Tiguan 4Motion Common Rail TDI Swap

Ive been thinking about and researching this swap for a long time and I'm finally getting started doing it. This past year my shop Chub's Auto got its rebuilding license from the state. Having a rebuilders license has allowed me to get some really good deals on salvage title cars. Earlier in 2017 before the price of common rail TDIs went crazy I managed to pick up 3 of them, 2 wagons and a sedan. The sedan and one wagon were repairable and are going to be sold after state inspection is complete. As for the other wagon, it was hit to hard to economically repair. I will be using the engine and DSG transmission out of it to do a TDI swap on the Tiguan. I picked up a 2010 Tiguan 4Motion this past week with side damage for a decent price, and got started on the swap this weekend. To start with I'm going to get it running and driving without the 4 wheel drive, once everything is working I will import the needed parts to make the 4Motoin work.
Here are some pictures of progress so far, I'm going to try to document and post frequently as I go. http://imgur.com/a/iUnMT

Here is a pinout chart for the 94 pin connectors on the EDC17 and the MED17 ECU's. https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B3_qdpHzFQWuNXhLdnNfUkxfMWs/view?usp=sharing
I made this up using Mitchell, hopefully there are not any errors. Figured it would be helpful for anyone else wanting to do a common rail swap. I'm hoping this weekend I will get a good portion of the wiring done.

We don't need a rebuilder's license out here in the wilderness, I just watch the salvage auctions and bid on what appeals to me. I too have found the common rail cars are very expensive lately. I am mostly looking for a car to harvest the engine and electronics so I am looking at pretty damaged cars and they go for more than I can imagine. I don't see how anyone can buy one and expect to make any money off it, especially with the branded title that is required.

Good luck on your venture, I had also thought a Tiguan would be a cool swap. If my last common rail had a salvageable DSG I might have looked harder for a car. Anymore in my quest I don't think of what car I can put a common rail in, rather what car deserves a common rail.

Couldn't you do an engine swap only and retain the AWD, albeit with the wrong gearing just to get the bugs worked out and later swap ratios? Might be easier for the electonics sorting to leave the car intact mostly and run the TDI as a sort of standalone with just a CAN hookup for shift points and speed signals. Some have run 2 ECUs to get full functionality.

I will be watching with interest, keep up the posting and pictures please. Everyone loves lots of pictures.

I wish it were that easy here, although its not that hard to get a license. Some of those cars they are buying there is no way they are fixing them. Maybe they are hoping VW will buy them back at some point.
There are a few reasons I decided to do the DSG swap now and not later. The main reason is the gear ratio, it would be way way off with the 4 cylinder gas transmission. There is also the matter of I dunno how much torque that transmission will take. Lastly, the dsg's control system is completely different, it has the control module built into it, were the stock transmission has one under the left front fender. I honestly don't think the transmission and eventual AWD will be that hard. It appears the holes are cast into the case for the transmission just not tapped. From the pictures Ive seen I think I can just swap the differential in the transmission to an AWD unit, add the transfercase, and import a rear differential with the correct ratio. My shop has a pretty well equipped machine shop, so even if the case requires a little work it should be pretty easy.
Ill keep you posted and get as many pic's as I can !

I made good progress this weekend! By next weekend I should have it running and hopefully moving under its own power.
I still have a few things to finish up wiring wise. I need to make a spot for and wire both fuel pump relays, the DSG box and the ECU have a K-line lead that the Tiguan does not have so that will have to be run, and then comes the fun of organizing and re-wrapping the harness.
Here are some pictures of how I spend my Saturday and Sunday.

This is were I started, everything tagged.


I had a good portion of the Tiguan stuff swapped into the TDI ECU connector here


Here I started to get some of the wiring wrapped up and put back were it should be




Not a very good picture, but everything except the above mentioned stuff hooked up and ready for a test


It lives!!, and it cranks

This past weekend I didn't get near the progress done that I wanted to, but I did get a few key parts done. The fuel pump system with the all wheel drive took a little research and creativity to make it work as intended.

The drivers side sending unit and suction jet pump assembly were reused from the gas Tiguan. To make the jet pump work I had to remove and cap a couple lines that were used as return routes for the gas engines in tank pressure regulator/fuel filter.



The black hose is hooked to the return fuel line, return pressure is used to create a suction in the jet pump to pull fuel from the left tank and return it threw the white hose to the right tank.

