Sandman GTI MK7 PP DCC Lighting Pkg - The Journey begins!

[Sandman GTI]

Volvo Plate Holder

Gathered some more info to share.

Picture 1 - Volvo frame painted
Picture 2 - Side view showing difference from top to bottom. Bottom is taller to tilt plate up for viewing (I believe).
Picture 3 - The two mounting pieces showing thickness.
Picture 4 - Black piece compared to rubber bumper. Thickess of lip.
Picture 5 - White piece compared to rubber bumper.
Picture 6 - Items as found in store. Black from Walmart auto section, White from Lowe's, auto draws by small parts area. (screw and nut section)

The white piece will not clear the rubber bumpers and like you mentioned may cause plate to rock if mounted in center. If I used the white, I might need to mount in 4 corners of the Volvo Plate.
I think the black ones will clear rubber bumpers. For now this is what I plan to use, but will adjust as I get into it more.
Will post more after completed.

 

[Sandman GTI]

WeatherTech Rear Hatch Mat

The first picture below is how I thought this mat would be placed.
The front and rear floor mats fit so well, I wondered how they had missed on the rear hatch mat. It looked like it was not even close to right part.
I looked at pictures on line and read some threads posted on another site and comcluded that the WeatherTech hatch mat was designed to sit on top of the spare tire on the lowest part of hatch. The sub floor insert is then inserted just above it at lower level or at the upper location as shown in my pictures.

This still seemed odd until I thought of it like a German.

The upper sub floor is where you place dry goods. Items not that heavy and that will not leak fluid. If you buy milk, clorox, etc, then you lift the sub floor and clip it into holder to keep it up. Then place liquid/heavy items on the WeatherTech mat below. When unloaded return sub floor to down position. Even with sub floor up the parcel shelf sticks up some but clears the hatch glass.

I think this is right, as the WeatherTech mat fits best in this position just on top of spare tire. I may be wrong, so if I am please help with info.

UPDATE: With some help I have learned WeatherTech designed mat so it fits on top of sub floor when it is in the lower position. Changed it and now it fits this location as designed.
Just thought it might also fit in upper position by not to be. Thanks to forum for extra info!

I also wonder how this affects sub woofer sound as it is located on top of the spare tire now.
I will have to pull out and test again.

PS: My Great Grandmother spoke only German and my Grandparents spoke it to each other when they did not want us to know what they were talking about So not a shot at Germans with comment above.









Updated picture of the correct installation of the hatch WeatherTech Mat.
Here it fits perfect. Thanks to forum member help!

 

[goodman312]

Interesting idea to use the mat as a shelf of sorts in the lower position. Not interesting enough to temp me to buy one, but interesting all the same.

Congrats on the car. I've had my S PP LP DSG DCC CSG for about ten days.

Matt Goodman
Columbus OH US

 

[Sandman GTI]

Interesting idea to use the mat as a shelf of sorts in the lower position. Not interesting enough to temp me to buy one, but interesting all the same.

Congrats on the car. I've had my S PP LP DSG DCC CSG for about ten days.

Matt Goodman
Columbus OH US

Wearhertech mats are great. Fit well, protect much and are made well. But you pay to play. Not everyone's #1 choice. Let us know how you like your car when you get it.

 

[Sandman GTI]

Warning Tag for Strut Pucks.

The week prior to the arrival of my car I sent a list of items I wanted verified when they did the maintenance check. One of these was to make sure the strut pucks have been removed. When I picked up the car, in a plastic bag with other info from car, there was a warning tag that looked like it had been atached to the steering wheel (maybe). It warned the dealer to remove the pucks. Attached are two pictures of the tag. I think the mechanic put the tag in my bag to let me know he had completed. It is in several languages including German, so must be used at several plants. I would ask them to show you the tag to verify they know to remove. That would give you good comback info if they still do not remove. If the dealer still left them, I would go to VWoA with the issue.

Below are pictures of the tag. Anyone else seen one?

 

[Sandman GTI]

Volvo Plate Holder - mounting.

Worked to get my plate holder mounted on rear of car.
Overall not to bad, just checked measurements many times to make sure before I drilled holes. Good thing VW positioned the license plate lights evenly from center as I used them to find center of the opening. Not much else to reference.

Behind the body work is black foam block in the bumper. Just try to not drill very deep and you will be ok. I used license plate inserts that you can buy at auto stores and Walmart. The kit came with security bolts that take a special tool to install and remove. Everything went in well. The location the plate mounts is not perfectly flat. Seems to have a bow in the middle. Not a big issue but the plate does not fit perfectly flush on all rubber bumpers installed in the Volvo plate. Not very noticable but to me.

