Thursday, March 13, 2008

Belated Installation of AMI on my Audi A6 Avant - Installation

I cracked open the instructions from Navplus (linked below) and had all the tools ready. My car was already at 3360 software from the dealer a few weeks before - if you do NOT have 3360 or later, STOP until you get the car updated.

I Turned on the MMI unit, ejected any discs from the CD Changer just in case...

As I was about to start looseing the Glovebox I first used the Changer/Radio pulling tools (they came with the AMI module) and got the changer out. Upon removing the changer I noticed the fiber/optical cable was identical to what goes in the AMI, however the power connector was different.

As an experiment I decided to disconnect the CD Changer and try the AMI on it's own with no changer. Plugged the CD changer fiber into the AMI then lugged the power wiring harness that comes in the retro kit to the existing CD Changer power cable. Followed by plugging in the he AMI labeled end of the retro power cable into the AMI unit (the CD Changer connector on the new cable was NOT connected). Connected the iPod cable to the AMI connector (snap open the lid on the front of the AMI) and connected my iPod. Started up the MMI again and noticed that my Nano showed an Audi logo! Hey AMI is connected! Then switched from XM to CD, noticed it said "The device is being initialized", checked the sources and it ONLY showed the "Audi Music Interface" Woohoo.... within a few seconds my first artist (AC/DC) was playing with perfect quality. All the browse controls worked.

My only limitation is that I have no CD Changer, but with an iPod I really wasn't planning to ever use the changer again.

I took the power cable and curled it around and put pull ties on it to make it fold back nicely, ensured the fiber cable was OK and pushed the AMI unit into the slot the CD changer was in. Clicked in to lock perfectly!

So with NO disassembly of the glovebox or having to resplice the fiber cable (didn't even use the retro kit fiber cable), I had my Audi Music Interface working perfectly with my A6 Avant. Install time, 15 minutes!

See the step by step with photos in the next entry.

1 comment:

airbil said...

Thx for this post.
I hv all these pieces for my c6 s6 and plan to the express cd changer delete install.
AMI unit with cables via ebay uk was about $500USD ... Without a doubt, less expensive ways to integrate can be found but would be time consuming and not work as well as this oem seemless solution... (ripoff that it is:(