VCDS Suffolk - Audi A6

[Austin1303]

I'm hoping someone may be able to help me out with this...

Recently purchased a 2011 A6 Avant 4F, all is good apart from one minor snag with the phone preparation (PR 9ZF).

I have MMI 3G with the phone holder in the armrest, bought the universal adapter (4G0 051 435) and plugged it in - no aerial improvements and the USB socket didn't work. I have done the following:

• Did some hunting and found a blown relating to it in the end of the dash on the passengers side - strangely not listed in the manual.
• Removed the arm rest and stripped it down to find the PCB burnt out and corroded, I suspect water damaged by the previous owner.
• Found the exact replacement on eBay including the armrest assembly which saved some work putting things back together.
• New fuse, measured 12v on the disconnected plug with ignition on, good sign
• Connected up the new unit and fit the universal adapter, still doesn't work and the fuse is okay?!?

I'm running out of ideas, the adapter could be faulty although it's unlikely.

Thinking that maybe this feature hasn't been enabled or something along those lines so maybe a local VCDS user could take a quick look for me?

Based in Suffolk between Bury St. Edmunds and Ipswich.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Austin

[UVB]

I'm in Waldringfield with VCDS and happy to take a look. However if it is just aerial boost you are looking for I'm not sure if you get that from the universal adaptor. I used to have an RSAP adaptor in mine which was excellent for that so could be worth investigating assuming you have a phone that supports RSAP (Samsung generally does; Iphone doesn't). Part no. 8P0051440A

[Austin1303]

Maybe I have misunderstood what the functionality could be. I was hoping for aerial boost and a facility to charge my phone. Unfortunately I have an iPhone so may not be possible..? Would be great to talk it through if you know about the phone prep system? I don't want to waste your time on VCDS unnecessarily if it's a dead end! Cheers

[UVB]

I certainly don't mind plugging in VCDS and taking a look for you; it's not like it takes any great amount of time to do that.

I'm pretty certain iPhones don't support RSAP I'm afraid; it was a Nokia technology that I believe they licensed to Samsung. To my knowledge, all the universal adaptor offers is the ability to charge the phone - but I could be wrong. RSAP "takes over" the sim card on your phone and puts it into standby mode (theoretically using less juice). All calls are then routed through the RSAP adaptor to the sharkfin aerial. The best example I can give is when wandering around Orford one day getting no signal anywhere whatsoever. As soon as I got back in the car, I had 3 bars and perfect voice quality. It's such a good technology I'm annoyed that so many manufacturers don't offer it in their cars in one form or another.

In an ideal world, if there was someone who had one near you that you could try in your car to see if it worked with your face plate, at least you'd know the underlying connection was fine before spending the money on the adaptor. Then you'd also probably have to stick your iPhone on Ebay and get yourself something like a Galaxy S8.

The only other alternative would be to use a seperate phone booster system. I've contemplated these but they all use a seperate external aerial which I don't really want. If someone came out with one of these systems that integrated fully with the existing car sharkfins I expect they would sell plenty in our country full of weak signal spots.

[UVB]

Turns out I have an old pdf brochure from the 2007MY car and it says the following related to phone stuff:

GSM mobile-telephone preparation, with hands-free and speech dialogue system for operation of main
functions, located in front centre armrest. Bluetooth interface and roof-mounted aerial are included for
optimum reception (a phone adaptor is required at extra cost. Please consultyour Audi Centre for details)
• • • • • • • £340.43 £400.00


Generation 2 mobile-phone cradles (applicable for factory-fitted mobile-telephone preparation only).
Please consult your Audi Centre for cradle range • • • • • • • £85.11 £100.00

Bluetooth mobile phone connection, operated via the optional MMI High system and integrated
telephone voice-control system, including roof-mounted aerial for optimal reception. Must be
combined with MMI High (price quoted does not include this item). Please note that your mobile
phone must have Bluetooth SIM-Access Profile facility
• • • • • • • £553.19 £650.00

This seems to suggest that the cradle should use the roof aerial to boost the signal...I'm just not convinced that the technology in question has any means to do that (except for rSAP which does)?

[Austin1303]

Looking at those options, the first one appears to be what I have in my A6. I'm not 100% sure on how the technology behind actually works but it sounded good :/

I frequently drive for work and more often than not I have to make/take calls but like you say, this country has poor reception around every corner which results in calls dropping out. Hence why the boosted aerial took my interest, especially if it works like you described.

I am being sent a replacement phone adaptor so hopefully I can rule out that being the issue. Probably wouldn't hurt to plug in the VCDS and see whats going on though!