What did you do to your MK7 today?

[Trfytoy]

Hmm, I just had my passenger license plate light go out and the car alerted me to "Check passenger license plate light".

 

[Cuzoe]

This was really not today, except for the last part of getting Autohold working (with green dash indication). But Electronic Parking Brake retrofit is now complete and fault free. Brakes need another (good) bleed though, and will be going to the shop for that, haha.

Golf R rear caliper, with EPB motor. The other side looks... the same, haha. Yes it's dirty in there, no I'm (probably) not cleaning it out. Yes, that is an adaptive damper, my car has DCC .
https://flic.kr/p/2oUJ4vj
The fun part, according to @Nuje at least... replacing the ABS module. Yes I'm a weirdo that made a D-sub pigtail, as if I would ever go back to my old 38 pin ABS. Seriously, that was a waste of time, haha.
https://flic.kr/p/2oUHzEb
New center console with EPB switch and AutoHold button.
https://flic.kr/p/2oUHzEg
And the green (P) indication when Autohold is engaged while driving. Note this is different from Hill Hold/Assist. Autohold will remain engaged indefinitely until you let the clutch out. And the car need not be on an incline.
https://flic.kr/p/2oUCzFL
Also, finally fixing the odometer mismatch on my dash (running the miles UP to match my car's actual mileage).
https://flic.kr/p/2oUCzFR

 

[Nuje]

I doubt I'm alone in admiring @Cuzoe's diligence in not only getting these retrofits done, but "done right".
(The wiring pigtail that he cooked up for the ABS module swap makes my mash-up look like a meth'd-up chimp did the work.)

My cluster reads ~20K (17500km to be exact) low as well, but i just don't have the gumption to get it matched to "actual".
=IF(OR(C8="",C8=""),"",C8+17500) suffices for me.
(Excel formula that takes the mileage I enter in Column C and adds 17500 to it); extra gibberish is there so that if I don't enter a mileage (multiple things done at a particular milage) in a Column C cell, I don't get "bad" result in "actual" column.

All of which is to say, nice work!!

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

First fill in my GSW after switching to 15" wheels and Nokian Entyres:

Normal driving, but trying to keep it under 80 on the highway. Last fill was in late May, btw.

 

[turbobrick240]

This was really not today, except for the last part of getting Autohold working (with green dash indication). But Electronic Parking Brake retrofit is now complete and fault free. Brakes need another (good) bleed though, and will be going to the shop for that, haha.

Golf R rear caliper, with EPB motor. The other side looks... the same, haha. Yes it's dirty in there, no I'm (probably) not cleaning it out. Yes, that is an adaptive damper, my car has DCC .
https://flic.kr/p/2oUJ4vj
The fun part, according to @Nuje at least... replacing the ABS module. Yes I'm a weirdo that made a D-sub pigtail, as if I would ever go back to my old 38 pin ABS. Seriously, that was a waste of time, haha.
https://flic.kr/p/2oUHzEb
New center console with EPB switch and AutoHold button.
https://flic.kr/p/2oUHzEg
And the green (P) indication when Autohold is engaged while driving. Note this is different from Hill Hold/Assist. Autohold will remain engaged indefinitely until you let the clutch out. And the car need not be on an incline.
https://flic.kr/p/2oUCzFL
Also, finally fixing the odometer mismatch on my dash (running the miles UP to match my car's actual mileage).
https://flic.kr/p/2oUCzFR

I like the shop towel air filter- very inventive!

 

[740GLE]

I doubt I'm alone in admiring @Cuzoe's diligence in not only getting these retrofits done, but "done right".
(The wiring pigtail that he cooked up for the ABS module swap makes my mash-up look like a meth'd-up chimp did the work.)

My cluster reads ~20K (17500km to be exact) low as well, but i just don't have the gumption to get it matched to "actual".
=IF(OR(C8="",C8=""),"",C8+17500) suffices for me.
(Excel formula that takes the mileage I enter in Column C and adds 17500 to it); extra gibberish is there so that if I don't enter a mileage (multiple things done at a particular milage) in a Column C cell, I don't get "bad" result in "actual" column.

All of which is to say, nice work!!

Agreed the level of crazyness is impressive.

Electronic parking breaks would be the last thing i'd ever contemplate. KISS for me please.

 

[ticaf]

It doesn’t seem easy to pull back the nozzle while filling to allow seeing the fuel level.

First fill in my GSW after switching to 15" wheels and Nokian Entyres:

Normal driving, but trying to keep it under 80 on the highway. Last fill was in late May, btw.

I
Are getting better mpg with the 15" tires? What size are they?

 

[Cuzoe]

@turbobrick240 I am willing to sell the IP for shop towel modification. Guaranteed more turbo sounds, smother idle and better spool!

@740GLE Although I think I had fun, I do not recommend this retrofit, haha. Too much work. The the EPB center console is nice. It can be set to apply the EPB if you are unbuckled and open the driver door. So +1 for laziness.

