Bluetooth Retrofit w/ iPhone 4

[speyside]

Picked up my 'new' 60 plate Octavia VRS Diesel last week - loving the car so far. Spent a wee bit of time looking for one after being torn between Candy White & Race Blue, decided on the Blue due to being available at a dealer locally & a decent deal being offered.

Really wanted OEM Bluetooth but couldnt bring myself to go for DSG - even if I could have found one in my budget - so the car I have is a standard spec manual, but I got rear parking sensors retrofitted by dealer before delivery.

After doing a bit of research on here re Bluetooth, after considering the Fiscion & Dension options I went for the OEM 7P module from carsystems in Poland.The kit I bought is here http://www.carsystem...ofit,id218.html - excellent service from carsystems and would recommend them to anyone.

I couldn't find many posts referring to retrofitting OEM Bluetooth without the MSFW & Maxidot, but I can confirm everything works fine - obviously the only option is to use the touchscreen to operate the system, but apart form the issue below everything is fine.

Got the kit fitted last night by a VW tech friend, and despite a hiccup with not disconnecting/removing fuse leading to the radio being locked until a phonecall to the helpful service dept at the local dealer, the Bluetooth seems to work well. Both my wife & I have iPhone 4's which paired no problem, clear to make & receive calls, and audio streaming works fine.

The only problem is the phone book. The recent call lists are there and work OK, but I cant use the phone book (with either phone). For phonebook entries with only one number, you get a message that it cant dial the number. For phonebook entries with multiple numbers it displays the name & numbers on the tob bar, with numbers seperated by box characters.

Any ideas what causes this? Is it an iPhone thing, a problem caused by the fact there's no MFSW/Maxidot, or something else.

Thanks in advance

Neil

Edited 25 January, 2012 by speyside

[james_19742000]

I have a DSG with bluetooth factory fit, with MFSW and also an iphone 4 my phonebook downloaded and updates accordingly, and if an entry has more than one number then you click on the contact and it will list the numbers and you click on which one you want, so not sure why yours is coming up differently?

[rolbar]

3 months ago i retrofited tha same kit to VW Golf MKVI and i had same problem with Iphone4 and Samsung Galaxy SII still was problem so i must retrofit phone unit 3C8 xxx xxx B and MFSW since that is no problem

[HWMBO - Mark]

Really wanted OEM Bluetooth but couldnt bring myself to go for DSG - even if I could have found one in my budget - so the car I have is a standard spec manual, but I got rear parking sensors retrofitted by dealer before delivery.

After doing a bit of research on here re Bluetooth, after considering the Fiscion & Dension options I went for the OEM 7P module from carsystems in Poland.The kit I bought is here http://www.carsystem...ofit,id218.html - excellent service from carsystems and would recommend them to anyone.

I

Hi,

I am considering the same myself, where does the VW kit go inside the car & how long did it take to fit? Would you reccomend it now it's up & running? Any picks to help me decide what to go for.

Regards

Mark

[speyside]

Hi,

I am considering the same myself, where does the VW kit go inside the car & how long did it take to fit? Would you reccomend it now it's up & running? Any picks to help me decide what to go for.

Regards

Mark

Mark

The kit wasnt difficult to fit, it only took 2 hours start to finish, and to be honest 45 mins of that was trying to do the final fit of the stereo.

The only extra you would need is some small tie-wraps and a little insulating/masking/duck tape.

A walk through of the process as we did it:

Firstly (this is the bit we missed) - either remove battery terminal or remove fuse for stereo. This should ensure the radio keeps the code.

Remove silver trim around stereo & climate control - soft trim removal tool or a thin plastic ruler are ideal. There is then a second plastic trim around the bolero that can be removed by hand.

The Bolero is held in with 4 torx screws, remove these and withdraw the radio. There is a multiplug where the new wiring harness from the retrofit will fit, and the aerial cable - both are a reasonably snug fit.

Next we removed the drop down bin from the trim panel below steering wheel - this clicked out with tab fixings using a small straight screwdriver.

Then remove the cover from the fuses - end of the dashboard - this reveals another torx screw - 1 of 5 that hold in the trim below the dash. There are 2 other torx at the bottom of this panel.

