AVIC-Z110 in 2010 Golf MKVI TDI wagon

bassewitz

Active member
Joined
Aug 2, 2009
Location
Vancouver, BC
TDI
2001 Golf TDI
It has been almost 6 months now since I installed the navigation unit (navi) in my then barely 3 month new car. (Which in the US is sold as a MK6 Jetta Sportwagon or JSW as some refer to it here.)
Since I had a lot of help from both my colleague Dave as well as a lot of sites on the Internet I decided to put something together for all those VW owners who have decided not to go with the OEM head units and are struggling to find all the instructions.
Even after all the tips Dave had given me and looking at the videos and postings in forums I still ended up with some questions that were left unanswered. Which is what I am hoping to remedy with this posting.
So first let us go through the list of parts you will need.
My car: 2010 Volkswagen Golf Wagon TDI with Panoramic Sunroof (Canadian version = daytime running lights)
My Navigation Unit: Pioneer AVIC-Z110BT (now AVIC-Z120BT after the firmware upgrade)
Double DIN Dash Kit: Scosche VW2317B
Wiring harness: Connects2 CTSVW002
Antenna adapter: Metra - 40-EU55
iPod Connection cable: Pioneer CD-IU50V
Miscellaneous parts:
butt and bullet connectors (if you decide not to solder)
heat shrink tubing (if you decide to solder, 18 gauge is not big enough for two cables twisted together as I found out) ;-)
and then obviously solder and solder gun/iron
tie straps (to tidy up all the excess cable inside)
Tools:
Multi Wedge Shims from Lee Valley 99W38.59
T-20 Torx driver
Let me start with the instructions and then later I will explain why I went the way I did. Otherwise you have to read 10 pages of ranting for 3 pages of instructions. (Feel free to read the rant after the instructions anyway!) ;-)
The dash kits are very easy to install. The only problem you may run into is that the factory trim around the factory stereo is hard to remove the first time. That is why you will need the wedges or trim removal tools the first time you remove it. It gets easier after that and you will be able to do it with your hands. Once the trim is off you can remove the 4 T-20 screws that hold in the factory head unit.
When you use the Scosche kit the dealer suggested to me to glue the sides onto the front plate rather than just snapping them in. They should hold fine without the glue but I had glue handy so I thought better safe than having to do it again.
The wiring harness is easy to install if you don't want to override the parking break restriction (illegal to do so in most places I believe). If you do want to override it take a look at these two videos from SoundMan Car Audio http://www.soundmancaraudio.com/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N7H0iJoEGNo&NR=1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t3NL8jMok14
The first one shows what to do to bypass the parking break.
It is only necessary if you want to be able to have your passenger change the destination while you are driving.
If you are having trouble removing the pin as most everyone has then see the second video for an easier method.
Now to the things I (and my colleague Dave and some others) found out the hard way when trying to move the pin:
1. What isn't shown in the videos is that on one side of the connector is a locking mechanism that you will need to lift up first before attempting either method.
Use a small jewellery screw-driver to pop up all three sections of it.
You will want to keep a screwdriver or a straightened paperclip in the 'locking tab' to keep it from closing up as well as another one on the side that the mute cable is on. (I know the description is not the best but I am hoping you will figure it out without me having to post pictures, which I will do if necessary.)
2. I ended up deciding not to struggle with trying to 'simply' pulling the cable out so I opted for the second way. But be aware that you will still have to unlock all three sections on the other side.
Here now the mistakes I (and others it seems) have made when I moved the pin and then connected the MUTE (yellow), PARKING BREAK (green) and GROUND (black) cables.
1. When you push the MUTE cable in the hole next to where it used to be make sure you push it as far in as possible and also press down all three sections of the locking mechanism on the other side. If the 'lock' doesn't want to sit flush then the pin isn't actually fully in place yet.
2. Only connect the MUTE, PARKING BREAK and GROUND cables on the wiring harness that came with the navi. You only need to connect it to the GROUND cable on the CONNECTS2 wiring harness. Simply leave the green parking break cable alone that is on the CONNECTS2 harness.
I ended up bending over the end on the green cable on the CONNECTS2 wiring harness and then putting electrical tape around it to make sure it doesn't accidentally short on something inside the dash. Shrink tubing would have been better because it doesn't melt inside the hot dash but I have had the wiring harness out one lunch hour already and the tape was fine even after a few days in the sun.
3. Solder the three cables together before crimping a bullet connector on them because there is a good chance they are going to be too big together and therefore won't go into the connector if you simply twist them together.
I stripped the GROUND cable a bit more than the others and then twisted the other two onto it one behind the other, soldered them together and then put tape around the part that wouldn't go inside the insulated part of the connector. Again heat shrink tubing would have been better had I had the right size. But the size I had bought was barely big enough for the speaker cables. (Next time I will buy a multi-pack so I have all the different sizes! Hindsight an' all!)
