sunnyp1227

Hi guys,

First I want to thank you all for sharing your experience on this forum. I learned everything in this post from you guys.
My 2013 A6 3.0T was delivered on 3/30, and it's been an amazing car.

Now I want to share my experience about the car, radar detector choice/hardwire and VAG COM.

None of the modification I made void the warranty.

First: Buying experience.

Price:
This is my first car, I work for a large software company in Redmond, therefore we have "Audi supplier program", which means you get 6% off MSRP without any negotiation.
Note: You can get the 6% off MSRP by joining the Audi Club 6 months before your purchase I believe.
Note2: You can get loyalty ($1500 off?) discount if you owned an Audi before on top of it.

I am not very good at negotiation so I just took the 6% off MSRP and that's it.

Package:
I got 2013 Audi A6 3.0T Prestige, Phantom Black.
20" sport package, full LED, side assist/power folding mirror

Window tint: 35% (WA state legal limit), $450 from dealer.
Note:you don't feel dark inside, it doesn't hurt your view if you never done this before.
Chip protector: $1400 from dealer.

You can get the tint and chip protector done outside dealer for much cheaper price. But I just feel like when I get my car, I want it to be protected already. Compared to the car's price, it's not that big deal. Just a peace of mind.

some pics:






Warranty I got:
1. "term care select" for $1000/4 years (was offered for $1800), which covers 1 free replaced of brake pad, battery, wipe blades) It also covers the LED headlight (which cost you $3000 each side if it's broken) and key replacement...etc.
2. "wheel/tire warranty" $850/5 years.
3. Audi Care (covers your services -> must have if you don't change oil yourself), I will get this after my first 5k service.

For the warranty I bought, I think the price is ok.

Audi Connect (3G wifi):
Just FYI to new buyer who hasn't been following it.
T-mobile now offers the 50% off price to everyone, you don't have to prepay the 3G plan right after 6 month trial or something. You can get it anytime you want.
It's $15/month unlimited plan, which is not a big difference now compared to the other prepaid sim card workaround. I will probably get this plan after my 6 month trial.
(TIP of using this, you can use Google map, find a place, and then do "More" -> "Send" -> "Car", you will be able to send the address to your car, which is much faster than entering by yourself.)

MMI cable:
You should ask your sales to give you a RED MMI cable instead of a blue one. (I think it's something related to album art or something)
Red is newer I believe, so ask for it.


Radar Detector Choice and Hardwire
I did some research while I was waiting for the car to be delivered.
The most popular choice is Valentine One (V1) and Escort Passport 9500ix.
Both units has great reviews and about the same price range.
I chose 9500ix because it has less false alarms (it will stored the false alarm using it's GPS). V1 has better detection range and much more false alarm. It's a trade off, I chose less alarms.

I got it from Amazon for $450.

Now the hardwire part
I will show the result first




As you can see, I have a small mute button for the radar detector unit! It's very neat, and in my opinion it's better than the OEM version mute control (which is way bigger).
My mute button doesn't kill the beautiful interior and you don't need to drill holes...etc in your car. It hides perfectly and it's not noticeable.

I mount the radar detector on the passenger side.
There's no rear view mirror mount for A6, so you don't have many choice. If you mount it on your windshield, it will eventually drop off.
I have considered the 3M tape mount, suction cup and finally decided to go with the original because I came up with an idea.
I used the fishing line. In the picture, you can see I tightened the detector mount with nylon (fishing line), so that it doesn't drop off completely!

If one day my radar detector drop off, it should hang in the air instead of hit my MMI monitor, or my console.
I tightened the nylon to the visor, one trade off is my passenger can't move the visor to the window side, but I have window tint so it's not a big deal.

So now how to hardwire
Requirement parts:
1. radar detector unit ($450)
2. bone tool ($7), must have, you will appreciate it
3. Direct Cord with Smart Mute Button (flat mute button) + Blade Fuse Tap (~$15)
(I bought it from this ebay seller http://www.safe-n-sound1.com/ they have it for different kinds of cables)
The good thing about this kit is it has everything, you don't have to buy "add-a-fuse", "hardwire kit" separately.
4. a Nut ($0.5) from better grounding. I bought it from ACE hardware. I am sorry I forgot the size, but I drove my car to the store and tried it out.
5. a simple welding tool (I hope you have a friend because I didn't do this part myself )





I bought all the parts before I even got the car.
Bad part, it doesn't work right out of the box.

