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Old 4th February 2017, 08:53 AM
MikkiJayne MikkiJayne is offline
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Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 5,017
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I can understand that. When I bought mine pretty much the only criteria was that it had a black dash. Well, and it wasn't silver on the outside. Cream is nice in A4s & A6s because it isn't everywhere so contrasts nicely with black door trims and dash top, but the A8s are just too much for me in light colours. I've seen pics of prefacelift cars which have cream leather and door panel inserts but black dash & plastics and I really like those.

The biggest challenge with dash swaps is that in the factory they are fitted as a complete assembly with the heater and wiring harness already attached. In the B5 and C5 the harness is attached to the back of the rebar, but at least on those the plastic shell can be removed separately, albeit with dozens of tiny bolts which never go back quite the same as the factory did it. That leaves the rebar, heater and 99% of the wiring still in place. I don't know if the shell will come out separately on the D2 as its a long time since I took that one to bits. Maybe one of the A8parts team will know, since they will have done plenty of them.

The consequence of all this complication is the risk of rattles afterwards, and especially in the case of the D2, breaking something because of the crazy hand-tooled construction.

One gotcha to be aware of is the daylight sensor for the AC, which is right in the top vent of the dash, but has its wiring down the back of the heater box (in the other models anyway). Its impossible to get this wiring out intact when doing a B5, so it has to be cut to get the shell out, and then joined back together going back in. I'd bet the D2 is built just the same.

If you took your time (several days I would say), got plenty of photos of how things came apart, and labelled all the screws etc as they come out it would be do-able.
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