Oskar
A2OC Donor
This should have been a simple job, but turned into a much more expensive and delayed one, as noted below in the Head-unit summary.
It is now complete, and working as expected and I am very happy with it.
Not many photos sorry, as I did most of the work before I started to post the project, however there are photos of the specific bits that matter.
In three posts so I can include all relevant photos
The expectation was to add rear speakers, change the head-unit, install a big amplifier under the RHS drivers footwell, and wire it all up (and likely add a subwoofer later).
I wanted some quality sound, so only wanted the head-unit to be a pre-amp and source manager, and for the main amplifier to do all the work. BOSE was not a desire.
Head-unit
My 2001 A2 was the basic audio version, with a Chorus 1 and only front speakers.
The Chorus is not on the cambus (which I am ok about) but it cannot take a Connects2 bluetooth adapter, as the Chorus 1 does not have external CD control capability.
Also, as seems to be the case with my folly, I discovered the pixels on the Chorus are variable to poor, and some days completely unclear. On a cold morning, I can see enough to load the code and it all works, but the LCD has the usual issues in day to day running (although it works fine, and has impressive sound quality).
As I wished to keep it all basic and as original as possible, the easy solution (yeah, right) was to just replace the Chorus 1 with a Concert 1 head-unit, and carry on with the rest of the project.
A quick visit to eBay and I sourced a good unit for £30. These rarely come with codes, so having to source one was expected.
All connected up, and code obtained off the internet, but the unit would not accept the code. It stayed on SAFE (no flashing SAFE), and just would not go further. Obviously went through the ‘double try and leave for an hour to try again’ process, and everything else I could think of, and also applied for a code from another source (same code was provided, as you would expect).
Some research indicated there are rare occasions when this happens, so I must have one of those.
Perhaps the circuit board has been swapped (not easy) so I looked at the VCDS but I only have Lite, so the Advanced ID is greyed out, and I could not find anything under 081 in ‘Measuring blocks’ or ‘Basic Settings’, so no other means available to check the serial number. Time to move on.
Another eBay special, a slightly less tidy unit, with a bent ‘ear’ where it has been forced out of the car. £37, and spares or repair, as it had a stated pixel problem (I was just going to swap the faceplates from the previous dodgy unit).
A bit of fixing up, and installation into the car, code loaded (Success!) however this one had the EEPROM volume control issue, where it goes to Max volume and you cannot adjust it. What a nightmare!
2 useless head-units, although the second one did not have a pixel issue even though it claimed to, so now I have 2 good faceplates!
Further research indicates the earlier Blaupunkt units have these issues, and perhaps others, and really were not up to scratch design-wise. The later Matsus**ta units (which are exactly the same from the front) seem to be a much better option. These can be identified by ‘Made in Japan’ and a quite different rear appearance (see photo 1 & 2).
A careful eBay search, and a unit for £50 was obtained, code applied, complete success!
So, in summary, only buy a Matsus**ta version of the Concert 1 headunit.
Coding
I have coded in VCDS-Lite to 00205, which I believe is no BOSE and 2 passive front speakers and 2 active rear speakers (I can’t find an option for 2 passive rears). I don’t know what the 5 is, as the options appear to only go to 3, but I read somewhere that 00205 is good. One of my useless units was 00207, whatever that is.
Speakers
As I only had the fronts (tweeters and mids), I had to source some rears. Initially I just want to try it all using the factory items, to see if I really need to upgrade any speakers, rather than going for new kit straight away.
The rears are the same as the fronts, so this was not difficult, however the speaker connectors are not standard, and the tweeters ‘satellite’ off the mids, so I wanted to keep that simple also.
The usual eBay provided some tweeters and mids all with pigtails, which allows me to do all the cabling, but keep the connectors all standard. £56.79 all up, including cable, so a reasonable cost even if I end up swapping for better kit later. Photo 3 & 4
Strangely, when I took off the rear door cards, one had a tweeter already installed, and it looked like the door cards were untouched, so perhaps they are short one at the factory!
Speakers all installed easily, as I already had the screws to fit. This was the easiest part! (if you don’t include the taking off of the inner door skin, which is not difficult once you have done a few – have a look at all the posts about servicing door locks to see plenty of info on that).
Cabling - Speakers
The rear speaker cable feed was an interesting task. It appeared simple, but there is always the odd annoyance. I was hoping the wiring was in the existing loom, but alas that was not the case, and as I wanted this to be all neat and tidy, I needed to add the new speaker cable into the same conduits the existing loom took.
