thanks for the pics, i was searching to do something similar with my new A3. I believe mine is pre-wired for a cd changer in the glove box, so i shouldnt have to remove the head unit.

I see that your adapter disables the ipod. I was looking at an adapter by Dension (www.densionusa.com) that actually lets u control the ipod and adds its own little menus to the ipod as well.

Seeing the cables run out of the glove box isn't too pleasant. Have you thought of putting the ipod in that cubby behind the ashtray, under the climate controls? You can just lay it in there without a holder, I doubt it wil slide around since you have a rubber skin on the ipod.

Maybe there's some way to feed the cable from the glovebox to down there without being so visible. I'm gonna take a close look at my A3 tonite and see what I can do.

Thanks again for the pics!
mark

You are correct. The pics are now slightly outdated. I ran the cable out through where the ashtray and plastic piece meet:

even though I drilled an opening in the glove box (cd holder area) tray, I didn't like opening up the glove box everytime to put in and take out the ipod. There is a great place to put it that is even easier to route the cable. In front of the shifter and the ashtray, you will see the plastic piece that is used for nothing.
You can take the plastic piece off by lifting up the 2 tabs located 1/3 of the way in on both sides. Once it is popped-up, you can gently pull it toward you and it will come right off. Now you can see where there is a gap where the climate control and console come together. With the head unit pulled out and all the wires off to the side, you can run the dock connector cable from the head-unit area through this small gap. Replace the plastic piece you just took off and you're all set. The ipod fits perfectly in that area. Since you can't use the display anyways...

cool, thanks for the info. if you have a chance, can you post or email me a pic showing your current ipod placement and exactly where the cable is emerging from now ?
thx
m

Mark,

I've got my new A3 just a few days ago and I'd like to go with the Dension solution you talked about. Have you checked if the car is really pre-wired for the CD charger?

Guys, can you confirm that to remove the glove box liner you just need to firmly pull it out? Thank you.

I spoke to Dension today actually. My adapter is in the mail so i can provide you with more details within a week or so. Although my glove compartment has a cd-changer connector available, the people at Dension told me they recommended that I install their radio-end harness kit which connects directly to the back of the radio head unit (in other words, it won't connect to the cd-changer connector in the glove box). You will want to order the I20_Audi. I ordered the dock cable since I plan to put the ipod either in my glove box or in front of the ashtray (either way I dont need their holding cradles). I'll let you know how it goes once I install it. I ordered a couple of head-unit removal tools for $8 off of ebay.

Oh and yes, if you firmly pull out the upper left glove compartment pocket, you'll see the cd-changer connector is plugged into a sleeve on the back of the pocket. You can remove the connector from that sleeve, but as I said, Dension didn't recommend I use it. So I'll probably either drill a hole in the pocket to run the Dension cable through, or I'll run the Dension cable to the spot in front of the ashtray.

I installed the Dension ipod adapter yesterday. Took about 45 minutes, not very difficult at all (my first time installing anything in a car). I dropped the wire down to that spot in front of the ashtray, worked out very nicely. The sound quality is great. You have control of the first 5 playlsits from your head unit, you can turn Random on/off from the head unit, you can skip tracks from both the head unit and the steering wheel controls. If you want to do anything beyond that, then you have to use the ipod itself but I dont see doing that at all. Here's a link to a picture:

http://www.princeton.edu/~mpinsk/IMG_0157_3.jpg

Thanks for these instructions, they helped a lot!
mark

You should think about getting a mounting bracket

I don't need one since the PIE adapter disables the screen in "interface" mode.

yeah, thought about it....i'd rather keep the nice lines of my dash intact :)

i have no real desire to access the ipod screen anyway, the first 5 playlists suffice.

hey thanks again for your description here, it really helped. enjoy your A3 !

Thanks for the info, guys. My only problem is that my "glove compartment" is different than yours (I'm in Europe, maybe some details are different) and I've still to figure out how to unmount it...

