Cuzoe's 2015 Golf TDI S Journal

[Cuzoe]

*** I'm no longer using this. It was a semi-elegant work around for a problem that I may have induced, but also could have been caused by some other things. I'm no longer using the Helix and no longer have the "all speakers shorted to ground" problem. ***

Actual good pictures to come soon-ish. Just been enjoying the car with (almost) all of my projects done. Shout out to @doctor and the guys at VAG Retrofit and Coding (I will get you your pictures, I promise) and also thanks to @simaservis1108 who reloaded software on my MIB 2.5 (bought as a plug & play unit but did not like a few things about it).

And finally, posting a schematic of my time delay relay for @Daveleach. I'm using it as a work around for the "all speakers shorted to ground" error that I (and a few others) get with Helix. For me the issue was not present with the MIB I or MIB II but started with my MIB 2.5. Some fixed it by replacing the Helix Amp/DSP. I'm open to that but no one is selling one by itself, haha. Anyway, I bought a TDRxN relay from WolstenTech wired is wired as shown in the pic.

This is a basic schematic. What I show as Amp #1 is actually a remote turn on signal from an AudioControl LC2i, which itself turns on based on output from Helix. What I show as Amp #2 is actually the Helix, whose ground is switched by the relay. It's all very weird... but the Helix provides speaker output to turn on the LC2i even before the relay switches to give it a ground.

The delay is set to ~15 seconds. So about 15 seconds after the radio comes on it switches ground to the Helix at which point my speakers come on. The MIB (apparently) only checks for speakers shorted to ground right at power-up. As long as that check passes it's happy to provide output. At some point I would like a more permanent (less messy) fix. Either getting lucky with someone selling a Helix DSP/Amp by itself, or sourcing a Helix PP50DSP if I'm really lucky. I had a period of about a 2 weeks where the WolstenTech relay was taking ~5 minutes to switch, seemed to be related to the cold, but then it fixed itself and has been working since.

 

[Daveleach]

what a great thread.
many thanks for the schematic, I’m more mechanically minded than electrically.
is there a way I could wire mine up with a similar delay relay, but I don’t have the additional amp like you have?

 

[Cuzoe]

I'll have to give that some thought... most time delay relays need three things... constant power, constant ground, and a trigger to make them switch (you need to choose one that can switch ground). Mine is using a 12V positive trigger, then switching the ground output. The constant power/ground is easy enough, but I'm not sure where you can get the trigger.

You could use something that only gets power when accessory is on. First thing that comes to mind is the 12V from the cigarette lighter plug in the hatch. But, if you have done the "mod" to have the cigarette lighters powered all the time this won't work. What I'm speaking of might not apply ROW but in NAR, by default the cigarette lighters are only on with Accessory. The "mod" is just moving a fuse so that they have power all the time. If you don't need the cigarette lighters on all the time this is a solution that could work.

The Helix PP50DSP that our unit is based on actually has remote out. Unfortunately for us that feature was not carried over the VW specific product.

 

[Daveleach]

No mod carried out to my 12v socket in the boot!

 

[Cuzoe]

This is not in order of how things have gone, but current retrofit in planning/parts stage is the Electronic Parking Brake. I don't even remember how I got started down this path, but it could be as dumb as my Parking Module complaining of missing EPB databus messages. Of course, the simple solution is flash the parking module with the proper dataset. No f***ing way we're going to do the simple thing, haha. My folks also gave me $200 for my birthday and the center console was only $150 with FREE shipping, so I was kind of forced into it.

So I picked up a Golf R center console on Ebay

• Came with the EPB button (5G0 927 225 D), with pigtail so that's nice
• I'll switch over my shifter surround buttons...
• And because convenience, I'll also install this while the console is out.
  • 
• And I've ordered the cupholder (3G0862531G) needed for this mod(use translate)
  • Which begs the question of my plan for RGB Ambient Lighting
  • Anybody with too much time on their hands may have seen my thread hereabout pre-facelift RGB ambient lighting
    • The pre-facelift (high) BCM does support RGB Lighting, but it's quite limited... I don't like limited!
  • So I'm now also retrofitting a facelift BCM
• - Console is from a 2015 Golf R without ratcheting/adjustable armrest so picked up ratcheting assembly 5G0864207FCMR
• - Still need the actual armrest cover, might splurge and go Alcantara from here since it would match my seats

Anyway, this obviously requires replacement of the rear brakes. I did find part numbers for EPB motors, calipers, carriers etc...

