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I have slowly collected the interior pillar trim covers, overhead counsel, rear overhead light, grab handles, and sun visors for the Q3 in black. My goal is to swap out those pieces and dye my headliner. What I thought would be a simple process has turned out to be very difficult for a moron like me. The main issue is the front seat belts that go through the b pillar.


This is the reference I used to disassemble the interior trim.

In the reference video they do not remove the seat belts.

I was able to remove all the trim except the b pillars because of the seat belts.

Back to the Grey to Black headliner. Que Metallica “fade to black” thread theme song.

Here are the before photos of the rather tacky but brightening grey headliner.

 

[HEAT]

Current state of the grey to black project.
It has been a long and treacherous day and I’ve run out time. Going to try again next weekend. I am pleased to say that no plastic pieces were broken as I took my time. When it’s this cold outside the plastic trim pieces become stiff and break easily. This will get done but for now I will have to drive the q3 around like this.

 

[HEAT]

Well last weekend the Q3 started misfiring, the check engine light started blinking and the CEL light turned on. I stopped and then the check engine light turned off. It started misfiring and had a rough idle. I was close to home and it made it home with only the CEL light on.
I researched online and read that most likely it was a bad sparkplug, coil pack or the PCV. The next morning I replaced everything and tried to start it. It was Sunday and I needed the car to get to work the next day. It wouldn’t start, it was turning over but wouldn’t start. I bought a OBD 2 computer from autozone. It showed something about the timing.
I’m not sure which generation CCTA engine went into the 2015 North America Q3s, but I thought I read somewhere that it had the latest version of the timing belt tensioner.
This was the first time I needed Audi Roadside Assistance. They were very helpful and the entire process was streamlined. I opted for my car to go to Audi Of Bellevue. This was Sunday evening.
The dealer called me on Monday and I explained everything. The Service Advisor explained what the technician found. It was what I feared, that my engine jumped timing and damaged the engine. I needed a new engine and fortunately for me it was still under CPO warranty. It just so happens that it was set to expire five days later. Astonishing, the timing of my timing problem. It had approximately 57K miles on it when it let go. Audi Service has been Truly a pleasure to work with.

Headliner project is on hold until I get the car back.

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Got the Q3 back a couple of weeks ago. Audi of Bellevue was a pleasure to work with. If you live near Western Washington I highly recommend them. They are the epitome of professional service and will treat you with respect and dignity. I live in Tacoma where there is an Audi Dealer; however, I choose to travel a little farther to Audi of Bellevue. It is worth the drive.

It is my understanding that the engine was replaced as a whole unit. I asked for carbon cleaning if the old head was to be reused. I was pleasantly surprised when they told me Audi shipped a complete crate engine with a new head. The Q3 has been running perfectly and it’s time to continue project Grey to Black.

My apologies for the long delay of this project. I recently started a new job and have had little to no time to work on the Q3. Today my goal is to get most of this project finished.


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[HEAT]

So far the hardest part for this has been to remove the bottom end of the seat belt in order to fish it out of the old b pillar and through the new b pillar. It took nearly all day just to figure out how to do it. So by the end of the day with a few cuts on my hands I had one b pillar installed. Just to feel like something got accomplished I swapped out the headrests for some of the Alien head (like ET the movie).

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