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AUDI S4 2004+ and A4 2002+ Phatbox Install
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I picked up my new 2005 Audi S4 and couldn't be without my Phatbox. I had yanked it from
my old S4 and started looking into what it would take to get it
installed.
I toyed with having the dealer install the Phatbox in the trunk... but then I started looking around and found two bad things: 1) It might cost $1000 (link) for labor and 2) It would be installed in the interior of the trunk (link), not in the hidden CD changer spot like my old S4. Well, this wasn't good enough.
With some further investigation, I found some info on people (link, link) that had installed their Phatbox in their glove compartment. This makes tons of sense. It's close to the head unit and there's plenty of room in the glove box for a Phatbox... well... with the right mods.
Note, some of this might be complicated by the fact that I have a Phatbox LE, not a VW/Audi Phatbox. I believe the VW/Audi Phatbox cable has pins that can be directly installed in the head unit's wire harness. Don't ask why I don't just stick the (smaller) Phatbox LE in the glove box without all of the other steps. It's a long story.
Parts:
1) A Phatbox
2) An Audi S4 or A4
3) The Trunk CD Changer Cable (link)
4) Stereo Removal Tools (see below)
5) 8mm Socket for Glove Box (a socket extension will help here)
6) Something to Cut Plastic and MDF, Like a Dremel Tool
7) Wire Harness Pin Removal Tool or Staples
8) Speaker-Box Carpet
9) MDF (medium density fibreboard)
First, The Teardown:
1) Remove the glove box. This page has good info on removing the glove box (link).
2) Remove the stereo. Removing the stereo is easy-ish. You just need the right tools. I bought the stereo removal keys pictured below, which you should make sure you don't do, because they suck. There are lots of places to buy these, including your local Audi dealer. Just stick the four keys in and pull them a bit at a time until the head unit budges. Then pull it all the way out.
3) Pop the pins from wiring harness. While you could buy a tool to do this (link), you could always make one (link)! I chose to make one with generous amounts of staples, heat shrink and zip ties. It worked pretty well on the stock harness. I'll put together a howto on this much later. Note the part in the link about using 2 staples... that means two staples still stuck together from the staple ammo. One staple alone is too weak. Possibly some staple gun staples would work better, but they need to fit in the narrow channel on the top and bottom of each pin. Bask in the glow:
Anyway, you can choose to do the pins two ways. 1) You can remove all of the pins from the stock harness and put them in the harness that comes with the CD changer cable, or 2) you can just pop the three wires that conflict with the CD changer and re-use the stock harness. I re-used the stock harness so I didn't have to mess with the half-dozen wires already in there. On my car, the three wires on the left end of the connector in the center of the picture below had to be pulled. The changer cable comes with some modest documentation that indicates which color wires go into which spots in the harness.
4) Remove the fake heat-sink/case from the Phatbox to get it in it's elemental form. This one's easy, remove the screws from the outside of the Phatbox (except for the one in the middle of the back) and the case comes off. I'm a tiny bit concerned about not having the case on the Phatbox... I might fashion some much smaller metal case that fits within the glove box.
Second, The Creative Bit:
1) Now that you've torn your car to bits, it's time to do something that isn't easily undone... cut out the back of your glove box. Of course, this isn't the worst thing... a new glove box is only a hundred bucks or so from various places. It's possible that the other glove box (the one that is for the CD changer (link)) would be better for this whole experiment... but I like using a dremel.
Before (from behind):
After (still from behind):
2) Also, since you ditched the original Phatbox case, you will want to do something to integrate the Phatbox with the glove box. I chose to build a little fascia piece out of MDF and speaker-box carpet. This carpet doesn't match the interior fabric in the glove box, but it's pretty close in the dark confines of the glove box. The hole in the stock glove box is about 10" by 2 3/8", so start with a piece of MDF that size and work your way to the following:
That's the MDF cutout sitting on the carpet. Sorry, I didn't make a jig for the shape of the Phatbox, so you'll have to work the math out yourself. It's easy. I left a little extra carpet around the edges to make a good snug fit when I put the piece in. I used 3M 77 spray glue to attach the carpet to the MDF.
Third, Test the Fit
So... stick the phatbox in the hole.
So, this part went well... don't worry (too much) about how far the Phatbox sticks out of the glove box... there's a ton of space behind it (for the other glove box). There's very little going on behind the glove box and nothing should interfere with it.
This is also the step where you should figure out how to firmly secure the Phatbox to the glove box. I haven't worked all of those details out yet. More on that in the last section.
Fourth, Put it All Back Together:
1) Put the pins in the wiring harness and run the cable to the back of the glove box area. This is pretty straightforward, unless you are like me, and choose to make the changer cable shorter by cutting about 8 feet out of the middle of it. Don't do this, by the way. When you're done with this you can put the stereo back in, but you might want to wait in case you have to mess around with it again.
2) Put the glove box back in. Just do the reverse of what you did to take it out.
3) Plug the Phatbox into the Phatbox cable. You can just reach through the glove box hole to get the cable.
4) Put the Phatbox in. Put the fascia piece in at the same time and get things straightened out.
Now What?
Well, you might have noticed by this point that the Phatbox isn't really secured in the space. I'm working on a solution to that that won't involve glue or screws. I want to make sure it's medium-easy to pop the Phatbox out of the glove box. I think I'll end up making some clips that secure the bottom of the Phatbox to the back of the glove box.
As mentioned earlier, I might make a new metal case for the Phatbox.
Notice in the picture at the top of the page that I added two little black fabric tabs coming from the back of the fascia piece so I can straighten it from the front. I might redo them using the felt so it blends better.