• But end of day found it cheaper/easier to just buy a full set of Golf R brakes... so that happened
  • The fronts are for sale here, I don't need them... it's only been a couple days but I'm impatient, price drop coming done, haha
• I'll clean up the rears and do a light re-build
  • Piston seals and dust boots, Centric PN 143.34021
  • Rear caliper "pin" guide/boot with cap 8V0698647
  • EPB Motor seal kit, to be replaced anytime the motors are unmated from the caliper 5Q0698365
  • Mopar Brake Motor Harness (x2) 68268376AC... credit to this thread on Vortex.
    • My brakes actually came with pigtails, but the pigtail splits off to the wheel speed sensor, which I don't need
    • I don't know the connector number, and their are new pigtails on ebay (from China) but most don't have the weather boot

Because I refuse to do the easy things, I have to switch from 38 pin ABS to 46 pin ABS...

• This was supposed to happen when I was planning ACC retrofit, but it turned out my 38 pin ABS supported everything...
  • Except for the TPMS Set button (which I may not need if I go direct TPMS) and now EPB
• See this post and this post from the past. I built pigtails with connectors to make the switch easy, when the time comes.

Blah blah, wiring diagrams for the EPB...

 

[Cuzoe]

These pics are not great, well one is pretty decent, the other is trash... but MK8 MFSW, heated with touch buttons. I will post details in time, but feel free to ask as that will guilt me into it more quickly. This upgrade also required an upgrade to the "facelift" 3Q0 highline gateway. I had previously retrofit the 5Q0 highline gateway but it lacks the adaptations for the MK8 touch MFSW buttons. I have been asked if the the 3Q0 gateway is needed for Mk8 wheels without touch buttons but I don't know the answer... paging a @doctor, haha.

Installed here but not coded, and I think I had something disconnected. I should have had some buttons illuminated, (volume and track select at least)

And coded, connected properly, everything working. ACC does work as well. It always shows unavailable on my first drive after disconnecting the battery.
* Edit, travel assist button (lower right of the left side buttons) has been deactivated until I install the 2Q0 lane assist camera.

 

[gixxerfool]

You’re level of work is impressive. Have you added in the ambient lighting to doors and passenger dash? I have the ones in the front doors but it bothers me there is nothing in the rear doors or dash to match.

 

[riceburner]

Its always the golfs that are some of the craziest builds. Youve done some serious work.

 

[Cuzoe]

You’re level of work is impressive. Have you added in the ambient lighting to doors and passenger dash? I have the ones in the front doors but it bothers me there is nothing in the rear doors or dash to match.

My car doesn't have any factory ambient lighting, although I currently have this style, credit to @o_a_ravi. My plan is now to go with full interior RGB... footwells front/rear, door strips, door handles, door pockets, dashboard strip, rear door strips, rear door pockets, center console (12 surround and storage cubby), cup holders. I picked up door and dash strips from eBay somewhere in Europe, gloss black but with a pretty neat pattern...


And I also ordered a couple things from AliExpress...
- Set of light pipes for dash and rear doors (these will be a pain to install), going to follow @IWMTom's instructions for the door cards
--- I have strips for front doors too, can't find a link for them anymore though
- Full set of RGB LED's for the A4 Prestige pack, this gets me more than enough lights plus all the plugs
--- All the RGB lights are 3 pin (power, ground, LIN bus) so I'll build my own harnesses ands splice in the connectors
--- In my RGB ambient lighting thread linked above I list most of the part numbers, the kit was just cheaper/easier than sourcing them all

I've got this overhead ambient lighting console too, it's white only unless I can figure something out
- DIY on Drive2 here, from the Arteon/Passat with Ambient+ pack.

Its always the golfs that are some of the craziest builds. Youve done some serious work.

Thank you sir... it never ends. It's the Golf guys that should have just bought a GTI/R in the first place. And since we think we saved so much on the car we spend too much on mods. Granted I got this stop-sale TDI for under 17k out the door with 0% financing, so I would have to spend almost 20k to have bought a Golf R.

