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Old 25th November 2014, 11:34 PM
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steamship steamship is offline
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Join Date: Jun 2013
Location: Londonderry, Northern Ireland
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Apologies beforehand on the quality and lack of the photos, as I was more intent on getting the job done (and didn't check them as I took them), having now had the parts for three months. I would also like to thank several forum members who helped with explaining wiring diagrams and cabling routes. Although I did this job by myself, two people would make it so much easier, due to the bulk of the items.

Part 2 - Electric Rear Blind

First up again are the parts required to complete the job. In addition to the rear shelf itself, the other parts needed are the blind switch, two plugs for the wiring, pins for one of the plugs, some 3-core wire, three M6 locknuts and three washers. The part numbers for the plugs are as follows (bought through local VW dealer):

6-pin brown connector - part no. 4B0-971-636A - £5.88
3-pin black connector - part no. 893-971-633 - £2.87

Crimp pins for 3-pin connector - part no. 000-979-021E
eBay number 121332363001 - cost £5.68 for 10



The wire I used for the job came from eBay. I had bought it for something else entirely, but found it ideal for this job. This is the cable in question (and I bought 5m of it):

eBay number 251125886268 - cost £6.49

The first step is to remove the rear speakers. To do this, first remove the black plastic covers in the boot, underneath the rear shelf (mine were already removed to squeeze in the LPG tank). Next, undo the two screws holding the speakers in place. The front one is easily visible, but you may need to get into the boot to see the back one (this was my biggest headache due to the LPG tank). With the screws removed, gently push the speakers up slightly. This is just so you can lift them from the parcel shelf, without having to prise them out. With my non Bose speakers, there are two sets of connections for each speaker, with clips at the side.

The next job is removing the seat bench. This is relatively easy, as it is only secured by two large screws. These are hidden behind the carpet cutouts at the back of the passenger footwells. Once the screws have been removed, you simply lift the bench seat from the front up about two inches. This ensures that the retaining brackets clear the carpet. The seat can then be pulled forward to clear the base of the back, and then removed from the car. NOTE: I didn't have any electrical connections to worry about on my seat bench, so care should be taken when removing the seat.

With the bench seat out, the next step is to remove the ISOFIX bars. These are held in place by two large bolts.



Once these are out, this will give you access to the two large screws securing the seat back in place.



Next on the list is to undo the base of the seatbelts, and these are really tight. With these undone, let them retract and place them on the rear shelf out of the way of the seat back.

The final two bolts to be removed are hidden behind the centre headrest. To access these, raise the centre headrest slightly, and then release the two snap fasteners holding the leather cover in place. The headrest can then be raised up, exposing the two bolts.



At this stage, the seat back is now only held in place on two brackets (marked in red below). These are located in line with the outer headrests quite near the top. Since these are very snug fitting, the best way I could get the seat back to move was to place my knee underneath the base of the seat back, in line with the headrest. Then, grabbing the base of the seat back and using my leg for leverage, moved the seat back upwards. It only has to move about an inch to free it. Since I was by myself, I then had to repeat the process on the other side.



With it now released from these brackets, the entire seat back has to be raised another few inches to clear the brackets. Again, caution is needed due to electrical connections in the seat back. In my case, I only had the airbag connections, and rather than mess around with these connections (they connect at the base of the seat back), I left them in place. This meant I couldn't remove the seat back from the car, but due to its bulk, that wasn't a bad idea. I got around this by resting the seat back on the floor, and moving the top of it towards the front of the car (semi folded rear seat). You can see the seat back in the above picture.

Now to the important part. The parcel shelf is held in place by two plastic studs at the front and three lugs at the back. The plastic stud at the front is a two-piece part. I used wire cutters to prise the centre part out about a quarter of an inch. After that, I could then grab it and wiggle the entire thing out. With these out, the shelf can be pulled forward. The three lugs at the back are primarily for support, but because they have a rubber coating and are a snug fit, you need to wiggle the shelf initially to free them, and you only want to pull it forward an inch or so initially.



The last remaining item to remove is the high level brake light cable. This will be on the left side looking backwards, and is a standard Audi two-pin connector.

