Booked in for retrofit mods

[eob]

Booked the CC in today at Ingram VW in Ayr for retrofit cruise control and rear parking sensors.

Parking is a brute because you can see nothing out the rear window so although they will not be totally OEM they will be a much valued addition.

Also purhcased the alloy pedals and was suprised to find that the dealer was the same price supplied as the ebay guy in Germany.

Enquired about chrome tips too. Bit of confusion on this one, apparently the GT comes with tips attached but they are not polished. The parts guy was very helpful and showed me the online parts catalouge and we went outside to look and sure enough they are a separate part! There is a member on here (I think its one of the mods) who has a licenced copy of the parts cat, I'm going to PM him and ask him to check.

Going to purchase the VW phone kit tomorrow from Tech Toys Ltd.
Going to have a go at fitting that myself.

I'll report here how I get on.

[Autostadt]

How much are Ingram's charging you for the rear sensors?

I was thinking of having the same done on my estate.

[eob]

How much are Ingram's charging you for the rear sensors?

I was thinking of having the same done on my estate.

Ingram VW Ayr

£299 inc VAT and fitting for the sensors and £150 for the cruise.
You can buy cruise control kits on ebay for £90 so when you consider that they charge £60 per hour this works out OK. And I don't fancy taking my wheel off.

[reprosteve]

I fancy the chrome tips

[eob]

Well, I started fitting the blutooth kit that I bought. Not good! Prepare for a lengthy post!

First off, let me thank all the people on the net who have previously written up information on this modification. I've listed all the links here to particular sites that have proven useful so that anyone else thinking about retrofitting bluetooth to their B6 Passat Saloon or CC can have a central resource.

Thanks to:

• Swallowtail on VWWatercooled.org.au for a good write up on the different VAG bluetooth options.
• B6 Boost on VWvortex for a fabulous write up on removing the B6 radio.
• Octavia-vRS.com for a very informative write up on installation of the Skoda bluetooth module 1Z0 035 729.
• my-gti.com for an amazing collection of VAG (MKV and VI golf in particular) articles including programming the 1Z0 035 729 module.
• Another post on golfmkv.com about the same module.

Very special thanks to;

• The guy (sorry, never caught your name) at Audiowise East Kilbride who helped me out by running the microphone cable up the A pillar when I got stuck and never even charged me a penny. More on that later.

I suppose I had better mention the suppliers of the module, even though I'm not best pleased at the moment. These guys.

Okay, so I received the kit. Very basic packaging and no instructions.


I became a little more concerned when I noticed that the OEM mic connection was different from the loom connection and included in a jiffy bag was the terminals and other half of the loom nylon connection.
I also noticed that I had been sent a D module when their website states that new cars need a C module.


I called them the next day and got someone who said that the module version didn't matter??? I would have to make off the connection for the mic myself and he would email me the instructions.
I got an email all right but it consisted of three links (two of which sent my browser security into a frenzy). One of them was a PDF document in German. Another was the same document roughly translated into English and a link to the Octavia-vRS site that I had already found.

So with intrepidation I set forth. The first task was to remove the OEM connection from the Mic and terminate it for the new loom.
I had realised that they must have had looms made up to save all the splicing that is described on the Octavia-vRS site. Fair enough.



So I headed out to the car and using the VWVortex instructions, started to dismantle my car. (Sorry for the image quality but it was dark when I started).

Make sure that you have your plastic trim removal tool.

Watch when removing the brushed alu trim as it is actually a metal veneer and will be easlily damaged.

I reoved the drawer covers to allow me to remove the radio surround.


VWAudi Forum Top Tip: Push the drawer in slightly to allow you to get a flat bladed screwdriver into the recess in the middle. A twist of the driver should be enough to start the trim coming off.


Radio trim removed, four Torx hold the HU in place.


Problem #1:
I quickly realised that there was not enough space behind the dash to locate the module. I would have to run it to under the seat after all.

Don't know if this is specific to the CC but I would assume that the Saloon is the same. I read somewhere that the Fiscon kit is a lot smaller and can be located behind the dash.
In the above picture you can see the quad connector for the HU.

Problem #2:
After checking out the pinouts, I realised that the blue connector that you can see in the above photo is actually for the Aux-In connection and the telephone connection should go in the empty portion of the quad connector.
Did I get a blue connector with the kit? Did I


Time was getting on and I really wanted to test this thing while I had the dash in pieces so I opted to swap the blue connector to allow me to use it.


Problem #3:
After painstaikingly removing the pins from the connector (it slides from the quad connector easily enough and is made of two parts which again slide apart and allow you to release the individual pins although that bit is tricky).

