A4 Stereo Information

[dan_masi@MENTORG.COM (Dan Masi)]

So, I spent the weekend installing different front speakers
in my A4Q, hardwiring my Valentine-1, and installing (OK,
half-installing) a handsfree cellphone kit.  I figure I'll
sent some little bits of info I gathered during the process, in
case anyone needs to do similar things.

A HUGE Thank-you to those who told me how to remove bits and
pieces of the car!  These cars are *much* easier to work on
than any Japanese car that I've seen, *once* you know where the
clips/screws/etc are.

Also, if anyone can give me hints on removing the center
console, rear speakers, and running a cellphone antenna cable
from the center console to the rear window, that'd be great.

A QUICK VALENTINE-1 HINT:

To make a power cable for the V-1, take a standard telephone
cable w/ RJ-11 (?) jack on one end (cut the cable if you've
got RJ-11 on each end), and connect the GREEN wire to +12V,
and the RED wire to GROUND.  The black and yellow wires are
not used.  If you wire it backwards accidently, don't worry;
the Valentine-1 has reverse voltage protection.  I, uh... checked.

CELL PHONE MIC IN THE A-PILLAR

I decided to mount my cell phone microphone in place of the
standard Motorola one that's already there.  The driver's side
A-pillar trim is held in place by 3 clips, spaced roughly equally
nearer the rear edge of the trim.  To remove, peel back the flexible
molding along the rear edge, then pry the clips out by pulling
out and back.  The microphone is mounted on a small circuit
board that's mounted to this trim piece.  I removed this board
and mounted my mic in it's place, then ran the cable down the
trim piece.  Also ran my V-1 power down this trim piece, and wired
it in at the fuse box.

FRONT SPEAKERS

My A4Q is the non-Bose, standard-stereo US version.

What's currently there: each front door has a 4" driver mounted
low, with a 3/4" tweeter mounted high and crossed over with a
simple capacitor.  Speakers are made by Nokia.

Interestingly, the 4" driver on the driver's side is different
from that on the passenger's side.  It's a dual-voice-coil
design, with the second coil fed from a seperate pair of
wires.  I assume that the radio has a subwoofer amp and crossover
built in, but I didn't have time to investigate.  Anyone know
details?  Also bizarre is that the wire to the left set of
speakers is a thicker gauge than the wire for the right speakers.
I just taped off the wires that fed the second voice coil.

To get at the speakers, you have to remove the door panels.  Remove
the two visable screws at the upper corners of the door panel.
Remove the screw in the armrest, inside the grab-handle area.  Now
remove the oval-donut trim piece that this screw was holding in
place, by snapping the trim piece downward.  This will expose two
screws; remove them.  The door panel is now removed by lifting it
upwards, then out.  You'll need to disconnect electrical cables
and unhook the door latch cable.

The tweeter is held in place by a wire clip; to remove the clip,
you have to first remove the trim piece that contains the
tweeter assembly and door latch handle.  Do this by removing
the screw in the back of the door panel between the tweeter and
the latch, then pressing the two locking tabs (located forward
of the tweeter) rearward, allowing the trim piece to be pushed
outward.  Now remove the wire clip from the tweeter by pulling
the forward end of the wire out of the mounting hole.

The midbass drivers are held in place by three screws in a
non-standard way.  If you want to replace these, you'll need to
build your own bracket.  If you're gonna do this, email me
if you want more details on what's there and I'll try to
help.  The stock speakers are very deep for 4-inchers, enough
that a normal set of 5.25" drivers might fit in the same depth;
BUT, the grill cut-out is 4" in diameter, mounting would be
more difficult, and it's actually doubtful that you'll be able to
fit them not because of depth, but because of room around the
door frame.

I replaced the stock speakers with a Polk MM-3045 4" driver/ 1"
tweeter component system, if anyone's interested.

Dan Masi
'96 A4Q