My car is manual but I wonder, on DSG cars, if you can get it automatically disengage when you put the car in drive, assuming buckled up. You need a foot on the brake to release to the EPB in my manual. Is foot on brake required to shift into D for the DSG? If yes, and if EPB can be set to auto disengage that would +2 for laziness.

@Nuje The bench setup will eventually be available for shipping to those in need. Couple folks already in front of you though, haha.

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

I
Are getting better mpg with the 15" tires? What size are they?

195/65-15s. Stock size. On OE Golf wheels. Mileage has jumped up significantly, but it could also be that the car is finally breaking in.

 

[740GLE]

My car is manual but I wonder, on DSG cars, if you can get it automatically disengage when you put the car in drive, assuming buckled up. You need a foot on the brake to release to the EPB in my manual. Is foot on brake required to shift into D for the DSG? If yes, and if EPB can be set to auto disengage that would +2 for laziness.

foot on break to shift out of park on the DSG just like every auto.

yeah it is cool, I just fear how living with it as the miles pile on how many parts will it require.

 

[Cuzoe]

yeah it is cool, I just fear how living with it as the miles pile on how many parts will it require.

The only added parts were the calipers, and center console switch, and wiring if you count that. There are no harnesses available for this retrofit so my added wiring consists only of repair wires from VW and mil-spec aircraft wiring for the runs I put together myself. Then there's the swap of one ABS for another. The used one I installed had fewer miles on it than my original although that's no guarantee of condition. They also don't seem to be a high fail item so I'm not really concerned with it.

I disassembled and rebuilt the brake calipers... new seals, bleeder screw, slides, etc. Also bought the EPB motor "rebuild" kits which is seals, grease and new attaching hardware.

 

[Nuje]

I'd thought/assumed you'd purchased the EPB calipers new; sounds like you got them used...?

 

[Cuzoe]

I'd thought/assumed you'd purchased the EPB calipers new; sounds like you got them used...?

Definitely went the used route. VW doesn't sell a brake "assembly" so going new you would need to buy caliper, EPB motor and carrier separately. MSRP comes to about $1,200 per side.

I paid just under $500 for a full set of Golf R brakes on eBay. It's rare to find just the rears for sale, since there aren't any real (or needed) upgrades for the R rears. None of the sellers of full sets would separate them either. Was able to sell the front set for $250 on another forum. Seems they usually go for at least $300 but I was impatient.

Rebuild kits/replacement hardware came out around $50 I think. So figure in in $350-400 range all in once you get pads and brake lines. I already had 310mm rotors since I was running GTI PP rear brakes before.

 

[mayday_soc]

@IndigoBlueWagon Are you putting any diesel treatment in your tank or are those mpgs from straight MA diesel?

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

@IndigoBlueWagon Are putting any diesel treatment in your tank or are those mpgs from straight MA diesel?

I have a 275 gallon tank at my house with a pump and I buy the fuel from a local supplier who also supplies trucking companies and fishing boats. I think it's pretty good quality diesel. And I always dose it with a lubricity additive.

Maybe this is a good batch of fuel. My MKIV Wagon is at 790 miles on its current tank and the low fuel light hasn't come on yet(!).

 

[GolfSW98]

Heard a scary noise on the highway, a light scraping noise, 50 miles later was home and noticed a few belly pan tabs snapped and at speed, pan was bending down and lightly scraping the road. Zip ties are a quick fix for now. Will look into purchasing a skid plate from idparts

912800FB-C558-4DDA-A8B8-C81CE85414B4.jpeg

• GolfSW98
• Aug 17, 2023

and the 50 mile trip was to buy the Mrs. a car, and the whole situation was very funny. It's like the golf was upset at me. Like taking a cat to the veterinarian.

 

[Nuje]

Got started (for the second time) on the powered tailgate retrofit of my GSW. Running wires through the rubber boot at top of the hatch opening - always fun.
Free up boot:

Some RG-6 coax used to pull the wiring harnesses through.

The first time was aborted due to the test-fitting not fully "sucking" the hatch closed - when i'd purchased that kit over a year ago (yeah - took me a while to get around to it ), I couldn't find one specifically for the Golf "Variant" (as the Sportwagen is called in RoW); now, though - a few different options.

 

[turbobrick240]

Powered hatch is a cool retrofit- even if that first pic looks somewhat X rated.
Who's gonna be the first here to do Lambo doors? They look pretty nice on the Hondas. Someone must make a kit for the GTI that might work?

 

[Cuzoe]

Powered hatch is a cool retrofit- even if that first pic looks somewhat X rated.
Who's gonna be the first here to do Lambo doors? They look pretty nice on the Hondas. Someone must make a kit for the GTI that might work?