You will know if you managed to make a good connection with the mute cable inside the plug and the three cables twisted together. The unit will complain that the parking break cable is not connected properly if either one of these two connections isn't solid.
Some of cables in the wiring harness are not labelled so you just have to go with their colour coding.
The antenna adapter is pretty self explanatory as well. It connects to the blue wire on the wiring harness.
Now to the VSS and ILLUMINATION cables. One is needed so the GPS can calculate where you are while you are travelling through tunnels and the other is so that the GPS will switch to NIGHT COLOURS once you turn on your head lights.
The VSS cable connects to the same coloured cable (pink I believe) on the wiring harness.
The ILLUMINATION cable is actually labelled properly on the wiring harness and you can simply connect the two together and it will work. Even on cars with daylight running lights like the ones here in Canada. (Other cars and models are different. More to that below in the rant.)
That completes the more complicated parts of the install as far as connecting the new Navi to the factory speakers and other cables.
For placement of the GPS antenna take a look at this video by FUTRELL AUTOWERKS
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cpdnnNw4wlc&feature=player_embedded#!
I had to watch the video a couple of times before I noticed that they did show that there are two screws you have to remove before you can take out the vents above where the stereo sits.
What they didn't show were the four tabs on top of the vents that will make it difficult to simply pull them out.
But since you already have a trim removal tool of some sort that you used to remove the trim around the head unit the first time you can use the same one to push these tabs down.
Once you have the vents removed you will see a ton of locations were you could place the antenna and still get an excellent reception.
I ended up cutting the included metal sheet with double sided tape on it in half and glued it to the top of the vent as shown in the video.
Then I coiled up the excess wire, used the tie-straps to keep it coiled up making sure I had enough wire not coiled up to be able to pull out the head-unit as far as the wiring harness would allow me.
I have not installed the microphone by the dome lights yet because I want the dealership to fix the rattle in the headliner first. After that I might tackle that. Until that time I have installed it on top of the place holders for the buttons in front of the shifter.
To feed the cable up I filed down a corner with a small round file so that it sits in there loose enough that it doesn't tear when the microphone gets moved - which happens quite frequently.
Since I also place the iPod cable in the ashtray (for now) the following instructions on how to remove the ashtray to be able to comfortably run the cables down apply for both cables.
First you have to remove the cover around the shifter. I have a 6 speed manual transmission so I can't tell you what you have to do if you have an automatic version.
To remove the cover around the shifter I found it easiest to pry it up from the ashtray side.
First I used a piece of plexi glass I had left over from an iPod tray I had built for my 2001 Golf TDI. But the wedges from Lee Valley will also work. There is a shorter one in the package.
Below that cover you will find two torx screws that hold the ashtray in place.
Once you have removed those you can lift up the ashtray and start disconnecting the cable for the light and for the cigarette lighter (Sorry, I mean the 12V outlet of course).
The connector to the light is a bit tricky. It does have a tab that you can press in to release the connector but it doesn't seem to be stiff enough. So I had to press on the actual lock with a small screwdriver to release the connector. (It'll make more sense when you have the tray out.)
The connector for the 12V outlet is much easier to remove.
Now you can decide where you want to put either cable and what modifications you want to do.
If you do want to run the microphone to the dome lights where the factory mic would go you will need to remove the cover on the passenger side A pillar. Just be sure to disconnect the battery as there is an Airbag in behind.
I had found a post by someone who had done the removal and install but I don't have it handy right now. If you know of it feel free to let me know and I will add it here.
I think that covers all the installation instructions. Now I think I will add my reasons as to why I chose the parts, what troubles I ran into and why I chose the locations where I put the mic and iPod cable.
First the head unit.
Dave had recommended it to me and after looking around the web for myself I noticed that it came down to two manufacturers.
1. Pioneer
2. Kenwood
I went with Pioneer because of the look and feel of the interface. It is just much better designed and thought out.
One thing I wish the Pioneer car-stereo had that the Kenwood does have is the forward tilting function on the display.
The screen on the Pioneer unit will tilt back in small increments but with the angle of the dash and with the car having a panoramic sunroof I have to admit that the forward tilting display would come in very handy to cut down on the glare from above at times. Not often, but it has come up. Especially when we wanted to watch a movie while waiting for a ferry.
I could have gone with the AVIC-X910 and then had the turning knob for volume, which I honestly would have preferred, but then I would have lost a lot of screen real-estate that I now enjoy a lot.
When it came to buying the navigation-unit Dave had recommended http://www.sonicelectronix.com
They were very good about giving
