I have in the past been looking to upgrade the stereo in the car.
Last summer I purchased a decent head unit, a Pioneer DEH-P5800MP.
I chose this one because it has the option to add an iPod; also it can play MP3 discs and has a
handy 50Wx4.
The speakers in the car didn’t need to be changed as they were very good.
Soon after Christmas I wanted to do a bit more but nothing too over the top, maybe an amp
and a sub.
With the help of Mick and Andy and looking at endless items on e-bay and asking loads of
futile questions (cheers guys your patience are endless). I settled on a Fli sub/amp combined
in one (see pictures 1-3).
This purchase happened to coincide with my birthday so the misses treated me to an iPod and
the adapter I needed to connect it to the stereo (pictures 4-5).
What’s in the box (picture 6, picture of the iPod adapter).
The car I fitted this too is my 1996 S6 Avant
First job was to disconnect the battery and remove the stereo from the car; this is most handy if
you still have the locking handles for it (picture 7).
For testing purposes I didn’t bother to hide any cable, I wanted to made sure it worked before
I started tidying everything up.
The next job was to connect the iPod adapter to the stereo. The blue connector (cable
from adapter) goes to blue connector on the back of the stereo (picture 8).
The other end of this cable is black. This connects to the black pin holder of
the adapter (picture 9).
On the other side of the adapter there is also a connector for the key/battery (yellow)
and black (earth), (picture 10).
I was quite lucky that there was already a spare connector for the yellow cable – I just
connected the other end to it with a bullet connector (picture 11).
Next job was to find a decent earth point for it. Behind here is just a good a place as
any (I’ve removed this panel in the past). Just don’t break this “A” pillar trim; it’s no longer
available from Audi (picture 12).
With everything wired up – switch on. You should see iPod displayed on the stereo (picture 13),
you might have to press the function button to get to the iPod selection.
On the iPod you should see the Pioneer logo (picture 14).
Now we know that it all works it’s time to wire in the sub/amp. With the sub placed in the back
(picture 15-16).
It’s just as well I’ve got a large boot; I had no idea how large the sub was.
The connections on the back of the sub are as follows, from left to right:
Earth – Brown
Remote – Blue
Power – Red
There’s also a 20 amp fuse, frequency and gain control and the channel connectors (picture 17).
As the sub/amp is rated at 1000W, I had to get a wiring cable kit which could handle the
same rating.
I connected everything up, black and red channel connectors from the sub into the
stereo, the blue remote cable from the sub to the blue remote cable connector of the
stereo (picture 18).
Again I was quite lucky that the battery is under the rear seat. I mounted the earth
cable to a ring connector and fastened it to the mounting bracket of the ABS unit;
I trailed this cable behind the rear seat making sure that it didn’t impede the lowering
and raising of the seat (picture 19-21).
The power cable I connected to the live terminal of the battery.
IMPORTANT
Make sure that there is an inline fuse holder with a fuse the same rating as the one in the back
of the sub. Also the fuse holder has to be less than 18” from the battery terminal.
Next step was to remove the three pieces of bottom door/sill trim. These still are available
from Audi and at a very cheap price so it doesn’t matter if you butcher them. I’m going to change
mine for new anyway because at some point the trim has been removed and has broken.
Total price was £15 for all three.
The inner piece slides first of all from left to right. Then carefully lift up the left hand edge and
slide back to the left. The piece now comes free. Under here you should find a number of screws
(three under the back and three under the front piece). Remove all of them.
The long thin piece of trim is in one section, from the “A” pillar to the rear wheel arch.
Carefully remove this section by pulling outwards at the center where the seat belt mounting is.
Then lay the new cables down the side, the blue one and also the two channel cables.
All the cables I fed under the rear seat the same way as the earth cable. With the red and
blue cable’s
I used the existing plastic tracks to secure them in place along with the help of a couple
of cable ties (pictures 22-24).
Next step was to hide/re-route the cable’s, thread them through and re-connect everything
and put it all back together again………Easier said than done.
The idea is to place the iPod in the little coin/card tray, this means that a hole will need to
be drilled in the back of it so that the iPod cable fits through.
Carefully lift off the two end pieces which reveal 8mm hex bolts on each side.
Undo these and the whole switch assembly pulls out. It doesn’t pull out very far.
There is not a lot of movement in those cables. Undo the five electrical contacts, I found
the use of a small flat bladed screw driver helps (pictures 25-27).
Place the unit on a work bench making sure to put something underneath to protect the front facia.
I drilled a series of holes through the plastic then filed them out to make a rectangle shape.
The iPod cable that connects to your iPod will fit through this hole (pictures 29-30).
Back inside the car again, nearly finished now.
Re-fit and re-connect the switches of the facia panel with the white iPod cable pulled through the
hole you just made.
Connect up the adapter box. I managed to find enough room to put the box into the space inside
the centre console, without getting in the way of the stereo.
Feed back in all the cables then refit your stereo in place (pictures 31-32).
Re-fit the three trim pieces. I hid the cables in the front foot well behind the carpet.
Connect your iPod. It couldn’t be a more perfect fit.
The coin/card holder is the ideal size (picture 33).
By the way – the amp/sub sounds great too.
Technical Stuff
Fli Trap 12 Active
Height: 380mm
Width: 350mm
Depth: 500mm
RMS Power: 300 watts
Peak Power: 1000 watts
Variable gain control
40-250 Hz variable 12 dB crossover
Input sensitivity 40 mV
Continuous Power 10v-14.4v
Signal/Noise Ratio > 100dB
Fli Audio (link)
Pioneer CD-IB100II
iPod adapter
Specifications
General
Power source: 14.4 V DC (10.8 V to 15.1 V allowable)
Grounding system: Negative type
Max. current consumption: 2.0 A
Dimensions (W × H × D): 95 × 25 × 91 mm
Weight: 0.33 kg (0.7 lbs)
iPod Adapter (link)
Pioneer DEH-P5800MP
Too much to list here, full specs:DEH-P5800MP (link)
