round the radio that came with the fixing kit lost two of its four spikes that fix it to the cage - they just snapped off. So at the moment the trim is just attached by the last two spikes and I've just ordered a new piece of trim. So if you're doing this, be careful attaching the trim.
Hope this helps anyone thinking of adding an aftermarket unit. I'm really pleased with the one I bought, I've now got FM, DAB, Satnav, Hands-free phone, wireless functionality, all my music files instead of CD's and Alexa if you have it plus all the apps.
I bought a Pioneer SBH-EVO64DAB double din radio as the replacement and used the A3 fitting kit from Halfords. The hardest part was getting the cage into the space vacated by the Chorus as the cage width appeared to be greater than the space but with a bit of brute strength it eventually went in (unlike the video on Youtube where the guy just slides the cage into place as easy as pie).
The new radio came with a USB cable, a GPS aerial and a microphone cable and these had to be threaded through into the space behind the radio first. The USB cable and GPS aerial went through to the glove compartment and the microphone went through to the drivers footwell via a gap and attached nicely to the side of the footwell, out of sight. I had to undo a few bolts on the glove compartment first to enable some room to thread the two cables through.
Before pushing the radio into place I had to push all the wiring down into the space behind to enable the radio to fit.
I'd thought about the aspect of the DAB radio aerial beforehand and didn't really want a windscreen aerial. I'd read that the A3 AM/FM aerial was in the windscreen pillar. I eventually found a post somewhere on the web where a guy had used the original A3 aerial for both FM and DAB by using a splitter so I decided to give that a try and bought one on ebay for about eight quid.
So I wired it all up and got the radio in place. This radio comes with wireless Android Auto and Apple Car Play and can display Waze as the Satnav. After pairing my phone with the unit, the satnav worked perfectly with the GPS aerial just sitting in the glove compartment and the hands-free phone works perfectly with the microphone in the footwell so no obtrusive wiring around the dashboard, everything is hidden.
However, I was disappointed with the radio reception - no DAB and crackly FM. Disaster! So I took the radio back out and had a good look and realised that I hadn't connected the blue wire from the aerial booster to the remote wire (blue with white stripe) so there was no power to the powered aerial amplifier. After joining the two wires - success - perfect FM and DAB reception without a dedicated DAB antenna.
The only minor disaster was by taking the radio back out, the plastic trim round the radio that came with the fixing kit lost two of its four spikes that fix it to the cage - they just snapped off. So at the moment the trim is just attached by the last two spikes and I've just ordered a new piece of trim. So if you're doing this, be careful attaching the trim.
Hope this helps anyone thinking of adding an aftermarket unit. I'm really pleased with the one I bought, I've now got FM, DAB, Satnav, Hands-free phone, wireless functionality, all my music files instead of CD's and Alexa if you have it plus all the apps.
Quick amendment to my previous post.
Firstly, the Pioneer I have is the SPH-EVO64DAB not the SBH.............
Secondly, the splitter I used was from Amazon, not ebay and cost £8.99
It was the
Eightwood DAB Splitter DAB Aerial Splitter Cable SMB Antenna Splitter Din Female to Din Male + SMB Cable Car Radio RG174 30cm for AM/FM DAB+ Radio Pioneer Clarion Kenwood Alpine JVC
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Strange as thats got no fakra connectors, smb on 1, so you must have used other adapters to connect to the cars existing wiring
The back of the Pioneer has a separate digital radio input point and a din female aerial jack (not a fakra connection) for FM/AM.
So the fitting kit has the fakra - booster - din plug which is then connected to the splitter.
So the fitting kit has the fakra - booster - din plug which is then connected to the splitter.
Strange as looking at the pioneer kit that comes with, can't see any fakra adapters, assume its an aftermarket adapter then.
If you look at the A3 fitting kit at Halfords you can see it includes an aerial booster with a single fakra plug and a din plug.
When you take out the Chorus radio, the AM/FM plug is a dual fakra plug.
So you plug the single fakra connector of the booster into the FM half of the dual fakra socket in the A3.
There are no extras, just the Audi fitting kit plus the splitter that I bought separately.