You can just use the 4 screws in the kit and drill 4 holes and mount plate alone. Would fit more flush if you would like.
Inserts make for a clean install.

Holes drilled.



Inserts installed.



Close up of insert.



Screws going in.



Installed





Tool used to measure and align for drilling.
Sold at Lowes. Helps keep everything square.

 

[Sandman GTI]

Front Engine Cover

It took almost as long to get as my new car. Ordered the Front Engine cover from ECS Tuning about 2 months ago. This is the front cover that comes standard on the Euro version cars. I ordered it because without it the front engine looks unfiinished, as if something was left out and it was by VW for cost reduction in USA. The quality is top rate, OE specs. The underside even has a GTI grill molding pattern. One threaded connector is sent with the cover and needs to be screwed in place on a post that is just sitting there at front of the engine waiting for it. I did have to buy a 13mm deep well socket as I did not want to scratch the part using a wrench. Added a little WD40 to the threads and slowly turned it in place as the threads are cut as it goes in. The front cover pops in place perfectly. However, if you want to remove it you must remove the main cover first and reach down and undo a latch on the main support post built into the front cover.

Issues:
Only one. The cover looks like it slopes slightly, higher on the right hand side. Either the front cover is slightly tilted or the main engine cover is tilted the other direction. The main engine cover is sligtly loose at the right front location. In pictures below I show what the alignment looks like it you lift it some. I may try to adjust this with a spacer inserted inside the rubber ball receiver to take up extra room and hold the main cover up some for better alignment. The front cover does not have any adjustments. I looked on line for pictures of the Euro engines with this cover and many of them look the same with the slight slope on the front cover. Might be the desgin or how the design ended up looking. From overhead shot it looks perfect. Only from a lower angle can you see the slope. Still looks good. I will work some to adjust as much as I can.

Pictures:

Without front cover engine looks naked here!





Slight lean to front cover.



The right front corner of the main cover can be lifted some (play). when lifted the two covers line up better.



Overhead looks good.



Nice Grill look molded in place on underside.



Ball connnector that must be screwed in place on top of existing post.

 

[Sandman GTI]

DeAutoLED - Light change out.

Purchased several LED bulbs from DeAtutoLED.
Will cover the first 3.

Hatch LED - this is a direct plug and play bulb. Just be careful to not let the OE bulb roll in your hand like me and burn you finger. Was numb the rest of the day. Once benefit of LED is cooler temp. I have only had the car for a week and the hatch OE light bulb glass was already smokey from the heat generated from the bulb. The light is great! Others have shown pictures so just take my word for it. This is not the strip light they also sell, this is the OE location light.

Glove Box light - have not had time to install but is next item.

License Plate Light - This light also puts out great light. It is so bright I can see the improvement in my backup camera. Very white and bright. Added pictures below.

I know negative feedback hurts sales so my intent now is to just share info to my fellow forum drivers. The lights are packaged great and shipping was quick. The only issue I had with the license plate light is the connector does not match up exactly like the OE connector. DeAutoLED's plug only slides in and makes contact. The plug will not go in far enough to make the OE latch. Becuase of this the red secondary lock can not be inserted and hold connector in place. The lights work fine, I am just sharing this info so you do not wonder if you are doing something wrong and try to force. I texted DeAutoLED and asked if they intended the connector to be able to lock and I learned they knew it would not lock and was designed that way. They felt the connection was good and should not come apart. I thank them for the quick reply that day. The light does work, but just wanted to share that it does not plug up just like OE but all does work. The plug looks like it should fit like OE and even has the latch tab if it could go in more. The prongs that plug in are longer than OE and I wonder if they are bottoming out inside the plug. would be nice if DeAutoLED would trial and let me know. I hate to try and cut on my prongs.

License Plate Light - Great!



DeAutoLED plugged in but will not go all the way to lock. Red locking tab will not slide in.



Prongs are longer than OE - because of short fit?
DeAutoLED is on the right.

 

[jjm51]

thanks sandman.

liking all this.

john

 

[goodman312]

Below are pictures of the tag. Anyone else seen one?

I saw mine in the glove compartment. Shipping blocks / pucks were still in anyway. It was nice that the tag was removed though...

Matt Goodman

 

[Sandman GTI]

DeautoLED - Red Footwell lights

Worked last night to swap out the footwell lights from white LED to Red.
The white looks great but I wanted to add a touch more red.
The Red bulbs are brighter as there are 6 lights instead of the one white light. The Red looks good and changes the mood and look inside the car. Anyone who has the R should get the blue. I bet they look great. They also sell a brighter white which would be nice in Golf cars.

