After a few small mods here and there I reckon I might as well create a thread where I’ll be posting mods and upgrades to my A3. 
So first off, she’s a 2006 2.0 TDi Sportback. Bought in February 2017, owned and well-looked after by a close family friend before me.
I am the sort of person who’d rather have a fully loaded Škoda than an A6 with a four pot and cloth seats- hence most of the upgrades I have completed or am planning to complete will be OEM retrofits. Let’s call it a long-term high-spec build.
I bought my A3 in Feb ‘17 for £1600 with 176k on the clock. The spec was modest but more than I had in my previous two French cars. SE trim was complemented by a comfort and light & rain packs which means it came with cruise control, dual zone climate control, auto-headlights, auto-wipers and auto-dimming rearview mirror and coming home lights- I believe the rest such as heated mirrors or all electric windows is standard on all A3s.
My first move was fitting a pair of Xenon units- costed me £120 for both headlights inc. ballasts, igniters and a pair of Philips in each, £50 for jets+matching colour caps and another £15ish for wee bits such as pump, wires, piping etc.
First cut the holes in my old bumper but it was flaky and peeling (red car problems), besides she kissed a concrete barrier last winter that was not high enough to damage the crashbar but was low enough to completely deform anything plastic so I got me a brand new Brilliant Red bumper with cutouts for £90 from Manchester Audi. Total cost of retrofit around £275.
The second job was small but greatly enhanced the aesthetics, in my opinion. I got hold of a VCDS cable which I used to code the xenons. One thing I noticed while scrolling through the options is the ability to enable the inner tail light (fog light) to be used as a regular rear light. This made it look more like an A4 or A6 Avant. Also tried the “American spec” yellow parking lights using indicators, but thought these looked a little chavvy so had these disabled before MOT and never bothered to turn them back on.
My third major retrofit, which I am currently completing is the RNS-e retrofit. In my case it presented further hassle as my Audi is a single-DIN from factory.
This was actually a spontaneous decision as I did not even plan to fit it due to cost but after spotting an RNS-e head unit, CD changer and original docs for sale for £210, I did not think twice. Got hold of a double-DIN cage with the button strip for £40 and spent another £35 on stuff like Quadlock and radio adapters, GPS antenna and a Nav CD.
I sold my single DIN cage and Concert II radio for £35 which brought cost of retrofit to about £250.
Amongst future retrofits, hopefully, are set of leather seats, front fogs, MFSW, if I am particularly lucky, fit an instrument cluster with DIS.
I know I could just get myself an A3 with all those features for a similar price but here’s the reasons why I chose not to. First, if I were to get a newer car, I’d go for Quattro and if I have four driven wheels I would not settle for less than 6 cylinders. Sure I can invest £4k+ into a clean 3.2 Sportback but when I can get a very nice 3.0TDi A6 C6 Avant for a similar price I’d think twice.
Second reason being, this car has been in my knowledge for the past six years and it has been maintained very well. With a new car you get new surprises. Sure, the oil might have been changed every so often but the previous owner could have been a clutch-rider or a boi racer flooring it at every green light. This Audi has joined the 200k club earlier in the year and is going strong, requiring zero work outside of regular maintenance during my ownership. So in other words, I am not currently planning on a car change
So first off, she’s a 2006 2.0 TDi Sportback. Bought in February 2017, owned and well-looked after by a close family friend before me.
I am the sort of person who’d rather have a fully loaded Škoda than an A6 with a four pot and cloth seats- hence most of the upgrades I have completed or am planning to complete will be OEM retrofits. Let’s call it a long-term high-spec build.
I bought my A3 in Feb ‘17 for £1600 with 176k on the clock. The spec was modest but more than I had in my previous two French cars. SE trim was complemented by a comfort and light & rain packs which means it came with cruise control, dual zone climate control, auto-headlights, auto-wipers and auto-dimming rearview mirror and coming home lights- I believe the rest such as heated mirrors or all electric windows is standard on all A3s.
My first move was fitting a pair of Xenon units- costed me £120 for both headlights inc. ballasts, igniters and a pair of Philips in each, £50 for jets+matching colour caps and another £15ish for wee bits such as pump, wires, piping etc.
First cut the holes in my old bumper but it was flaky and peeling (red car problems), besides she kissed a concrete barrier last winter that was not high enough to damage the crashbar but was low enough to completely deform anything plastic so I got me a brand new Brilliant Red bumper with cutouts for £90 from Manchester Audi. Total cost of retrofit around £275.
The second job was small but greatly enhanced the aesthetics, in my opinion. I got hold of a VCDS cable which I used to code the xenons. One thing I noticed while scrolling through the options is the ability to enable the inner tail light (fog light) to be used as a regular rear light. This made it look more like an A4 or A6 Avant. Also tried the “American spec” yellow parking lights using indicators, but thought these looked a little chavvy so had these disabled before MOT and never bothered to turn them back on.
My third major retrofit, which I am currently completing is the RNS-e retrofit. In my case it presented further hassle as my Audi is a single-DIN from factory.
This was actually a spontaneous decision as I did not even plan to fit it due to cost but after spotting an RNS-e head unit, CD changer and original docs for sale for £210, I did not think twice. Got hold of a double-DIN cage with the button strip for £40 and spent another £35 on stuff like Quadlock and radio adapters, GPS antenna and a Nav CD.
I sold my single DIN cage and Concert II radio for £35 which brought cost of retrofit to about £250.
Amongst future retrofits, hopefully, are set of leather seats, front fogs, MFSW, if I am particularly lucky, fit an instrument cluster with DIS.
I know I could just get myself an A3 with all those features for a similar price but here’s the reasons why I chose not to. First, if I were to get a newer car, I’d go for Quattro and if I have four driven wheels I would not settle for less than 6 cylinders. Sure I can invest £4k+ into a clean 3.2 Sportback but when I can get a very nice 3.0TDi A6 C6 Avant for a similar price I’d think twice.
Second reason being, this car has been in my knowledge for the past six years and it has been maintained very well. With a new car you get new surprises. Sure, the oil might have been changed every so often but the previous owner could have been a clutch-rider or a boi racer flooring it at every green light. This Audi has joined the 200k club earlier in the year and is going strong, requiring zero work outside of regular maintenance during my ownership. So in other words, I am not currently planning on a car change
