Car kits

[Phil]

Has anyone from the UK purchased a fitted mobile phone car kit for their A2 and if so where from, how much and was it worth it? Also has anyone used these plug in kits with their A2, do they work considering where the lighter socket is.

Thanks for your help

Phil

[runboy]

I have experience of those hands free cradles that plug into the 12v socket. They are suprisingly large and unwieldy-I tried one in my Leon but it covered have of the heating controls-but then the 12v socket is in the dashboard and not down by the handbrake where it is the in the A2. Another thing that put me off is the security issue-unless you unplug and put in your glovebox each time you leave the vehicle I suspect a p***ing pickle will take a fancy to it. Better to have some sort of hard wired kit if possible.

The new bluetooth car kits look good, but they are still pricey. If in car phoning is that important to you, it's probably easier and cheaper in the long run to get a proper kit fixed-these days there are alternatives to screws in the dashboard to secure the cradle.

I still find the old 'two Tesco value baked bean tins and a piece of very long string' works best.

Steve - 1.4SE petrol, 2002, Silver

[Stuart_D]

Hi,

I have fitted the full car kit in my A2 for the Nokia 8310.
I bought it from www.l8shop.com
It is very good and as you say given the placement of the lighter socket I didn't feel I had much choice. It is very easy to fit. You can seee some snaps of it on my website - UK owners gallery 1.

Stuart.

2001 TDI SE, Open Sky System, 16" six spoke alloys, Kenwood Mask CD.
A2 Owners Club: www.Audi-A2.co.uk

[royfox]

Phil.
I too had a full fixed hands free unit in my A2 for the Nokia 6310 phone.
You can buy the kits directly from the web. One good place I found for the kit and other gadgets is www.expansys.com
I've just had my phone kit taken out of the A2 and put into my golf and the cost for doing this was £95. The cost of the kit is around £90, so for approx £160 you should be able to get the whole job done.
I'd suggest a bracket for the phone holder. Most fitters can get these for you, save screw holes in the dash. There is one available for the A2, about £20 I believe.

Roy

[Stuart_D]

I forgot the all important plug of the website, which by the way in the 'discount marketplace' section has a discount for A2 owners from 'dashmount' - the official maker of the drill free phone kit holder. There is also a discount from www.l8shop.com for A2 owners.

2001 TDI SE, Open Sky System, 16" six spoke alloys, Kenwood Mask CD.
A2 Owners Club: www.Audi-A2.co.uk

[martinw]

I had the Nokia kit fitted. It's integrated with the radio. Best thing I ever did (for the phone anyway!).

Try carphone warehouse. The kit cost me £150 fitted, the harness to integrate with the radio was an extra £50. Ithink I saw that they are now doing the basic kit fitted for £125.



MartinW - Dolphin Grey 1.4SE

[runboy]

Bluetooth is the way to go!. Get a headset and look like someone from Star Trek-even worse when you get out of the car and forget your wearing it!.

Nearly 500 posts!!!!

Steve - 1.4SE petrol, 2002, Silver

[Phil]

Thanks for the help, I will look around for a kit. The bluetooth kits are around £400 which is too much but I think I will buy a 6310 as this is then a future option.

Does the carphone warehouse kit require drilling?

[royfox]

Phil.
I've got 5 x 6310's on my company and they seem to be great phones.
Steve. Bluetooth is great and I use it a lot (even wrote a little piece for it see http://www.foxpop.ndirect.co.uk/Palm/bluetooth_01.htm )
I think Expansys have Nokia Bluetooth kits for a lot less than £400, If I'm right in thinking they are around £200 ( http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=PAR_CK3000&asource=6310i )

Either way Phil happy SAFE motoring.

Martinw. When you say "integrated with the stereo do you mean the stereo mutes when the phone rings? or do you mean the speech actually comes out of the car speakers?

[Phil]

Next question as these kits seem very good value on l8shop, how easy are they to fit. Bearing in mind I am not in any way a mechanic

Thanks

Phil

[royfox]

Phil,
I judge myself as being fairly competent when it comes to this sort of thing but IMHO I'd leave it to an expert.
There are all sorts of scare stories about airbag electronics being affected by bad car phone kit installs etc.

For the cost of about £80 I'd get the professional in..

[runboy]

royfox-what is voice quality like on a bluetooth handsfree kit?.

Read your page-very good-love the concept of wireless surfing-I'm afraid wap on my T68 is as far as I have got!.

Steve - 1.4SE petrol, 2002, Silver

[royfox]

Steve,
I've not got the Blue tooth car kit (too expensive when I was looking) but one of the chaps that works here has. By all accounts it's pretty good, I can't see any difference between that and a normal hands free unit in terms of speech quality.
One downside. BT has the option to voice dial, i.e. leave your phone in your pocket and basically press a button on the cradle and tell the phone who to dial - pretty neat when it works, unfortunately he says it doesn't work to well when there is noise in the cabin i.e. motorway driving.

