SatNav Upgrade

[thehood]

Has anyone ever considered, or attempted, upgrading the Symphony CD/Tape/Radio to SatNav?

There are plenty of cheap SatNav units for sale on eBay, but my Audi dealer assures me it's a fitter's nightmare and not easily done. Cheaper to buy a car with it factory fitted.

Any experience? Or should I stop messing around and learn to read a map?

[Nige_RS4]

Do not go to a dealer - they will charge you an arm and a leg! It is not that difficult to do for an auto electrician as long as you have the right bits. I think the most difficult bit it to run the gps antenna cable to the back of the car and position it on the exterior of your vehicle - best to go the OEM route here. You also need to make sure you have the right version of sat nav in the first place - there are many versions for different Audi models. Have you considered the DVD-based satnav?

[Dippy]

Yes, I have done it. It's not difficult, but can take a while to do.

[thehood]

OK, so apparently it's quite easy, but dealers won't touch it. Two websites to help out: http://www.navplus.us/ for general installation and German website for all wiring looms etc. is http://shop.kufatec.de/index.php/cPath/47. Easy.

[BBM_S4]

i think ive seen a post on audiworld by some of the guys that have done it.
looks very neat i must say.

[wombat]

Has anyone ever considered, or attempted, upgrading the Symphony CD/Tape/Radio to SatNav?

The RNS-D (CD based Navi system) is not much fun to fit in a B6 (didn't actually complete mine, hardwiring ABS pulses etc.) BUT the RNS-E (DVD Navi system with MP3+) is very straight forward (most signals come straight off the B6 CAN bus) as long as you have access to VAG-COM for a quick spot of recoding...

The real trick to fitting the RNS-E in the B6 is buying the correct loom adapter from Kufatec: http://shop.kufatec.de/index.php/cPath/2_45 (Take a peek at the item at the bottom of the page)

Darren
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[thehood]

I completed the job with the help of a guy with a VAGCOM. I upgraded directly to the RNS-E. It took us 10 minutes, with another 10 trying to work out how to recode the VAGCOM.

The hardwear piece was very easy. A question of pulling out the old and plugging in the new with the loom adapter from Kufatec as described in the post above. There are three parts to plug in. 1) the main loom for speakers, data, power etc - plug and play. 2) the multiple radio aerials, the ends of which have to be unclipped and dropped into a new clip (again, Kufatec had the necessary part). 3) the SatNav aerial - no need to route this to the back of the car and colour match a shark fin. It works perfectly on the steel strut above the fuse box, where it is attached magnetically. I needed to take off the foot plate below the steering wheel to route the cable to the unit.

The software is easy too but with a er... foible. You need to add a number to one of the codes to get the DIS to recognise the SatNav exists. The problem is that it takes a little time to take effect, overnight in my case. So follow the instructions then leave the thing to work itself out.

In summary the new unit looks great particularly with a colour DIS, works perfectly, is really fast, and it seems the MP3 player produces better quality sound than the old Symphony. It'll take up to 2 x 2Gb SD cards, so there's no need for an iPod adapter.