C6 A6: How to install an AMI w/o removing CD changer on a A6 C6/4F
Tools needed for this project:
- Audi Music Interface Unit with serial/model# 4E0 035 785 (A-G) ← The unit needs to have “4E0 035 785” as the base # and any alphabetical letter after that. In this case, I purchased a “4E0 035 785 B” for this project. NOTICE! AMI interfaces from A4, A5, and Q5 are NOT compatible with A6 4F! If your unit part number starts with 8T0, then it WILL NOT work with your car!
- MOST Optic cable splitter ← You will need this cable when trying to keep the CD changer.
- Power cable splitter
- Both can be bought directly from Kufatec USA as a kit that comes with Optic cables and power cable. You COULD buy these cables from AUDI dealership or eBay if available. For this project, mine fortunately came with the AMI that I bought off eBay.
- Soldering Iron/knife
- Vag-Com ←I used Genuine Ross-Tech
- Software update CDs to update to 4.6.10 (Can be purchased here in the forums, eBay, or your local Audi dealership) OR can be downloaded from A6retrofit.com. Download for CD1 & CD2.
- Your favorite beverage
Step 1:
1.) Make sure you have MMI 2G or MMI 2G high. This does not work for MMI 3G or above. If you haven’t already had the chance to update your MMI to 4.6.10 (4610), then do so now. In order to do this, you need to make sure you burn the discs in lowest speed possible and make sure that all CDs from the CD changer are removed. If updates failed, keep doing the updates until successful.
Notice how MMI version is 1190.
This will be upgraded to 4610.
Now MMI version shows 4610 and are ready to proceed.
Once you have updated to 4.6.10 (4610), You may NOT have noticed that you are missing your climate control interface when you switch your climate or checking battery level. Please check these options now to confirm. You can have those options return back using Vag-Com. IF THIS DID NOT happen and you still have these options then skip the following instructions below.
2.) ***As VCDS always directs, write down any previous values before changing anything so you can get back to where you were in case something doesn't work. The steps below worked for me. Your results may vary.***
Go to [07] - Control Head (in the Control Module)
- Go to Adaptation
- Go to Channel 11, then click Read
- Add +32 to existing value of what ever number is yours, in my case it was #4 so that would be value of 36 (VAG–COM provides a pop–up with the options)
- Test and save
-There will be a "do you really want to do this?" type warning. Click OK.
- Reset MMI by pressing these 3 buttons.
Pressing SETUP, BIG Center Knob, and top right soft button together, now all you have to do is release you fingers and it will reboot.
As for the battery status that also went away:
TURNING BATTERY STATUS BACK ON:
Go to [07] - Control Head (in the Control Module)
- Go to Adaptation
-Go to Channel 02, then click Read
-At this point, a value of 3 was shown on mine. Yours may vary so adjust your numbers accordingly.
- +00032 is the Battery Status so you add 32 to the 3 for a total of 35.
-Thus instead of 3, input 35 in the New Value field.
-Click TEST.
-If 35 shows up in the Test Field, click SAVE.
-There will be a "do you really want to do this?" type warning. Click OK.
- Reset MMI by pressing these 3 buttons.
Pressing SETUP, BIG Center Knob, and top right soft button together, now all you have to do is release you fingers and it will reboot.
You should now have all the options return and should be ready to proceed to step 2!
Step 2:
1.) Turn off the MMI by pressing the volume button pressed on the console center and have the car turned off.
2.) Locate the black panel located under the glovebox. You will notice about 4-5 clips holding the panel together. Pull downward on the panel and it will come right off.
You will notice that there are clips on the sides, one of the clips broke as noticed in the picture, but was easily super glued back, though as long as your careful, you should not have any clips break off! I was slightly in a rush.
The back is now exposed and you can easily reach behind the glovebox. If you actually touch the back of the CD changer, you should see this:
You should see the MOST fiber optic cable and Power cable. Remove both of them and pull them out as shown below:
This is the tricky part. You have to make sure you have the wiring done properly. You have to understand that we are trying to create a bridge. With that in mind, the wire running from the “car/MMI” going into the CD changer loops back out and goes to the second source which is the AMI going inwards. This then loops out and goes back in to your “car/MMI.”
This can easily be explained with the following picture below for a better understanding of the completed loop:
To start notice the picture below showing how the “P” is the power cable that was taken out. You then see the Fiber optic wire running from the “car/MMI” going INWARD to the…let’s call it the “Holder.” From the “Holder” you can see the wire running OUTWARD to the “AMI.” Now I forgot to take the picture of before doing the removal of the wire. But please see the dotted lines indicating the original wire that gets removed and is instead connected with a “connector” circled below:
Our goal is to remove the “OUTWARD” fiber optic cable. To remove this and get a better understanding of the idea, please see the video here by Enfig on YouTube starting from 3:30-4:50.
The setup we are trying to make is shown in the diagram I made here illustrating how it would need to look in order for this to work. I basically took out the wires accordingly to help me understand better of how this would work:
Now all that’s left to do is connect the power cable to the power cable of the “car/MMI.” The AMI/CD Changer power cables can be used either way and hooked up to both units vise versa, but at this time just connect the power cable and DO NOT connect to the units just yet:
Step 3:
1.) Now we just need to remove the back panel of the glove box with a knife or soldering iron. Personally, I think it is near impossible to remove with knife as the back of the glove box is made with plastic and the carpet is super-glued to the plastic. I just used a soldering iron and made the following hole/compartment space.
The removed peace was this and you can clearly see the carpet attached to the plastic and the width of the plastic!
Now you must be wondering, wow look at all that mess from the soldering iron. It’s not really a big deal as it will be covered up from the back. What I did do was used a sandpaper/Dremel and evened out the edges and sides to make a perfect rectangle. It does not need to be completely evened out as they provide grip so that the AMI doesn’t fall back or get pulled out. You can leave it the way it is. What I did do was evened out the plastic part that was cutt off and inserted on the left side of the AMI wall or glove box and it held the AMI together with nice grip and looks very well installed and completed below. The red line indicates where the plastic cut off piece went.
Here is without the red line to show you how well and professionally installed it looks. Make sure you have connected all the cables including power respectively. MAKE SURE TO PUT BACK THE COVER THAT WAS REMOVED FROM THE BEGINNING!
Step 4:
1.) Turn on the MMI. You will here weird clicking sound from the CD changer, which is normal and disregard it. We will need to connect the Vag-Com and use a VCDS. Go to the CAN Gateway module and press the Installation List button on the VCDS software. Look for the Media Device2/ player 2 (I forgot what it was called but very easy to find),to add a second player source to your car and hit the Save button. You can remove the Vag-Com once this is complete. You should now be able to play through your AMI. You will need to click the “Source” from the “CD” button to go to “Audi music interface” and should work from there! If your AMI is working properly as it should, you DO NOT NEED TO DO the update of the AMI, but if you want to update from old version to updated version: 080423, then you can do so by downloading the official update from Audi.de. You can click HERE and download the firmware. Just unzip the archive and place the AMI_update_080423.bin file on a formatted (fat32) USB drive on your computer. Make sure the file is placed on the root folder (basically after formatted just place the file unzipped and nothing else). Plug in the USB if you have the AMI to USB adapter (4F0 051 510 G) and go to the AMI from your MMI screen and click on the USB drive and follow the instructions on the screen to complete the update.
2.) That should be all there is to do. I know it looks like a lot, but I wanted to be thorough and wanted to explain it all. It is not hard, nor does it take long. Hope this guide helps all and if you have any questions please let me know!
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Originally Posted by PDXAvant
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