Hi Mark,

I am thinking of installing the dension on my A3, however i had a few questions.
1) I couldnt find any information on the I20_Audi on densions website (www.densionusa.com ). Where in the US did you order it from ?
2) what additional cables / harness are required for the install (you mentioned the dock cable in an earlier article, could you give some info on the specs and where you ordered it from ?)
3) What kind of tools are needed ( i am assuming you just need the tool to remove the head unit)
4) Your picture above doesnt show the audio out into the head unit are there two cables from the dension into the iPod or just one ?

Really appreciate your answers,

Thanks,

A

What about the A3 with navigation system?
I can't understand if this will work or not
Diego

1. I ordered directly from Densionusa.com. Go to the Dealer Locater tab, then click on Shop Online Here, then click on Icelink for iPod, then click on Audi in the list of cars on the left, and it will bring up I20_Audi for you to Add to Basket. Select you ipod from the pull-down menu (i have a 4Gen 40GB), and you can choose either a cradle to hold the ipod or just the cable. I chose just the cable. Then it forces you to choose a model/year so I chose A4/2005, and then I chose the Radio-End harness (NOT the cd changer harness, they told me that would not work). In the space they provide for comments, I told them I had a 2006 A3, not the A4 selected in their pull-down menu. They later emailed me to confirm which car I had.

2. Sorry for the confusion, the dock cable I mentioned earlier is just the connector cable that you choose to come with the Dension adapter. Alternatively, you can choose a cradle instead, but then you have to find a place to mount the cradle of course.

3. Yeah I got head unit removal tools (1 pair) from ebay. They cost $10. You need the tool that removes head units that have the two slits in them, which covers most VW and Audis. The only other tools I used were two flat-head screw drivers to help pry out the head unit (one on each side) once the removal tools unlocked it. It was tricky, and it helped to have a partner pry the head unit out with the screw drivers as you hold the removal tools in place.

4. There is just a single cable going to the bottom of the ipod. That cable provides power and recieves sound. Its other end connects to the Dension interface (which is a 3" long circuit board wrapped in plastic), the opposite end of the interface connects to the harness they provide that plugs into the back of the head unit.

Good luck,
Mark

Sorry, I have no idea regarding the Nav system. You may be best to contact a supplier such as Dension directly, or wait for the Audi OEM adapter to see if its compatible.
mark

Hello

Firstly thank you for your information. It is helping me with the install of the Dension adapter in my UK 2004 A3.

Fritz mentioned that he was unsure how to unmount the glovebox because the liner cannot be pulled out. I am guessing that the liner cannot be pulled out because the car is not pre-wired for a changer.

I did remove the glovebox today. First gently prise the side panel between the glovebox and the door. That will expose the bolt connecting the side of the glovebox.

There are two bolts under the glovebox, three under top inside edge of the glovebox and one on the back of the glovebox.

Carefully lower the glovebox as the cables to the airbag switch are still connected.

At this stage I realised the time and put the whole lot back.

I am planning to drill a hole on the side nearest to the centre radio stack but making sure I stay clear of all cables.

I hope the rest of the install goes smoothly this Sunday.

One question: where does the loose black ground wire go?

Thanks

I assume that's the grounding wire? I screwed mine into the chassis of the radio itself. There was a nice phillips head screw that seemed to be tailor-made for just this purpose.

d33725 is right, my A3 is not prewired for the CD charger. In the list of optional equipment codes printed on my car documentation there is

7A0 without CD changer/CD player

I suppose that prewired cars have one of these:

7A1 CD changer preparation
7A4 CD changer preparation type 2

(I've found a description of codes here: http://volkswagen.msk.ru/index.php).

I just got the ice>Link: Plus for my A3 which is prewired with the CD changer. Has anyone had any problems attaching it to the CD Changer wires in the glovebox instead of the headunit directly? Also...this might be a stupid question but do you have to disconnect the car battery first?

Thanks!

I've just had the Dension Ice>Link Plus installed on my Audi Symphony radio in my A3 by the Belgian dealer I bought the car from.

I'm a little peeved that the garage told me that the Audi solution was available, which is what I thought I had ordered. I think the Denmsion's inferior because it apparently doesn't allow scrolling thorugh the whole iPod from the dashboard, just through the playlists. And it was delivered to me with no instructions. Anyway, I'll leave Belgian customer service to one side.

