How can I snake wire from boot to radio area?

[notorious]

After accomplishing RNS-D to RNS-E upgrade I'm upgrading TV tuner with digital one. This requires snaking new harness from boot to radio area.

I can cut TV tuner harness to ease the job so I can put the wire through tight places without bothering with bulky connector and then solder the connector when done.

I'm worried about D-pillar trim that can only be removed with parcel shelf out. I wonder if I can cut some corners here.

Alternatively, I can try to cut connectors from both ends of existing legacy RNS-D tv tuner harness and just solder new connectors from both ends. However, my 7th sense suggests there will be more wires in the new tv tuner harness...

Any tips about snaking the wire from boot to radio the easy way?

Thanks.

[PsYcHe]

Depends on how thick the harness is.. you could sneak it through behind the rear seat, though it is a little tight and you will get scratched to hell

[notorious]

Cheers PsYcHe, the harness is 4 or 5 mm diameter.

[IT]

There should be no need to remove the D pillar IIRC.

Remove the back seats, which is pretty easy, and that will give loads of access.

Also, remove the front passenger seat (4 torq + 1 x 17mm seatbelt) and you can get access under the carpet to run it all the proper route.

There are some foam bits over the rear wheel arch that you'll need to remove to get the cable through, but you'd have to do this either way, but I see no reason for remove the parcel shelf or D pillar for this job.....

Study my Rear seat retrofit thread for oodles of photos of where the looms should run, that should help

[Night Train]

\net curtain wire is pretty useful to poke through and then pull wiring through awkward places such as that, used this method to install my retrofit Bose setup....

[notorious]

Night Train and Ian, thanks for your replies.

Doing the research now for the easiest way.

[notorious]

I update this thread to confirm we don't need to snake new harness if we're upgrading 2002 model car with RNS-D and TV tuner Type B to RNS-E and TV tuner Type C (analog or digital). We can leave exisitng harness from TV tuner to head unit. TV Tuner side connection is exactly the same and RNS-D side of connection just need new 32-pin connector soldered instead of existing 11-pin connector. All required wires can be found in existing RNS-D 11-pin connector.

Below is mapping of pins from existing RNS-D side 11-pin connector to new 32-pin RNS-E connector:

PIN 1 - Audio earth - to PIN 28 of RNS-E
PIN 2 - Audio input (left-side) - to PIN 29 of RNS-E
PIN 3 - Audio input (right-side) - to PIN 13 of RNS-E
PIN 4 - Video input sync. - to PIN 15 of RNS-E
PIN 5 - Video earth - to PIN 30 of RNS-E
PIN 6 - PAL/NTSC (NOT USED, NO WIRE IN HARNESS)
PIN 7 - V-switch (NOT USED, NO WIRE IN HARNESS)
PIN 8 - Video input (blue) - to PIN 31 of RNS-E
PIN 9 - Video input (green) - to PIN 16 of RNS-E
PIN 10 - Video input (red) - to PIN 32 of RNS-E
PIN 11 - Screened earth - to PIN 14 of RNS-E

During this job you might want to add AUX input (Audio In input) to your new 32-pin RNS-E connector:

PIN 6 of RNS-E - Aux Audio Right
PIN 21 of RNS-E - Aux Audio Earth
PIN 22 of RNS-E - Aux Audio Left

You'll need the following parts:

3 x 000 979 009 E - OEM Repair Wires
1 x 8J0 035 475 - OEM Aux-In Socket
1 x 8K0 973 754 - OEM 4-pin Flat contact housing

Pinout for the Aux-In 4-pin connector:

PIN 1: Aux-In GND
PIN 2: Aux-In Right
PIN 3: Aux-In Left
PIN 4: Unused

P.S. This is short write-up how AUX input has been installed in my A8: http://forum.a8parts.co.uk/showthread.php?t=3148