Compu's interior update: GLX Power Heated Leather!

The gray cloth interior on my 1999.5 Jetta has grown a little worn over the past 230,000 miles. A friend called me saying a local dismantler had a 2000 GLX Jetta with black power leather w/ memory and heat, and Monsoon audio. I couldn't refuse it for the price. I got the seats, interior wiring, trim, seatblets, wood accents, and carpet. I'm going to install all of this into my car.

After a full day of dissassembly:



Unwrapping the wiring:





Fun fun fun...



Did you know there are a bunch of these lurking in your dash? Who needs solder....



Up next: Out with the gray!

-J

What exactly is going on in that last photo?

I foresee folding mirrors in your future...

And x2... what are we looking at in that last photo?

That is an inter-harness splice connection that many manufacturers use. In that case, looks like a bundle of ground wires.

VW refers to it as a "Sonic Weld". It is literally welded together with sound waves. Soldering in a VW is a no no, it promotes corrosion when exposed to moisture.

Holy crap I never knew you weld with sound.

mk3 is better :-O

validius said:

mk3 is better :-O

Click to expand...

Yeah for rust.

On a mk3 instead of those connections buried in the dash under three layers of tape (no i'm not exaggerating that) they have a bunch of single connectiors that go to bus bars (for example the grounds all go to a round unit on the side of the body)

I don't see solder promoting rust. None of the soldered connections on my Mercedes are corroded (there are no crimps, every connection is soldered). Even the headlight wiring is in great shape still, about the same as the wires on my ex 91 Jetta.

-J

fitzski said:

I foresee folding mirrors in your future...

Click to expand...

Heh, well if the bits fall into my lap sure. Aren't the window motors different? For now all of mine work and I don't care to diddle with them. Well, except for auto down on the rears I didn't grab the climatronic either... Maybee someday but I find the manual regulation works just fine. If I need auto climate control I'll sit in the benz.

-J

Got most of the original gray interior pulled today. The sill trim, seatbelts, and carpet remain.

Once I get the carpet up I'll begin the wiring!

-J

The wiring is in, and the memory works!

Out with the old:






There are SO many more interior pieces in the Mk4 comprared to the earlier cars.



Testing out the seat for the first time:



Having the complete harness from the doner car made things so much easier. I still have to install the mirror motors. The remote intagration works perfectly too!

Tomorrow I'll add the wiring for the Monsoon system and reinstall the carpets!

-J

Sweet! Big project, but you're doing a great job. Can't wait to see the new interior (and you again).

Remote integration? You mean the key fob memory (i.e. attaching a programmed seat position to an individual key)? It is cool... though my wife and I adopt the exact same position, so it's best use is the rare occasion when I pick the car up from the shop and the shortest mechanic in the world has apparently been working on it!

The key fob memory integration is very very tempting.

I think I am going to need to ghetto together some seats now.

Got the Monsoon amp and wiring installed today, works great with the Gamma headunit. Up next is to go back to the donor car and pick up the mirror motors and door harnesses, as the monsoon ones are different.

-J

Man compu_85 you are pretty brave and patient to tackle this project !!! I tip my hat to you

How many man hours do you figure it'll take you to complete this job?

It'll be SWEEET when its' done

Post photos

compu_85 said:

The gray cloth interior on my 1999.5 Jetta has grown a little worn over the past 230,000 miles. A friend called me saying a local dismantler had a 2000 GLX Jetta with black power leather w/ memory and heat, and Monsoon audio. I couldn't refuse it for the price. I got the seats, interior wiring, trim, seatblets, wood accents, and carpet. I'm going to install all of this into my car.

After a full day of dissassembly:

Unwrapping the wiring:

Fun fun fun...

Did you know there are a bunch of these lurking in your dash? Who needs solder....

Up next: Out with the gray!

-J

Click to expand...

Wow, that wiring is a total mess. I wouldn't even know where to start.

Got the final connections made, harnesses re-wrapped, extra wire zip tied up in the dash, sound padding and carpet re-installed, seatbelts in, the B and C pillar trim in, and the hat shelf with sunshade installed

Installing the wiring for the monsoon and memory mirrors requires removal of the window regulators, which requires removal of the window glass. Thankfully they're easy to R&R. The speakers are also pop riveted to the window regulator. The rear regulators look like they're going to be a little more annoying to deal with. The mirror glass is easy to remove on the Mk4, unlike the Mk3 and Mk2 you can pop it off without breaking it. Just reach in and pop it off.

Note that the memory mirrors have about double the wires as the non memory ones. On my 99.5 the connectors were the same, they just had more unpopulated pins on the standard motors. On a later set of standard power mirrors it seems they went to a smaller connector with fewer populated pins. The memory motors are also installed 90* from the normal ones, meaning the base is different.

As I said the Gamma headunit works great with the monsoon amp and speakers. I coded it for the DSP system (4 active speakers), 02023 in my car (Jetta sedan, no passive speakers, DSP, active antenna + cd changer). The Monsson amp has no switched power going to it, and no trigger wire from the head unit. I guess it switches on and off based on audio signal?

I forgot my camera at the shop so no pics tonight.

-J

You are a monster!

Man, I want pictures of all of this!

Glad you're having fun.

All done!

Removing the glass...




So the regulator can come out to run the harness:


Fitting the carpet:




continued...

At this point I got tired with the project and decided to re-install a manual seat.






I didn't open up the OEM seat airbag harness, I simply removed the airbag wires from the power seat harness and mounted it thus:



Getting there!


Large wad of wires as organized as I can get it without removing the dash:


Done!

Now I just have to get rid of all this LOL



-Jason

I'm impressed. You really ARE a monster. What patience. Great work!!

Farfromovin said:

You are a monster!

Click to expand...

That title goes to madelgado. I didn't retrofit an automatic transmission or take my car to the body shop to have the roof cut out so I could install the OEM solar sunroof.



Though I really would like a sunroof......


-J

Oh, he's a monster alright.

Seriously though, awesome work. It looks great!

I didn't have a donor car, that would have been nice. I made my own wiring harnesses

I decided it would be easier to install the Diesel engine in to a car that already had most of the goodies the second time around. I probably was wrong, but it was still fun.

I'm really glad to see you did this! I converted my MK3 to "GLX" with features and decided with my MK4 I ought to do the same. A few months back I found a GLX in the wrecking yard and got the black leather power heated seats too and when I installed the black carpet added my own carpet padding insulation to everywhere on the inside. WOW does that make a sound difference. So mine's all black interior now (coming from nasty tan). I have my power seats wired up I just need to wire in for memory. I'll do that in a few months when it cools down. I love your photo documentary. Very well done sir.