awdinut

When I bought my otherwise pristine car last year it had a wee bit of white showing through on one of the window switches in the driver's door. I at last got around to eliminating that unsightliness yesterday.

But instead of replacing with the OEM A8 unit, which would eventually become unsightly also, I installed the OEM Q7/A3 switch. They switch levers are identical in shape to the A8 levers but have an aluminum wear surface on the leading edge, just as they should have had on a $135,000 car in the first place. And of course the D4 A8s have rectified that deficiency, but that design is not in keeping with the D3 interior so I did not use the D4 part.

Not an original idea by me I must say; ran across an old thread in a UK forum that told how. Only modification needed is to Dremmel away 1mm of plastic on two small spots. I have the switches for the other doors as well, but have not installed yet. And while I had the armrest apart I also replaced the mirror switch with the Aluminum trimmed type.

Petahs

Looks nice. I need to do the same.

TSHong

I agree that this should have been done from the start. I will probably get to it soon. I guess I need to google or where do we need to dremel away?

awdinut

D3 - Interior Trims - Page 2 - A8 Parts Forum

Here is the link to the info you need...the link is page 2, but you can also go to page 1, and page 1 has the photo you need.

MainelyA8

That looks great. Is there a particular year Q7/A3 switch that will work?

awdinut

I think any of the switches that look like the one I used would be the correct switch....any of them I have seen that look the same also have the same part #.

excessive

That's interesting.

Could you provide particular part number? I always though that A8 window switches had different plug than any other AUDI model on the backside..?

awdinut

The A3 part # is 450 959 855. I dont know the Q7 part #, but if you see a Q7 switch for sale that looks like the switch I have it will work on an A8....the A3 and Q7 switches are identical, but that first digit might be different.

There are two tiny tabs on the door handle that have to have about one millimeter removed from each where the switch fits into the underside of the trim housing.

Look at the link in my earlier post, but when you open the link it will be showing page 2....you need to click on page one. At the top of the list of topics will be the thread for this mod.

Jack88

I plan to do this myself at some point, so I put together a parts list! I think the extra 4 digits are what ensure they are chrome, in case you order without a picture. A search without them seems to yield a mixture of solid black and chrome trimmed switches.

Driver's switch: 4F0-959-851-H-5PR
Passenger switches: 4F0-959-855-B-5PR
Mirror switch: 4F0-959-565-A-5PR