DJ_JonnyV

Alright, here goes, this is my write-up for replacing the stock speakers, running and aftermarket 4 channel amp, and keeping the same Symphony I headunit on my '01 A6 2.8. My goals for this project were as follows:

- Better sound - of course just about anything would've been better than the stock system...
- Clean install - didn't want any neon lights in the trunk or a big amp taking up a lot of trunk space. To quote Avincar, "anti-PMR (pimp my ride".
- Be able to actually hear my tunes while driving down the highway with the windows down!

So I started my quest at the beginning of this year with doing research on this forum and others, including:

<a href="http://www.audiforums.com/">Audi Forums</a>

<a href="http://www.caraudio.com/forum">Car Audio Forum</A>

And a few other sites here and there.

Here is my equipment list:

- MB Quart PCE-216 6.5" component speakers for the front doors (yes, 6.5" speakers will fit up front)
- MB Quart RCE-216 6.5" component speakers in the back doors, but mounted coaxially for rear fill purposes. I'm not looking to start a debate about rear fill vs. non-rear fill. It is what it is.
- JL Audio e4300 4 channel amp

Also installed:

- The yellow/green/blue adapter to replace the black 20-pin adapter on the back of the Sym I h/u pictured here in this link (courtesy of TeddyBGame of course):

<a href="http://www.vwnavi.com/vwnavi/photos/displayimage.php?album=57&pos=21">Blue/Yellow/Green 20 Pin Adapter</A>

I purchased the yellow adapter from Continental Imports (<a href="http://www.continentalimports.com/f00e500014.html">Yellow Adapter with RCA Outs</A>). It has RCA preouts already connected into this section to replace the black 20-pin connector, and has a remote turn-on lead coming out of it as well (very handy during install). Part # is 8-604-492-642, and runs for about $20. Be careful as they rang me up for $13 worth of shipping and "handling" charges.

I purchased the blue and green pieces of the replacement from my local Audi dealer. Their part numbers are 4A0-972-643-A and 4A0-972-643-B. They each ran about $9.00.

- Amp kit from <a href="http://www.knukonceptz.com">Kun Konceptz</A> - Item # KOL-AK4, cost $33, along with a distribution block and battery terminal, although for now I'm not using the distribution block or the battery terminal. I also purchased my new speaker wire (16 ga.) from them and RCA runs. I bought some visionik (off of ebay - only place I could really find it)18 ga. speaker wire for running to the tweeters on the MBs. The wire going into the tweeters was not more than 18 ga. itself, so no reason to overkill it, and space is precious when running wire. Bought the Karma Kable 4 channel 6M RCA Cables (item #KAR4-6M) and Karma Kable (item #KAR16BLS) 16 ga. twisted speaker kable. I bought 90 ft. of speaker wire for running to the mids on the MBs and for hook-ups between amp and crossovers. These guys were pretty easy to deal with and their products seem like they are very well made.

One other thing to note about mounting aftermarket speakers is the mounting depth on the mids. The stock speaker depth measures right at 2.5" if memory serves me correct. The MBs I installed were like 2.6".

I got the idea for doing an amp shelf from this post:

<a href="https://forums.audiworld.com/audio/msgs/32023.phtml">Amp Shelf Post</A>

This fit perfect with what I wanted to do in not taking up that much amp space and keeping things looking fairly stock.

So, while I was doing all my research on components, amp kits, amps, etc., I was also trying to figure out how to remove the interior trim. Here are some links that greatly helped with this effort (not sure why they are taking you to the 2nd post, but just click on the first post in the respective thread):

A4 trim removal, but still helpful - <a href="https://forums.audiworld.com/s4/msgs/2094920.phtml">A4 Trim Removal</A>

Audi Allroad install - <a href="http://www.redshift-consulting.com/audiaudio/plan.html">Allroad Install</A>

And here's a couple by Mr. Boston Driver himself from when he installed a Blaupunkt DVD player:

<a href="https://forums.audiworld.com/a6/msgs/609323.phtml">A6 Trim Removal</A>
<a href="https://forums.audiworld.com/a6/msgs/620626.phtml">A6 Trim Removal Pt II</A>

The above links were truly invaluable during my install.

Here's a link to a trim removal set that TeddyBGame posted a few months back:

<a href="http://www.zdmak.com/wbstore/main.asp?action=PROD&PROD=PPSET5&CTMP=1">Trim Removal Kit</A>

For $20, this was definitely worth picking up!

I'm not going to re-hash a bunch of pics and instructions on how to remove interior trim. This has all been documented very well. Instead I'd like to focus more on where I had specific issues, or questions that were not specifically addressed in other posts.

