I installed the Alpine 9885 last night. I ran into a couple of snags. Due to the fact the rear speakers are powered off of the OEM amplifier in the trunk I decided to run new independent speaker wires to them. That went ok. The problem I'm having is that I can't find a good/easy way to connect the +12V ignition wire (red) to the car. I would like the radio to turn off with the ignitioin key like it was originally. I've installed radios in many other cars, but never a VW/Audi. I know they are a different animal and right now, unfortunately I have the red wire jumpered with the constant power supply (yellow). I know I can go to the fuse box and tinker around there, but I was hoping someone who had done this install could shed some light as to the easiest/best way to connect this ignition wire. I patiently await some wisdom. [sm=helpout.gif]

 

done it many times red and yellow have to be reversed ( red to yellow and yellow to red) this keeps the men live when switched on and stores the mem

 

I appreciate the feedback, but the problem I'm having is what to connect the red wire to with regards to the factory wiring.

 

I hit the same snag when I did mine a few weeks ago, and as of now I've also got the switched 12v jumped to the constant 12v and I just turn the head unit on and off manually. The only switched 12v I could find in the factory harness is a very thin wire that I believe is part of the CAN bus, so I really don't want to mess with that. I was actually thinking about taking a look tonight to see if I can find something else to use. I'll let you know what I do.

Did you hook your illumination wire up to anything? Again, I don't think there's an illumination wire in the stock harness. Thinking maybe I can tap in behind the headlight switch.

 

It sounds like you and I are in the same predicament. I contacted RyanA3 from the Fortitude boards. He did his almost two years ago and he said he has forgotten what he did about the switched +12V wire. There appears to be some open positions in the fuse panel in the engine compartment. I may go that route. Unfortunately I haven't had time to take a real good look at them all. Not to mention when I did try I found that my multi-meter prongs were a little too big to get down into the fuse harness to verify switched power or any voltage for that matter. I hope you had some luck. I think everything I 've read has led me to believe the CAN bus is where all of our needed connections are, but the Bentley/ebahn cd rom I have is not very good about telling me what each of the wires is for. I think I've found a solution for utilizing the factory satellite antenna connection in the rear luggage compartment with an aftermarket plug an play Sirius unit though.

http://www.myradiostore.com/i/Render...14&s=inset

or possibly this one

http://www.myradiostore.com/i/Render...re&s=inset

 

I had the same issue with a Blaupunkt head unit and just took a wire from the iginition on the fuse panel. Pretty simple to do. The alternative was to purchase a harness from Blaupunkt that was CAN-BUS compatible, but cost £100...!

 

Anyone more info as far as which fuse box you used and which slot?

 

I didn't get a chance to mess with it, I had to go out of town unexpectedly. I probably won't have a chance to do anything until Sunday.

I've put some thought into my Sirius install too. My '07 A3 has the one wire antenna, which is good because my Alpine Sirius tuner will hook right up to it. The wire harness for the Audi tuner has power and ground I can tap too. Now I just need to get an Ai-Net cable longer than 6 feet so I can mount the tuner in the hatch.

 

Hey converted, did you end up doing anything with it yet? I finally got a chance to finish mine up and it's working great. Here's what I did:

+12v switched: I tapped the fuse for the rear wiper (position 41, I believe). It is in the fuse panel in the cabin, on the left side of the dash. I used a T-tap and got it from the back of the panel, but I'm sure you could use a regular fuse tap. I'm just kinda OCD so I wanted it to look clean (but who's gonna see my fuse panel anyway...)

Illumination: You need a +12v for this too. If you drop the panel under the steering column you can access the harnesses for your headlight switch. There are two harnesses, one for the **** switch and one for the dimmer. It is easier to access the wires if you unclip it from the switch first. Look at the harness for the **** and there is one grey wire with a blue stripe that is +12v when you turn the lights on. I used that and it works fine. I don't have automatic headlights, so if you do be sure to test the wire first because I don't know if it will go to 12v if you don't physically turn the **** to the 'on' position.

If you use these locations, it's pretty easy to run the wires, they are relatively near each other. I ran them straight across below the steering column and zip tied them to the small air duct (?). There is plenty of room to feed the wires to the radio on the left side of the center dash column. Now I just need to get crackin' on my Sirius tuner...

How are you liking the 9855 so far? It is a sweet unit. I had one in my Blazer before I got the A3. It was the best sound quality I've had out of all my head units, numerous Alpines included. It's too bad Alpine doesn't include 4v pre outs in many of their decks anymore. I really liked that outboard DC/DC converter, too. It does help to clean up the interference a bit.

Let me know what you end up doing and how it works out for ya!

 

No I didn't get a chance to do anything to the car this weekend. I'll probably hit it up one evening this week. Sounds like you really got your hands dirty though and I really appreciate it.

It sounds like what you are saying about the illumination switch is that goes from bright to dim when the headlights are turned on? Is it controlled at all by the actual dimmer switch on the dash?

Is it necessary to up the fuse rating for the rear wiper now that you've added another load to the circuit? Have you tried the rear wiper since you've done this? When you say t-tap, do you like a jumper splice on to the existing wire with a new wire lead going to the +12V on the HU?

I do like the Alpine. I have the 9885 which has 4V pre-out. I was a little hesitant to get it because I've been a Kenwood fan for years, but they only have blue illumination and I couldn't have it standing out so much from the rest of the dash lighting. The only thing I'm not real happy about is that this unit doesn't have a separate mid range eq adjusment. Also, the manual explains the "Q" range completely opposite of the Alpine website. Which one is correct?