With the shelf now free, the seatbelts have to be removed from the shelf. Pull the shelf forward about six inches. This should give you enough room to work, whilst the shelf is still resting securely. Underneath the shelf, each plastic seatbelt hanger has two small lugs towards the front. Press these in and then raise the seatbelt hanger upwards and out. I'm not sure of the 'correct' procedure for this, but I did it this way. I then angled the hanger sideways and pushed it back through the hole in the shelf, and fed the rest of the seatbelt through. Repeat this for all three seatbelts. The old shelf can now be removed from the car.

At this stage I then fitted the new cabling in position. Prior to starting the tear down, I made up the three-pin connector that would be used, with a short section of wire needed to feed back into the boot, and the main section feeding all the way to the dash. Rather than strip the cable to what was just necessary, I left it intact to give some protection (a single wire is all that's required at the front). The connector is numbered, but care should be taken when pushing the metal pins into place. I was checking to see which way they fitted before even doing any soldering, and it snapped into place, and they are a pain to remove.

Once I had all three pins wired in place, I wrapped it in cloth tape for added protection, and secured it next to the brake light cable. Thankfully, Audi provided a small hole into the boot, through which I was able to feed the shorter cable. It was then a process of feeding the wire to the dash, and ran the cable below the plastic door trims along the drivers side. The carpet is plush enough that the cable was relatively easy to conceal under the trim, without having to remove any of it. There was only one part near the drivers seat which was a bit tight for access.



Now for the refit. The first part of this involves getting the new parcel shelf into the car and partially in position. This is awkward in itself due to the increased weight, not made any easier from doing it myself. With the shelf sitting out about six inches as before, next up is refitting the seatbelts. Take each seatbelt and push it through from below. When you get to the plastic hanger, turn it sideways and force it back through. Before seating the hanger in place, make absolutely sure that there are no twists in the seatbelt under the parcel shelf. Once you're happy with that, push the back of the hanger into place, as it has a lip on it. The alignment has to be correct for it to sit properly, and the best way is to check the large cutout at the front of the shelf matches the large bulge in the hanger. Pushing down from the front should clip them into place. Double check by viewing underneath. As before, leave the ends of the seatbelts on the rear shelf out of the way, remembering to protect the new shelf from dirt or grime. With these in place, you now need to connect the brake light and the electric blind.

The shelf can now be pushed back into position. As with removing it, a bit of wiggling may be necessary to get it to seat the three lugs at the back, and if possible trying to keep it raised slightly whilst doing so, as there are three bolts which will protude into the boot.

With the shelf now in place, check the positioning of the cabling at the left side to ensure it isn't trapped and won't get pinched when the seat back goes back in. If everything is okay, then finish off by replacing the two plastic studs at either side. Push the outer part in all the way, and then push the centre part in to lock it.

The next step is fitting the seat back. If you've removed it completely, place it back into the car and reconnect all the electrics. Then, set it back against its original position. You now need to raise it several inches and push it back so that it reconnects with the two brackets below the head rests. Once in place, you have to ensure that the seat back is all the way down into the brackets. This is about the only time where you have to get rough with it. The only way I could get it to seat properly was to raise the headrests up, and then whilst pushing down on the seat back, I slapped the top of the seat back under the headrest. This took a few attempts, probably not helped by doing one side at a time, so the seat back was always slightly off level until finally seated.

With it finally seated, you should see that the two large retaining screws fit easily into their positions. The two small bolts behind the centre headrest can also be replaced, and the leather cover refastened. The base of the seatbelts can now be replaced, again ensuring there are no twists anywhere. With these done, the remaining items are the ISOFIX bars.

The only remaining item to replace is the bench seat. Place it in the car and whilst holding the front up, push the back under the seat back as much as possible, ensuring the seat buckles are still free. Then push the front of the bench seat down. If the securing brackets will not fit behind the carpet cutout, it may be necessary to slap the bench seat from the front, to move it back a bit more. Once back, the bracket should be placed behind the carpet cutout, and then secured in place with the large screws. Then just push the small carpet cutout back flush.

The last job is replacing the speakers and securing the shelf. The speakers just reconnect and sit in their positions. The two connectors are different sizes, so no confusion as to where they go. Then it's another trip to the boot. The speakers need both screws replaced to hold them in position. There should now also be three bolts showing in the underside of the rear shelf. I used M6 lock nuts, along with some larger washers to secure them.

