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MK7 Climatronic upgrade with instructions and pictures.

davegsm82

Go Kart Newbie
Location
Blyth, Northumberland - England
Car(s)
MK7 Golf and T3 Tdi
I struggled to find instructions for the Climatronic upgrade to go from the basic heater controls to the Climatronic (dual control), so decided to make my own How-To.

This is a fairly simple install, BUT you have to remove some dashboard stuff and it's not particularly difficult, it looks a mess but to try and do it any other way is just stressful and I wasted at least 2 hours trying to fiddle cables in where they didn't want to go. So;

You need to buy a replacement heater control panel AND it must come with the adapter cable, and 2x replacement air temperature sensors G150 and G192. You can't simply get a control panel from a dual zone car and plug it in, expecting it to work. I bought mine from Aliexpress, it took a couple of weeks to arrive, looks genuine (not sure if it is) and the quality seems spot on. The instructions seem to be in chinese, but you don't really need them.
The one I bought was this;
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000959269245.html?spm=a2g0s.9042311.0.0.6f4f4c4d9AoeWQ
panel.png

Step 1, remove the side panels, they simply pop out, use panel removal tools if available, or something like a screwdriver if you don't have panel tools. There's another piece of trim that follwos the shape of the door shut in front, remove that too. This picture shows the position of the thermal sensor as installed, you won't have this, instead there will be a rubber bung pressed into the hole.
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Pop out the heater vent by pushing on it from the back,
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Remove the existing heater panel trim by first opening the cubby at the bottom and pulling up on the trim from the lower edge, it will pop off. Next remove the panel around the infotainment unit and upper vents, again it's just clipped in place, but be careful not to snap any clips or the panel itself, ease it away with a trim tool all the way around. Sorry this pic shows multiple steps complete but you get the idea...
thumbnail_IMG20201020153639.jpg

Remove the infotainment screen, small metal clips top and bottom just need to be pushed to the side and it will just fall out. a small terminal screwdriver is ideal here. The heater panel also comes out by pulling on 4x 'mushroom' topped clips that pull towards you and then stop, this releases the panel when they are all pulled out. Don't pull so hard that they snap out.
thumbnail_IMG20201020153708.jpgthumbnail_IMG20201020153713.jpg

Remove the trim below the cluster, pulls towards the driver and unclips, but won't come out all the way. Drop the steering wheel as far down as possible and lock it into place. Remove the 2x T20 Torx screws that are visible behind.
thumbnail_IMG20201020153657.jpg

Remove the cluster by pulling towards you. Again this just clips out, but is attached by a cable, you can get this far enough forward to get your hand behind it for the cable install, but if you want to remove it completely then disconnect the battery to be safe.
thumbnail_IMG20201020153700.jpg

Part 2 to follow...
 

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davegsm82

Go Kart Newbie
Location
Blyth, Northumberland - England
Car(s)
MK7 Golf and T3 Tdi
I removed the lower right (on a RHD car) cubby, because I dropped one of the screws, if you need to do this, flip it down and push a screwdriver along the sides as you pull on it to release the stops at the side, it will simply pull off after this.
thumbnail_IMG20201020154446.jpgthumbnail_IMG20201020154443.jpg

The next part is probably the most tricky, the cable which is already attached to the new loom is for the RIGHT SIDE. Feed this down where the existing cables come from, then up through the back, I used one of the vent holes as the plug passes through here easily. Next feed a scrap wire or piece of string down from behind the cluster, until it appears down the back of the infotainment unit, it will take some fiddling but it will get there. Tape this to the plug and draw it up behind the dash, then feed the wire/string out through the right hand side and connect to the sensor. That's the Right hand side complete.

The left side is a little easier, look in from the left of the dashboard with the door open and you'll see a clear and straight path to where the light is coming in behind the infotainment unit. Take the thin wire for the left sensor and put a little tape round the 2x metal pins on the end of the wires. straighten this and feed it along towards the light until it pops out behind the infotainment unit, again feed it down behind where the existing wires come from and remove the tape (the tape just stops the pins splaying out and getting caught).

The 2 pins go into this connector, you'll see little numbers printed on this side, 1 to 20. We're looking for pins 13 and 17 which are on the right hand side in the picture.
thumbnail_IMG20201020153804.jpg

You have to slide the connector out of the housing, do this by pulling the little tab shown next to my thumbnail and the wire block will slide out.
thumbnail_IMG20201020153751.jpg

thumbnail_IMG20201020153757.jpg

Insert the 2 pins until they click into the connector, reassemble the connector.
thumbnail_IMG20201020153816.jpg

Plug in the 2 plugs on the adapter harness to the back of the new climatronic unit and then plug the single plug into the socket as shown.
thumbnail_IMG20201020153744.jpg

Finally plug in the main plug on the right (no picture) and physically clip the climatronic and infotainment units back into place.

Turn on the engine and check that the unit powers up and that you can turn the fan speed up and down etc.

Run a 'Flap resync' which trains the new clima unit to the flap positions of your heater box, do this by pressing the AC and dash vents buttons symultaneously until their lights start flashing back and forward. You might hear the flaps moving etc and after a few seconds it should go back to normal.
thumbnail_IMG20201020161054.jpg

Run an AC 'Run-in' (sync) cycle by pressing the AC and "Max Demist" buttons symultaneously until they start flasing. Again this may take a little while as the clima unit trains itself to the AC compressor.
thumbnail_IMG20201020161102.jpg

After this everything* should work. Before runninng the AC sync, my AC wouldn't turn on, the light wouldn't light up and it wouldn't get cold. You can also run these from VAG-COM if you have it.

