randerson22

I have a 1995.5 S6 avant that has the cloth/velour interior door panels (NOT the vinyl like in the '92-94 S4's).

Some moron (prior to me owning!!) tried to steam clean the door panels, and so all 4 panels have the velour lifting from the door. Looks like ***.

So I found someone parting out an S4 with the same color door panels (ecru), but they are the vinyl ones (which I frankly like better anyway).

1) Will these vinyl door panels fit the S6 avant door panels as an exact replacement?

2) Is this job a bitch to perform? Not sure what is involved in this switch-over.

Thanks,
Robert

zsmithdc

Well, since no one's answered...

First off, an S4 door card will work on an S6 without a problem. The door cards are easy to remove and re-install. It's interior work so you must remember to be careful because plastics break easily and it's not so easy to jb-weld it back together. Here are the steps for removing the passenger's front door card:

1.) Pry off the cover for the door pull using a flat-head screwdriver. The cover is held in by two fragile plastic tabs so you need to pry from the bottom of the cover, in the middle. This will hide any marks you make and make sure you don't break those tabs. Prying off the cover will expose two phillips screws set deep into the door panel. Remove those screws. This will release the plastic door pull piece from the door card.

2.) Pull out the piece of black plastic where the top of the door pull was set into. It just slides right of from between the wood trim and the door handle.

3.) Slide the door handle piece forward. It will reach the end of its travel and be held back by the latch cable. Remove the retaining clip from the cable and slip the cable's hook from out of the handle. Disconnect the plug for the power window. You can now remove the door handle mechanism with the window switch attached.

4.) With the door handle removed, this will expose a vertical piece covered in the factory trim. Behind this piece of trim is a "hidden" phillips screw that must be removed. You must penetrate this trim to get at it.

5.) Remove two screws from the top of the sides of the door card. They are phillips screws.

6.) The door card is held in by four hooks, two on each side that mount on the edges of the door. Pull up on the door card and then out.

7.) With the door card hanging out, you'll need to disconnect the speaker and amplifier plug and then the door card will be free.

As always, re-installation is the opposite of removal. If you're going to remove a door card, lubricate the window regulator tracks with oil and grease. I've removed the door cards a number of times on my S4s and the tracks are usually bone dry. Although the window regulators on these cars are very robust in my experience, they will move nice and quickly with good lubrication. Remember to be patient and test things; for example, you want to test the power window functioning when you plug it back in so that the up button on the switch actually makes the window go up and not down. You also want to be very careful when mounting the door card over the lock. The vacuum locks on these cars don't like to be upset so you don't want to exert too much force on it while trying to get the door card to seat just right. And then there's just common sense: you don't want to scratch the paint on the inside and cause premature rust blah blah blah.

randerson22

wow, thanks for the play by play, this will come in very useful!

mchaloux

Seeing that he's done the hard work, maybe you could take some pics.

UrS4boy

The S4 door cards will fit but you will obviously lose the rear door speakers that the UrS6's have and the UrS4's don't.

On an UrS4 note, what was the final fate of your 94 (ex-Dave L) S4? Last I remember, you were looking for a new engine.

Dave F. in Vancouver

Mammoth0513

I'll take a few to add to an old archive. Im moving s6 panels & interior into my S4




I'll add photos of the install once I get around to it