Superb III Sportline - Mission Impossible Spec

[numskull]

5 hours ago, ApertureS said:

I personally love the lane assist and adaptive cruise control.

 

i also really enjoy the canton sound system as I really like my music.

 

Electric tailgate with easy open comes in handy all the time when my hands are full too.

 

and the heated windscreen and seats is used so much in the winter! No need to scrape anything, just sit in the warm car.

Yep. With the exception of lane assist, I agree with all your selections there, AS.. 👍🏻

[ApertureS]

8 hours ago, Paws4Thot said:

How does a heated windscreen clear side glasses?

It doesnt youre right, but the parking heater will assist with that

[ApertureS]

A lot of parts turned up for the areaview.

 

The wings mirrors were hard to source without brand new ones at £1200 for both! So the best i could find was lhd ones (one without dimming).
First i stripped and cleaned the mirros (including the stupid paint pen on the face of one) then I ran 2 new wires for the dimming on the non dimming one (awaiting plug).

Next I have to extend the blind spot connectors, on the FL the blind spot LED is in the elbow of the mirror on the cover, and not wanting to buy 2 new mirror glasses at £300 each, I will extend the blind spot wires to the mirror glass.

 

The centre console button cluster arrived, the difference between this and the one with no camera symbol - absolutely nothing except the little picture - you could use the old one just fine.

The part number for this one is 3V2 927 132 R IHA (with electric tailgate and self park)

 

The camera for the front has arrived and I can now get dimensions for this and start making a 3d printed bracket - 5Q0980546A is the part number.

The rear camera is 8W8827566C and the version I have bought seems to be a dodgy version as the lens sticks out the camera body way too far, not an issue but the lens washer wont do anything. For now, this will do, if it all works, ill replace the camera with another one.

 

The door wiring is a big issue, there are 4 methods to doing this:

1 - pin the 5 HSD wires to normal terminals and run them through the door plugs like normal wires.

2 - purchase new door connectors and the complete interior and door looms as skoda dont sell the data cables on their own

3 - purchase new door connectors and get the data cables new from a passat as VW sell the data cables on their own.

4 - purchase used loom sections from a breakers car and use these - i found a passat with the wiring complete.

 

Why did I go for number 4 and not make the cables myself? Well the rosenberger HSD connectors that go in the plugs arent standard Fakra connectors and cant be purchased in quantities less than 10,000....

 

Part number time:

Left mirror RHD - 3V2857507F

Right mirror RHD - 3V2857508F

Door connector - 3Q0972702

Body connector - 3Q0972701

 

HSD cables - Estate only!

Mirror to door connector - 3G0971158C

Left door to module - 3G0971158AE

Right door to module - 3G0971158AC

 

For the rear camera I will be making my own HSD cable as the standard one comes in 3 pieces at £80 each! Ill do in 2 pieces with a join just after the tailgate

The front camera cable I will be making my own again, it comes in 3 pieces and at £80 each, no thanks. Ill need one waterproof connector at the camera and then a join just inside the car, then to the module.

 

Cables and connectors will be arriving tomorrow for me to make the HSD cables. 

 

The mirror covers are also different for areaview as the entire mirror is chunkier. 

Stay tuned to find out what is different on LHD and RHD mirrors - I really hope these dont bite me in the ass, As I cant return them.

 

 

[ApertureS]

HSD cable and a tonne of connectors arrived today.

 

Never made a HSD connector before, just spent the last 45 minutes terminating one end.

Anyone that plans on doing this, buy the cables made by a company! They are hard

 

 

 

Also something to note - the cameras need a 'long' HSD connector, This comes in waterproof form, So ive got a waterproof connector for the front, but had to order another one for the rear. These are easier to fit also as they are solder connections, not 0.08mm crimps!!!!

 

 

A lot of other connectors arrived also for this and the other projects, as I use them ill document them.

Edited 22 January by ApertureS

[J.R.]

On 21/01/2024 at 12:23, ApertureS said:

Stay tuned to find out what is different on LHD and RHD mirrors - I really hope these dont bite me in the ass,

 

I can answer that in a purely functional sense, in terms of fullfilling their purpose rather than all the other guff (a bit like a smartphone really!). If you use LHD mirror glasses on a RHD vehicle then the enlarged area for the blind spot (there is a term for it, aspheric perhaps?) will not function for you unless you drive from the passengers seat!

 

I drive a RHD car in France and being blind in one eye was very concerned with the big blind spot when I am joining an autoroute or dual carriageway, a whole articulated lorry can be hidden from view, so I bought an aspheric (if thats the word) mirror glass for the passenger door, they are not made so I had to buy a LHD drivers one but the enlarged zone is in completely the wrong place, it would not be if I were driving from the passenger seat!

[ApertureS]

30 minutes ago, J.R. said:

 

I can answer that in a purely functional sense, in terms of fullfilling their purpose rather than all the other guff (a bit like a smartphone really!). If you use LHD mirror glasses on a RHD vehicle then the enlarged area for the blind spot (there is a term for it, aspheric perhaps?) will not function for you unless you drive from the passengers seat!

