www.a2oc.net
Working on a hybrid rear spoiler for Smurf. Its an FSI so needs a custom unit. Now at the primered stage so ready to glue n screw over the standard rear wing. I seem to have been cutting, sanding, filling n sanding for months!
Hi Edd,The Definitive Alloy Wheel Picture thread (Alloys)
Having recently posted a lot of pictures recently of A2s with different wheel combinations I thought I would start a thread where we can put individual wheels, and what they look like on A2s of different colours etc. If we have one post for each wheel, together with a name and possibly sizes...
Hello Bob,
No problem Tom glad its serving well. its a great cruising box .Hello all,
I though it right to add a few words together regards the recent EQW Gearbox removal. Firstly I must add that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the standard 'box being removed and this venture was purely out of an economical solution for the planned annual mileage I commute. This topic was discussed earlier on within this thread where to me, it was clear I had 4 options available for me to consider:
Back in February the search commenced and not long afterwards a suitable low mileage candidate that was available on eBay for £150 (delivered) was located. A cheeky offer of £100 (delivered) was subsequently accepted, 3 days later it arrived on a pallet ready to be placed in the boot and taken to a local member for the preparation works to begin. During the preparation stage a new seal along with fresh fluid was added:
- Swap to a 6-speed 'box. Should I choose a 6-speed 'box then it would have been the MYP variant due to being totally happy with the performance of the same 'box fitting to Project OEM. Unfortunately this option was rejected due to the costs involved to adapt the EQW and MYP 'boxes to suit this Mk20 ABS Module A2. The figured quoted to mate the EQW and MPY parts was around £1250 plus the initial outlay of a MYP 'box.
- The second option was to investigate adding the euro-conversion which adds the 6th gear to the standard EQW 'box. This was also rejected due to this modification being about the economical gains and this was more expensive the option 1 above.
- The option of fitting a MZN 'box did appeal to me as there is some great information available on here regards the use of this gearbox and of course it can be found for little money compared to a 6-speed 'box. After having used the MYP 'box for so long in Project OEM I really have got on with the ratio offered in 6th and knew the ratio in 5th in the MZN isn't quite as economical. Remembering this modification is all about MPG/economy this option was also rejected but it received a strong silver medal.
- The most obvious option to me was to further investigate the JDD gearbox, mainly due to the ratio it offers in 5th being so close to 6th in the MYP 'box; remembering this venture is all centred around the best possible MPG I could gain during the planned annual mileage. Having already digested the JDD comments and content on the clubs pages relating to the JDD 'box, I was aware of the potential gaps between some of the gears that can be assisted by a remap I started searching for a suitable low mileage JDD gearbox to be installed in this lovely A2.
View attachment 112884
The amazing guide on the JDD installation provided by Kraig @kraig22 was utilised:
Jdd conversion walk through. Part 1
Good day all I wanted to help out the forum , so I've done a write up for the Jdd conversion on the 1.4 tdi Let's begin the mods to the Jdd box First you will need to remove two clunks of material one on the side gear mount The next chunk is the lower dog bone mount . Next you will need two...
I knew the guide was followed to the letter as the actual member who produced the above guide was the very same person conducting the preparations along with installation for me. Thank you so much Kraig. Your time, knowledge and friendship is of course always appreciated. You'll not be surprised to read that the gearbox has been performing perfectly the last month or so. You Sir are an absolute legend.
The preparatory works were completed by Kraig in a very quick time and all that was required was a date to be set for the actual installation to commence. Due to commitments and availability the installation was some months later but of course worth the wait...
This brings us to early August where I dropped EUD off at @kraig22 Towers. the following evening the phone rang to let me know the car sporting the economical JDD gearbox conversion was ready for collection. Super chuffed with the service provided, again many thanks Kraig.
Some of you who have read up the benefits of the JDD gearbox will know that it is of course quite economical, I have personally been experiencing some 50-70 miles further on a 34L tanks which is just awesome. There are a couple of noticeable gaps between the gears but nothing you wouldn't be accustomed to in a matters days driving around, to me totally useable along my commute and local errands .
As stated earlier, I really like the MYP 'box in Project OEM and thought I preferred the shorter shift pattern but after jumping in that A2 last week I can confirm that I truly prefer the feel of the standard EQW/JDD shift pattern in comparison. That said I'd not discard the idea of a switch to a MYP 'box in this A2 in a few years if a bargain MYP presented itself along with a more economical conversion was available; probably not going to happen though. For now I'm absolutely chuffed with how the JDD feels, responds and of course how much more I get from a tank whilst driving exactly the same throughout my commute.
