Jim II

I got my DB-25 today, thanks. I went to radio shack to find something to connect my 2 male antenae conections together. Nothing matched. Did you cut and splice? I'm using the stock antena, because I have the summer package.

SWiseman

Jim, I'm not Paul, but I question whether you can use the stock analog antenna w/ the digital Motorola 60 series phone. The transmission frequencies are different, and may require a different antenna. I am contemplating this upgrade in the future. If it will work, it will make the install easier. I bet you will need a matched antenna for your phone/carrier. Good luck.

Jim II

Yes stock antenna. I'm using a digital star-tac but but same idea. I don't think I can use the glass mounts because of the shielding in my windows. That's 99% of the reason I'm doing the install my phone doesn't work in my car! I'd hate to have to drill a hole in my trunk!

AndyZ

Guys-- FWIW, you CAN use the V60 with the stock antenna-- I do it every day-- got an adapter for my V60t, ran a wire back to the trunk, did a neat coaxial cut & splice, and it works great--

My phone really did not work well at all withthe windows up. With the antenna connected, it's awesome.

I will do the Hands-free install perhaps in the future. In the meantime, this is a nice & quick way to get good reception/transmission with the windows...

PS FastPass transponder (Florioda Roads) has to be held up in the partially open sunroof in order to work...

PaulW

I ended up cutting and splicing one piece, and since I don't have the stock rear antenna, I put in the Terk antenna. Sometimes I think it does more harm than good, when I do the tiptronic mod I'm going to look at all the connections again.

Anybody know how to test an antenna? Can you take some kind of resistance readings or anything?

Jim II

I used a coax female/female adapter. It doesn't screw together too well but it is working. Stock antenna is just fine with digital phone. I just need to rerun the wire. It goes over the rear seat and through the arm rest.

TVO

I was planning on running a coax cable to the rear antenna this weekend as well as my phone connection is also abysmal with the window lamination on my '97. For now, I may run the antenna through the ski sack until I can find a suitable, permanent path from the front to the rear of the car.

If you know of a good route for the coax, please let me know.

- Tim

JimR

I ran a small wiring harness from the Concert to the trunk. I have the pics. There's a fore-aft signal wiring trough below the driver-side sill trim (the power wiring is on the passenger side). Then you run it in the area underneath the rear seat, up in the corner behind the seatback, and through some existing holes into the trunk. There's a lot of trim removal, and while your seats are sitting on the garage floor is a good time to do a serious Lexol clean / condition on the leather.

<img src="http://pictureposter.audiworld.com/1018/a8_xm_install_003.jpg">

I'll try to pull something together today and tomorrow. To do it right is at least 8-10 pics and a fair amount of text.

AndyZ

EASY! Old tricks from a guy that used to do installs in high end cars in the early 80's while in college (WOW that seems like a long time ago...)


One method:

Two screws on lower front of rear seat bottom, under carpet-- remove screws, seat comes up easily-- no need to disconnect anything--

Route for the wiring becomes self-evident-- there are plenty of existing holes through which you can pass your antenna wire from the trunk forward.

As far as going to the console, simply fish the wire under the rug using a STIFF wire (bend the "nose" of the wire in a tight loop so it doesn't get caught) ", and retreive it up near the shifter-- there are big openings in the carpet there. You'll need to remove the passenger footwell valance panel that covers the tranny tunnel.

JimR

&gt;&gt;Two screws on lower front of rear seat bottom, under carpet-- remove screws, seat comes up easily-- no need to disconnect anything--

If you have heated seats, there are connectors for the heaters and for the occupancy sensors. Don't know if the occupancy sensors are also associated with the airbags (i.e. if there would still be occupancy sensors without heated seats).

&gt;&gt;Route for the wiring becomes self-evident-- there are plenty of existing holes through which you can pass your antenna wire from the trunk forward.

The holes were all up high in mine. You also had to remove the seat back to get to them.

&gt;&gt;As far as going to the console, simply fish the wire under the rug using a STIFF wire (bend the "nose" of the wire in a tight loop so it doesn't get caught) ", and retreive it up near the shifter-- there are big openings in the carpet there. You'll need to remove the passenger footwell valance panel that covers the tranny tunnel.

This would probably work well enough, but my harness was too big, and I didn't want to run power wiring like that. I like well-protected power wiring, so I went to some length to use the same path that Audi design engineers chose.