I have hooked up my iPod via the dock connector and cable. Absolutely no reaction from iPod or head unit. What do I need to do? Insert a CD to enable the head unit to switch to CD mode (to pick up iPod signal)? Try to extract head unit to fiddle with wiring behind? Bang head on steering wheel and weep?

Thanks for any advice you can give . . . .

Martyn

The Dension IceLink works a little differently than the model I ended up using. In fact, many people would argue that the Dension is their preferred model because the iPod screen is not blanked out like it is when I plug in the dock connector cable. However, I have heard stories from installers that they get complaints about the Dension units being a little troublesome.

Normally, once the iPod cable is attached, you hit the CD button on the radio and the iPod should start playing. With the Dension, you may need to proactively use the iPod interface to start the flow of sound from the iPod to your tuner. Try that first. Then I would hit the dension site and try downloading a manual.

iceLink Manual
Scroll to the Troubleshooting section.

Hope this gets you started.

Thanks for the link to the manual.

Unsurprisingly, I tried the iPod interface, but no go. I also tried hitting the CD button on the Symphony head unit, but all I got was NO CD on the display.

Will have a go with the manual, but it looks like a trip back to the garage for me: another source suggests that a spare lead in the back of the unit hasn't been properly grounded.

Martyn

That's a good idea about the grounding wire. It definitely won't work if the grounding cable is not attached. You can sort of see the black wire in the fifth picture down.

http://www.zaftig.net/images/articles/a3/ipod-install-6.jpg

I just wanted to thank you for detailing your installation procedure. It was very easy to follow, and let me hook the iPod to my A3 in under an hour; not too shabby for my very first car mod. The unit sounds great and operates smoothly, though, unfortunately, the song titles don't come up on my dash (I have a Concert head unit).

$145 for the DICE I-Audi-R + $6 for the head unit removal tools, all from Enfig Car Stereo, which got it all to me in a week and was great with confirmation emails.

All the best,
Mike

Great job on the installation and thank you for your detailed posting.

I installed my Audi-OEM Ipod kit last night. Works great, but the Satellite radio is not working now (known issue). I can see that it is receiving data, but I'm not getting any audio output from Sirius. Everything I've read says that this is normal, but I've also heard rumblings of a workaround.

Any thoughts on how to possibly resolve this without removing the Ipod kit? I'm hoping it's as simple as splicing some wires together on the top harness, but that might be kind of pollyannaish of me...

Thanks!

Sorry,

I hardly use the car/ipod as it is as I have taken up more and more time w/ bike commuting.

It seems strange that the Audi-supplied unit would cause the satellite radio to not work. Let me know what you find out.

I assume you disconnected the battery before performing the install. Typically most new head units make you re-enter some sort of security code after re-engaging the power (since it thinks you may have 'stolen' the unit). Does the satellite radio have a similar security option?

Check your manual.

Hi,

I am interested in getting the Audi OEM Ipod Kit as well. I am wondering if you need to remove the head unit to install it or just connect it to the back of the glovebox compartment where the CD changer pre-wired is located.

Thanks
Jon

Mark,
I am sure you are enjoying your A3. Were you successful installing the ipod interface without ge me removing the head unit? I have the same Audi and I would like to install the interface. The Dealer will charge me $545.
Can you help?
Thanks

Cool idea :) and useful guide, thanks!

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insurance quote

I bought the Connect2 CTVADX001 box and it just plugged straight in to my 2003 Audia A3 with Concert and worked a treat!

With regard the cable, I routed it down and out of the little storage compartment that sits below the climate control (the soft lined one with the flappy cover). The hardest bit of this was removing the compartment to drill a hole. Turns out there are 2 little cutouts on the top front edge of the compartment, that if you jab a small flat head screwdriver into it releases the catches on the top of the compartment that hold it in (I couldn't find these instructions ANYWHERE on the Tinterweb, thus my posting!). Once removed it was easy to drill a couple of holes in the top corner and route the cable through.

Just out of interest, on the Concert if you press CD once it plays the CD in the slot and press it again it plays the aux input (I was worried it would disable the CD). Fab.

Thanks to all the other posts here that made it a simple job.