What did you do to your MK7 today?

I want that dam Arteon!

Cuzoe said:

I want that dam Arteon!

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Yes, it's quite fancy. It is the R line 4motion, think it's the SEL. I was checking stickers for other dealers online and it's probably $53k sticker one. I was expecting a Jetta or Taos/Tiguan( more comparable to wagon). I'm just thinking this is basically a big Golf R( 2.0T, 4motion)...

tdidieselbobny said:

Yes, it's quite fancy. It is the R line 4motion, think it's the SEL. I was checking stickers for other dealers online and it's probably $53k sticker one. I was expecting a Jetta or Taos/Tiguan( more comparable to wagon). I'm just thinking this is basically a big Golf R( 2.0T, 4motion)...

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Besides a 5 cyl swapped Alltrack that Arteon is probably the only VW I would buy. At least considering what we have available in the states.

The EU has an Arteon "Shooting Brake" (wagon) that's a plug-in hybrid; I have an "event" set in my calendar app in mid-2032 for when the first of those cars would hit the 15yr mark and thus eligible for import into Canada.

Nuje said:

The EU has an Arteon "Shooting Brake" (wagon) that's a plug-in hybrid; I have an "event" set in my calendar app in mid-2032 for when the first of those cars would hit the 15yr mark and thus eligible for import into Canada.

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I'll set one for 2033. Hopefully you've got it imported, registered and another on the way so I can try to get around our 25 year law via Canada

ahh an extinct golf gets an extinct Aerton for a loaner, I see a theme. Hopefully the fuel bill for feeding it doesn't hurt your wallet too much.

Least they didn't put you in a Taos.

Same marketing "logic" at Ford- Ever see a TV ad for the Transit Connect van? But now that it's been discontinued for "poor sales", it finally appears in TV ad with a cameo role as a mobile service truck for Ford dealers!

Cuzoe said:

I'll set one for 2033. Hopefully you've got it imported, registered and another on the way so I can try to get around our 25 year law via Canada

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I've often wondered if that's a viable loophole one could drive through...

Nuje said:

I've often wondered if that's a viable loophole one could drive through...

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I'm not sure, I think the answer is probably but also not easily. A guy over on VW vortex managed to buy a new Alltrack in Canada some years ago and get that registered in the US. But he never came back and went into too much detail. Nice OEM mods on it, (particularly retractable hitch) and he recently sold it.

740GLE said:

ahh an extinct golf gets an extinct Aerton for a loaner, I see a theme. Hopefully the fuel bill for feeding it doesn't hurt your wallet too much.

Least they didn't put you in a Taos.

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What, is the Arteon done after '24 MY? Doesn't matter anyway, no way I could ever afford one, and too much electronics and doodads on it for my liking. I'd dread to see repair bill on any of that electronic crap. Only thing I like are the heated/cooled seats and heated steering wheel. The mpg at my first fillup today was 28.1, I filled it up at 1/2 tank. Gets too much I can always drive my '03 4 speed Jetta with 486k , that still gets over 45mpg....

tdidieselbobny said:

What, is the Arteon done after '24 MY? Doesn't matter anyway, no way I could ever afford one, and too much electronics and doodads on it for my liking. I'd dread to see repair bill on any of that electronic crap. Only thing I like are the heated/cooled seats and heated steering wheel. The mpg at my first fillup today was 28.1, I filled it up at 1/2 tank. Gets too much I can always drive my '03 4 speed Jetta with 486k , that still gets over 45mpg....

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If you're willing to let myself or @Nuje borrow your car for a few months and provide a modest budget your Golf could have all those electronics. I bet we could do it quicker and cheaper than we did it on our own cars.

Cooled seats will be in the play once there are some wrecked Mk8s around. I can put the provisionary wiring in for that so when the time comes it's just a matter of getting things connected. Heated rear seats are not completely off the table either.

Cuzoe said:

I bet we could do it quicker and cheaper than we did it on our own cars.

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This is so laughably true that it's not even funny anymore.
The known unknowns are a pain, of course, and then the unknown unknowns....well, that's just entertainment when you encounter those.
But the really good stuff happens when you hit the unknown knowns (e.g., I know I wired this up correctly*....why isn't it working? Or, why does it work some of the time, but not all the time?"
(*I had not wired it up correctly. )

But I guess this is what "learning" looks like.

It's a day late, but couple nights ago I tried to fix a dead right side HID headlight. I figured I would change both bulbs, since if one is EOL, the other night be close.

Got the bumper off, pulled both housings, discovered there little bolt mount at the upper rear of the right housing was broken ( I found all the parts), and swapped in new bulbs on both sides Reassemble it, hit the button, and... left works fine, but no headlamp on the right.