With all the hard work done, it only remains to wire up the blind at the rear and the switch at the front. This was nerve racking for me, as having to use a soldering iron in the car, combined with my eyesight being a lot worse than it used to be. I ended up using a small eye piece to check my solder joints.

For the wiring at the rear, I wired in an inline fuse holder for the 12v feed and took it straight to the battery. For the ground connection, I used the heated windscreen controller bracket.



For the front, I removed the centre piece of trim first. To do this, first place the car in S mode, to get the gear stick out of the way. Then, place your hand under the centre console (and above the ashtary), and you will feel the edge of the trim. Gently pull forward on it until it releases. Pull it backwards about an inch and then upwards to release it at the top. Once it does, you will need to disconnect all the electrical switches (fog lights, hazards, PDC and ESP). I then pulled out the RNS-D just to have a bit more room, although I didn't disconnect it.

The cable I had fed from the back was then fed up behind the fuse box and above the lower dash trim. This was then cut down to size and soldered into the plug. This particular plug has six connections and require the soldering done first, and is then pushed into the other half of the plug. I then had to tap into wires to provide an earth, an ignition feed and switch illumination. I initially tapped into wires coming the PDC switch, but then realised I could only get the earth and switch illumination. I then tapped into the hazard switch to pick up the ignition feed. With all four wires soldered in place, and the two parts of the plug put together, I then taped up everything to secure it in place and then taped these to the existing loom.

The last thing to check before putting the dash back together was to check my handiwork, and see if it all worked. So, I connected the blind switch up, turned the ignition on and pressed the button. Nothing! A few colourful words filled the air, and I tried the switch again. This time I was a bit more forceful, and it worked. The blind went up. Another push and it went back down again. The final test was checking the switch illumination. I think because the switch was sitting free, there wasn't much resistance when I first pressed it, so although I heard it click, it just wasn't enough.

With everything working, I removed the switch. I replaced the RNS-D unit, making sure that the cables weren't fouling the back of it. With it snugly in place, the next step was to reconnect all the switchgear to the cables. Since they are all colour coded, there isn't an issue here. Final step was to set the trim in place, pushing it in from the top, and then finally snapping it into place at the bottom.

Job done. Time taken for the job? About three hours to do the parcel shelf itself. This could probably be done in less than an hour if two people did it. My problem was that I was having to constantly switch from one side of the car to the other, and doing eveything piecemeal.

As for the wiring of the switch, I probably took about two hours to do that. That was partially due to making absolutely sure that I was tapping into the correct wires, that the soldering of those tapped in wires was good enough, and then also ensuring that I soldered the correct wire into the correct pin. The pins are only a few millimetres across and already in the plug, so wanted as little exposure to heat as possible. I then used an eye piece to double check the quality.

Result - Before and After photos




For anyone interested in doing this on their D2, I have spare plugs, if you want to buy them at cost plus postage. I decided to buy two of each, in case I screwed up somewhere.
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2001 A8 D2 FL 3.7 Q - LPG Conversion, Engine: AKC, Gearbox:FBB, Colour:LY5X Aqua Blue pearl effect, Interior:WJ light beige/dark beige valcona leather with burr walnut inserts

My DIY jobs - Replaced alarm horn, Replaced Coolant Temp sensor, Updated RNS-D firmware, Installed Reversing Camera and Digital TV, Dashcam Installation, Retrofitted Rear Blinds, Auto-Dimming Rear View Mirror, Chrome Boot Struts

Sold! 2008 S8 D3 5.2 V10 - Engine: BSM, Gearbox:KLW, Colour:LY7F Suzuka Grey Pearl Effect, Interior:Black/Black with Silver/Black valcona leather with carbon atlas inserts, Bang & Olufsen, Heated windscreen, Soft-close doors, TV, DAB, AMI, Quad Zone, Auto Boot, Auto dim Mirrors, Keyless entry, PDC with rearview camera, AFS II Headlights

My DIY jobs - Fan Jet Windscreen Washers, Retrofitted Electric Side Blinds

Last edited by steamship; 26th November 2014 at 04:06 PM.
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