a. a very good price and
b. telling you all the shipping and customs costs up front.
There are a few problems Dave had run into though that I managed to avoid because he had told me about them:
1. If you want to have them ship to a different address than the billing address on your credit card you are going to use: Call your credit card company and register the other address as a shipping address first.
2. Don't expect the unit to arrive too quickly if you choose not to have it shipped express.
3. If you live in Canada (and possibly even those ordering from the USA) be aware that Sonic Electronix is not one of Pioneer's authorized dealers and as such don't expect your warranty to be valid.
I have had this happen with other electronic manufacturers as well where I ended up having to either fight with the manufacturer or pay the repair myself. Even though one of the 3 units Dave and I bought 1 had to be shipped to Pioneer for repair I decided it was still worth the risk as I hadn't read about anyone else having to have theirs repaired. (It was one of Dave's 2 that he had bought for himself and his girl-friend's car.) As expected Pioneer did not want to honour the warranty at first .
Eventually Dave managed to convince them to honour it if he shipped the unit to them on his dime. All seems to be well with the unit now.
So now to the additional parts. Opinions and experiences will differ. Please feel free to let me know if you had better results with any of the parts than I have tried or if you chose different parts that worked for you.
I had looked around and again with Dave's help found http://www.enfigcarstereo.com
Christian was a great help but please allow him some time to return your calls or eMails. I believe they are also running an installation shop at the same time as being a parts supplier.
After a lot of back and forth (thank you again Christian for your patience) I had decided on getting the CONNECTS2 Dash Kit CT23VW01A for my Golf along with the Connects2 CTSVW002 wiring harness and the antenna adapter from Metra 40-EU55
So far so good.
Because I was the first one to order the Connects2 Dash Kit for an MKVI (it is actually listed on Connects2's website as being for MKV's) I had to wait for Enfig to get it shipped to them from the UK. You can also have it shipped from Connects2 directly I believe.
Be prepared to be patient when ordering any of these parts. If you don't want to go with the things that local installers have for whatever reason (price or look) you can't expect it to arrive right away or on your schedule.
I was going to order the Pioneer iPod cable CD-IU50V from an online store as well but then found it at a local Future Shop for pretty much the same price.
Now to my problems with the Connects2 Facia Kit and why I ended up with the Scosche one after all:
Connects2 had packaged the wrong parts together in the box they had sent to Enfig. Which was a shame because the finish on the Connects2 facia kit is definitely the best match to the VW interior. Unfortunately that is where it ended.
The facia-kit came with 3 parts.
The frame that gets screwed into the dash with the same screws that hold the factory stereo in place.
The bezel that fills the gap between the head-unit and the frame.
The cage that gets screwed onto the stereo and gets fitted into the frame.
Unfortunately for me none of the pieces fit together or in the dash.
The frame was about 1mm wider in one corner so the VW bezel that goes around the entire assembly couldn't be snapped back into place completely. One corner (bottom right for me) was always a little above the rest of the dash.
I could have sanded down the corner if that had been the only problem. Although I have to say I had expected a better fit after paying so much for the kit. And I had read other posts where it had fit perfectly. But those were for MK5's.
The next problem was that the cage did not fit inside the frame. The lip on the top and bottom was way too high.
Again I could have cut those down with my Dremel, but why should I have to?
Those two mods would have been worth doing if it meant I'd end up withe the nicer finish had it not been for the inner bezel being higher than the opening.
I would have had to cut it, glue it back together to adjust the inside opening and then cut around the outside as well.
That was asking a bit too much for a dash-kit that cost around $90.
Enfig was very good about taking the part back and got in touch with the manufacturer who will hopefully be more careful when packaging their dash kits in the future.
I ended up finding Soundworks here in Burnaby http://www.soundworksonline.net/
They had the Scosche facia-kit VW2317B in stock for about half the price of the Connects2 kit.
There is a reason for the price difference. The finish definitely does not match as well as the Connects2 does. It has a slightly rough texture. And it doesn't come with a metal cage. Instead it comes with plastic brackets that hold the head-unit in place.
Since the kit comes with a pocket in case you want to use it with a single DIN unit I will see if I can figure out a way to sand the surface down so it matches the VW dash a bit better.
However I should mention that the surface mismatch is more noticeable on pictures than it is when you are right in front of it. Mainly because of the lighting when you take the picture and also you are looking at it much closer during the installation than you will once you drive the car.
One thing that Jamie from Soundworks had mentioned to me when he sold me the dash kit was that they usually glue the plastic brackets in place for extra security.
They do fit snugly but I don't think it hurts to glue them in place, so I did.
Regular plastic glue should be fine.
