door swap

hunter

Member
Hi All,
I have a 2001 tdi with Bose and electric windows on all four doors.
I have also just bought a 2002 tdi without Bose and with manual rear windows.
Can I swap all four doors complete with Bose and electric windows without too much bother.
Ian
 
This is going to involve swapping the entire door looms from the driver's and both the rear doors so that they stay with car, along with the rear window frames and inner metal doorcards. That's a lot of stripping down and rebuilding, but do-able without soldering, until you encounter any problems with the locks on the new doors not registering. If all your locks on your current doors work, the doors indicate in the dash when they are open (full or half-DIS) and the fuel flap opens on the button with the driver's door open, then you might want to transfer the locks as well. As @TYP 8Z says, this sounds like a @timmus job.

The good news is that the BOSE speaker in the front passenger door will swap straight over :D
 
Ok , so not just a plug and play then.
When I take the rear doors with electric windows with the loom left in the door is there wiring in place to plug
the new door into
 
That's the thing, the doors only contain the wiring for the features they have, not all the features they could have had. So you need to take the looms out of the old doors and insert them in the new ones, replacing the ones already there. The common things like the locks and the driver's front window will plug and play with the transferred looms (as far as I know).
 
I've swapped doors off a 2004 fsi onto a 2002 tdi and swapped door cards and speakers too as the 2002 has Bose. I did strip the loom out of the original 2002 doors, expecting to have to replace the loom in the 2004 door. What I discovered was the wires on my 2004 and 2002 doors were the same, colours and thickness, but in a different pin order. I just had to remove the pins and reinsert in the connectors in the correct order, this was a real pain until you get the hang of extracting the pins, then it's pretty quick. I expect that will be the case with the front doors, you can probably swap pins, but I'm no expert. This won't be the case with your rear doors if you want to keep the electric windows as there will be extra wiring. Also, I think timmus said the connectors are different style between 2001 and late 2002, so you'll need to check that too. I found it quite a fiddly process and would certainly involve timmus if you have the cash. It is quite involved fully stripping the doors down....good luck
 
Can I swap all four doors complete with Bose and electric windows without too much bother.
The wiring and electronics for rear electric windows and Bose extend well beyond the doors. Both of these optional extras are towards the more involved/complicated end of the retrofitting spectrum.

The Bose speakers also ought not be driven by the standard, non-Bose amplifiers, as this can stress the amps. As such, half-Bose systems featuring just the door speakers aren't recommended.

Cheers,

Tom
 
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Thanks to all who have contributed to this thread.
Looks like it may be an upgrade too far.
Or maybe not, can I swap the front doors with working windows and fit the back doors and leave the windows disconnected, change the
Bose amp and will the central locking still work ?
 
I've just realised you're not replacing the doors on the 2001 car with the ones from the 2002 car and keeping the BOSE and rear electric windows with the 2001 car, you're trying to transfer the features of the 2001 car onto the 2002 one, ?‍♂️ doh

The connections to the BOSE amp from the headunit are different because the standard amp is just for the rear speakers, whereas the BOSE amp is for the speakers in all four doors. Regarding the rear windows, Tom @timmus has told me several times that once you start an electric window upgrade you have to complete it before you can lock the car again. I understand the way the CCCU talks to the door locks is different in a car with electric rear windows, with (presumably) differences in the wiring looms in the doors to support that.

What you want to do can be done, but it's a longer and more involved process than you have time for at the moment, and will require specialist knowledge. You know who to call ?
 
can I swap the front doors with working windows and fit the back doors and leave the windows disconnected, change the
Bose amp and will the central locking still work ?
In the nicest possible sense, and without wishing to rain on your parade again, it's so much more complicated than this. If Bose and rear electric windows could be retrofitted by simply plugging in an amp and swapping the doors, everyone would have done it.

Here is a photo of an A2's interior during a combined Bose and rear electric windows retrofit...
index.php


You cannot simply swap to the Bose amp. The whole structure of the Bose audio system is wildly different to the standard setup. Connectors are different, wiring is different, gain structure is different, software coding is different, etc. The Bose setup also includes a subwoofer in the boot, for which there is no wiring in your A2. If I was to list all the large and little changes that need to be made in order to move from the standard stereo to the Bose system, I'd be typing for a week.

