I took a trip over to Ben @ Shark Performance earlier on today to allow him to work his magic on the 2nd hand maxidot display and trip computer installation.

So...out came the tools, first off it was to take all the existing information off of my non maxidot / trip computer dash pod.

I'd previously fitted the wiper and indicator stalk before the display was fitted.

The steering wheel was then removed from the column, Ben then proceeded onto the surrounding trims leaving us with this.

The old dash clocks were removed and replaced with the new maxidot display.

Out with the old and in with the new

The steering wheel module was replaced with a new steering wheel module that supports cruise control/maxidot and a Multifunction Steering Wheel.

At this point id forgotten to take a picture of the steering wheel module being fitted to the column, so i do apologize for that.

The clocks and steering wheel module were then inspected by Ben and all of the values from my old clocks were transfered to the new ones.

The trims and steering wheel were all refitted, leaving the inside of the car looking like so

A drive on the carpark to re-adapt the steering angle and torque sensors, everything went ahead smoothly.

So after a drive home, here's a few pictures of the values and readings that have come up to prove it actually works.

Many Thanks to Ben for making this possible

Edited 27 February, 201016 yr by Browny_37

Hi matey, if you've got cruise control and a trip computer already.

It will be a case of just fitting the dashpod in place and programming to suite the car.

I only needed the module, as my car doesn't have a trip computer.

Oh and im pretty chuffed with it, its suppose to be the 1st time this has been done to a classic spec Octy II

Edited 27 February, 201016 yr by Browny_37

Looking good and great result.Iam jealous now LOL

Looking good and great result.Iam jealous now LOL

Not half as jealous as me :'(

I had to change the wiper stalk for a trip computer one, the steering wheel control module's aren't particularly cheap either.

Edited 28 February, 201016 yr by Browny_37

On a side note to the main topic.

Im quite suprised at how much of a dip the instant mpg takes when accelerating. Im not sure if other people drive there PD105's differently to me.

I tend to drive at a sensible pace, but dont exactly thrash it but get upto speed quickly if that makes sense.

I know the figures can be taken with a pinch of salt, as the displays arn't fully accurate, but upon heavy acceleration on a particular hill, i can see 6mpg in 2nd gear

My average tank seems to last me 360-380miles, im not sure what your car achieves.

But the roads i take to work are into outskirts of Sheffield, around Sheffield Forgemasters and Meadowhall which tend to be alot stop start driving.

Climbing up a modest hill in 3rd gear can see low 20's on the mpg, change gear and drop the revs from around 1800rpm to 1200rpm see's that go up by around 5mpg.

The DMF doesn't feel to be struggling, but i dont want to chance it for the extra economy.

I look forward to hearing how you feel about your maxidot display matey, i particulaly like the quietness when i get in and turn the ignition on now.

My old clocks seamt to bong 5 times whilst the car was stood still with the seatbelt off, which was particulaly annoying as i prefer to start the car and allow for the oil to get moving, before i put the seat belt on and then move off.

Although if you do move off without the seatbelt on it does bong.

The next thing to look into is the temperature sensor, as the car doesn't currently have one. Which leaves the dash looking a little blank towards the lower part of the screen.

It looks as though Ben will be the first person to retrofit one of these to a Mk2 Octy Classic

Ben has shown great support and patience with this project and i cant thank him enough for his helpfulness along the way.

Keep up the good work mate!

Edited 28 February, 201016 yr by Browny_37

I know the figures can be taken with a pinch of salt, as the displays arn't fully accurate,

There is a correction factor for mpg that can be adjusted with VCDS ( IIRC)

In the VCDS section

wow just seen your car done 142,000 miles

Nice write up - good luck

Edited 28 February, 201016 yr by InexEng

what happens if you have a 2009 FL vrs with non maxidot but has the full screen, does this still need a complete change or is it a vag com unlock or similar?

its a totally different display, the maxidot is a full dot matrix display. Even on the FL cars, the non maxidot display is still just an LCD ala digital clock.

On a side note to the main topic.

Im quite suprised at how much of a dip the instant mpg takes when accelerating. Im not sure if other people drive there PD105's differently to me.

I think it depends how hard you accelerate. I can accelerate gently on the flat and still keep it in the 40mpg region, but the more you plant your foot, the lower it drops.

I know the figures can be taken with a pinch of salt, as the displays arn't fully accurate, but upon heavy acceleration on a particular hill, i can see 6mpg in 2nd gear

Indeed, I think it's good for a relative indication only and I guess after a while the novelty wears off.

My average tank seems to last me 360-380miles, im not sure what your car achieves.

But the roads i take to work are into outskirts of Sheffield, around Sheffield Forgemasters and Meadowhall which tend to be alot stop start driving.

Wow, that sounds low to me. It's still early days for my car as I've only done 2 brim to brim readings, but I'll be disappointed if I don't achieve above 50mpg average and 600 miles on each tank, but then I live rurally and do very little stop start town driving - most of mine is A roads at 40-60 MPH which I guess is fairly optimal.

Ben has shown great support and patience with this project and i cant thank him enough for his helpfulness along the way.

Keep up the good work mate!

It's great to hear such positive glowing reports of folks work, and I know who I'll be picking up the phone to when I want cruise control reto fitted to my Octy

To be honest Phil, its really made me think about how i drive the car.

Im kind of scared to use the throttle now, just so i can see how far i can get out of it now.

I must admit, Dan, that your miles on a tankful do seen very low for a 1.9TDI. I regularly push 600 - 650 on a tank, driving it easy.

Mike

At a steady speed i've seen 550miles to a tank matey, but thats on a motorway/dual carriageway run.