Rear speakers in my A3 not working

[Seanyb84]

Hi guys,

I had a new headunit (an Ipod interface Alpine) installed 6 months ago by Halfords (bad idea) and I needed a new wiring adapter harness which they didnt have. They connected it somehow, and I never got round to sorting it out. The rear speakers don't work, and the power isn't attached to the ignition (you have to manually turn the radio off). My car is an end of 2002 A3 with a chorus system. I was thinking of buying the PC9 401 Wiring harness, anyone know if this will solve these two problems? I presume the problems I'm experiencing is beacuse there will be some loose cables at the back disconnected.

Any help would greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[loki]

Can't help but I'm in exactly the same situation with the Alpine iPod unit. From what I have seen, apparently you need the pc9-410 to get the rear speakers and sub working properly. I haven't tried it myself yet though.

[steady85]

Has anyone got a working solution for this problem? I just replaced my concert head-unit in my '98 A3 with a Pioneer one and I'm having the same issue.

[loki]

Has anyone got a working solution for this problem? I just replaced my concert head-unit in my '98 A3 with a Pioneer one and I'm having the same issue.

Yep I got it sorted. If you get the adaptor there's a blue bullet connector that plugs into the head unit and will get the rear sub and speakers going. Makes such a difference!

[steady85]

sorted it. i did a bit of soldering instead of buying yet another wire. i used the original audi concert connector and identified the wires used for the rear speakers then soldered it on to the wire that came with my pioneer.

for future reference for anyone else.....

the rear speakers use a common return signal so the left and right returns needed wiring together but neither the speakers nor the sub would work. it seems they might be powered by an additional amplifier which needs a power supplied to it. the only one i had handy was a +12V line which did the job. it does now seem that the rear speakers are much louder than the front so maybe 5V would've been better but i'm a bit inexperienced to say the least (my first car which I've only had for a few weeks) so not sure how I'd get a 5V line instead.

update: i think this connector configuration only applies to the bose setups.

http://adamstead.com/misc/audi%20concert%20rear%20speakers%20wiring%20diag.J PG
http://adamstead.com/misc/audi%20concert%20rear%20speakers%20wiring.JPG
http://adamstead.com/misc/audi%20concert%20rear%20speakers%20connector%20fin al.JPG