My overview of removing and installing trim on a 2004 Audi A4.
As usual, I accept no responsibility for any damage or expense that may be caused by attempting to duplicate this procedure. There might be other ways to do this, but it worked for me and I am offering this simply for your review. Please feel free to contact me with any questions at mharris at mpaxconsulting dot com. With that said... Here
is what everything looked like at the beginning. Very nice UltraSport
aluminum trim about to be replaced with S4 Bird's Eye Maple.
THE DOORS Once
the first clip is popped out, you simply pull the trim out to you
and go down the line of clips. This
should give you an idea of what you are pulling out of the door. When you get to the end, the final clip slides out in the direction of the door hinge. Just simply push it towards the hinge and it will pop right out. The two rear doors have enough of an overhang that you do not need to use the screw driver to get them going. Just use your fingers to get the first one going. THE REAR
ASHTRAY THE FRONT
ASHTRAY THE SHIFTER The trim
piece just pulls straight up. It is secured by 4 little clips that
fit into holes like the one below. One you get the trim loose, just wiggle it over the shift boot and pop the new one in. I did notice that one of the metal clips stayed in the hole instead of coming out with the trim. Just get that little piece out before putting your new trim in. The new trim just pops right in, slide the shifter boot back into place, squeeze, and slid into place. DASH
TRIM (LEFT) There
are 3 bolts holding the trim in place (marked above). To remove these
you need your new best friend, a 5/16ths socket with a screwdriver
attachment and a socket wrench. Most
of the bolts can be removed with the screwdriver extension, the one
nearest to the steering column will require a socket wrench because
you can not get the direction/cruise control levers out of the way. Once you get the bolts out, you need to remove the headlight switch assembly. To do this, you must turn the headlight switch just to the left of the "Auto" setting and push in, you will feel when you are in the right place because it will go in about a half an inch. Then turn to the right about 10 degrees and pull straight out. This took me a couple of tries, but when I got it right, I could feel it. The lighting assembly of course has a few wires plugged into it. So too does the interior light dimming switch just to the right. Both can be easily unplugged and the unit themselves pushed through the trim (away from the dash). Once those are free, just put the lighting pieces into the new trim and re-secure everything. Do not put the lower dash back yet as you will need to access one of the bolts it covers when you replace the next trim piece. DASH
TRIM (RIGHT) Once you get it out, there are four bolts that need to be removed. These bolts require the same 5/16ths bit on the screwdriver attachment. There is one on the far right (you need to remove the plastic cover similar to the one from the fuse box on the other side). The screw is parallel to the trim, there is a hole and the screw is about an inch behind it. The other three bolts are located on the dash, two in the corners where you removed the plastic trim pieces and one to the right of the steering column. BE CAREFUL: The two screws in the middle can fall down behind the stereo, I would recommend using a magnet or a pair of needle nose pliers to get the screw. The whole thing pulls out straight. You may need to tilt the bottom of the trim upwards and wiggle it. That's pretty much it. I was somewhat intimidated when I began this project. I figured it would take several hours and I would end up down at the dealership with random broken parts in the passenger seat. The whole thing, including sitting there for 30 minutes smoking cigarettes and trying to get the nerve to pop the first door trim off, took about an hour and a half. Everything came out about the way I expected and everything went back together easily. The two most annoying parts are getting the cover to the front ashtray and the lighting assembly. I am very happy with the results and I'm sure you will be too.
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