So what financial benefits can I expect? These are my rough calculations (and will be rough as I try not to do math in public) that have been put together and will of course be specific to my driving style (frugal) and financial outlay. Anyone reading this who decides upon this conversion with probably have varying figures:
£100 JDD gearbox
£20 2x 1L gearbox oil
£10 New genuine seal (might have been £20 but cannot find the invoice)
£50 preparations and installation fees
£180 all in to purchase and a friend to conduct the install for me.
So far I have seen a 50-70 mile increase over a full tank and should this continue to be the case then based on this mileage increase, after some 9 tanks I should have a clocked up enough miles to consider I've benefitted from a free full tank. I generally fill up 3 times over 2 weeks therefore in 6 weeks, by the mileage achieved I gain this free tank of fuel compared to running an EQW 'box. By the time I've used up my third free full tank (some 18 weeks) then the gearbox has more than paid for itself and thereafter I'll be reaping the financial benefits of the conversion, remember that these figures are rough and can easily go up or down due to many contributing factors, either way though, for me this has got to be a positive financial outcome.
I truly cannot thank Kraig enough for the time spent on his back in the rain underneath this A2 when he could have been relaxing with his lovely family. Thanks mate.
Kind regards,
Tom
Hello Kraig,
Thats an excellent write up on a Bose installation Tom and can be followed easily by a club member for a self-install.Hello all,
Here to quickly put a few words together regards the recent evening works to this glorious A2. I must say coming from a generation 1 Chorus with only front speakers to now boasting a full suite of Audi A3 infotainment items along, aided with by the A5 FBMFSW with a complete Bose install is night and day from the first drive back in January. How it's coming along is just incredible whilst learning new skills to do all of my own work to keep the costs down. Another reason for the documenting of the following works is due to the amount of PMs I've received requesting assistance with replicating what's been completed so far. I thought it right to share my my own findings in public instead of behind separate PMs so the wider community can benefit from what I've been up to.
This post will be Bose focussed as it's fresh in my head and quite pertinent to the information request PMs recently received. This isn't a how-to; it loosely explains the way I conducted this particular retrofit to this specific vehicle. As a reminder, this A2 left the factory without rear speakers so the door side speaker looms had to also be added. Below is a picture of ear speaker looms along with the required (for this A2) earlier male/female speaker connectors:
View attachment 113489
I found it easier to remove the door loom from the door so I could straighten the long rubber grommet to then push the speaker loom through. Quite a quick and easy task to remove the loom if you're familiar with removing the door cards and the aluminium cover, which has far too many T30 bolts in my opinion. This is the actual kit (which is now no longer in a box which was set aside for a certain Dolphin Grey A2 but never quite made it into the vehicle) that is safely housed within the cabin, disregard the cut connectors as these were replaced for the full loom mentioned further down:
View attachment 113479
First up for the Bose retrofit I highly recommend that you search for a full Bose kit where someone has removed the loom from the amplifier to up into the dashboard area, mainly not cutting the thick black sheathed cable containing the wires that go to the black 20 pin connector at the rear of the head unit, preferably ensure that the black 20 pin connector is still attached. If you're able to get your supplier to do this then you'll have pretty much all you need to conduct this retrofit yourself if you're of course confident at removing certain interior panels and seats, just as important is that you need to be well rehearsed at creating good solder joins for the minimal joins required should you get a full loom. Below shows a full (as full as required anyway) loom removed from the vehicle:
Full loom
View attachment 113485
Loom at cut point high up in the dashboard where my hands could reach near the head unit aperture, only used the thick red wire (terminal 30) and 1x brown (terminal 31)(the second brown is the earthing for the shielded sheath which can be joined to the main earth out of the 2) and not forgetting the 4x speakers looms
View attachment 113487
20 pin connector which provides amplifier on and the speaker signals from the head unit to the amplifier
View attachment 113486
Here's the link that I used to build my knowledge a while ago ahead of taking this retrofit on:
Google Chrome should auto translate this link for you, you're mainly looking at the pinout explanation in the very first post
Boseverstärker nachgerüstet
Hallo Ihr Lieben, Mütze hat mal wieder gebastelt: Ich habe einfach einen Boseverstärker an den vorhandenen originalen Lautsprechern angeschlossen. Dazu den vorhanden Kabelbaum vom Verstärker der hinteren Lautsprecher erweitert. Die Vorverstärkerleitung der vorderen Lautsprecher sowie Lautsprecher...a2-freun.de
View attachment 113484
In consultation with the above pinout information and being armed with an almost full loom that I removed myself (which only took some 40 minutes from a breaker that had the seats removed and dashboard still in place) I quickly realised that the only joins to be made was the following:
Already in place for me
Pins 6,7,8,9,10 & 25 - are within the black sheathed cable so no requirement to join
Pins 14&15 were part of the full loom I removed
Required joins
Pin 11 - Terminal 31 Ground (I used the earthing point at the base of the A pillar)
Pin 13 - Terminal 30 Pre-ignition live (various places to take this feed from but best practice to take it to the fuse box as per factory and protect it with the specific rated fuse, do your research and refer to the electrical wiring diagrams)
Pins 16-23 for the speakers
If you already have rear speakers then you will less connections as you can use the same wires that you remove from the Blaupunt amplifier connector and push them into the Bose amplifier connector.