The Scosche dash-kit fit like a glove both in place of the old car-stereo behind the VW dash bezel as well as around the Double DIN navi.
Now to the wiring harness and why I didn't solder. (Aside from not having bought shrink tubing that wasn't big enough to fit over two wires.)
I thought I would use butt connectors for all those cables that have to have two or three cables connected to them per side (like the handbrake override) and bullet connectors when I wasn't sure if I was connecting the right cables.
In retrospect I should have used bullet connectors everywhere.
If you make a mistake it is much easier to move one cable to another to correct it without having to re-crimp anything.
That is if you put all the female connectors on one wiring harness and all male on the other. Otherwise you can't really move cables.
To keep the mess behind the head unit at bay I decided to coil up any of the excess wires and tie them together with zip ties. It makes it easier to tuck them away and you have less bulk that you have to push out of the way when you finally install the head-unit in place.
For those of you who don't want to cut a hole in the bottom of their ashtray (you can easily cover it up again with the rubber liner that is inside the ashtray) here is a link to someone's post who installed the iPod cable in a similar but different spot.
http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?4700898
JL97VWGTI put the iPod cable through the spare button holes and fashioned an iPod Dock.
I had hoped to do the same using my old iPod 3G's dock that I had used in the 2001 Golf.
There were many problems with that idea.
1. The iPod dock was too wide to fit inside the ashtray without cutting the dock
2. The iPod dock with the cable connected to it was too deep to fit inside the ashtray without cutting into the back of the ashtray.
3. While it was possible to control the iPhone once it was unlocked it was too cumbersome to get at the Home button to get to the home screen.
I ended up cutting up the iPod dock and tried to feed the cable that was on the inside through a hole I had cut into the bottom of the ashtray but it was too fragile and I seemed to have broken one or more of the connections on the cable making it completely useless.
On to the next idea.
What JL97VWGTI had done was actually quite smart and looked great too. At the time I was just not brave enough to cut up the buttons of the ashtray. I'm still not sure that I am but I might do it after I know how much a replacement tray will cost in case I want to take out the entire installation when I sell the car. (Something I had intended to do with the trunk installation of my subwoofer in my 2001 Golf TDI but then didn't after all.)
JL97VWGTI had cut up a dock and installed the tray (for lack of a better word) in place of the buttons. It actually allows for the iPhone to rest against the middle console just below the climate controls.
Mind you for those instances when you want to be able to control the iPhone/iPod directly without having to take it out of the dock it would be even better if I could figure out a way to mount it on the same level as the radio.
Unfortunately I am someone who doesn't like messing with the original design too much. So I will be working on installing a dock next to the ESP button.
There is another thing that is still stopping me from doing that though - aside from cutting up the button spaces. The Pioneer iPod cable clips into the iPhone and requires manual unclipping. So until I figure out a solution to that problem the cable will feed up through the hole in the bottom of the ashtray.
Whether or not that complies with the new hands free driving laws that state the phone has to be affixed to the car is a question I can't answer.
But a lot of the time I don't even take my phone out of my jacket pocket. Instead I will let it connect via Bluetooth both for voice as well as audio. You can definitely hear a difference between Bluetooth audio and direct connection audio, but since I am not an audiophile I was able to find EQ settings that make it OK for me. (More to that in my alternate post.)
What I didn't know about at the beginning when it comes to Bluetooth audio is that you don't just have control over PLAY and VOLUME but the TRK buttons will also allow you to skip forward and back which now only leaves two options on my Bluetooth interface wish-list: SHUFFLE SONGS and display the song info, possibly with artwork although the latter is not really that important.
Mind you this may already be an option and I just haven't figured out how to use it with the new Bluetooth firmware version 3.1 (I still haven't dared to upgrade to 3.1.1. Maybe when I get home in the New Year.)
A last request before you respond to this post:
Please do me and everyone else a great favour: Think about how and what you reply to!
If you are going to reply only to say that I did everything wrong and I know nothing about sound or navigation etc let me ask you to simply PM me. I welcome your criticism and I am happy to discuss it with you.
In order to keep this thread only about how to do the install of this particular unit with questions from those of us who are having trouble and answers by those who've already figured it out please start a new thread with anything that isn't about that and simply post a link to it in here.
I ask this because I have had to read through a lot of pages (dozens at times) in threads that had become more about *****ing who is more right and who isn't than about the installation.
I have started one for all those who don't like the factory speakers (8 or 10 pack) and think their ears are suffering if they don't put in better speakers or a sub or an amp or or or.
Here is the link: http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?p=3250857#post3250857
Thank you.
 