It helps tremendously if you have someone to help you out during this process. Ideally, someone who has a lot of know-how regarding cars in general. I'm not all that car-savvy smart when it comes to this stuff, buy my good friend (his nickname is JMan) brought that to the table, and I brought the car audio knowledge to the table (and research!). Plus, he's got a garage full of tools that came in very handy.

I'm going to take the actual install in phases. First, we started out by sizing up the amp shelf. Our basic design idea was to use some ?" MDF board with 2 2x4s screwed into either end and mount it under the rear shelf. There is some nice sheet metal to work with under there, but unfortunately it's not very flat. We laid out where we wanted the 2x4s to be on either side of the trunk width, and then Jman used some of his Bosch router magic to basically custom cut the top of the 2x4s where they would be mounted to the sheet metal. Make sure to use a sharpie and denote which direction faces out of the trunk and which side is out. We then screwed a nice sheet of MDF board to the 2x4s. I think the MDF board was about 33" wide and about 16-17" deep. Here is a picture of it assembled, pre-carpet:

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/105143/amp_shelf_precarpet.jpg">

Here are a couple of pics of doing a test fit. You can see where he had to do some custom routing on the 2x4s:
<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/105143/amp_shelf_build_testfit.jpg">

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/105143/amp_shelf_build_testfit2.jpg">

We carpeted the amp shelf using an "area rug" that I picked up from Lowe's. It was about 6' x 8' and was about $10. It was grey and had a backing on it. From the research I did you want to find some carpeting that has some backing on it for using some spray adhesive. I picked up some heavy-duty 3M spray adhesive from Lowe's. It was in their paint dept. and was about $13 I think. We used the adhesive and a staple gun to fit the carpet around the amp shelf. This part was a pain in the ****. It's by no means perfect, but the overlap part is on the bottom and you can't see it at all. There are some similar carpets that can be found at Wal-Mart (of all places, they have a car install section), and at Parts Express - <a href="http://www.partsexpress.com/webpage.cfm?DID=7&WebPage_ID=3&Filter=automotive&O bjectGroup_ID=135&so=2">Parts Express Audio Carpet</A>

Keep in mind that while the amp shelf was being built, we were also removing trim, running wires, and replacing trim. It's just easier to do the write-up this way.
After carpeting the amp shelf, we mounted the amp and crossovers to it. I made the decision to mount the crossovers to the bottom of the amp shelf and not in the doors if I ever wanted to swap out speakers, it would be a little easier this way, and would have easier access to the gain settings for the tweeters. Yes, this required double-runs of speaker wire to each door and was a little more costly doing it this way. Here a few pics of the amp and tweeters installed:

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/105143/crossovers_mounted.jpg">

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/105143/amp_mounted.jpg">

Once we had the amp and crossovers mounted, I did all the hookups between them. I highly recommend a good wire stripper and crimper. Yes, we crimped all of our connections. From what I researched, soldering is the way to go, but that wasn't necessarily in the game plan.

After hooking all that stuff up, it was time to get that bad boy mounted under the rear shelf. We got some pretty good L brackets and self-tapping screws to mount into the sheet metal. We first mounted the L brackets to the shelf after doing some rough measuring and test placements under the rear shelf. After L brackets were mounted to the shelf, we sized up exactly where the holes needed to be drilled in the sheet metal. JMan used a punch to get an initial hole started, and then pre-drilled the holes. Here are some pics of this process:

&lt;img src=
"http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/105143/lbrackets.jpg"&gt;

Measuring up where to pre-drill the holes:
<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/105143/overview_measure_twice.jpg">

Close-up:
<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/105143/measure_twice.jpg">

Here's a pic of us doing one of our hundred plus test fits:
<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/105143/test_fit.jpg">

This is definitely a 2 man job. I would lay on my back in the trunk (w/ seats down) and hold in place while JMan would screw in the self-tapping screws. Here's a pic of the screws in on the L brackets:

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/105143/lbracket_mount_compress.jpg">

After a lot of blood, sweat and tears, we finally got the SOB mounted back there:

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/105143/amp_prehookup.jpg">

Ok, now on to phase 2, running all the wires, removing trim, mounting speakers and the 20-pin black adapter replacement.
As mentioned earlier in this post, I'm not going to detail out removing all the trim needed in the A6, as this has been done before. But, focus more on the difficult pieces or those areas that I haven't seen covered before.

On the left side, I ran the speaker wire for both doors and the power cable from the battery to the trunk.