Yes for me, connection-wise the Bose retrofit was as simple as locating a suitable earth point and a suitable pre-ignition live feed followed by connecting the speakers up. Absolutely a DIY task if you're confident enough. There are of course other options available to you should you not be confident to do this kind of thing, this is just the way I done my own install last weekend, a very loud and satisfying outcome after settling for head unit powered front speakers only for some 9 months.
As for routing the loom I simply decided what was deemed as the easiest option by taking the earth to the base of an A pillar via the cross member, along the sill and bolted it down with a correct sized ring terminal compressed on. The pre-ignition live I took to the passengers footwell compartment with an inline fuse but will correct/move this to the fuse box in time so its exactly as per a factory solution, certainly totally safe the way it is right now though. The individual speaker looms were easy enough to route on the off-side of the vehicle as the amplifier is situated that side for you. I took the looms to follow an existing loom route along the cross member then up along the sills and loom taped them in place. The joins were made at the base of the respective pillar front (A) and rear (B) then into the door connectors themselves. The near-side was connected exactly the same but the routing had to cross the centre console area. With the front carpet removed you will see there are plenty of channels/openings available to reach the other side of the vehicle along the same cross member. The sheathed cable containing the wires to the black 20 pin connector were taken along the drivers side of the centre console area and up to the head unit aperture. Additionally on the black 20 pin connector I had to add the CAN wires, although this A2 left the factory without infotainment CAN I had already added them as part of the full DIS retrofit I conducted a few months ago with a later revision Q instrument cluster along with the later fuel sender in the fuel tank. The instrument cluster will be revised in time for the 3DColorMFD screen which I'm quite excited about. That's it, Bose fitted and fully tested this last week. Very very happy with the results of s few hours tinkering over 2 evenings.
As has been said on here many a time before me, although Bose doesn't produce competition-winning audio, it certainly is an improvement over the Blaupunkt setup and even more so if you've put up with head unit powered front speakers with no rear speakers for 9 months. I do admire the sound provided whilst comfortably sat in the recently acquired black alcantara heated sport seats, it really is a nice place to sit whilst out and about. Below is the main items housed in their new locations which is much better than in the garage safely stored in a box:
View attachment 113492
View attachment 113491
Yes it's a bit dirty in there, I'll hoover it out at some point
I just read this post through and it started off with mentioning putting a few words together, think I have surpassed that now, apologies.
Kind regards,
Tom
Admin, can this be filed?Hello all,
Here to quickly put a few words together regards the recent evening works to this glorious A2. I must say coming from a generation 1 Chorus with only front speakers to now boasting a full suite of Audi A3 infotainment items along, aided with by the A5 FBMFSW with a complete Bose install is night and day from the first drive back in January. How it's coming along is just incredible whilst learning new skills to do all of my own work to keep the costs down. Another reason for the documenting of the following works is due to the amount of PMs I've received requesting assistance with replicating what's been completed so far. I thought it right to share my my own findings in public instead of behind separate PMs so the wider community can benefit from what I've been up to.