Bulbs are good quality and packaged well but again I did have some issues. The bulbs are on a circuit board that matches the OE design. When you install the bulb, the plug prongs slide into a hole to plug in. The board has two small holes that slide over two plastic pegs in the clear lens. From the edge of the circuit board to the clear plastic housing there needs to be about a 1mm gap. In this gap the black cover slides over and a 1mm thick plastic edge fits down in the gap. The small locator holes must be drilled just farther back from edge as the curcuit board sits to close and the gap is only about .7mm. Because the gap is not large enough the black plastic cover will not slide down in place. I had to use a small screw driver and carefully pried the board back some, esentially bending the plastic locator pegs back so circuit board sits back more and the gap is larger. Then black cover could be pushed into place.

**If others have installed with no issues I would like to know. Maybe I missed something in how I did it.**

VW did not help matters by making the electical wires on the driver side so short I could not drop the light all the way down to unplug it. I had to reach up as much as I could and unplug it while light was half way up in opening. THANKS VW!

Overall good mod. Red looks great, Blue would look unique and White would be a good upgrade also.

It now looks like a WW2 bomber with the red lights on inside for night vision.

Sorry no pics. Was having so much fun forgot to take time and it was getting late.

Update - Picture added!

 

[Mike10821]

Worked last night to swap out the footwell lights from white LED to Red.
The white looks great but I wanted to add a touch more red.
The Red bulbs are brighter as there are 6 lights instead of the one white light. The Red looks good and changes the mood and look inside the car. Anyone who has the R should get the blue. I bet they look great. They also sell a brighter white which would be nice in Golf cars.

Bulbs are good quality and packaged well but again I did have some issues. The bulbs are on a circuit board that matches the OE design. When you install the bulb, the plug prongs slide into a hole to plug in. The board has two small holes that slide over two plastic pegs in the clear lens. From the edge of the circuit board to the clear plastic housing there needs to be about a 1mm gap. In this gap the black cover slides over and a 1mm thick plastic edge fits down in the gap. The small locator holes must be drilled just farther back from edge as the curcuit board sits to close and the gap is only about .7mm. Because the gap is not large enough the black plastic cover will not slide down in place. I had to use a small screw driver and carefully pried the board back some, esentially bending the plastic locator pegs back so circuit board sits back more and the gap is larger. Then black cover could be pushed into place.

**If others have installed with no issues I would like to know. Maybe I missed something in how I did it.**

VW did not help matters by making the electical wires on the driver side so short I could not drop the light all the way down to unplug it. I had to reach up as much as I could and unplug it while light was half way up in opening. THANKS VW!

Overall good mod. Red looks great, Blue would look unique and White would be a good upgrade also.

It now looks like a WW2 bomber with the red lights on inside for night vision.

Sorry no pics. Was having so much fun forgot to take time and it was getting late.

I literally just did these exact mods, and it was very useful to know about the issues with the red locking clip on the license plate LED housings. Thanks!

Just so everyone knows what our footwells now look like, here is a quick phone picture I took after installing:

This was taken with the footwells adjusted to 100% brightness. They are brighter than the stock LEDs for sure, but dimmed down to 50% they are great and not distracting at all. Love them.

 

[Mike10821]

Bulbs are good quality and packaged well but again I did have some issues. The bulbs are on a circuit board that matches the OE design. When you install the bulb, the plug prongs slide into a hole to plug in. The board has two small holes that slide over two plastic pegs in the clear lens. From the edge of the circuit board to the clear plastic housing there needs to be about a 1mm gap. In this gap the black cover slides over and a 1mm thick plastic edge fits down in the gap. The small locator holes must be drilled just farther back from edge as the curcuit board sits to close and the gap is only about .7mm. Because the gap is not large enough the black plastic cover will not slide down in place. I had to use a small screw driver and carefully pried the board back some, esentially bending the plastic locator pegs back so circuit board sits back more and the gap is larger. Then black cover could be pushed into place.

**If others have installed with no issues I would like to know. Maybe I missed something in how I did it.**

Totally forgot to address this.
I had exactly the same issue.
It was kind of late, I was sitting there scratching my head... and decided to just throw them in without the cover snapped all the way down on that side. I will probably take them back out and re-adjust them to get the covers to fit right. Here is a pic showing what you described as the issue.

 

[Sandman GTI]

Thanks for pictures. Car does look great with red. I would like to see an R with blue.
Anyone have pics of white?
Thanks for sharing info. I hope others profit from the shared info.
It is a good mod!

 

[Sandman GTI]

I saw mine in the glove compartment. Shipping blocks / pucks were still in anyway. It was nice that the tag was removed though...

Matt Goodman

I also had it stated on my check list that I made for sales rep. She asked that the most experienced mechanic do the prep work on my car. So far all looks good. It did help to have a sales rep.