So I just bought a 98.5 Audi A4 2.8 and I've been trying to figure out a few things about it. How do I know if I have a bose system? I have the 6 CD changer in the trunk but I can't find anywhere that it says bose in the car. My two front mids and one rear speaker are blown. The blown speaker in the rear says "Nokia" on the magnet. The other speaker has a black plastic cover over the magnet so I can't see if it says anything. I'm going to replace the blown speakers but I need to figure out what I have before I can go about replacing. If I have bose, I would rather keep the bose. Also, I have no idea when the last time the timing belt was changed, if ever. Is the 98.5 2.8 an interference engine? It will be a couple of months before I get time to change the timing belt so I'm wondering if I should keep the driving to a minimum until I get it changed. I've looked for answers but I seem to have trouble trying to find information on this car.

 

Do your rear doors have speakers? I think only the Bose system has speakers there... So if your rear doors lack speakers then you would have the non-Bose system.

Mine is non-Bose and came with the 6-disc CD changer. My CD changer was junk BTW, would skip any time the car hit the slightest bump.

 

Bose-equipped cars also have little "Bose" badges on the speaker grilles.

 

No, I do not have speakers in the rear doors. I don't have bose badges on the speaker grilles either. I figured they would say bose somewhere if they were but the one working speaker seems to sound pretty good and have pretty good bass for its size so I thought they might still be bose.

 

yeah bose badges front and back doors. even my 97 had them so i know they have been there through the range. and my bose has speakers in the back doors. didnt know the non bose lacked them.... and even if your crappy cd changer works dont expect it to for long it will fail. with non bose or symphony i would just get a new deck with an aux jack. will look alot better too

 

Yes it is an interference engine, search for timing belt and learn a little about waiting to change them, better to prevent than repair trust me on this.

 

Okay, thanks Doc. If it was a non-interference engine I wasn't going to worry about it too much. I've done a timing belt change on my '90 Nissan 300ZX so I have pretty good knowledge of how to do it. As far as my radio goes, do the non-bose systems still have a factory amp or amps? I have a Kenwood head unit lying around that I would rather use instead of the factory unit because it has a USB slot for a flash drive. So I'm wondering if I use an aftermarket head unit if that is something I'll have to worry about.

 

even if it does have an amp you can still hook it up. but i doubt it does. never actually checked out non bose system but my friend had non bose and put almost a grand into his speakers and mine still bumped louder. unless he just got ripped off

 

I think they do, Idk much about speaker systems TBH but a buddy of mine is like the ****** speaker guru and was telling me that my factory amp needed to be bypassed (it makes a loud popping type noise when i turn the key on) but im not too worried about it since my car isnt running right now lol. anyway yeah man if i were you i'd read up on the timing system and by one of the timing belt kits from ECS or someone similar.

 

The rear speakers have a factory amp. I got my head unit from Crutchfield and they included all the adapter cables to ensure that my head unit would properly hook up to my car's wiring.

Now my entire sound system is rewired... 4-channel amp for the speakers and 2-channel bridged amp for the sub, with speaker wire from the 4ch. amp to each speaker.