Guide to fitting RCL to non-central locking car

[Seanl]

I bought an RCL kit just before X-mas, as I/SWMBO was sick of getting soaked running to the car in the rain, and waiting until the handle was pulled for the passenger to get in! This coupled with a young un' whinging about it as well, just wouldn't do!

I've converted standard CL to RCL in the form of my old Golf3 GTI, and know my way around electricerals on Marine platforms, so was happy enough to crack on.

I bought http://www.ebay.co.u...984.m1497.l2649 from RightClick as its a pretty comprehensive kit, and was similar to the one I'd used before so knew it was of reasonable quality.

Here is the kit and its contents.

First off, plug it all up and test it. The last thing you want to do is fit it all to find it has been supplied to you defective! Once that was done I fitted all the actuators. This was easier said than done! The kit comes with mounting brackets, but not screws. With the light alloy inner door skin panels, screwing into them was difficult without them turning freely. I managed to achieve it with self tappers after drilling a pilot hole, and some thread lock glue. If this is the route that you take, be careful with the length of your screws, so as not to foul the window glass or mechanism.

To gain access in the front doors, remove the window winder, unscrew the three star drive screws at the bottom of the door card, remove the top of the door pull and remove two posi drive screws, and there is one remaining star drive behind the mirror positioning knob. Once these are all out, carefully prise out the door card from the bottom as the card is till held on with retaining clips. Be very careful when pulling outwards, as the door pin surrounds are very easily broken. Its also a nightmare prising the card off at the top where it forms the inner window seal, so be careful with that too.

Here is the actuator fitted to the front. You can mount them in a different place, but I found this the best way. Offer them up first, then mark out where you want to drill for the mounting point. The rods for the door pins are at 45 degrees, and fold up behind the door skin. A fair bit of fettling may have to be done to ensure the actuator pushes the pin up due to the rods positioning. You can test them independently as I did, by using a 12v battery on the two supply cables, and switching them between pos and neg terminals on the battery to operate the actuator up and down. Once fitted up, mark out where the supplied rod will need to be cut off before cutting and securing.

For the rear doors, just pry off the door pull tops, remove the two screws, and remove the window winder. The card can then be prised off the clips and pulled clear.

Next up was running the supplied loom I decided it was best to mount the RCL brain behind the drivers lower dash. This was for ease of wiring to power sources.

I laid it all out roughly first to ensure it was all long enough to reach, then set about tucking it all behind panels, and behind the dash etc.

At the front, I simply used the existing gap in the door loom connector point, and threaded it through the rubber boot and into the door itself. I had to remove the alloy door skin, and reach up to pull the loom through. I re-entered the loom through the large rubber grommet before connecting up. I had some sticky foam backed cable tie mountings which I used to keep the insides away from the window winder mech, and just cable tied the wires to the existing wiring on the door skin.

Rear door looms were run under the lower door trim panels, up the B pillar, and out through the rubber grommets to the rear doors. Again pulled through behind the skin through the large rubber grommets and secured front and back.

Exposed cabling has since been wrapped in loom electrical, then loom tape to protect from the elements.

Once this was all done, I then clipped all door cards back on, and connected everything up and tested again.

It was then time to splice into the cars loom.

Goes without saying, ensure battery is disconnected when playing with any wigglies!

I'd already removed the lower dash panel, so decided to to splice for power directly from the back of the fuse panel.

Removal of the fuse panel is just two star screws at the top and the bottom of the actual panel. This is accessed by removing the side dash cover and exposing the fuses.

You can then manoeuvre the fuse panel down from inside.

Remove the back cover to expose the wires.

I took the positive power line from one of the 20 amp rear window heater feed iirc.

(Excuse the shoddy soldering, I was using a gas soldering iron that was near completely out of gas! Its since been re-done and insulated using heat shrink.)

There is an inline fuse for the RCL power, so I mounted it in the location of the fuses too.

The RCL negative was mounted by crimping a ring connector to it, and mounting direct to the dash support as can be seen to the left of the fuse.

Also note the antenna above the fuse. This provides v.good range for the remote's and I haven't noticed interference from any other electrics with it being there either.

My multimeter has died, so I'll get another after pay day. I'll then add to this guide detailing the connections to indicators for the flash on activation and de-activation.

Hopefully this helps someone out if this is the route you decide to take, and sorry about the lack of crappy camera phone pics, I got a bit absorbed in it and forgot to take many!

Total time taken was around six hours, but I didn't know how to remove door cards and panels to begin with, so could be done in slightly less time if you know how to access it all.

[Shandy_Fabia]

Thanks for this - on my shopping list for the Fabia.

Added to my watch list on ebay as well - they even do a boot release solenoid which works off the remote as well

One quick question - the front door has the rubber flexi between the door post and the door. Does anyone know if this would fit the rear door as well ?? rather than wrapping it. If so does anyone know a part number ??

Edited 15 February, 2013 by Shandy_Fabia

[anewman]

Thanks, that's an impressive job. I was too afraid to try fit a generic kit and spent over £120 on the Skoda supplied one. See http://www.briskoda....t-deux/ Motors look exactly the same as the generic kit ones, although they come with fixings tailored to the car, and the rubber bellows for the rear doors. I think you can get those as a separate part, and that might be worth doing if you're using a kit like this one. Best place to look for part number is vagcat.com but that site is up and down like a yo yo.

When I installed an alarm to control the central locking, I put the aerial on the back of the rear light cluster. My reasoning was this had less metal around it, plus the cable was long enough and instructions said not to bunch the cable up.

I'm half-way through installing a remote boot release to a classic model with a cheapie ebay motor. Fitted the motor, just need some time to get around to actually pull the dash off and wire it in properly.

BTW it's easy to install a fuse in the OE fuse holder with just a repair wire. The positive supply is behind a cover just up near the steering column. Can try fish out the part number.

Edited 16 February, 2013 by anewman

[Seanl]

ah I didnt see that when I did a search, good guide! Ive got a new fluke so will be wiring up indicators next week some time hopefully. There really should be a sticky for all guides to make things easier to find. There doesnt seem to be much in the useful info thread, and what there is ate mostly vrs specific, not such a useful thread after all!

[Goblin]

Good guide that

One word of warning though, I've put one of these on my mum's Polo 6N2, and it was easy enough to fit, but the kit is remarkably sensitive, one accidental press of the button from hundreds of feet away and it'll unlock, and also the quality of the key isn't great. Ours is already falling apart. I'm hoping the internals are the same as a standard vag key so I can just move everything over.

[Seanl]

Yeah your right there! Always have to double check its locked before walking away! The keys are of poor quality plastic tbf, although as long as you don't smash them about, they will suffice. I'd bought a used Golf key from the bay of E that I tried to use to swap it all over, but the PCB is slightly larger and different shaped on the RClick remotes, so it doesn't fit unfortunately.

[izmir1989]

you are right the key is very weak i have already gone through three of them. i think there is a way to reprogram the central locking control to a new frequency. it may be worth trying to program it to a genuine vw or skoda key.

i tried to connect the hazard lights to the central clocking control unit but was not able to. i went through 9 fuses before i gave up trying and just connected it to the full beam lights. so now all i get is the full beam lights flashing.

but i would really like to know hoe to connect t to the hazard lights. i did it on a golf but can not seem to do it on my fabia.

ps. how do you install the boot release? any advice before i attempt it?