WunderWagen

So we bought a 2024 Audi Q8 e-tron Premium Plus which came with the white ambient lighting. My wife really liked the multi-color lighting from the Prestige but the additional $10K cost did not make sense for us. I researched what the ambient lighting options were for us (USA based) and found a retrofit kit from Kufatec that seemed to offer what we wanted.

Some quick background, there are two ambient lighting packages for the USA Q8 e-tron…

Ambient Lighting QQ1 (White LED, 2 wire connector / Power + Ground) – typically comes on Premium Plus

Ambient Lighting QQ2 (Multi-color LED, 4 wire connector / Power + Ground + 2 CAN bus) – typically comes on Prestige



There is also the Side Alert system which uses a RED led module separate from the ambient lighting that lights up the door trim

I ordered the Kufatec kit and tried to install it in our Q8. The good news is that the parts seem to work fine although the dash trim came in aluminum instead of the wood our car came with. The wiring harness for our car was simple for the doors as the Side Alert and QQ1 door trim had the extra light pipe connection already. There was also a plug for the 4 wire multi-color LED connection on the door control modules which made the door harness easy to install. The only custom wiring needing to be added was to the dash trim, e-tron dash panel, and center console upper trim. Kufatec provides the wiring harnesses for all of this with the only vehicle modifications being adding two wires from the new harness to Pin 28 and Pin 59 on the BCM along with a ground connection. The Kufatec kit included a coding Dongle which is where my issues began. When I first tried the coding it didn’t seem to work. I reached out to Kufatec for assistance and when they found out it was a 2024 Q8 e-tron (which was referenced in my order form along with the VIN!) they said it was not supported due to SFD2 security and to return the kit. I did not give up so easily as I had already done some coding successfully on our Q8. I confirmed that we did not have SFD2 on our vehicle as we were an early production build (March 2023). I then checked the Kufatec website for a update for the coding Dongle using their download tool and it said no file was even loaded on the Dongle! I reached out to Kufatec support again and told them about the issue and that I confirmed we did not have SFD2 and they still refused to help and insisted I return the kit. In frustration, that is what I did…

Kufatec parts list for reference:

Center console trim: 4KL.947.209

Dash trim E-tron logo: 4KL.857.186.A V58

Door trim: 4KE.947.134.B.3Q7

Door trim: 4KE.947.184.B ??

Passenger dash trim: 4KL.853.190

Driver dash trim: 4KL.853.189

Center console side: 4KE.947.093.B

Center console side: 4KE.947.094.B

Front Door cubby light: 4KE.919.390.A

Front door cubby light: 4KE.929.390.B

LED light modules: 4KE.947.355. A-D (quantity 4 to replace existing QQ1 white LED door trim modules)

LED light modules: 4KE.947.355. E-H (quantity 4 to add to open light pipe on door trim)

Coding dongle: Kufatec 45956

Misc wiring harnesses: Kufatec 48178

WunderWagen

Okay, so after all the issues on the Kufatec kit I thought about other options. In trying to install the Kufatec door lighting I came up with an idea. The door trim on our Q8 already had the extra light pipe fitting so I decided to try adding an additional 2 wire white LED module and splice it off the existing white LED module. To add some color I bought some theatrical light gel film in a blue color which my wife picked out (they have hundreds of colors). This type of film is heat and fade resistance so it should last the life of the LED. Taking the LED modules apart was very easy and I cut a piece of colored film to fit inside the housing and put it back together. For the wiring I bought the Audi repair wires and wiring connector that matched the LED housing. This allowed a factory fit and made the new LED module replaceable just like the original LED module that came installed from the factory. Using the repair wires I was able to splice into the original LED module wiring to activate the new LED module. This allowed both door LED modules to be controlled by the vehicle with dimming function and the auto off when the Side Assist red LED was active. Overall the new door trim lighting was a fairly easy modification that took me a couple of hours for all 4 doors.

New ambient lighting door trim parts list:

White LED modules: 4N0-947-356-03S (Qty 4)

Wire harness connectors: 8K0-973-754 (Qty 4)

Repair wires: 000-979-009 (Qty 4 – they come double ended so cut them in half for each module)

Pictures are below for reference…

WunderWagen

Added a small video to show the ambient lighting and the auto off for the Side Assist function in action.

RMSko

Looks really cool. I have the same car, although mine is a SB. One thing I don’t understand is that when the car starts it goes through a few colors on the door and so why aren’t you just able to set one of those colors instead of the white it settles on?

Bada Bing

How much did the parts cost for the second attempt? I take it that you just have the color ambient lights in the door aluminum strips (and not the dash trim piece and center console), right? Nice job. What's the level of difficulty?

The Kufatec kit looks like it would cost a few grand. At that point, you might as well get the Prestige trim.

I don't understand Audi's trim level philosophy when it comes to LED interior lighting plus package. If you buy a $52K P+ S3 or $63K P+ Q4 e-tron, you get the full multi-color LED interior lighting but not on the Q8 e-tron. I'm in the market for a P+ Q8 e-tron and like you, I can't justify the extra $6K or so for the Prestige trim when the only item I really want from that package is the color ambient lighting. Don't get me wrong, soft closing doors and leather covered dash and center console, HUD, etc. are all nice features but it bothers me that an $82K P+ car doesn't come with color ambient lighting.

PNW Etron

In addition, you also get the acoustic double pane glass, the nicer leather on the seats, and the massage function with the prestige too. For $10k, that's not a bad deal.

AWDQuattro

I agree that seems like a rather poor choice by Audi.

Bada Bing

I don’t have the trim prices in front of me but I could swear that P+ was $4,400 above the base Premium trim and Prestige was about $10,400, so the difference between P+ and Prestige is about $6,000. However, if you lease, Prestige trim has 2% lower residual. So it turns into a large difference in lease payments. The 2024 P+ trim has the double pane side windows.

Prestige package obviously adds some very useful features, but I’d be completely happy with P+ if it came with the multi-color interior ambient lighting.

WunderWagen

Actually since we have a Premium Plus it only came with white ambient lighting... the red light is the Side Assist feature that only comes on during startup and when there is an object at the door. The blue light is what I added, there was not multi-color option on our car.

WunderWagen

Agree, seems silly for a $80k SUV to not have the multi-color ambient lighting. We were surprised by that...

The parts cost was under $100 for everything so not much money, Adding the door trim LED just required taking the door panel off and splicing the two wires to the existing door panel LED light. The dash trim and upper center console trim use built in LED modules so they are not replaceable modules like the door trim.