 

[gixxerfool]

My car doesn't have any factory ambient lighting, although I currently have this style, credit to @o_a_ravi. My plan is now to go with full interior RGB... footwells front/rear, door strips, door handles, door pockets, dashboard strip, rear door strips, rear door pockets, center console (12 surround and storage cubby), cup holders. I picked up door and dash strips from eBay somewhere in Europe, gloss black but with a pretty neat pattern...
View attachment 248080View attachment 248081View attachment 248082View attachment 248083

And I also ordered a couple things from AliExpress...
- Set of light pipes for dash and rear doors (these will be a pain to install), going to follow @IWMTom's instructions for the door cards
--- I have strips for front doors too, can't find a link for them anymore though
- Full set of RGB LED's for the A4 Prestige pack, this gets me more than enough lights plus all the plugs
--- All the RGB lights are 3 pin (power, ground, LIN bus) so I'll build my own harnesses ands splice in the connectors
--- In my RGB ambient lighting thread linked above I list most of the part numbers, the kit was just cheaper/easier than sourcing them all

I've got this overhead ambient lighting console too, it's white only unless I can figure something out
- DIY on Drive2 here, from the Arteon/Passat with Ambient+ pack.

Are you using the BCM for this?

 

[Dog Dad Wagon]

Dude this is the best meme I’ve seen in 2022

 

[Cuzoe]

Are you using the BCM for this?

Yes, I'm retrofitting a facelift BCM. Pain in the butt because facelift BCM has no coding, all adaptations, so I'm working through that with the new BCM connected to an MQB Bench setup.

But... as mentioned before the pre-facelift BCM (high) does support RGB lighting (contrary to what I had always read in the forums, not just here) albeit in a limited fashion. It does require MIB 2 at least, although I don't know at which firmware version the in car display became available. And pre-facelift can only get a drop down with a selection of set colors, can't get the slider with customizable colors like on the facelift BCM's. Pre-facelift doesn't support changing of the infotainment/aid accent colors either. It does support changing RGB colors based on driving profiles if you also have a facelift gateway.

Into the weeds we go... the way it works is each RGB LED has its own hard coded LIN bus address. The BCM sends all the commands out on the same LIN bus wire (BCM Plug C Pin 29), to all addresses that are configured in the adaptations. The RGB LED's respond to commands for their address. All of the RGB's get the same color but on/off and brightness are independent for a given group (footwells, door pockets, door strips, etc) of LED's. So the footwell RGB LED's are part number 8W0947415 A, B, C, D (FL, FR, RL, RR). But they all respond to the "footwell" group commands from the BCM.

These two pictures are with my pre-facelift BCM, just a test harness I built connected to an RGB LED.


The overhead console ambient light will be tied to that same LIN bus (gotta run another wire up the pillar ) Actually found out the overhead is a different LIN bus. But it's the same LIN bus as the interior alarm motion sensor... which I've already retrofitted so I already have the wire up there , just need to splice off of it for the ambient.

By default the Golf doesn't have support for an overhead console ambient light so I'll have to do some MIB lighting zone configuration editing, but I'll get there in time. Found out that when enabling an ambient light (via coding) that is not present on the Golf the MIB reverts to a "generic" list of lights. The overhead is included in that generic list so when I enabled roof light via coding I got the adjustment icon and graphic... very nice!

Although I won't have to do the config editing for the overhead light, it's described here courtesy of @Chillout , and is also deep into the weeds, which I like, haha.

 

[gixxerfool]

I’m going to Pm you so I don’t derail your thread.

 

[Cuzoe]

It does occur to me that I'm leaving some things out if you're coming from a 38 pin ABS module (or even if you already have a 46 pin)...
Edit: So this is a continuation (or sorts) of my Electronic Parking Brake retrofit post.

46 Pin ABS Connector - 4M0 998 046, or 8V0-998-623
- You could look for a pigtail removed from a wrecked car (make sure it's a 46 pin of course)...
- AliExpress also sells what certainly looks like the same connector but with part number 5Q0 973 046, loaded with pins/wires
--- This is what I would do had I not built myself a pigtail already
- Large pin repair wire PN 000 979 308 E, 46 pin ABS has one additional ground, you can re-use the other large pins, and splice off an existing ground for the additional
- Medium pin repair wire PN 000 979 242 E, these are for the parking brake motors, so only needed if you're retrofitting EPB
--- These are $30 each from the dealer , but you can buy the pins alone and terminate your own wires
--- Search the wire part number and links for the pins will pop up
--- If you are doing EPB retrofit and you're buying a pigtail from a wrecker, be sure it came from a Golf R (or maybe S3) otherwise it will not have these medium pins
- Small pin repair wire PN 000 979 046 E, get as many as you need (check the schematics, it will depend on diesel/gas, having ESC button, and manual/DSG)

 

[gixxerfool]

Is this is the right thread? I’m confused.