Purpletom

Try eBay, took me 2 mins to find this: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/266632758464?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=pV0idlR-TOO&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=_BjIvh5xQJC&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

I’ve no idea what all the differences are, but it looks externally the same as the one that I’ve got. Should be fine 👍🏻

I was recommended to go for the ‘basic’ one but noticed the ‘high’ one so spent the extra and found it didn’t work. That’s why I linked to the basic one. I paid £175 for the airbag.

It didn’t work for me unfortunately. The heated steering wheel button is still non functional. It is worth keeping an eye on eBay for the wheels - they do come up - I paid £120 for mine. I think the trims are removed because of the value in selling second hand.

I sold the round wheel on eBay, only about a month ago. With the connectors for the terminals, I cheated and bought an MQB fusebox from a breaker for a tenner that had a good chunk of the car harness with it. Had plenty of connectors on it as well as a load of fuses and relays. Plus I used it to work out where I was going to wire the HSW in.

Was that a manual steering wheel or DSG? I hunted high and low for a manual flat bottomed mk3 wheel and couldn’t find one or a part number for one anywhere.

Nope, just the button to switch on the heat and the ACC button. The rest work fine but you do need that LIN adaptor otherwise the buttons on the right don’t function properly through the menus on the dash. It’s very subjective but I tried the round mk3 wheel and wasn’t a big fan, especially after the retrim as it ended up a bit too thick for my liking. The other option for you would be to find a DSG wheel then remove the DSG paddles and make some sort of cover for where they mount. I wondered about doing that and then 3D printing some covers that clip into place. Quite a few options really, but none of it is 100% straightforward.

Yes, forgot that. The heating button on the wheel does not work but I just link mine to the seat heating and also have it switching on automatically when the outside temp is 4 degrees or below. I don’t have adaptive cruise but the lane assist button works as it should 👍🏻

The steering wheel I used - manual, red stitching, heated - was: 5E3 959 542 G The airbag was: 5E3 880 201 S A link to the LIN convertor I used: LIN Adaptor Here it is fitted: Thanks

I’ve now fitted a mk4 vRS wheel to mine. There is no extra coding required but you will need a LIN convertor to make the buttons work properly - about £200. Personally I think it’s a really nice wheel and a nice change from the mk3 wheel BUT it isn’t much cheaper once you factor in the airbag and LIN convertor.

1. 549D is working fine on my 2017 FL 245 and has done since I fitted it and wrote the thread last year. 2. If the part number is matching then it should be fine. 3. Nope, just fit as per the guide. 4. Manual or DSG? If manual, then no, they don’t exist as far as I can tell, certainly not in mk3 style anyway. Flat bottomed heated DSG wheels do, but they’re few and far between. Mk4 wheels are a straight fit but require extra expense on a LIN convertor to get them working properly.

I said the last update was the final one, but just to follow on briefly. I towed for the first time with the Octavia the other day - only a light motorbike trailer but the nose weight was about 40kg. The car wasn’t down by its arse at all, even with a toolbox and a few other bits in the back. Very pleased 👍🏻 Tom

So they basically want you to splice into a terminal 30 wire behind the fuse box somewhere with the short bit of wire and then utilise fuse position 2 because they assume that is a completely empty fuse position. I did it differently where I just found an empty terminal 30 bus on the fuse box and tapped into that. It won’t be an airbag cable - it’ll be for something else - probably CAN or LIN related. Once you get the airbag off (if you haven’t already) you’ll see that all connections go through the big yellow plug.

Yes, and that’s how I did it with the loom I built. It is tight but it’s easy enough to unclip the fuse box and pull it away from the bulkhead a bit. A tip to help find the right slot for the feed wire is to push a cable tie/zip tie through from the front of the fuse box in the correct fuse slot then use that to help you push the feed wire into place.