Next remove the light switch - push in while turning to sidelights to withdraw. With the light switch out you can remove the silver trim, remove silver trim at other side of steering wheel then undo final 2 torx screws.

This will allow the trim panel to drop down, although the diagnostic plug will stop it dropping too far. We eased out the diagnostic plug from its holder to give more room, then removed plastic trim out of car to give more room.

Easy enough so far being careful not to mark any trim or break any clips - gently does it.

Next you need to remove the bonnet pull, I think there is a plastic clip that you pull out to reveal a screw to remove the bonnet pull.

Then, the trim retaining panel along the cill needs to come out, again use the soft trim removal tool to ease off the clips being careful not to break the lugs off the metal clips. There is also a lug screw behind the throttle pedal to remove. Once this is removed, and the clips are loosened this trim can be levered out - this is a bit awkward and you need to be frim to ease the cill cover out whilst still being carefull.

We are now ready to start fitting the unit. Run the new wiring harness and the single microphone wire from the stereo location in the centre console, below the steering wheel, down the a-pillar and into the cill area. There are existing cables that you can secure the wiring to with the small tie-wraps.

Run the wiring harness only - not the mic cable - along the cill. With the drivers seat fully back you should be able to feel some pre cut areas of the carpet - this will allow you to pass the wiring from the cill underneath the seat.

The module is in a polystyrene housing the velcros to the carpet. With the wiring harness fed into position under the seat, connect the multiplug to the module and slide the module housing into position(it only goes one way - the connector to the rear). Once it is as far in as it will go without forcing then push the polystyrene box down so the velcro sticks to the carpet.

Next you need to remove the a-pillar plastic trim - again its soft trim removal tool to unclip the plasric fixings being carefull not to damage any - take your time. Ease each fixing off starting from the centre then working up & down (4 fixings I think).

It helps now to remove the visor. On the right side remove a plastic cover to reveal another screw, then ease off the vsior with this screw removed. The clasp on the left has a plastic trim covering the screws - with this removed it maked the roof lining a bit more flexible.

Remove the sunglasses holder from the roof lining - this is another plastic tab job then ease out. With this part out, then remove the interior light lense by clipping off from the front edge. This reveals another 2 screws - think these are Phillips for some reason. Remove the screws and drop down the light unit.

Now run the black mic wire up the pillar, securing with tie-wraps or tape. From top of the a-pillar take it along the roof lining to the hole where the sunglasses holder was. Dont tighten anything holding this wire to the pillar yet.

Next install the microphone itself, remove the small cube of foam which is where the microphone module fits - it only clips in one way. With the microphone in place, connect it to the single black wire and then pull back reasonably tight and secure in the pillar.

Then refit the light unit & the sunglasses holer into roof lining. You can now re-install all trim that was removed carefully in the reverse sequence to removal.

Now comes the difficult part. There isnt a lot of room behind the stereo for the additional wiring harness, and it may take a bit of fiddling to get the wiring into a location where you can get the stereo back in.

Install one end of the wiring harness supplied in the kit into the multiplug that was removed from the stereo. Clip the other end of the new harness into the stereo, and re-attach the arieal connector.

You may have to slightly trim the plastic of the console with a jr hacksaw blade to get enough room.

Once you have the stereo back in the original location, refit with screws and refit plastic trims.

Job done............

[neil_f]

I've just retrofitted the oem kit and I am experiencing the same problems when trying to use the phone book. If the entry has two numbers saved - ie work and mobile it shows these at the top of the screen but unable to select them to dial?? I'm using a Blackberry with mine. Anyone any ideas - is it a software issue??

[ACSC]

Think I'm going to order the kit from "carsystems" and give it a go, at £170 delivered its gotta be worth a DIY job and find a kind local with VCDS to code it for me once done.

Cheers

ACSC

[vrs777]

To make things easier carsystems do a shorter lead for installing the Bluetooth module underneath the bolero/Columbus. Just Velcro it to the underside of the cage, cut the mounting tabs off the module first and remove the climate controls for easy access. Doing this makes the install a 30min job.