Re Surfing via BT. Yep, pretty cool I have to say. Although I've recently upgraded my handset to a Nokia 6310i tri band and there is no driver for this phone for the Palm just yet. DOH!!!!!

[runboy]

Royfox
Sounds good-my T68 has full auto voice dial with hands free-you program in a key word to open up the phone, then tell it what to do (dial) then the name of the person, then the phone number (office, mobile, home). Very smart, but very power consuming.

Steve - 1.4SE petrol, 2002, Silver

[martinw]

Phil,

The Carphone warehouse kit does not require drilling. _ it's actaully a Nokia kit.

There is an adapter kit which I forgot. I think it was £15. It is attached to the console to the left of the radio using double sided tape, then the phone holder screws to that. It comes off clean as I recently removed one from an S3.
All cables route with no drilling, and the main control box sits in the well under the passenger foot space. btw, if you haven't looked, lift all the carpets on the passenger side and remove the cover that is exposed. I think the ECU is in there; there's plenty of space for the phone control box.

The radio harness is a worthwhile addition, as then the speaker pod which comes with the Nokia kit is not required - all sounds come through the radio speakers.
It works really well. I tried headsets, but much prefer this option.



MartinW - Dolphin Grey 1.4SE

[4sst]

Runboy
The audio quality is better from HP baked beans cans

[martinw]

Is that TESCO baked bean cans..........:)

MartinW - Dolphin Grey 1.4SE

[runboy]

MartinW-That's what I already said in my earlier reply to the post!. Tesco's value!.

We're going to get a bad name for ourselves soon!.

Steve - 1.4SE petrol, 2002, Silver

[martinw]

Runboy - sorry, I didn't spot that until I read it just now. There was me thinking I had made a witty comment!

MartinW - Dolphin Grey 1.4SE

[runboy]

martinw-you have to get up early to catch us Tesconian's out!.

Steve - 1.4SE petrol, 2002, Silver

[martinw]

'We're going to get a bad name for ourselves soon!' ----- has it happened? Is Tesconian the bad name???

MartinW - Dolphin Grey 1.4SE

[Phil]

I have just ordered a Nokia 6310i and intend to get the nokia Bluetooth car kit. The chap at l8shop said it is as easy to fit as a car sterio, the only hard bit being to find a power supply to take it off. Bearing in mind this kit does not need a bracket for the phone is there a power supply under the passenger footwell and do you reckon I could fit it? + will i need to take the car apart?

Cheers

Phil

[deheld]

quote:Originally posted by Phil
[br]I have just ordered a Nokia 6310i and intend to get the nokia Bluetooth car kit. The chap at l8shop said it is as easy to fit as a car sterio, the only hard bit being to find a power supply to take it off. Bearing in mind this kit does not need a bracket for the phone is there a power supply under the passenger footwell and do you reckon I could fit it? + will i need to take the car apart?

Cheers

Phil


Try to fit it in the compartment under the radio. You can purchase a DIN sleeve for that (to fit an equalizer). Or just install it in the back of the compartment. My ParkPilot is installed in that compartment.
That way you can use the power from the radio, you have the constant and switched power there. But first call the dealer and ask if they recommend using the power from the radio for the carkit.
It is a known problem with VolksWagen that if you attach it like that the electrical switch in the ignition key can et damaged.
So call the dealer and if they say that it's okay I would install it under the radio.

Good luck !



Dennis de Held

Amulet Red 1.4 Tdi

[runboy]

Dennis-so have you had the radio and/or part of the dashboard out to fix extras in. If so, how easy would you think it is to take a cd changer cable from the rear of the radio into the glovebox. And has anyone had the glovebox out?.

Cheers.

Steve - 1.4SE petrol, 2002, Silver

[royfox]

Steve,
My glovebox was taken out when they installed the phone kit. It looked fairly straight forward.

I would image to conect a head unit and cd is very easy especially if you are locating it in the glove box.

[deheld]

quote:Originally posted by runboy
[br]Dennis-so have you had the radio and/or part of the dashboard out to fix extras in. If so, how easy would you think it is to take a cd changer cable from the rear of the radio into the glovebox. And has anyone had the glovebox out?.

Cheers.

Steve - 1.4SE petrol, 2002, Silver


Nope, the dealer did it for me :)
But I did install extra's on other cars, Alfa romeo's, Opel's, Volkswagens and Fords. It used to be a saturday job for me. Installing radio's and phones in cars.
Removing the radio won't be hard. With most cars the glovebox is inserted and screwed into the dashboard. I saw mine removed when they installed my satnav computer (the cd player is in the glovecompartment). I think it's easy to remove.
And, as an extra bonus, there should be a cable tunnel which leads to the passenger footwell. My TMC receiver is installed there. There's lots of room there and access to all the cables.

Maybe the carkit can be installed there, it's only separated by a very thin alu panel and two carpets from the interior.

Good luck !!



Dennis de Held

Amulet Red 1.4 Tdi