I inserted the pins from the phone kit loom into the right locations and quicly realised that the blue connector was keyed for the right and left locations of the quad connector.
My patience was wearing thin at this point and I broke the wee blue connector. Do I really need the Aux-In connection anyway?

I connected the system up and tested it. To my suprise I was able to pair my phone after googling the pairing code (1234 by the way) with no fuss. I was able to call my voicemail and it all worked as expected. The radio muted and I heard crisp audio through the speakers.

It was very late at this point and I was keen to stop there but I wish I had tested further as you will find out.....

[eob]

...right now!

There are no pictures from this point on I'm afraid because things went from bad to worse quite quickly the next day. You'll have to use your imagination, I've shown you all the important stuff anyway.

Okay so I set about running the microphone cable up the A pillar to the rear view mirror area when the OEM microphone is located.
I used the instructions found on the web for removing the A pillar trim.

Problem #4:
When trying to remove the 'Airbag' badge, I broke it! Damn, the damage is mounting up!!

This is where Audiowise come in. I googled audio fitters in the local area and came up with them so I took a run up. Although he couldn't see me on the Friday afternoon he did say to pop back on the Saturday morning which I did.
As I have said, to his credit he struggled with the car for about an hour and a half after we realised that the CC is slightly different than the standard saloon.

He was busy fitting some bells and whistles head unit into an Octavia estate from Aberdeen so this was time wasted he could have done without.
The Octavia carried a Briskoda sticker on the rear screen and I was hoping that this was a good omen as thats where I read a lot of info on this mod.

After finally getting the cable ran to the right point, I headed up the road to finish off the install.

Problem #5:
The bespoke wiring loom supplied is a bit short and as such the location I had selected under the passenger seat was just a bit neat. I had to try and find as much slack as I could in the microphone cable to allow the seat to slide back and forth without snagging the loom.
A couple of heavy duty velcro strips now support the module to the underside of the passenger seat and everything is pretty free.
The return loom to the head unit is fitted under the side panel to the centre console.
Again, sorry I never had any pictures of this bit but it is fairly straight forward and everything is either clipped in or screwed in with a few torx. I'll try and take pictures of the route at a later date.
One point to note if you do attempt this before I manage is that the leading edge of the side panel, towards the firewall, must be slid into a locating braket before screwing. If not then it looks terrible and alarmingly wrong.

Okay, so where am I?
Oh yes, everything in place, only the headunit to put back in.
The extra connectors and wiring need to be tucked out of the way to allow the HU to slide back in.
For the rest of the trim fitting is the reverse of removal. And it's never any fun unless you've got a couple of screws left over.

Right, onto Problem #6, and it's a biggy:
My mate with the VAG.COM is away so I could not code the unit to integrate it into the system totally and I'm really hoping that this problem is down to not being coded.
As I said the kit works fine. It mutes the radio and I get clear stereo audio from the front speakers. All controls are through the phone at the moment until the HU and DIS are programmed to work with the phone. But, when I tested the kit fully, i.e. made a call - NO VOICE

I chucked it at that point, sent an email to my eBay chums demanding a new microphone, clubbed a couple of baby seals to death. No, no you can't say that anymore. Actually I just took out my frustrations on Forza 2. (Can't wait to pick up a copy of Forza 3)

I headed back out tonight to check that heath robinson microphone connection. I checked it with a meter and the continunity between the terminals is OK and it is getting about 1.5V from the loom so my hopes rest with a U/S mic or down to requiring programmed.

I'll keep you posted.

[reprosteve]

Hi

Great write up, but would it not have been easier to get the Fiscon? Thats the route I think I will have to go as I have an iPhone. Now if only the VW one would work like the Lexus one did and find my phone.

Steve

[eob]

Hi

Great write up, but would it not have been easier to get the Fiscon? Thats the route I think I will have to go as I have an iPhone. Now if only the VW one would work like the Lexus one did and find my phone.

Steve

Yes, the Fiscon was the first option that I looked at but the two downsides for me where the non-OEM microphone and no voice dialling.
Taking the car to an independant tomorrow to have the system coded so we'll see what that brings.

[reprosteve]

Hope he gets it sorted.

[eob]

Aarrgghh!!

Ingram have just phoned me to tell me that they cannot retrofit Cruise Control as the CC doesn't have the wiring pre-installed.
I'm a bit sceptical so I'm going to get a second opinion on that.

Managed to secure my mates VAG.COM cable for tomorrow though so hopefully I'll have good news tomorrow night.