How to install screens into the A8 D3 with electric headrests

By Mutley

Here is a guide of how i installed the screens into my rear headrests. I'll go through the guide in order, picking out points as i go, feel free to pop me any questions but this is just a guide, your screens etc might vary to mine so take this into account before you start.

Like most things i do normally have a practice first, i made a frame up for the screen box first, i also tested both screens linking to a DVD player - i was actually very impressed with the quality - in all honesty i expected them to be rubbish for the price but they have good colour depth, bright and linked to a upscaling DVD they had a really sharp image.

Tools needed :

Sharp Knife
Thin Marker pen
Screw drivers
needle nose pliers
Various drill bits from 2mm-8mm
hammer and nails !!!
Cableties - long

Cost of conversion

Screens = £25ea x2
Nails, = 2.50
plystrip = 2.50

Step 1 : Remove the headrests from the car, i'm not going to cover this process as its more than been convered and pictures have been posted of the process - For reference mine are the electric headrests.

Step 2: Headrest dissasembly, The headrest is made up of 4 components, the bars, foam, plastic case and the leather.

The leather unclips from underneath



Then pull on the bars and pull one side out followed by the other



Once out you can then pull the foam out the inside as well



Step 3 : Making the frame for the headrests

This section differers from most other headrest installs simply because you will be building these from the inside out and not the other way - most headrests are started by cutting the leather - rip out the foam, push in a base and finish. This wont work on these headrests because the case surrounding the bars comes into the rear section to far.

Cut the plystrip into even sections and tack them together to make a frame.





Step 4 - Make the hole for the cable to go down

This picture is before i cleaned up the hole - which you will want to do to avoid cutting the cable. Of course this stage is optional but i diddnt want the wires showing. Suffice to say this bar is tough and takes a good bit of work to cut and file afterwards.

Cut the hole as small as possible, then open it up wider afterwards



Step 5 - Make the hole bigger at the bottom of the bar - again optional because your connector might come through but mine diddnt so i needed to increase the diameter slightly



Step 6 - Preparing the foam
Align the frame to the bottom edge, make sure each of the corners are just inside where the seams will be, the headrest is not flat but remember to cut straight down regardless of the thickness or you'll end up with it narrower at the bottom than the top,



Once cut you should have something like this,





Step 7 - Rear of case
The surround seperates into x2 halfs, the front half luckily has the bars bolted to it so the rear half forms the back shape - it also has the strip that the leather tucks into to form a neat finish.

Cut the lower section off to re-use the bit that the leather tucks into.



Step 8 - Gradual re-assembly, I say this because as it all goes back together you'll have a job getting it to go in but basically its a reverse of the stripping process.

8a, Insert the foam into the leather, make sure you get it evened out and back into its correct position, its a pain to put back in.
8b, Push the plastic section with the bars attached up through the slot into the bottom - carefull not to now rip the thin lower bit of foam.
8c, Clip back in the small plastic section that supports the leather afterwards - trim if need be.

Step 9 - Inserting the frame and cutting the leather

This is it now and really no going back - upto this point everything else is recoverable and could be reassembled back - if you make a hash of this bit its visual and you'll need a new headrest.

When cutting the leather use the foam underneath as a guide, cut from corner to corner - but do NOT cut all the way - cut as far as you need to to get the frame in but nothing more. Cut diagonally from corner to corner giving you 4 flaps not in a square. Then just pust one side in from the middle, use the frame to push the foam back to give you slack to gt the other side in.

Hopefully you'll have something like this.



Step 10 - Inserting the screen base

Before you insert the base take the time to get the frame sitting nicely, hide all the corners by pulling foam over them, use strips from the waste piece of foam we cut out of the back, i cut these into strips and then placed them on the inside between the frame and the leather which made a soft base from the screen to sit on once pushed in.

Feed the wire through the base and then down the tube, it all starts to get a bit fiddly now because in your hands you have 3 things and you also need to stretch the leather down as you push the base in. Hopefully though you end up with something like this



Step 11 - Fixing tight, Heres a picture of my base - you'll see i cut a hole in the middle and 4 holes, x2 either side. The large hole is to get a finger in that will allow you to guide a cable tie out from one of the x2 holes. These holes are either side of the bar and you will use the cable ties to go around the bar, make sure the holes are big enough to push the big end of the cable tie back in.

I've not tidied up this hole but its just to give you an idea, i did file all this nice and neatly after.



Step 12 - Installing in the car.

Now the eagle eyed will know that i've installed using the cable down the bar method - the techies will note that i have an issue at this point and it lies at how the headrest is fixed down in the car.

Well, you need to locate this bracket that you disconnected the headrest from on the back of the seat. CAREFULLY negotiate it 45 degrees as per below



You then want to start of with a tiny 2mm and and 1mm at a time increate the hole to about 8mm as in my case - this will allow the cable to come out the bottom and will still allow you to springclip the headrest back in as it was.



Step 13 - Finished, put all the clips back on, re-attach all the seat covers etc, and hopefully you'll end up with something like this.