golfdave
Autocross Champion
- Location
- Scotland (U.K.)
- Car(s)
- Mk7 Golf GT Estate
October 2018
Part 4
I decide to sort out once & for all two items which I have not been 100% happy with.
The car came will all LED interior lighting..except for the glove box light & the rear boot light. Now the glove box light is a straight swap out & replace with the footwell LED unit which I did when I got the car. The boot light did not have a straight LED replacement light unit, & I still currently can’t find an OEM LED version! VAG appears to be using several of the footwall LED units in the bigger top end car boots!
So when I got the car I fitted a good LED “bulb” (Philips X-treme Vision LED 43mm festoon). However this always remained dimly lit when the ignition was on, or off & the cars main ”X” relay had not timed out. This is because the light is powered directly from the BCM & not the lock switch. So the light is “told” to switch off instead of a mechanical/physical break in the wiring like a switch! This means there is a very small milliamp supply still in the cable from the BCM which would not be enough to light the OEM incandescence bulb, but is enough to light the LED! Now I knew that the best way around this was a resistor to stop the milliamp supply, but I never found out the correct resistance & wattage to use in this situation, & the web was filled with conflicting “facts”.
So wind forward 4yrs to now, & this “mod” has been tried even more times on the web, so the facts are clearer! Basically in this situation a 1000ohm 0.25watt resistor is the most suitable, & wired across the “bulb” contacts. As the resistor can generate a very small amount of heat (0.25W) I decided to wire the resistor across the LED bulb itself & through the built in heat sink. This heat sink is electrically isolated so safe for the resistor to sit in. This also means the resistor is covered by two metal items, the heat sink & the OEM reflector. Result?....it works..no more dimly lit LED!...
Another item that was annoying me was the wheel bolt caps. I had removed the chrome ones I fitted with these wheels, as the chrome paint was coming off, & then I got the bolts ELNP. That plating lasted about one winter (17/18) & looked really bad, so I fitted a spare set of cheap gloss black bolt caps which I have been using this year. The look actually suited the car, was OEM, & had “grown” on me. So I had a look around for VAG wheel bolt caps & found that under the Skoda brand they make plain 17mm bolt caps in five different colours & in short length & long length! The long length (for deep recess) I had on a previous car, so knew the quality, so ordered a whole pack of the short length in matte black. These look 100% better & fit my standard aftermarket bolts perfect, plus a true OEM part! I chose the matte black as all the plastic at this level on the car is matte black, the gloss black is only above the bumper level.
On a Final note I bought the OEM radio removal tools from my dealer parts dept as the web search was throwing up cheap stuff with reviews of “very bendy”, which I have had before & hated!! VW Radio release tool T10057 (Part No. VV 038 390 37 EA) set of four £16.36, solid & well made! I used these to remove the infotainment head unit in the glove box to check the optical data bus connection between it & the amp under the passenger seat (I have Dynaudio sound system). I have previously been getting very intermittent fault codes for “fault connection optical data bus sound system”. So I removed the connectors at both ends & inspected, all ok now, but we’ll see how it goes!..
Part 4
I decide to sort out once & for all two items which I have not been 100% happy with.
The car came will all LED interior lighting..except for the glove box light & the rear boot light. Now the glove box light is a straight swap out & replace with the footwell LED unit which I did when I got the car. The boot light did not have a straight LED replacement light unit, & I still currently can’t find an OEM LED version! VAG appears to be using several of the footwall LED units in the bigger top end car boots!
So when I got the car I fitted a good LED “bulb” (Philips X-treme Vision LED 43mm festoon). However this always remained dimly lit when the ignition was on, or off & the cars main ”X” relay had not timed out. This is because the light is powered directly from the BCM & not the lock switch. So the light is “told” to switch off instead of a mechanical/physical break in the wiring like a switch! This means there is a very small milliamp supply still in the cable from the BCM which would not be enough to light the OEM incandescence bulb, but is enough to light the LED! Now I knew that the best way around this was a resistor to stop the milliamp supply, but I never found out the correct resistance & wattage to use in this situation, & the web was filled with conflicting “facts”.
So wind forward 4yrs to now, & this “mod” has been tried even more times on the web, so the facts are clearer! Basically in this situation a 1000ohm 0.25watt resistor is the most suitable, & wired across the “bulb” contacts. As the resistor can generate a very small amount of heat (0.25W) I decided to wire the resistor across the LED bulb itself & through the built in heat sink. This heat sink is electrically isolated so safe for the resistor to sit in. This also means the resistor is covered by two metal items, the heat sink & the OEM reflector. Result?....it works..no more dimly lit LED!...
Another item that was annoying me was the wheel bolt caps. I had removed the chrome ones I fitted with these wheels, as the chrome paint was coming off, & then I got the bolts ELNP. That plating lasted about one winter (17/18) & looked really bad, so I fitted a spare set of cheap gloss black bolt caps which I have been using this year. The look actually suited the car, was OEM, & had “grown” on me. So I had a look around for VAG wheel bolt caps & found that under the Skoda brand they make plain 17mm bolt caps in five different colours & in short length & long length! The long length (for deep recess) I had on a previous car, so knew the quality, so ordered a whole pack of the short length in matte black. These look 100% better & fit my standard aftermarket bolts perfect, plus a true OEM part! I chose the matte black as all the plastic at this level on the car is matte black, the gloss black is only above the bumper level.
On a Final note I bought the OEM radio removal tools from my dealer parts dept as the web search was throwing up cheap stuff with reviews of “very bendy”, which I have had before & hated!! VW Radio release tool T10057 (Part No. VV 038 390 37 EA) set of four £16.36, solid & well made! I used these to remove the infotainment head unit in the glove box to check the optical data bus connection between it & the amp under the passenger seat (I have Dynaudio sound system). I have previously been getting very intermittent fault codes for “fault connection optical data bus sound system”. So I removed the connectors at both ends & inspected, all ok now, but we’ll see how it goes!..
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