Retro fit Auto hold option

**timprice** · 30-10-2009,12:01 AM

Originally Posted by dunkley201

Congrats on a superb write up Tim. (and I don't even need it, I have AH already!

)

Awww thanks! i was a little annoyed that i'd forgotten to take some pictures whilst i was doing it, but i'm not taking it all apart again!

**revver** · 31-10-2009,03:26 PM

Originally Posted by timprice

OK, as promised, i had a crack at this tonight, and have attached a PDF on how to do this.

I'd appreciate a response as to what you think, either by PM or e-mail (which is included in the PDF document).

Tim

Hi, thanks for the great write up. I'm definately going to give it a go in a few months.

I remember seeing something in another thread that only certain Passats can have the button retro-fitted. do you know if this is the case? Did you do any "compatability tests" on your Passat before going for it?

**timprice** · 01-11-2009,11:26 AM

Well i heard some talk of Auto-Hold not being compatible with some ABS modules, and i believe mine (C Revision) was included in the imcompatibility.

I gave it a go anyway, and haven't had a problem with it.

**revver** · 01-11-2009,02:10 PM

Originally Posted by timprice

Well i heard some talk of Auto-Hold not being compatible with some ABS modules, and i believe mine (C Revision) was included in the imcompatibility.

I gave it a go anyway, and haven't had a problem with it.

Sounds a but odd that they would have more than one type of ABS model. I don't know which one I have, but my car's a 2008 model so I'm guessing it should be fine.

**timprice** · 02-11-2009,01:13 PM

Yes, 2008 will be fine.

Mine's a 31st March 2007 built car, so i was a bit in limbo as to whether it was the first of the "April" cars or the last of the "March" ones.

Turns out it was the latter!

**bundao** · 23-11-2009,10:46 PM

Would a 2006 model be too old for this retrofit then?

**timprice** · 23-11-2009,11:59 PM

No a 2006 car should be fine. You just need to use the pinouts for the "March 2007 or older" cars.

No harm in giving it a go!

**bundao** · 24-11-2009,06:46 AM

Great. I'll be trying it out in the new year some time then.
I presume I need to go to a VW dealer to get all the parts - what's the rough cost going to be?

For the time being I've only got access to my mechanics generic OBD scanner which lets me change settings in the comfort module 46 but all the other modules seem to only allow the reading and clearing of fault codes

**timprice** · 24-11-2009,03:17 PM

Rough costing is around £45 for the parts from a VW dealer. I already had the official Ross-tech vag-com lead which was £300 ish, but if you can find a friend / someone close to you with vag-com, it'll be a piece of cake.

**bundao** · 27-12-2009,11:59 PM

I am now the proud owner of a b6 with autohold.

It seems to work beautifully. I'll be driving through London (and therefore plenty of stop/go traffic) tomorrow so I'll put it through a bit of a workout.

Some comments on the installation :-

I ran into a lot of difficulty with the aircon unit - I have the basic manual one.
The airflow direction dial is really fiddly to reconnect. Perhaps the backplate should be fixed to something??

The fascia with the ESP button, etc round the gearstick was very hard to remove - I had to do a lot more than just pull on the gaitor.
It does use similar style clips to the radio surround though. Perhaps it would have been a bit easier on a warmer day (metal clips might have been a bit more giving)

Wiring was the easy bit - no problems using the pre april 2007 pins on my 56 plate. I didn't just cut the cables in half though - I planned out where the cables would run and made them the same length so as to keep it all tidy.
The three wires spliced from the ESP wiring don't need to be all that long for example.

When I came to reconnect the battery and test it out it wouldn't work

.
Thankfully I had an inkling I needed to recalibrate "stuff". You need to drive a little and turn the steering 90 degrees left then 90 degrees right (I think) to get the ESP to switch itself on - then you can press the autohold button and it will light up.

After I put the centre console back in I found a large unidentified plastic item lying in the passenger footwell. Its got a part number on the back so hopefully I'll be able to find out what its for and where it came from!!

Overall it wasn't too bad though, could've done with more patience and a nice warm day I suppose.

The original website Timprice refers too - www.passat3c.info is really useful for pictures and other retrofits

EDIT: The coding needs to be changed from 000011 to 000012 not the other way round, although its all self explanatory with VCDS anyway