The trickiest part is where it travels through the flexible element joining the door to the pillar. This pops off on the exterior of the pillar, and you can disconnect the connector on the pillar end, although it took me a long time to work out how to do this (on one side, the clip you push to release the connector was missing, so I could not work out how to do this, until I started on the other side! Another wasted hour……) Photo 5
Once you disconnect from the pillar, and release all elements of the loom from the inner door skin (just break the glue holding the rubber loom retainer into the door panel) you can manipulate the loom and flexible rubber conduit between the door and pillar. You need to do this so you can make a small incision in the rubber weather seal at each end of the flexible conduit so you can feed the speaker cable into the door end and out of the pillar end, of the flexible conduit. Tape it all back up to seal it as much as you can. Obviously you need to feed the correct length of cable through, from whichever end you start with.
For the door end, I just terminated with the pigtails I received with the speakers, and completed the loop up to the tweeters (the mid speaker connector has 4 wires, 2 thick for incoming, and 2 thinner to go up to the tweeters). All colours match the wiring diagram (photo 6).
The pillar end, was easy once I took off the interior cover behind the seatbelt. This allowed me to feed the speaker cable to where I wanted it, which was into the area below the footwells on both passenger and driver’s sides. The Left hand side (LHS) has all the ECU’s etc, and the RHS is currently empty. I wanted both cables to terminate in the RHS footwell, where I am going to put the amplifier, however I could not find any way to get the cable through via any space below the carpet, including the main structural beam that runs across the car, underneath the seats. There may be a way through, but I could not find it from either side (nor was there any other cabling indicating a route).
Therefore, I had to feed the LHS speaker cable carefully past all the ECUs etc (to avoid electrical interference), and then up into the console, under the gearchange cabling, and down into the RHS footwell area. Not difficult, and all covered, but it would have been better to have a route straight under.
The RHS was easier, as you can just feed from the pillar into the under-footwell empty cavity. Remember to label your cables!
For the front speakers, as these were terminated at the rear of the head-unit using ISO connectors, I purchased a corresponding Male version, and connected up a length of speaker cable with the other end laid down the back of the centre console, and into the RHS footwell cavity. The wiring colour was the same as at the speaker end, so left/right and +ve -ve were easy to determine.
The male connector was a tandem version, so I just taped up and left the unused element. Refer photo 7&8.
It is now complete, and working as expected and I am very happy with it.
Not many photos sorry, as I did most of the work before I started to post the project, however there are photos of the specific bits that matter.
In three posts so I can include all relevant photos
The expectation was to add rear speakers, change the head-unit, install a big amplifier under the RHS drivers footwell, and wire it all up (and likely add a subwoofer later).
I wanted some quality sound, so only wanted the head-unit to be a pre-amp and source manager, and for the main amplifier to do all the work. BOSE was not a desire.
Head-unit
My 2001 A2 was the basic audio version, with a Chorus 1 and only front speakers.
The Chorus is not on the cambus (which I am ok about) but it cannot take a Connects2 bluetooth adapter, as the Chorus 1 does not have external CD control capability.
Also, as seems to be the case with my folly, I discovered the pixels on the Chorus are variable to poor, and some days completely unclear. On a cold morning, I can see enough to load the code and it all works, but the LCD has the usual issues in day to day running (although it works fine, and has impressive sound quality).
As I wished to keep it all basic and as original as possible, the easy solution (yeah, right) was to just replace the Chorus 1 with a Concert 1 head-unit, and carry on with the rest of the project.
A quick visit to eBay and I sourced a good unit for £30. These rarely come with codes, so having to source one was expected.
All connected up, and code obtained off the internet, but the unit would not accept the code. It stayed on SAFE (no flashing SAFE), and just would not go further. Obviously went through the ‘double try and leave for an hour to try again’ process, and everything else I could think of, and also applied for a code from another source (same code was provided, as you would expect).
Some research indicated there are rare occasions when this happens, so I must have one of those.
Perhaps the circuit board has been swapped (not easy) so I looked at the VCDS but I only have Lite, so the Advanced ID is greyed out, and I could not find anything under 081 in ‘Measuring blocks’ or ‘Basic Settings’, so no other means available to check the serial number. Time to move on.
Another eBay special, a slightly less tidy unit, with a bent ‘ear’ where it has been forced out of the car. £37, and spares or repair, as it had a stated pixel problem (I was just going to swap the faceplates from the previous dodgy unit).
