Angry J

Hello All - I'm a new owner and forum member. I just bought a 2012 Q5 3.2 Premium Plus that has been kept in immaculate condition and have every possible service performed at an Audi dealer in Chicago. Outside of some light scratches and paint chips, the car looks brand new. The ONLY issue was that the original sunshade springs had broken. "No big deal" I thought - I can replace that myself... Not quite a month later, I started the job last night.

Started at 5:00. Didn't finish. Finally at midnight I put the rear glass back in with the back of my headliner disassembled and no shade installed.

I got stuck multiple times on the point where I needed to attach the spring to the clips, then the clips to the rails. The clips in my old shade were fully plastic and had no metal in them. The clips that were on my old shade look like .
The plastic clips that came with the new shield had small metal hooks in them for the shade spring to attach to like these.

Both videos I saw had a different style of clip with a metal piece in them that was much longer than what I have.

If anyone has any input, I'd really appreciate it.

Maybe some written instructions would help, but I can't find them anywhere online - just a couple of videos. Thanks for any replies.

simplesez

So are you replacing the shade or just the clips?

This project sucks so badly BTW. I tried mine several times but with all the fussing with the stupid metal spring the shade rides on it would not stay in the track. So I threw it all away. no more shade, oh well.

Anyway, the aftermarket clip is different from the OEM. In fact, the OEM has several versions with slightly changed shape as they improved the design slightly over the years. The aftermarket clip is better IMO.

If you bought the aftermarket shade it comes with instructions on how to attach the metal spring to the clip. sorry I threw that away also.

Angry J

I am doing it myself and I feel like I was 90% finished about 5-6 times last night. I'm replacing the whole sunshade. Good to know about the clips. I thought the aftermarket ones looked more solid than the factory all-plastic ones.

My replacement shade didn't come with any directions at all so I'm just going off a couple videos.

I'd like to keep the sunshade operable if possible, but I've read that some people do away with the shade and simply add more tint to the glass roof. Is that what you did?

simplesez

yes adding tint to the glass roof helps. The videos do well but don't really show how you attach the clip AND have to take the metal band and slide it into the track. I had to get a flashlight really close to see the thin little track the sunshade goes into.

after bending that metal slip 100x it just wasn't straight anymore. too many little waves in it so it made it like halfway down the glass before it popped out. After two days of attempts I gave up. maybe I'll buy another one someday and try again but it's winter here

Angry J

Thanks for your input, I appreciate it.

gronk

I tried twice with an aftermarket sunshade. Each time, I eventually just gave up after hours of trying to get the clips hooked in. I just ended up leaving the sunshade out and got a 3M ceramic ceiling tint. Besides, who knows how long before it will fail again?

Angry J

Update: I got the clips in, and was able to get the sunshade moved forward. Once I got it all the way forward, the ribbon spring moved out of its tracks, and wrapped up on itself, effectively ruining the part.

I ended up taking the assembly out and will consider trying it again. I broke a tab off of the rear headliner trim piece upon reassembly of the trim and headliner so all in all, it was a frustrating experience. I have a new headliner being shipped to me right now, but I'm really thinking I'll go the tint route and not mess with it.