DeuceDriver

I just bought my 2001 A6 2.7T supposedly prewired for an "integrated hands free mobile phone". (There is a wired connector in the front armrest) When I asked the dealer about this option, I was told the option really didn't work all that well and that I would be better off the hands free car kit that I had installed in my old Mazda. I have a Nokia digital phone.
Does anyone know whats up with the Audi system? Why do I want to drill holes in my brand new car if it is already prewired? Thanks for your help.

JP4

The current "built-in" system for the Audi is for an analog device only and it is proprietary. Without "surgery", only the Audi (Motorola) analog phone works in the system for US made vehicles. There are a few major issues involved here that have resulted, IMHO, in an essentially useless built-in phone system harness for our cars. This subject has been discussed at great length over the last year in several of these forums. You may find more useful info by searching the archives.

Hope this helps!

Wowdi

There have been posts on this message board saying that Audi is working on a adapters for Nokia and StarTac digital phones allowing them to connect to the Audi phone jack in the A6 armrest and take advantage of some of the handsfree features built into the car. I have asked my dealer about availablility and pricing of this adapter and have gotten no reply to date. I am skeptical if such a device even exists.

STEVE2.7T

As JP4 says, our system is essentially useless. Hopefully Audi will have an adapter soon. Mercedes have done it with the new C class, you can use a portable digital and have the hands free features our cars are set up for, so lets hope Audi get their act together quickly. They have it in Europe!!!

stanatl

Both the Parts Manager and AoA have told me that Audi is working on an adapter and have been for a while. I don't know if it is true or not, but if it is, my sense is that they're having trouble making it happen. The Parts Manager told me they had targeted to have it available before the end of last year. Now they won't even give me a time frame.
Sorry for the bad news.

uwg

...with not too much effort, it is possible to adapt whichever phone you have to the built-in wiring harness, and especially to use the built-in mic and speaker. Search the forum, read the FAQ, and give it to someone with some technical savvy if you don't want to do it yourself. Shouldn't cost more than your existing handsfree kit, $20 in parts and an hour or two of your time. The result will be a wonderfully integrated handsfree phone.

dave s

First of all I am very tech savvy, I am an EE and really like to do projects like this. I have the hands free kit for my phone, Samsung 3500, and I followed the FAQ but there are two problems. The first is that the microphone does not sound good at all with the kit. I have found out that it is not just a matter of switching the mike and keeping the wiring because the Audi mike uses some electronics that the Kit mike does not like. I believe that this is the same situation as the Nokia Kit as well. The second problem is that for some Kits the connection between the brain of the kit and the cradle uses more than 8 conductors. This means that you can not put the brain in the trunk and use the wiring to connect to the cradle in the arm rest. So for my kit I need to have the brain and wiring harness near the cradle unless I want to pull wire.

Some other problems I have encountered is that you can not screw directly into the armrest bottom because it will mess up the functionality of the armrest, specifically the angle adjustment mechanism. This means that you need to buy the Audi cradle, which is around $70. I think that I will try to fabricate my own in this case. The other problem is that I tried to have a professional do the wiring for my kit because I know that they have more experience taking the pieces of the console apart and they don't want to use any of the pre-wiring. After going to thee installers of good reputation they all wanted to pull their own wire and not use any of the Audi wiring.

If you could help me out with any of this I would really appreciate it.

petrie

Same here...any advice appreciated. :-)

uwg

I know of at least three people on this board who have done it, and a friend of mine had it locally done for a Nokia phone. They reused all of the Audi wiring (my friend simply replaced the mic, but reused the mic wiring) and mounted the the nokia cradle inside the arm-rest.

Not sure how you would address phones with more than 8 pins; not sure why they would need more than 8, either -- 2 for mic, 2 for speaker, 2 for power, 1 for mute.

whealy

I used the some of the post and articles on the site to create a "plug" for the cabling in the trunk. Then I got a part from Audi that matched the RJ plug in the arm rest. I had no luck at using an existing hand free system to the pre-wired mic or speaker but I did get the power to work. I then got a device that broadcasts the speaker voice over a radio signal with it's own mic. I just have my entire FM2 stations tuned to the frequency of the device and when I want to use the phone, switch to FM2. This is for my StarTac digital phone.