Ok, maybe the bulb just blew. Pulled the housings again and swapped the bulbs. Still nothing on the right, but the swapped bulb on the left works fine.

Next component in line is the ballast, right? So pull both housings again, flip them, label the ballasts L/R (because I'm smart), set the upside down housings next to each other and put the L ballast in the housing on the right, and the R ballast in the housing on the left (you can see where this is going) and plugged them back in. Power up, still no headlamp on the right. Then I realize that, with the housings update down and aligned like they're installed in the car, I don't switch the ballasts, I put them back in the same damn place. By now I'm 3 hours into a 1 hour job and getting like it's going to be expensive.

So I switch them, figuring this will confirm I have a dead ballast, re-re-re-re-install them, power up the car and... Both lights work. Why? No clue. The first removal/reinstall of the ballast should have fixed any loose connection.

Reassemble the front end, go for a drive to test, and I notice two things: the beams are a little low, and my lights are now tracking the steering movement like they should- months ago I had played with lighting adaptations in VCDS and had messed something up, but apparently unplugging and reinstalling the housings caused the car to do a full initial calibration of the adjuster motors. Yay! Now I just have to find-time the leveling (I have the Solidwerks hybrid coilovers/strut kit, love it)

Overall, a success!

Cuzoe said:

If you're willing to let myself or @Nuje borrow your car for a few months and provide a modest budget your Golf could have all those electronics. I bet we could do it quicker and cheaper than we did it on our own cars.

Cooled seats will be in the play once there are some wrecked Mk8s around. I can put the provisionary wiring in for that so when the time comes it's just a matter of getting things connected. Heated rear seats are not completely off the table either.

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Thanks for the offer, but I'm on east coast. I decided I REALLY hate all those stupid sensors on the Arteon. Sucks when you go through car wash or if there's snow/ice buildup , goes off constantly . Final fillup on the Arteon brought 29.1mpg, which isn't bad for that big of a car. Dealer called yesterday and said wagon was done. Only thing I paid for was the oil change. Everything in fuel system was replaced except fuel tank, which they said they drained and cleaned and filtered the fuel that was in it. Said it would've been over $8k without warranty. And I didn't have to pay for this fuel filter change. I just want to give a shout out to Basil VW in Lockport, NY. They have treated me very well on all the warranty work I've had performed there along with the routine services( started going there at the 90k oil change)...

tdidieselbobny said:

Final fillup on the Arteon brought 29.1mpg, ..

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Not sure if that was hand calculated, but bemindful the MDF grossly over exaggerates MPG even on the TSIs.

740GLE said:

Not sure if that was hand calculated, but bemindful the MDF grossly over exaggerates MPG even on the TSIs.

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I always hand calculate ...

740GLE said:

ahh an extinct golf gets an extinct Aerton for a loaner

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It would be great to put a 2.0 or even a 3.0 TDI in one. Imagine a 3.0 TDI in a AWD Arte.

whizznbyu said:

It would be great to put a 2.0 or even a 3.0 TDI in one. Imagine a 3.0 TDI in a AWD Arte.

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Imagine me needing a change of pants.

whizznbyu said:

It would be great to put a 2.0 or even a 3.0 TDI in one. Imagine a 3.0 TDI in a AWD Arte.

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just wait 25 years you'll even be able to import a wagon version

Illuminated door handles, a sort of while you're in there when retrofitting KEsEY but you can buy illuminated door handles that are non KESSY if you just want that mod. Bad pictures. Trying to capture the light, what can you do?

That's not a real question, I know quite a bit of you know how to take good pictures. I don't count myself among you .

https://flic.kr/p/2puJcrd https://flic.kr/p/2puJcri https://flic.kr/p/2puJXF7

Finally warmed up a little today, so I did the DSG service on the wagon. Overall, not too bad. I put the 5L of the Rowe in through the filter hole( I did buy the fill kit from IDParts but didn't use it). The biggest hurdle for me was trying to get transmission level, I put rear tires on ramps and jackstands under front subframe. It looked like maybe 1/2 quart came out after it warmed up. I changed the air filter also, and filled the DEF tank.

oh yeah, only hiccup I had afterwards was that the liftgate was still showing as not closed, but it is shut fully. The dinging was driving me nuts while driving around tonight. Hopefully it isn't something going kaput with the locking mechanism or something....

Changed the timing belt, accessory belt, and water pump. My GSW has just under 80,000 miles but of course the belt was 9-ish years old. I'm glad that I decided to do it for the peace of mind and also because I discovered that the water pump was leaking around its shaft seal. I noted recently that I was needing to add coolant again so I'm happy to have found the leak while doing something I was planning to do anyway. I also have been hearing for months what sounded like a belt squeal when going around left turns so maybe that is resolved, too.

