audiroad

Got my allroad 2 months ago and want to upgrade non Bose stereo. I know the head unit is the same in both Bose and non Bose allroads. Question-Easiest way to add an amp for all speakers- do I have the same wiring to the rear and if so, can I just plug in a allroad bose amp or another?....also, will any 6.5 inch speakers fit in the doors? Trying to make this a weekend job and not too "pimp my ride" like.

DJ_JonnyV

See my signature to get you started...although it's for an '01 A6, many things are similar

TeddyBGame

DJ, when you going to upgrade your allroad???

PWDRSKR

I am currently upgrading my system. I have a RNS-E Navplus headunit that I am keeping. I am adding a Dice IPod connecton. In order to do this I had a custom wiring harness built by Ted Basile (http://www.nsxjr.com/). He did great work and has been very helpful. I am upgrading the door speakers to 6.5 inch Diamond Audio separates. The installer (and several websites) all insisted 6.5 inchers wouldn't fit. However, the info I found on Audiworld said that they would.

So I pulled off the panels to see for myself. What I discovered is that the 6.5 inchers fit perfectly in the front doors. The screw holes line up perfectly and there is plenty of room for the speakers.

The rear doors required a little modification in order to get the speakers to fit. There is a metal bar running horizontally across the door that blocks the back of the 6.5 inche speaker's magnet from sitting in the door. As I messed around with the door, I discovered that the resons the speakers were hitting the metal bar is that in order to hang the door panel, there are several plastic hooks along the bottom and middle of the door panel that hook onto the door frame. The hooks are about an inch long. However, only ~ 1/4 to 1/2 inch are required for the door to hang on on the frame. The remaining ~1/2 inch is to help guide the door panel onto the mounting locations. In order to hang the door panel the hooks require that the door panel be an inch or more above the final location. It was this inch in additional height that caused the speaker magnets to hit the bar. After looking closely I found that it was only about a 1/4 inch of needed clearance to get the proper alignment. So out came the hack saw and I cut ~1/2 inch off each of the middle hooks. This allowed the panel to be attached without lifting as high, and therefore allowed the speaker to fit in the space. (hope that all makes sense).

On the amp side, I borrowed something else I found on the forum. I had the installer put a deck above the spare tire under the rear cargo area lid. The amp shelf is on hinges to allow access to the spare. They had to remove the foam to make room but now it looks completely OEM from the outside.

The crossovers for the door speakers are mounted in the drivers side rear cargo area panel where the trunk mounted cd changer would normally go.

And finally, the new subwoofer is located in the rear passenger side cargo panel. The installer created a subwoofer enclosure custom fit to this space (this is where the stock sub and amp normally are located). Since I put in a 10" sub, he had to build out the panel an inch or two. This is the only thing that looks non OEM with the entire set up.

I pick up the car later today....

audiroad

Thanks for the follow up on this. DJ...amazing job, but out of my league. Probably going to go with the speakers first...that will be this weekend. As far as the amp, does anyone know if a non Bose car have an amp at all, or if not, does it have the wiring in the rear to plug an amp into? I am really hoping to do this job myself, but I don't really want to start pulling all the interior aprat to rewire everything.