A bit of fixing up, and installation into the car, code loaded (Success!) however this one had the EEPROM volume control issue, where it goes to Max volume and you cannot adjust it. What a nightmare!
2 useless head-units, although the second one did not have a pixel issue even though it claimed to, so now I have 2 good faceplates!
Further research indicates the earlier Blaupunkt units have these issues, and perhaps others, and really were not up to scratch design-wise. The later Matsus**ta units (which are exactly the same from the front) seem to be a much better option. These can be identified by ‘Made in Japan’ and a quite different rear appearance (see photo 1 & 2).
A careful eBay search, and a unit for £50 was obtained, code applied, complete success!
So, in summary, only buy a Matsus**ta version of the Concert 1 headunit.
Coding
I have coded in VCDS-Lite to 00205, which I believe is no BOSE and 2 passive front speakers and 2 active rear speakers (I can’t find an option for 2 passive rears). I don’t know what the 5 is, as the options appear to only go to 3, but I read somewhere that 00205 is good. One of my useless units was 00207, whatever that is.
Speakers
As I only had the fronts (tweeters and mids), I had to source some rears. Initially I just want to try it all using the factory items, to see if I really need to upgrade any speakers, rather than going for new kit straight away.
The rears are the same as the fronts, so this was not difficult, however the speaker connectors are not standard, and the tweeters ‘satellite’ off the mids, so I wanted to keep that simple also.
The usual eBay provided some tweeters and mids all with pigtails, which allows me to do all the cabling, but keep the connectors all standard. £56.79 all up, including cable, so a reasonable cost even if I end up swapping for better kit later. Photo 3 & 4
Strangely, when I took off the rear door cards, one had a tweeter already installed, and it looked like the door cards were untouched, so perhaps they are short one at the factory!
Speakers all installed easily, as I already had the screws to fit. This was the easiest part! (if you don’t include the taking off of the inner door skin, which is not difficult once you have done a few – have a look at all the posts about servicing door locks to see plenty of info on that).
Cabling - Speakers
The rear speaker cable feed was an interesting task. It appeared simple, but there is always the odd annoyance. I was hoping the wiring was in the existing loom, but alas that was not the case, and as I wanted this to be all neat and tidy, I needed to add the new speaker cable into the same conduits the existing loom took.
The trickiest part is where it travels through the flexible element joining the door to the pillar. This pops off on the exterior of the pillar, and you can disconnect the connector on the pillar end, although it took me a long time to work out how to do this (on one side, the clip you push to release the connector was missing, so I could not work out how to do this, until I started on the other side! Another wasted hour……) Photo 5
Once you disconnect from the pillar, and release all elements of the loom from the inner door skin (just break the glue holding the rubber loom retainer into the door panel) you can manipulate the loom and flexible rubber conduit between the door and pillar. You need to do this so you can make a small incision in the rubber weather seal at each end of the flexible conduit so you can feed the speaker cable into the door end and out of the pillar end, of the flexible conduit. Tape it all back up to seal it as much as you can. Obviously you need to feed the correct length of cable through, from whichever end you start with.
For the door end, I just terminated with the pigtails I received with the speakers, and completed the loop up to the tweeters (the mid speaker connector has 4 wires, 2 thick for incoming, and 2 thinner to go up to the tweeters). All colours match the wiring diagram (photo 6).
The pillar end, was easy once I took off the interior cover behind the seatbelt. This allowed me to feed the speaker cable to where I wanted it, which was into the area below the footwells on both passenger and driver’s sides. The Left hand side (LHS) has all the ECU’s etc, and the RHS is currently empty. I wanted both cables to terminate in the RHS footwell, where I am going to put the amplifier, however I could not find any way to get the cable through via any space below the carpet, including the main structural beam that runs across the car, underneath the seats. There may be a way through, but I could not find it from either side (nor was there any other cabling indicating a route).
Therefore, I had to feed the LHS speaker cable carefully past all the ECUs etc (to avoid electrical interference), and then up into the console, under the gearchange cabling, and down into the RHS footwell area. Not difficult, and all covered, but it would have been better to have a route straight under.
The RHS was easier, as you can just feed from the pillar into the under-footwell empty cavity. Remember to label your cables!
For the front speakers, as these were terminated at the rear of the head-unit using ISO connectors, I purchased a corresponding Male version, and connected up a length of speaker cable with the other end laid down the back of the centre console, and into the RHS footwell cavity. The wiring colour was the same as at the speaker end, so left/right and +ve -ve were easy to determine.
The male connector was a tandem version, so I just taped up and left the unused element. Refer photo 7&8.