Dropped the TDI off at the dealership and picked up my rental over the weekend. After my DEF level sensor fault returned I called the dealership in hopes to get a rental since I wouldn't pass the MA state inspection due this month. I expected the dealership to refuse and was prepared to call Customer Care to open a case but surprisingly they agreed to give me a car with no pushback.

Went to the local dealer this morning to get the gear shift cover trim replaced. I was surprised to be in and out in under an hour.

Cuzoe said:

Illuminated door handles, a sort of while you're in there when retrofitting KEsEY but you can buy illuminated door handles that are non KESSY if you just want that mod. Bad pictures. Trying to capture the light, what can you do?

That's not a real question, I know quite a bit of you know how to take good pictures. I don't count myself among you .

https://flic.kr/p/2puJcrd https://flic.kr/p/2puJcri https://flic.kr/p/2puJXF7

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please tell me you also added kessy to the rear doorhandels

740GLE said:

please tell me you also added kessy to the rear doorhandles

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Indeed I did, although to be fair I also added KESSY to the front handles. My KESSY retrofit is in progress, with extensive help (darn near hand holding if we're being honest) from one MaDwArLoCk over on Drive2. In pursuit of this I have purchased a key programmer... so if anyone needs keys made I know a guy .

Adding rear KESSY door handles requires 40 pin 3Q0 module. I would be surprised if any Mk7 TDIs have this, most likely the older 40 pin 5Q0.
Edit: 32 pin 5Q0, thanks @Nuje

Of course, if you already have KESSY you could replace the handles with illuminated ones. There are non-KESSY illuminated handles as well. I don't know if any of the AliExpress sellers would split set between KESSY and non-KESSY, they only have them listed in sets of 4.

Cuzoe said:

...most likely the older 40 pin 5Q0.

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If only to take the opportunity to correct @Cuzoe on something wiring/retrofit-related (which has - and most likely will - never happen again), the stock 5Q0 KESSY module connector is actually 32-pin - looks identical to the blue 32-pin connector at the back of the mk4 instrument clusters.

Cuzoe said:

Indeed I did, although to be fair I also added KESSY to the front handles. My KESSY retrofit is in progress, with extensive help (darn near hand holding if we're being honest) from one MaDwArLoCk over on Drive2. In pursuit of this I have purchased a key programmer... so if anyone needs keys made I know a guy .

Adding rear KESSY door handles requires 40 pin 3Q0 module. I would be surprised if any Mk7 TDIs have this, most likely the older 40 pin 5Q0.
Edit: 32 pin 5Q0, thanks @Nuje

Of course, if you already have KESSY you could replace the handles with illuminated ones. There are non-KESSY illuminated handles as well. I don't know if any of the AliExpress sellers would split set between KESSY and non-KESSY, they only have them listed in sets of 4.

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Walking up to the car with kid in arms, having kessy on the rear handel would save me 1 second from first touching the front handel to unlock vs just grabbing the rear handel and unlocking. it doesn't sound like much by i swear this kid is part worm at how much he can contort his body around, having rear kessy would be nice.

In the random pursuit of hte ultimate OEM+, did the euro market/golf R ever offer better rear door cards? the hard plastic at the top is rather cheap compared to the soft touch of the fronts. my mk5 was the same way.

Not that i'd plunk down the +$400 it'd prob cost to swap but it's still nice to know other parts of the world have nicer rear.

740GLE said:

Walking up to the car with kid in arms, having kessy on the rear handel would save me 1 second from first touching the front handel to unlock vs just grabbing the rear handel and unlocking. it doesn't sound like much by i swear this kid is part worm at how much he can contort his body around, having rear kessy would be nice.

In the random pursuit of hte ultimate OEM+, did the euro market/golf R ever offer better rear door cards? the hard plastic at the top is rather cheap compared to the soft touch of the fronts. my mk5 was the same way.

Not that i'd plunk down the +$400 it'd prob cost to swap but it's still nice to know other parts of the world have nicer rear.

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Have to agree with the apparent lack of skeletal limitations in kids. My (almost) 2 year old is always somehow holding on tight and pushing his way out/between my arms . Although I know it's not a good practice when I park in the garage I often just leave the door unlocked instead of fumbling with my FOB while fumbling with the kiddo.

I'm not sure about the door panels outside of the states, I should (not) look into it. There are soft "side bolsters" for the rear seats. They replace the hard plastic section that outboard seat belts rest on. The soft sides are intended for cars with airbags in those locations (not an option here) but of course they can be installed without the airbags. I'll be picking up a set of those if I can find a decent price.