It does make sense. If you look at an MQB fusebox (I bought one from a breaker just to get an idea of how they work) you’ll see they work in essentially the same way as even the CE2 fusebox on earliere VAG stuff (mk2/3 Golf, Corrado etc) in that they have several large common feeds going into them - those feeds being permanent live and ignition live - and then different fuse terminals receive whatever power is required. To answer your question directly - I used an ignition live feed (terminal 30) with a 10A fuse. I didn’t use a fusetap, I don’t really like using them for anything other than a semi-permanent consumer like a dashcam.

No, that isn’t the case. As long as the steering wheel you’re fitting matches your existing steering wheel in terms of the MFSW buttons then all features will work as they should. You should need to make sure you get the right buttons for your wheel.

The wiper arms? That’s a new one. Do you mean the external wiper arms, as in the things that hold the wipers? If so, I can’t imagine for a minute what they’ve got to do with the heated steering wheel…

Yes, that is unfortunately true. The MFSW buttons are specific to DSG and then even more specific to the HSW as the right hand MFSW button unit has an extra socket for the CAN info for the HSW (temperature etc). You are much better off buying the wheel with the MFSW buttons already included unfortunately. I unfortunately haven’t got my DSG HSW anymore otherwise I’d look for the part number for you.

That’s right, albeit mine comes on automatically below 4 degrees and if I switch the heated seats on then the wheel comes on automatically and I can adjust the temperature on the screen along with the heated seats. No, it’s a CAN convertor albeit I think we’d know it as a LIN convertor. I can’t seem to get the link to paste into here because I’m on my phone, but cars-equipment sell one - it’s not cheap but it works.

Kufatec do a LHD specific loom - have a look on their website. There should be less strip down required on a LHD car for definite. Regarding the mk4 Octavia wheel - it will fit and work however you’ll need a CAN convertor to get the correct functionality with the buttons. I’ve just fitted a mk4 wheel to my mk3 and it was the only solution to getting the buttons to work.

If you’re 100% happy with the wiring and everything else seems to be ok then I’d say yes, try a genuine control module.

Just to check: - You’ve used a Terminal 30 connection within the fuse box? - You have a fuse in the correct place? - You’ve used an adequate earth/ground point? - You’re happy that you’ve correctly followed and completed the alterations to the pin-outs between the 16 pin and 14 pin plugs? - Or, if you’ve used a Kufatec adaptor, that it’s correctly wired up? If you’re happy with all that and you’ve done the necessary coding then chances are it is the steering wheel control module (clockspring). I used a genuine one and have had no issues in over a year now. Thanks Tom

Hi Adam, I did have this same problem once on my Leon a few weeks after doing the retrofit. I removed the coding then recoded it and it worked fine. But I have also read about issues with the steering wheel control module causing this problem. Where did you get your module from? Thanks Tom

Right, final update to this....and I've sorted it, eventually! The Suplex rear springs I mentioned above arrived and I excitedly got them fitted. Bear in mind they were 15mm longer than the original springs with a slightly thicker coil (12.2mm as opposed to 11.8mm)...I hoped they'd get it sitting nicely. The result was this hilarity: To be fair, that photo doesn't really do it justice! I could get my whole hand into the arch gap 😅 Sooo, back to the drawing board. I ended up taking another gamble on a set of Eibach R11339 rear springs. These correspond to weight range 8 (PR-0YH) and part number 5Q0 511 115 BF. Length 247mm, 12mm wire diameter. I took the opportunity to fit a Clubsport GTi rear ARB (22mm in place of the standard 20mm 245 rear ARB): As well as making sure all four camber/toe bolts were moving freely: New ARB drop links and bottom arm bolts and I got it down off the lift. Finally, the height I was after, ride unaffected and handling improved with the rear ARB: So, to bookend this whole thing. Weight range 8 (PR-0YH) seems to be about right for a 245 vRS retrofitted with a variable boot floor, rear towbar and with a spare wheel in place of the original tyre gel kit. Thanks to @Carlston for all of this advice throughout this thread. Got there in the end 👍 Tom

Ah yes, thank you, that is something that rings a bell from the research I did before starting the job. Definitely worth checking what airbag you’ve got before committing to the retrofit because you might already have the right one 👍🏻 Thanks Tom