*The one caveat with this mod is that you don't get dual zone control, only 'Sync' with both zones at the same temp. This is because you're missing the flaps which direct air to the left and right of the car, but the main thing is the climatronic function works. If this bothers you then the only solution is to rip out the dash and fit the correct heater box and flaps. It doesn't bother me in the slightest. Also 'Clean air' function won't work if you don't have the air quality sensor installed. Again, not an issue for me.

Final step, put everything back together and enjoy.
 

Black_Pearl_MK7

New member
Location
Maryland
Car(s)
2019 GTI SE
Great writeup! I have thought about this modification before but was detoured due to some users stating it would be way to extensive but from your post its looks to be quite easy in comparison to other mods I've done.

Thanks
 

golfdave

Autocross Champion
Location
Scotland (U.K.)
Car(s)
Mk7 Golf GT Estate
Good write up but please ask the mods to move this to the DIY section where it deserves to be otherwise it will get lost in this section!
 

StorableComa

Autocross Champion
Location
SoCal, USA
Car(s)
17 GSW S FWD
So this allows you to set the temp and has the blower adjust automatically, rather than having to fiddle with the two dials all the time? Any plans to retrofit the air sensor at a later date? I understand dual zone climate requires quite a bit more in parts and tear down, and honestly is rarely used in the cars I've owned with it.
 

davegsm82

Go Kart Newbie
Location
Blyth, Northumberland - England
Car(s)
MK7 Golf and T3 Tdi
So this allows you to set the temp and has the blower adjust automatically, rather than having to fiddle with the two dials all the time? Any plans to retrofit the air sensor at a later date? I understand dual zone climate requires quite a bit more in parts and tear down, and honestly is rarely used in the cars I've owned with it.

Yep, that's about the measure of it. Set the temperature using the left hand knob and both left and right temperature displays go up and down. If you use the right hand knob then it switches 'sync' off and it tries to do dual-zone, which it can't, so I just leave it on Sync.

99% of the journeys in this car are solitary so dual control would never ever get used, I have heated seats so that covers pretty much all of my partners needs for heat.

With regards to the fan;
Yes, if you leave the unit on 'Auto' then it will throttle the fan up and down, as well as run the AC when neccesary, instead of just being on constant. However, it seems to think you need to have the fan on around number 4 constantly, which is too high. I leave mine on speed 2 (2 LED's lit) and the car warms up fast enough. I've not found the long-coding option in VAG-COM, and I'm not sure if it's available on a MIB1 system like mine, but the climatronic has it's own menu on the infotainment (notice the menu button below the Auto button), through which you can set how high the 'Auto' fan speed is. Once I can get this nailed down then it will be absolutely perfect.
The Clima system also uses the AC to demist the front screen, very useful, just press the 'max demist' button and your fan goes to what sounds like over 9000 and the AC clears the screen pretty sharpish, press it again and you're back to your previous settings, no need to fiddle with the dials.
 

StorableComa

Autocross Champion
Location
SoCal, USA
Car(s)
17 GSW S FWD
Good info. I know the panel swap was a thing with the MK6, but I had stopped looking into it when I learned you needed ducting and such for the retrofit on the MK7. Though this partial retrofit seems like it'd be up my ally.

Anyone with a MIB2/Comp. Media system tried this yet? Curious how the fan speed on auto plays out with a newer MIB. Doesn't seem like too big of a job for some nice features, at least to me; though I also ripped apart my MK6 to add Euro cup holder and driver side dash cubby :LOL:
 

Fraysa

Go Kart Champion
Location
Israel
Car(s)
2016 MK7 1.4TSI
Great writeup!

As for AliExpress - even the "Chinese market" parts (usually P/N starts with 5GG or so) never feel genuine. They always feel cheap, so I tend to always buy genuine parts.
I only use AliExpress for wire harnesses.
 

davegsm82

Go Kart Newbie
Location
Blyth, Northumberland - England
Car(s)
MK7 Golf and T3 Tdi
Great writeup!

As for AliExpress - even the "Chinese market" parts (usually P/N starts with 5GG or so) never feel genuine. They always feel cheap, so I tend to always buy genuine parts.
I only use AliExpress for wire harnesses.

Yes, this panel is a 51G907044K, and to be brutally honest it doesn't quite feel the same quality as the one that came out, but then again they're all very 'plastic-y'. I checked out the price of genuine, used dual control clima units and my head nearly exploded.

My old version of Vag-Com doesn't recognise this clima unit, there's no '.ROD' file assosciated with it, which is a shame as you can't view/check the functions, and the stuff you have access to doesn't have any descriptions, long-coding DOES work but again there's no descriptions so you're sort of flying blind. If anyone has a solution to this I'd love to hear from you.

Thanks for moving the thread @jay745
 

Acadia18

Autocross Champion
Location
The Greater Boston Metropolitan Area
Car(s)
2019 Golf R
Great writeup!

As for AliExpress - even the "Chinese market" parts (usually P/N starts with 5GG or so) never feel genuine. They always feel cheap, so I tend to always buy genuine parts.
I only use AliExpress for wire harnesses.

Do you have a link to just the harness, possibly with the sensors? I couldn't find it separately.
 

Fraysa

Go Kart Champion
Location
Israel
Car(s)
2016 MK7 1.4TSI
Do you have a link to just the harness, possibly with the sensors? I couldn't find it separately.

Sorry, I was referring to wiring harnesses in general. I suggest you talk to the seller - most sellers on AliExpress sold me harnesses separately for things like that (I mean, why wouldn’t they want to make more money?).
 
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