What else do I need to retro-fit cruise, DAB and bluetooth phone to my '08 GT TDI?

[Androo]

Hey all,

I recently replaced my ageing Passat (W-reg, with 260k miles on the clock!) with a 2008 Golf GT Sport TDI 140. It has a MFSW but it's missing a couple of features that I wanted, but it's in immaculate condition, has the right number of doors, right colour and has the black leather interior I wanted. I figured from a little research that I could retrofit the missing features (DAB radio, bluetooth phone control and cruise control) and the price was right so I bought it.

Now I want to retrofit those features. Cruise control seems the easiest; I buy the stalk kit, install it following the guides that can be found online and activate it using vag-com.

For the bluetooth and DAB, things seem a little more complicated. I could buy a replacement stereo unit that has both DAB and bluetooth, maybe the RCD-510. But what else would I also need to buy? Would I need to buy a bluetooth microphone and wire (like this) and also need to buy a DAB-compatible replacement roof aerial (like this). Does anyone have a link to a good guide for fitting the aerial? I found one by searching online but it seemed that the page had been moved or removed.

I believe I'd need to wire in a switched 12V supply to the aerial (presumably I can get this from one of the plugs behind the stereo). I want the MFSW to continue to work, preferably including the phone button. Is there anything else I'd need to achieve all this, in addition to the below items?

Cruise control kit
New headunit (newer model w/DAB & bluetooth built in)
DAB aerial + cables
Bluetooth microphone and cable
vagcom cable (or someone with a vagcom cable who will do this for me*)

*I'm thinking I might invest in a vagcom cable, since I like to do a lot of the servicing on my cars myself. But they are quite expensive; if there's anyone in the Brighton or Basingstoke areas than could help with some vagcom-ing for a few beer tokens then I'd be glad to hear from you.....

[Teflon]

Okay, here's my two penn'orth.

Cruise control first. I had mine fitted by the dealer, when the car was brand new for £150. Parts for DIY were £80. It had 7 days off road, including 4 visits to the dealer, plugging it in and communicating with Germany so a boffin could diagnose it remotely then they ended up swapping loads of modules from a showroom doner car until they found the right part number module, ordered it and got cruise working. I was on first name terms with thier master techncian and fully expected to get a christmas card or even an invite to his wedding.

Best £150 I ever spent. I know that dozens of people have done a trouble free install, but I'm just saying ........ might be worth speaking to several dealers to get a fixed price for the job. By the way, my wife's car was brand new a week later. Her dealer-fit cruise worked first time.

Next - radio. Don't go the 2008 VW OEM route unless you have a Nokia phone and the patience of Job. My suggestion would be a double DIN unit - you can get them with Bluetooth, DAB, SatNAv, etc for around a grand. I made the mistake of fitting a single-DIN, DVD with camera function and all the doodads but it drove me nuts so it came out after 12 months. Ended up in my son-in-law's van.

My dealer had a deal on last year for VW recommended aftermarket unit which was about £1100 all in, fitted. Think it was a Kenwood. Not sure if it had SatNav or not. If you had the multi-function steering wheel it worked with that too.

Which prompts the next question, do you have the MFSW? Do you want it? If so, there are several aftermarket units that will work with it using an adaptor - all the way from a lowly Parrot + MultiCAN module bluetooth I fitted to my wife's car for just north of £100 up to adapters for Pioneer kit which cost going on for twice that alone.

Pick your radio first then go from there. But pick carefully and make sure you see it with a big DVD of MP3's stuck in it of a USB hard disc, 'cos some of theme are painfuly slow while they search and on startup. Did I mention my £450 on JVC error?

Finally, no, you can't get a switched live from behind the radio. There ain't one. You have the option to take a switched live from the fusebox but this will drop out and reboot the radio whenever you turn the key. Drives you nuts and sets the radio searching through 40Gb of tracks all over again. Or you can get a CAN adaptor module that will work like a VW radio, not cutting the power until you pull out the key.

Hope this helps. Search the forum, there's all you need to know here.

p.s. If you buy the microphone for the old style Nokia bluetooth kit (about £3.95) you can strip out the innards and put them in the location for the official VW microphone by the interior light. Doesn't show and works a treat on mine. Feed the cable down the A pillar but don't get it tangled in the airbag.