Stay tuned.
Email me if you have any questions or comments (phatbox@prehiti.net).
I toyed with having the dealer install the Phatbox in the trunk... but then I started looking around and found two bad things: 1) It might cost $1000 (link) for labor and 2) It would be installed in the interior of the trunk (link), not in the hidden CD changer spot like my old S4. Well, this wasn't good enough.
With some further investigation, I found some info on people (link, link) that had installed their Phatbox in their glove compartment. This makes tons of sense. It's close to the head unit and there's plenty of room in the glove box for a Phatbox... well... with the right mods.
Note, some of this might be complicated by the fact that I have a Phatbox LE, not a VW/Audi Phatbox. I believe the VW/Audi Phatbox cable has pins that can be directly installed in the head unit's wire harness. Don't ask why I don't just stick the (smaller) Phatbox LE in the glove box without all of the other steps. It's a long story.
Parts:
1) A Phatbox
2) An Audi S4 or A4
3) The Trunk CD Changer Cable (link)
4) Stereo Removal Tools (see below)
5) 8mm Socket for Glove Box (a socket extension will help here)
6) Something to Cut Plastic and MDF, Like a Dremel Tool
7) Wire Harness Pin Removal Tool or Staples
8) Speaker-Box Carpet
9) MDF (medium density fibreboard)
First, The Teardown:
1) Remove the glove box. This page has good info on removing the glove box (link).
2) Remove the stereo. Removing the stereo is easy-ish. You just need the right tools. I bought the stereo removal keys pictured below, which you should make sure you don't do, because they suck. There are lots of places to buy these, including your local Audi dealer. Just stick the four keys in and pull them a bit at a time until the head unit budges. Then pull it all the way out.
3) Pop the pins from wiring harness. While you could buy a tool to do this (link), you could always make one (link)! I chose to make one with generous amounts of staples, heat shrink and zip ties. It worked pretty well on the stock harness. I'll put together a howto on this much later. Note the part in the link about using 2 staples... that means two staples still stuck together from the staple ammo. One staple alone is too weak. Possibly some staple gun staples would work better, but they need to fit in the narrow channel on the top and bottom of each pin. Bask in the glow:
Anyway, you can choose to do the pins two ways. 1) You can remove all of the pins from the stock harness and put them in the harness that comes with the CD changer cable, or 2) you can just pop the three wires that conflict with the CD changer and re-use the stock harness. I re-used the stock harness so I didn't have to mess with the half-dozen wires already in there. On my car, the three wires on the left end of the connector in the center of the picture below had to be pulled. The changer cable comes with some modest documentation that indicates which color wires go into which spots in the harness.
4) Remove the fake heat-sink/case from the Phatbox to get it in it's elemental form. This one's easy, remove the screws from the outside of the Phatbox (except for the one in the middle of the back) and the case comes off. I'm a tiny bit concerned about not having the case on the Phatbox... I might fashion some much smaller metal case that fits within the glove box.
Second, The Creative Bit:
1) Now that you've torn your car to bits, it's time to do something that isn't easily undone... cut out the back of your glove box. Of course, this isn't the worst thing... a new glove box is only a hundred bucks or so from various places. It's possible that the other glove box (the one that is for the CD changer (link)) would be better for this whole experiment... but I like using a dremel.
Before (from behind):
After (still from behind):
2) Also, since you ditched the original Phatbox case, you will want to do something to integrate the Phatbox with the glove box. I chose to build a little fascia piece out of MDF and speaker-box carpet. This carpet doesn't match the interior fabric in the glove box, but it's pretty close in the dark confines of the glove box. The hole in the stock glove box is about 10" by 2 3/8", so start with a piece of MDF that size and work your way to the following:
That's the MDF cutout sitting on the carpet. Sorry, I didn't make a jig for the shape of the Phatbox, so you'll have to work the math out yourself. It's easy. I left a little extra carpet around the edges to make a good snug fit when I put the piece in. I used 3M 77 spray glue to attach the carpet to the MDF.
Third, Test the Fit
So... stick the phatbox in the hole.
So, this part went well... don't worry (too much) about how far the Phatbox sticks out of the glove box... there's a ton of space behind it (for the other glove box). There's very little going on behind the glove box and nothing should interfere with it.
This is also the step where you should figure out how to firmly secure the Phatbox to the glove box. I haven't worked all of those details out yet. More on that in the last section.
Fourth, Put it All Back Together:
1) Put the pins in the wiring harness and run the cable to the back of the glove box area. This is pretty straightforward, unless you are like me, and choose to make the changer cable shorter by cutting about 8 feet out of the middle of it. Don't do this, by the way. When you're done with this you can put the stereo back in, but you might want to wait in case you have to mess around with it again.
2) Put the glove box back in. Just do the reverse of what you did to take it out.
3) Plug the Phatbox into the Phatbox cable. You can just reach through the glove box hole to get the cable.
4) Put the Phatbox in. Put the fascia piece in at the same time and get things straightened out.
Now What?
Well, you might have noticed by this point that the Phatbox isn't really secured in the space. I'm working on a solution to that that won't involve glue or screws. I want to make sure it's medium-easy to pop the Phatbox out of the glove box. I think I'll end up making some clips that secure the bottom of the Phatbox to the back of the glove box.
As mentioned earlier, I might make a new metal case for the Phatbox.
Notice in the picture at the top of the page that I added two little black fabric tabs coming from the back of the fascia piece so I can straighten it from the front. I might redo them using the felt so it blends better.
Stay tuned.
Email me if you have any questions or comments (phatbox@prehiti.net).