In order to make the return line on the TDI pump accessible and have the correct fitting a metal line had to be fabricated and installed into the return port inside the pump







The last thing I tackled was the fuel pump relay. On the Tiguan the fuel pump is controlled by a fuel pump driver mounted on top of the gas tank. After thinking about different options, I decided the simplest solution would be to put the relay on top of the fuel pump cover under the rear seat.



That's pretty much it for this update, the fuel pump and filter hosing got mounted in the engine compartment as well but I didn't remember to take pictures. Hopefully I will get more time this weekend and can have it running!

What year TDI is that? I couldn't quite tell from the pictures but looks like a EA189. Cool swap!

Hey thanks for sharing the AD. I picked up a 2012 Tig S with 6 speed manual. Looking for a 2012 golf 6 sod. This will come in handy.

You are right, the gasser transmission is geared way higher than the TDI box.

I found a 2012 4mo Tig with a bad motor and I talked to Frans about a complete running gear with TDI engine, 6 spd manual, rear differntial, harness ECU, etc oit of a Euro Tig. Unfortunately the Tig sold beforr i got to it.

I haven't posted an update in a while, so here we go. It runs, it moves and most things work. The things that I knew would be a pain to get working electrically so far have been. The first unexpected thing I'm working on fixing is the brake lights never shut off. You would thing "simple, right ?" no not so much, the hardware switch in the booster works just fine. With the scan tool the ECM and CCM (Central Convince Module) read the brake pedal position form the switch just fine. On the 2010 and newer Tiguans the CCM is allot "smarter" then the older ones, so not only does it require the hardware switch it also has a software switch. With the EDC17 computer and CCM not talking, the default mode is brake lights on. The other major issues so far are the ABS unit not liking the ECM coding, and the boost hoses do not have the same kind of connector and do not line up. Boost hoses are an easy fix, just have to get some silicone fittings and adapters. As for the ABS I haven't dug into that yet.

Does anyone have an experience with VW CAN Bus ID's ? Currently to try and get the issues worked out I'm sniffing the CAN Bus with a dual channel Raspberry Pi CAN Bus adapter. One tapped into the engine side and the other tapped into the convenience side of the bus. The amount of data is a little overwhelming to say the least. A program called "cansniffer" has made the data more manageable, but its going to take some time to reverse engineer all the CAN ID's. Any help or resources that anyone knows of to make this task a little easier would be appreciated.

That's it for this update, I will try and get some more pictures and a video of it running and maybe moving this upcoming weekend.

Couple quick notes for you and anyone else.

All Tiguans with 09G (actually an 09M, rated at 450NM) have the same gear ratios. I believe all that is needed for a TDI swap in a Tiguan is a TCU recoding to adjust the shift points.

Rear differential ratios are independent of the final drive ratios. Since the bevel drive is after the final drive, the rear differential ratios are all the same.

Small update, I just have not had time to work on it much lately. But I finally got a good full day in with it yesterday and a little bit today.

The brake light issue is fixed, you know how they always say check the simple stuff first, well that is a really good idea. After pulling my hair out and decoding CAN-Bus messages for hours I found the ID and data set for brake light turn on signal to the central convenience module. I compared data between the TDI swap and another gas Tiguan I have and found they use the same ID with slightly different data. Using my CAN interface I was able to write the command to the CCM with the gateway unplugged. Unplugging the gateway stopped the ECU talking to the CCM and I was able to turn the brake lights on or off, but as soon as the gateway was back the lights were on solid. For some reason the ECU was outputting brake lights on all the time. First thing I went and double checked my wiring, everything wiring wise was just fine thankfully. Next I checked pedal monitoring in the ECU with VCDS (something I should have done from the get go) prior I had only check in the CCM. Reading the ECU showed that one switch showed applied all the time and the other switched with pedal travel. Once I found that I changed the brake switch out for another one I had and all was right with the world of brake lights again.

On the positive side, I did learn allot about VW CAN-bus stuff that Im sure will come in handy with the rest of this project. Next on the list of things to get working is the ABS unit. Unfortunately its not going to be as simple as a bad switch.
I also have all the mandrel bends to make the exhaust, that will be a fairly easy task to get put together. So slowly Im making progress, Ill try to keep updates posted as I move along.

Did you ever get this working?

I messaged him about swap details, I think I remember him saying he did. I want to do a manual tig swap for my wife's future car. Wish there was more info out there.

Last time I talked to him was a couple of years ago.

So you're are just reusing the CJAA from the donor car, and not one from a Tiguan?

Pretty cool if so, how is the fuel economy? My interest is peaked lol