White ambient lighting retrofit to MK7.5 GSW S?

[brad wagon]

I am retrofitting SEL seats and door cards into my 2019 Golf Sportwagen S (MK7.5). I would like to get the ambient light strips in the door cards to work. Is it as simple as plugging them into the door control module and coding the BCM? Or would I have to run additional wiring between the door and the BCM?

I would also like to install the SEL OEM dash light strip.

I have found threads describing the process for pre-facelift cars. Does anyone have any info regarding this retrofit for facelift wagons?

I'm just interested in white ambient lighting; I'm not really concerned with RGB functionality.

Thanks.

 

[Cuzoe]

I'm not sure whether all (low and highline) door control modules have the pins for lighting. But assuming your modules have the pins yes, that is where you would connect... and ground of course.

You could access the door control modules in OBD/VCDS and see if it lets you enable ambient lighting in the long coding. There is other coding to be done as well but I would start there.

 

[brad wagon]

Thank you for raising that potential issue; I hadn't thought of it. I checked and my S has the highline door control modules. I don't know why though...there are threads of folks retrofitting the auto folding mirrors to MK7.5 GSW S cars, and they had to upgrade DCMs.

I don't care about the auto folding feature, but the auto turndown in reverse would be nice. I wonder if that just requires changing the mirror switch? Or does it require the auto folding mirrors?

 

[Cuzoe]

Requires auto folding mirrors, which have the position memory. You can get yours to turn down but they won't return to the proper position.

As for the modules... highline module can always do everything a lowline module can do. In a lot of cases VW doesn't even stock low-line modules in their replacement inventory. It would be inefficient from a supply chain perspective when you can charge for the highline module and then code/adapt it to do whatever it should for the car it goes in.

For your car it could be that there were no low/mid line modules available when the doors on your car were being put together. Although it's also possible that at some point VW just stopped making low-line door control modules for our cars. Got to consider the cost of managing two products SKUs instead of one when I would guess the actual cost difference is (or became) negligible.

 

[brad wagon]

I have found out some things along the way, and will summarize them here in case it helps anyone:

Firstly, the OEM dash trim piece above the glove box does not have an LED in the silver strip. Some folks have removed that strip from the trim piece (which is difficult) and retrofitted an aftermarket one from Aliexpress with an LED (with mixed results). I didn't want to do that, but still wanted the trims to match, so I ordered 5GM-858-418-A-YOI. It was initially backordered, and I assumed it would remain in that state forever, but it eventually shipped. It perfectly matches the trim in the GSW SEL door cards (Cyclone Black), so there's that.

Next, my 2019 GSW S does not have highline door control modules. I thought it did because it has blind spot monitoring and heated mirrors, but was wrong. As @mr-fix indicates in the description in his video, highline door control module part numbers should end with 592 and 593. Mine end with 392 and 393. The lowline DCMs are not able to control the ambient lighting in the trim strip, or the door handle pocket light. Bummer.

And of course, my first thought was, 'It is because the facelift BCM does not support long coding, and I haven't found the adaptation that corresponds to setting Bit 01 in Byte 17.' Imagine how much time I lost trying to find that. And I am still wondering if there is an additional step needed...

I will probably try to source the appropriate DCMs, but as @where2 indicates in this post, you can't just install new DCMs, or DCMs salvaged from a random car, as there is some car model-specific 'ODIS parameterization' that is needed, even though the part number is correct. I presume if I were to source DCMs salvaged specifically from a 2019 GSW SEL, they would work. Beyond that, I have no idea the car models from which a salvaged DCM would work on a plug and play basis with my car, e.g., with no additional ODIS config needed.

@Cuzoe have you replaced your DCMs? How difficult was that process (removal and replacement)? Did you have remote coders address the ODIS configuration?

Finally, splicing into my OEM wiring harness to make a ground connection was a really sucky feeling. I know there are other ways, but I didn't want to wait another 3-4 weeks for more stuff to arrive from Aliexpress.

 

[brad wagon]

I'm not sure whether all (low and highline) door control modules have the pins for lighting. But assuming your modules have the pins yes, that is where you would connect... and ground of course.

You could access the door control modules in OBD/VCDS and see if it lets you enable ambient lighting in the long coding. There is other coding to be done as well but I would start there.

The door control modules let me enable those features and write them via ODB11, but the changes had no effect.

 

[Cuzoe]

@brad wagon As far as the facelift (no coding) BCM equivalents for Byte 17 Bit 1 I believe you're looking for one of these, probably the first...

Byte 17 Bit 1 - IDE09732-ENG115871-Interior light: light configuration-Ambiente_Applikationsleisten_in_Tuertafel
Google Translation: Ambience_application strips_in_door panel

or
Byte 17 Bit 2 - IDE09731-ENG116687-Int. light: 2nd generation-Tuerinnengriff mit Tuertafel
Google Translation: Int. light: 2nd generation interior door handle with door panel


As far as highline door modules... you've got all that correct. Mirror heat is a standard Mk7 feature and blind spot monitoring isn't connected to the door modules at all.
Physical replacement is easy, removing the door panel is more work but also pretty easy. I ordered modules that were removed from a wrecked NAR GTI so dataset was okay.
If you get 592/593 modules from pretty much any North American Golf you should be okay. You will need to copy over your long coding of course.

And you are also correct about the dash trim with regard to ambient lighting. That is not a factory available feature. As you've found on Ali, there are replacement strips that include light guide. Mixed results come from mixed work, if you get my drift. The replacement isn't much different from replacing door panel trim... drill out the plastic welds, install your new trim piece, use something like JB Weld epoxy to reinstall.