Regarding the rear windows, Tom @timmus has told me several times that once you start an electric window upgrade you have to complete it before you can lock the car again.
Proghound is absolutely correct. Once a rear electric window retrofit has been started, it must be completed before the car is able to be locked/unlocked again. The windows and the central locking are often thought of as two different systems, but they're not. Instead, they're two tightly integrated systems that rely upon the same digital data channels. If you swap the rear doors and connect them, you'll blow a load of fuses. If you swap the rear doors and leave them disconnected, neither the windows nor the central locking will work. The process of getting the A2's main brains to know that its digital data system is now in control of 4 electric windows rather than just two, and to install/remove wiring looms as appropriate, is not for the faint-hearted.

Kind regards,

Tom
 
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OK Guys, I give in.
Seemed like a good idea at the time, but clearly its a huge task.
Thanks again for all your input to this thread and for stoping me before I started down a very tricky road.
Ian
 
If you are like me;

1) electric windows just break eventually; and why the need to have them rear doors as well? The A2 is so small that you reach both handles from front driving seat anyway

2) install a small powered subwoofer. Together with the standard door speakers you can come a looong way; they are quite good! In particular if you also install a new headunit with configurable crossovers
 
Thanks again for all your input to this thread and for stoping me before I started down a very tricky road.
Unless you've got great familiarity with the A2's electrics, you'd be entering a world of pain.
Seemed like a good idea at the time, but clearly its a huge task.
Of course, I'm happy to do the transfer of the optional extras if that's what you'd like.

Cheers,

Tom
 
If you are like me;

1) electric windows just break eventually; and why the need to have them rear doors as well? The A2 is so small that you reach both handles from front driving seat anyway

2) install a small powered subwoofer. Together with the standard door speakers you can come a looong way; they are quite good! In particular if you also install a new headunit with configurable crossovers


A bit late to the party but this is what I did, I have a Kenwood underseat subwoofer under the drivers seat.
All the wiring is just in front (the rear speaker amp is located under the hatch in front of the drivers seat) so you can pick up the power and speaker feeds from there. I've had no issues at all with taking the supply from the amp and has been working for probably 200 hours since fitting. I had it with the original chorus 2 initially and the sound was really good. I did replace the head unit with a bluetooth Sony that has sub out and to be fair the sound isnt that much different. Good thing with underseat subs are they can be removed for the next car easily and most like mine have phase and level adjustment for when youre listening to your favourite track and you want the mirrors to shake :) ....
 
A bit late to the party but this is what I did, I have a Kenwood underseat subwoofer under the drivers seat.
All the wiring is just in front (the rear speaker amp is located under the hatch in front of the drivers seat) so you can pick up the power and speaker feeds from there. I've had no issues at all with taking the supply from the amp and has been working for probably 200 hours since fitting. I had it with the original chorus 2 initially and the sound was really good. I did replace the head unit with a bluetooth Sony that has sub out and to be fair the sound isnt that much different. Good thing with underseat subs are they can be removed for the next car easily and most like mine have phase and level adjustment for when youre listening to your favourite track and you want the mirrors to shake :) ....

Yes exactly. I have a Pioneer headunit and use the line outputs. Another cool feature of the Pioneer is that has configurable crossovers, so I can remove all bass below 50-60hz from the door speakers. That allows me to play louder with less mid- and high distortion. Exactly the same principle the factory Bose option uses.
 
Hi All,
The reason for the door swap was to change the colour, the bose and electric windows would have been a bonus.
My old car is dark blue and my new one is electric blue. I swapped the bonnet and thought it looked pretty good, so thinking
it was a simple job to change the doors and boot lid to make the car look a bit different/modern AKA smart car.
But seems not to be possible without an enormous amount of effort.
I will stick a couple of pictures on here soon to give you an idea of what a mean.
 
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