Volkswagen Golf 2016-2021 Vertical Lambo Doors Conversion Kit

Lambo door hinge conversion kit compatible with the Volkswagen Golf 2016-2021 by Vertical Doors Inc. Volkswagen Golf 2016-2021 Vertical Doors KitPart Number: VDCVOLKGOLF21 Includes:2 Gas Shocks2 Vertical Doors, Inc., Lambo Door Hinges (one for each side)All Mounting HardwareDirect "Bolt On"...

verticaldoors.com

 

[740GLE]

Powered hatch is a cool retrofit- even if that first pic looks somewhat X rated.

Its cool until I saw the price tag of the retrofit kits, ooOffff!!!

 

[codyayrton]

Working on a coolant flush and fill. I had to drain a bunch of coolant for another service. I have VCDS and Schwaben coolant refill/air purge tool. Researching TDI Club for tips. I've noted the "OilHammer method" and the VCDS purge. I was planning to run distilled through it until mostly clear and then do a proper air purge with VCDS and new coolant. The coolant didn't look bad at all. I've added a bunch of distilled already and did a test drive to ensure my other service was successful. The coolant is still fairly pink. Maybe I should just use VCDS to ensure bleed and then use the OilHammer method until the vehicle's coolant color is similar to new coolant 50/50 color.

 

[Nuje]

Well....we got to this point today:

Only real issue right now is that the "suction lock" (once the hatch side of the locking mechanism grabs the hook on the car side, that "hook" which comes with the kit pulls the hatch via a little servo-controlled cable) to fully close/lock the hatch) only works some of the time. The control button at the front of the car seems to work every time, but the one at the rear closes but the suction lock doesn't activate. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Here it is working correctly.

You can see in there, too, that I'll need to grind down some of the metal plate that holds the powered loop as it blocks a couple of guide points for the plastic trim piece.

(And no - I haven't figured out what the purpose of that purple wire is.
Anyone here fluent in Chinese translation interpretation?

 

[Cuzoe]

Didn't start today...
https://flic.kr/p/2oYbA1C
But today I finished running the mileage up on my AID (on the bench) to match my car's actual milage...
https://flic.kr/p/2oYbfJU

 

[Nuje]

So, roughly how many hours on the bench was it to run up those ~20K miles?

 

[Cuzoe]

So, roughly how many hours on the bench was it to run up those ~20K miles?

Somewhere around 200 hours. I never really timed it but it seems you can get somewhere around 140 mph. I had over 27,000 mi to add.

This was spread over about 3 weeks. I decided to do it the most inconvenient way possible and pull the dash out of the car every day when I got to work and let it run miles on the workbench in my shop. And then on evenings when I wasn't lazy I would do the same at home, plus part of two weekends... but not the whole weekend because laziness.

And to make it more annoying since I'm driving the car every day to and from work, to lunch, to pick up the kiddo from daycare, etc... I was tracking the daily miles, adding that to the total number of miles I needed to add, and subtracting the number of miles I added each time I put the dash on the bench .

The infinitely smarter thing to do would have been to just drive my other car. Let the dash run all the miles at once in the bench. But having just finished electronic parking brake retrofit I couldn't deal with not enjoying it.

 

[Cuzoe]

Decided to be stubborn, going to make this Areaview View (360 view, birdseye camera, or whatever you want to call it) happen. the mirror camera mounting will be the hardest part for sure, so that's where we'll start . This is my old mirror which will be used to finalize the camera location/mounting, and temp installed on the car for testing when the time comes. Then I'll attempt to replicate on the power folding mirrors that are actually installed. One note, earlier mirrors like these have metal internal frames. Later mirrors (including my power folding) have plastic internal frames. Better for me since I may need to trim the frame where the camera connector sits. Blah blah blah, who cares.. pics!

https://flic.kr/p/2oZ4Q51 https://flic.kr/p/2oZ7Nnr https://flic.kr/p/2oZ9Zp1 https://flic.kr/p/2oZajP6

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

I can tell you're from Los Angeles installing that mirror. Here in MA we simply don't look. Just drive.

 

[Cuzoe]

I can tell you're from Los Angeles installing that mirror. Here in MA we simply don't look. Just drive.

I have front assist, predictive adaptive cruise control (it adjusts for speed limit signs and upcoming curves based on nav data), and blind spot monitoring retrofitted. Also have dataset on the camera to allow 60 seconds hands-free. And EPB with auto-hold function. If it wasn't for 6MT I would barely drive at all!

 

[IndigoBlueWagon]

Cruise adjusting for speed limits wouldn't be a good thing here, either. The road I commute on has a 60 MPH speed limit and traffic generally runs between 80 and 85. At 60 I'd just piss people off.

 

[Cuzoe]

That's why there are offsets, and you select how the car should treat them. I have it set to maintain my offset. So detected speed limit of 60, and I set cruise to 70... It maintains 70 forever unless it detects a sign lower than 60. At that point it will reduce speed but keep the offset. So if I pass a 50 sign my set speed drops to 60 (although I will get a little carat on the speedometer showing the detected speed limit).

Of course, you can turn off the sign detection function by unchecking a box in the menu. Then you just have ACC which will always try to keep the speed you have set (given there is no vehicle within your set minimum follow distance).