The problem I ran into was the hardwire kit I bought doesn't work well with A6 (and probably most of the Audi Car).
1. The "fuse blade tap" is too tall, so you won't be able to close the fuse box.
2. The grounding wire hole is too small, I couldn't attach it to the place I grounded it.
Instead of return the kit I bought (I like the mute button so much and it's cheaper than any other option), I was lucky to have my friend to do some welding job for me and it works perfectly.

WORST CASE SCENARIO: your hardwire kit ($15) is broken, you have to buy a new one.

Step by step:
==TEST EVERYTHING IS WORKING FIRST NOW==
1. remove the pink fuse protector
2. attach the fuse blade to the fuse I marked (left most fuses, I think it's either 3rd one, related to brake indicator or something), you need something that doesn't have power when car is off. If shouldn't matter which one you tap to because it's parallel series (which means same voltage). But just a peace of mind, I didn't attached it to something safety feature related.
3. put the ground cable to the place I indicated (that one has the best grounding)
4. connect the wire to your radar detector then start the car and see/test if your radar detector works (and the wire)

==WELDING (probably the hardest part if you never done so like me)==
NOTE: I found that both the ground cable and the hot(red) cable wasn't very tighten, it's good to weld them again (while I was testing, they fell apart!! Glad I had my friend with me at the moment I was doing these)
1. cut the extra part (it would come out of the pink frame) of the "blade fuse tap", and weld the red cable to the remaining part (you can enlarge my picture to see it)
2. you also need to make the hole of the ground cable bigger so it can attach it to car (some drilling might be required, on the ring though, not your car).
NOTE: I think you should be able to buy a bigger ground ring and weld it with the cable, this might be easier.
3. Get a nut and tighten your ground cable. My friend don't recommend to use the electric tape, he said it might loosen when there's heat. Nut it's cheap and tight.

After you are done this part, check if everything is working fine.

If somehow you failed or break the kit. Learn from it and buy a new kit :P

==WIRE==
1. mount your radar detector to the wind shield
2. and then start to stuck your cables into the headliner (no kit needed, finger works perfectly)
3. you cable will reach the driver side A-pillar.
I tried to remove the A-pillar, and I failed (don't know how to do so.) So I just stuck the wire into the A pillar (top)
run your cable along the red line I indicated, when going through the blue circle part, it's when bone tool become your best friend. You don't need to remove the A-pillar, you can just stuck the cable in using bone tool.

4. followed by the picture I showed above earlier, you will be able to run the cable into your fuse box without removing anything other than the fuse box cover.
5. pull the mute button out of the fuse box, and then tape it on where I taped it.
6. DONE


VAG COM
If you don't know what the hell is VAG COM like me before.
It's basically connect your car using an OBD cable and then use a software to enable some function that your car has but was disabled by Audi. It doesn't void your warranty.

Hardest part: make up your mind to buy the ross-tech cable ($370).

Some notes about this:
1. It's very to use, just a few mouse clicks and then you are done.
2. Besides enable your cars hidden feature, it can also read the error code for your car.
3. You don't have to buy the cable, if you can find someone to do it for you, that works too.
4. If you do the service, the MODs you have done MIGHT be wiped, all you have to do is use the software and set it again.

I did the following MODs on my car so far
1. Use car key to open/close windows and moon roof
2. gauge test (needle sweep), when you start your engine, the needles will sweep, SUPER COOL
3. display the gears (instead of showing D/S, it will show D1/ S8...etc)
4. hidden menu (I haven't use it yet)

You can find more instructions on this website and other posts on the forum.
http://www.audienthusiasts.com/VagCom.html

I can record and upload some videos of how it looks like later if someone wants it.

p.s I live in Seattle/Bellevue/Redmond area (WA state), if you want to do the VAG COM for your Audi, you can PM me for detail.




I guess that's it. Sorry about my English and my grammar as I am not a native speaker.

Thanks for reading....
And thank you all for who have helped me on this forum again.

sunny

Edit: change the image location to flickr. Hope it will last long . http://www.flickr.com/photos/9515166...oto_8674060191 if you are looking for the original size photo

Boostedws6

Great post!

Seki

Congrats on your new car!

I would not like to need the airbag and that cable to be in its way and making interior parts flaying all over the car I would definitely reroute it on the other side of the pillar, just my .02 cents you can leave it like that if you fell comfy about it.

To remove the pillar you have to take off the airbag plastic and there is a screw behind it…

ndnuno

Great post Sunny! I have access to the VAGCOM system but videos of enabling VIM, Needle Sweep, etc. might be helpful to myself and others!

sunnyp1227

That's actually the first thing I did to my car...remove the airbag tag.
But I didn't see any screws, and I don't know how to remove it.

Can you show us some pics? That would be awesome.