allroadnumber3

Hi all,

On my third Allroad, but my first import (and first 4.2) C5. It came to me with an RNS-E unit fitted, but no DIS, no illumination, extremely poor FM performance, and more besides. My build sheet stated that the car originally came with option code 7Q6 Japan colour navigation, which was an RNS-D looking at the original import paperwork. The previous UK owner removed that, hacked the loom about, then decided to fit an aftermarket RNS-E harness. It's a full Bose subwoofer and amplified speaker system (although the drivers front speaker buzzes terribly). My question is this, is it worth repairing the original loom back to RNS-D, then altering correctly for the RNS-E adapter, or do I forget the factory setup, and fit an aftermarket rig, bypassing the Bose entirely? The car has also had a replacement cluster fitted for MPH. I can code it all in with VCDS but in terms of labour I am not sure it is worth the effort. Part of me hankers to do an old school build as I did in the early 90s on a regular basis, but the sensible route, to me, and the most time saving, would be to unplug the Bose amp, and figure out the four speaker pairs, then chopping the amp plug off, attaching the necessary wires to the high level outs on the other side of it, and effectively having a fully passive loom ready in place without having to remove major amounts of trim. Sounds like a good option to me, Audi have already done the routing work. Once I have done that I can sort out the buzzing speaker. The Bose drivers are 2-3 ohms, but any solid head unit should easily drive that, most 4 ohms speakers are nominally in the 3.5 range or so anyway. Any other ideas on how to deal with the double bodge in front of me? Or do I give up, sell the RNS-E, find a nice RNS-D, and revert it all to factory? It's my third Allroad, my first being a manual low range 02 plate AKE, which I should never have sold. Cheers all!