This post will be Bose focussed as it's fresh in my head and quite pertinent to the information request PMs recently received. This isn't a how-to; it loosely explains the way I conducted this particular retrofit to this specific vehicle. As a reminder, this A2 left the factory without rear speakers so the door side speaker looms had to also be added. Below is a picture of ear speaker looms along with the required (for this A2) earlier male/female speaker connectors:
View attachment 113489
I found it easier to remove the door loom from the door so I could straighten the long rubber grommet to then push the speaker loom through. Quite a quick and easy task to remove the loom if you're familiar with removing the door cards and the aluminium cover, which has far too many T30 bolts in my opinion. This is the actual kit (which is now no longer in a box which was set aside for a certain Dolphin Grey A2 but never quite made it into the vehicle) that is safely housed within the cabin, disregard the cut connectors as these were replaced for the full loom mentioned further down:
View attachment 113479
First up for the Bose retrofit I highly recommend that you search for a full Bose kit where someone has removed the loom from the amplifier to up into the dashboard area, mainly not cutting the thick black sheathed cable containing the wires that go to the black 20 pin connector at the rear of the head unit, preferably ensure that the black 20 pin connector is still attached. If you're able to get your supplier to do this then you'll have pretty much all you need to conduct this retrofit yourself if you're of course confident at removing certain interior panels and seats, just as important is that you need to be well rehearsed at creating good solder joins for the minimal joins required should you get a full loom. Below shows a full (as full as required anyway) loom removed from the vehicle:
Full loom
View attachment 113485
Loom at cut point high up in the dashboard where my hands could reach near the head unit aperture, only used the thick red wire (terminal 30) and 1x brown (terminal 31)(the second brown is the earthing for the shielded sheath which can be joined to the main earth out of the 2) and not forgetting the 4x speakers looms
View attachment 113487
20 pin connector which provides amplifier on and the speaker signals from the head unit to the amplifier
View attachment 113486
Here's the link that I used to build my knowledge a while ago ahead of taking this retrofit on:
Google Chrome should auto translate this link for you, you're mainly looking at the pinout explanation in the very first post
Boseverstärker nachgerüstet
Hallo Ihr Lieben, Mütze hat mal wieder gebastelt: Ich habe einfach einen Boseverstärker an den vorhandenen originalen Lautsprechern angeschlossen. Dazu den vorhanden Kabelbaum vom Verstärker der hinteren Lautsprecher erweitert. Die Vorverstärkerleitung der vorderen Lautsprecher sowie Lautsprecher...a2-freun.de
View attachment 113484
In consultation with the above pinout information and being armed with an almost full loom that I removed myself (which only took some 40 minutes from a breaker that had the seats removed and dashboard still in place) I quickly realised that the only joins to be made was the following:
Already in place for me
Pins 6,7,8,9,10 & 25 - are within the black sheathed cable so no requirement to join
Pins 14&15 were part of the full loom I removed
Required joins
Pin 11 - Terminal 31 Ground (I used the earthing point at the base of the A pillar)
Pin 13 - Terminal 30 Pre-ignition live (various places to take this feed from but best practice to take it to the fuse box as per factory and protect it with the specific rated fuse, do your research and refer to the electrical wiring diagrams)
Pins 16-23 for the speakers
If you already have rear speakers then you will less connections as you can use the same wires that you remove from the Blaupunt amplifier connector and push them into the Bose amplifier connector.
Yes for me, connection-wise the Bose retrofit was as simple as locating a suitable earth point and a suitable pre-ignition live feed followed by connecting the speakers up. Absolutely a DIY task if you're confident enough. There are of course other options available to you should you not be confident to do this kind of thing, this is just the way I done my own install last weekend, a very loud and satisfying outcome after settling for head unit powered front speakers only for some 9 months.
As for routing the loom I simply decided what was deemed as the easiest option by taking the earth to the base of an A pillar via the cross member, along the sill and bolted it down with a correct sized ring terminal compressed on. The pre-ignition live I took to the passengers footwell compartment with an inline fuse but will correct/move this to the fuse box in time so its exactly as per a factory solution, certainly totally safe the way it is right now though. The individual speaker looms were easy enough to route on the off-side of the vehicle as the amplifier is situated that side for you. I took the looms to follow an existing loom route along the cross member then up along the sills and loom taped them in place. The joins were made at the base of the respective pillar front (A) and rear (B) then into the door connectors themselves. The near-side was connected exactly the same but the routing had to cross the centre console area. With the front carpet removed you will see there are plenty of channels/openings available to reach the other side of the vehicle along the same cross member. The sheathed cable containing the wires to the black 20 pin connector were taken along the drivers side of the centre console area and up to the head unit aperture. Additionally on the black 20 pin connector I had to add the CAN wires, although this A2 left the factory without infotainment CAN I had already added them as part of the full DIS retrofit I conducted a few months ago with a later revision Q instrument cluster along with the later fuel sender in the fuel tank. The instrument cluster will be revised in time for the 3DColorMFD screen which I'm quite excited about. That's it, Bose fitted and fully tested this last week. Very very happy with the results of s few hours tinkering over 2 evenings.
As has been said on here many a time before me, although Bose doesn't produce competition-winning audio, it certainly is an improvement over the Blaupunkt setup and even more so if you've put up with head unit powered front speakers with no rear speakers for 9 months. I do admire the sound provided whilst comfortably sat in the recently acquired black alcantara heated sport seats, it really is a nice place to sit whilst out and about. Below is the main items housed in their new locations which is much better than in the garage safely stored in a box:
View attachment 113492
View attachment 113491
Yes it's a bit dirty in there, I'll hoover it out at some point
I just read this post through and it started off with mentioning putting a few words together, think I have surpassed that now, apologies.
Kind regards,
Tom
Evening Bob,
Haha,
Hi Tom. No issue with you cut and pasting into How To section. Crack on pal.
Hello Murdo,Hi Tom. No issue with you cut and pasting into How To section. Crack on pal.
Hi Tom,
Hello Pravin,