There is a pre-existing hole in the firewall that I was easily able to get a 4 AWG power wire through. I would recommend fishing the power wire through underneath the driver's side dash to the other side as shown here:

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/105143/power_wire_punchthru_underdash.jpg">

You do have to remove the lower dash by removing 6 hex screws, removing the OBD II interface, and unplugging the light under there as well. On the engine bay side, there is a nipple looking rubber piece that the wire will come through. Use a needle nose pliers or something to remove the nipple. Actually, we pulled the rubber grommet out entirely, pulled the wire through, and then fished the wire through the grommet and replaced in the firewall. Do this to prevent rubbing and added friction on the power wire jacket. Make sure to give yourself enough slack up there for connecting to a fuse block, and mounting that fuse block in the engine bay below the plastic cover that goes over the battery area. Here's a few pics for reference:
Coming through firewall from driver area under dash:

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/105143/firewall_fuse_holder_compress.jpg">

Shows where we mounted the fuse holder:
<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/105143/fuse_holder_compress.jpg">

Connection to battery:
<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/105143/battery_termination_compress.jpg">

Couple of additional notes before moving on from this area. We waited pretty much until the end to connect to the positive terminal and put the fuse in place for safety's sake, and I would suggest you do the same if you try this. Also, in terms of connecting 4 ga. wire to the a ring terminal, use a hammer. We tried soldering it and it was just too much wire. We ended up taking the fuse holder out and busting out a hammer to compress it down on the wire. Also, I ended up passing on the terminal block to avoid having to cut and re-terminate all the other wires onto the positive terminal. Right, wrong or indifferent, this works (for now anyway).

As for removing the rest of the driver's side interior trim, everything pretty much went as described in BD's post above with a few things that I'll add as I did not see this information posted anywhere else.

The left front kick panel comes off fairly easily. You'll need to remove this to begin removing the rest of the door sill trim. Also, since I was running new speaker wire throughout, it opened up a gateway to the hole to fish wire into the driver's side front door. You'll also need to leave the lower dash removed as well. If you look way the hell up there, you'll see some holes that line up with the "bridge" (for lack of a better word) that holds the rest of the wires going into the door. I was able to fish my 16 ga. and 18 ga. through the little hole up there. I tried taking some pics of this, but the hole was too far up there. Here's a pic of the wire on it's way up:

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/105143/speaker_wire_left_kickpanel.jpg">

You can see all the other connectors that are behind the kick panel up there. You can also see the power wire running up as well.
I was able to get the 2 wires fished through and then through the bridge. I unhooked the part of the bridge that connects to the body of the car so I could see and fish the wires with my fingers as shown here:

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/105143/speaker_wire_frontdr_punchthru.jpg">

Getting the wires through to the door is a little tricky. Stick your fingers down into the bridge, and you'll feel where the rest of the wires are going through. There's some room at the bottom between some stiff foam felling stuff. Try to get the wires on the tip of your finger and guide (ram) them through. It helps to have your other hand wedged up there from inside the door side trying to pull them all the way through once you get them. Once through, make sure you tie up the wire so it's not all loose in there. I tired to follow other wire routes as much as possible and used some zip ties to button everything down.
The rear door was similar process, but it seem like there was less space to go through the bridge. You also had to remove the B pillar trim from top to bottom for this one. This was a MAJOR PAIN IN THE A$$! The one part that I did not know about was removing the 2 torx screws from the top piece of the B pillar trim:

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/105143/bpillar_upper_removal.jpg">

The screws are right under the airbag:
<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/105143/torx_below_airbag.jpg">

I believe we used a T20 on one and a T25 on the other. You'll also need to remove the airbag cover up there. I did disconnect the negative on my battery when messing around with these just to be safe. Also, it probably would've been wise to remove the rest of the trim around the top of the B pillar trim, as we had to do a little manipulating to get the top of the B pillar trim out. This top piece snaps out a little then, and then you slide it up and out. Then on the lower B pillar, push the tabs in at the bottom, and it will slide up and out as well. You'll have to remove the rest of the door sill trim first however.
Here are a couple of pics where we punched the rear door wire through and how we fished it through using a fish tape:

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/105143/rear_door_speaker_wire_punchthru.jpg">

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/105143/fishtape_rear_door.jpg">

I ran the rest of the wire (speaker, power and RCAs) to the trunk through the following passages:

Pushed power wire down the little sidewall to help keep away from speaker wires:
<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/105143/front_door_sill_wires_run.jpg">

Did not remove this piece of trim all the way. Lifted it out from under the rear seat and rotated out a little and unsnapped some of the hooks according to BD's post:
<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/105143/rear_seat_trim_wires_run.jpg">

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/105143/wire_routing_driverside_nexttorearseat.jpg">

This pic shows where we fished it through behind the rear seat side bolster into the trunk:
<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/105143/wire_routing_to_trunk_driverside.jpg">

This is where it all came out in the trunk:
<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/105143/amp_ground_compress.jpg">

The passenger side looks about the same, but with RCAs instead of power wire. Also, in the above pic you can see where we grounded the amp.