Last edited:

scasault

Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Location
Ottawa, ON Canada
TDI
2010 Golf
Great overview! I am considering the exact same upgrade on my 2010 Golf and this answers many of my questions. My biggest concern was that once installed, there would no longer be an integration with steering navigation - I seem to be correct in assuming this. Also, did you come across any way of using the Golf's own microphone, MDI connection, and auxilary inputs instead of having to "double up" using Pioneer's supplied cables?

Thanks for resuming your experience and frustrations!
 

bassewitz

Active member
Joined
Aug 2, 2009
Location
Vancouver, BC
TDI
2001 Golf TDI
Great overview! I am considering the exact same upgrade on my 2010 Golf and this answers many of my questions. My biggest concern was that once installed, there would no longer be an integration with steering navigation - I seem to be correct in assuming this. Also, did you come across any way of using the Golf's own microphone, MDI connection, and auxilary inputs instead of having to "double up" using Pioneer's supplied cables?
Thanks for resuming your experience and frustrations!
I think you will find the best answer to that question here:
http://www.golfmkv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=80057
I had also posted my article on VWVortex (along with pictures) and there are some responses there you might find useful as well
http://forums.vwvortex.com/showthread.php?5154913-AVIC-Z110-in-2010-Golf-MKVI-TDI-wagon
I would have posted the pictures here as well but I am only allowed to include 10 pictures so I opted to include them at VWVortex.
 
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