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/105143/amp_behind_seat_compress.jpg">

Okay, now on to speaker mounting. You definitely have to remove the door panels for this, and to run speaker wire as well! There are the 2 small screws that you have to remove at the top of the door on either side. Before pulling it out, make sure to unhook the window control switch. This was at first a confusing piece for me, but somebody (BD I think) pointed me in the right direction. Push a small head, long philips into the hole underneath where you pull the door shut, and you'll have to push back a clip and I used a trim removal pry bar to wedge it out:

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/105143/window_control_removal.jpg">

Then pull up and out on the door panel. You won't get very far pulling out, as you have to disconnect the lock. Peel back the gray foam a little at the top and unhook it. Pull back the insulation a little further and disconnect the connectors for the lights, existing speakers, window controls, etc. You should be able to pull away the entire door panel now. Lay it on a towel or something, and go to work on the speakers.

Remove the screws holding the existing mid-range/woofer speaker in place.
<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/105143/stock_speaker_mountede.jpg">

Stock speaker screw holes:
<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/105143/dsc01992.jpg">

Screw your new speakers into these "bonus" aftermarket screw holes:
<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/105143/dsc01993.jpg">

New MB Quart mounted:
<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/105143/dsc01995.jpg">

The pic above is for one of the rear door panels. I coaxially mounted the tweeter for the rears for fill effect. The fronts were mounted in true component layout.
You have to remove a little metal holder for the tweeters. I used a mini-needle nose pair of pliers to wedge it out. Actually, this little metal brace worked well when mounting the new tweeters. I didn't have to use any hot glue or anything else to keep it stabilized in the stock location:

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/105143/tweeter_mount.jpg">

At this point, one of the last pieces of the puzzle was the replacement 20 pin adapter. I broke down and bought the wire pin extractor tool from AST Tools (<a href="http://www.asttool.com/detail_page.php?from_search=y&tool_number=S%201556 %20N&total=132&offset=108&stype=bymanf&manf=VW/Audi&category=spec">S 1556 N</A>). This was about a $90 hit, but well worth the investment. Item # is S 1556 N. I also bought this set of head unit removal tools from Samstagsales.com (<a href="http://www.samstagsales.com/images/t10057.jpg">Headunit Removal Tools</A>). I think this set ran for about $20 or so. Just slide them in and my Sym I popped right out.
Once behind the h/u, I disconnected the black 20 pin connector. Then, one of the tricky parts for me was moving the purple locking lever just enough so the S 1556 N could do it's thing. Many thanks to TeddyBGame for his assistance with this.

JMan used a mini-needle nose pliers to pinch the purple tabs and then pushed out to move that purple lever just enough.

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/105143/sideview2.jpg">

Once that baby moved, it was time for the S 1556 N to got to work. We removed all of the female wire terminals taking note of their location. Once all removed from black connector, we re-plugged into the new blue/green/yellow connector. The female pins that went into the yellow connector form the black connector were taped off as the yellow connector already had everything hooked up. I plugged the RCAs that I ran back behind the h/u to the yellow connector and connected the amp remote turn-on. We slid the h/u back in place.
Now was the moment of truth. Turned on the radio at a low volume, checked all 4 doors for sound, and it all worked! Somehow, it just all worked. I was pretty surprised that we didn't have any connection issues or anything.

Here's a pic of what the finished product looks like in the trunk:

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/105143/amp_shelf_mounted_final_compess.jpg">

Need to clean up the wires a bit yet.

Anyway, I know it's a long post, but if you're like me, you're looking to put a better sounding system in your A6, while keeping things stock looking, and trying to find some good info out there. Hopefully, my post will help you out. I believe I accomplished my goals, and it sounds great so far. Also, employing the hidden EQ feature - see Stoney's links for that. If you have more questions, send me an e-mail.

Stoney

Duly noted!

nitroxextreme

Now I gotta ask the question....did you break any tabs?

Excellent job...love the amp rack...my inspiration.

DJ_JonnyV

But haven't noticed any negative effects from this...yet.

BTW, still rocking like a champ with it. Showed a few people that are into home audio, and they couldn't believe how tight that amp shelf is. Wanted to know where I got it done at, which is the best part almost...until their eyes light up when I turn'er up!!!

TeddyBGame

I love this post. Very informative. Good stuff!!!