 

I drive a RHD car in France and being blind in one eye was very concerned with the big blind spot when I am joining an autoroute or dual carriageway, a whole articulated lorry can be hidden from view, so I bought an aspheric (if thats the word) mirror glass for the passenger door, they are not made so I had to buy a LHD drivers one but the enlarged zone is in completely the wrong place, it would not be if I were driving from the passenger seat!

Now this is exactly what I was thinking too.

 

But.... the mirror units (that are lhd/rhd) as listed on ETKA dont come with the mirror glass, and the mirror glass itself isnt specific to LHD/RHD... so that idea went out the window  

[coppertop]

I have to ask @ApertureS, all these fantasctic projects on your car, is this a full time job for your or a hobby, do you have an engineering background? The level of complexity involved is mind-blowing, who knew what a HSD connector was!  ..and finally, where are you sourcing all the information for these retrofits?  Anyway hats off to you.👌

[ApertureS]

3 hours ago, coppertop said:

I have to ask @ApertureS, all these fantasctic projects on your car, is this a full time job for your or a hobby, do you have an engineering background? The level of complexity involved is mind-blowing, who knew what a HSD connector was!  ..and finally, where are you sourcing all the information for these retrofits?  Anyway hats off to you.👌

I work full time as a roadside tech nowadays but before that spent around 10 years working on cars in workshops (mainly VAG but also JLR).

My hobby is working on my own car doing all these fits and running SK Retrofits to offer bits to others too.

 

Some information can be sourced from others who have done the same bits, other retrofits that are new or haven’t been done by anyone involve countless hours of looking at wiring diagrams, parts diagrams, comparing car logs, finding parameter files, writing a plan of the process, checking if parts are compatible (sometimes by trial and error) as well as just giving it a go and finding the outcome as you go!

 

then sometimes parts don’t exist so you have to start looking elsewhere at other cars, then if still nothing, designing and creating your own parts. Like what I’m doing with the areaview for the front camera mount and all the cabling.

 

someone’s got to give it a go for others to give it a go themselves 😛 

[numskull]

6 hours ago, ApertureS said:

someone’s got to give it a go for others to give it a go themselves 😛

Errrr, no. You do it because you’re INSANE!!! 😊 All I’d be left with would be a wonky dash with nothing working and a pile of “leftover” bits in the footwell. 

[ApertureS]

A few more updates!

 

So this is the majority of the interior wiring for DCC as well as a photo of 4 brand new wiring looms for each of the arches, the 2 fronts with DCC plugs and level sensors, the rear just with additional DCC plugs.

 

On top of this there is about 15 new wires through the firewall into the engine bay, lots and lots of work!

 

 

Some more areaview updates - 

The control module arrived, 5Q0907556C is the most common module for datasets and is also the earliest revision used so should be compatible. The 4 HSD connectors for the cameras and the 1 coax for the output to the infotainment unit.

 

 

The poor quality camera was sent back and a used genuine one was sourced instead, much better quality! 

As you can see, no wires coming off the back of it, instead a HSD connector type A waterproof.

 

 

We are now going to talk more DATA CABLES! Again....

 

 

So there are two types in play here, we will start with the simple ones.

 

Often called Fakra, but this is the connector type, instead they are Coaxial cables, a single copper core with a braided sleeve around it to prevent interference, used for video signals and for radio/antenna signals. These are quite easy to make up - a wire stripper, soldering iron, crimping tool and a magnifier glass. 

The cable choice was RG174 as this most closely matches the OE RTK031 but without the huge price tag!

Ive used around 40 meters of the cable so far - tv tuner, phonebox and amplifier, areaview output, parking heater remote signal.

Quite straight forward compared to the next type....

 

LVDS HSD Fakra so this type of cable luckily isnt used too much for my retrofits, but it is a low voltage high speed data transfer setup - very similar to a USB port.

It contains 4 individual cables surrounded by a metal film, surrounded by a braided sleeve, surrounded by insulation. 

These 4 wires are power, ground, RX, TX - meaning with this single connector a component can get all it needs and send and recieve data - such as a tiny areaview camera. 

 

The OE connectors and cables are made by rosenberger - but they dont want to sell me any parts in quantities less than 10,000.... so ill stick with the RFDOTOP ones at £4 each the quality is very good and matches rosenberger ones exactly.

The cable type im using is a Dacar 535 and the tools im using are a crimping tool, soldering iron and terminal crimping tool down to 0.03mm

 

Now you would think each end of the cable goes pin 1 to pin 1, pin 2 to pin 2 and so on.... but no. These cables crossover, so pin 1 at one end will become pin 4 at the other end, heres a chart to make it easier.

 

Every fakra HSD cable does this, side A and side B so it gets more complicated. Now if you have a single cable run its easy because side A in, side B out, but if you connect 2 together you go side A, side B, side A and it wont work. So cables always need to be in odd numbers - like they are on all VAG cars - or if you dont want to do that, you get a A to A cable, so when I run too cables it goes side A, side A, side B and you still get the switchover.

So now we have solved the issue of keeping the crossover but with less cabling and connectors.

 

Now building the cables is a different task all together.... very hard and as i learn to do it, ill post more details.

 

The only other thing to note - there are around 10 different colours/codes for the connectors and they are not interchangeable (except code Z/water blue which is universal) so for the connector for the cameras themselves, they are Code A/black but they must be waterproof connectors (even inside the car) as they are longer to reach inside the camera. 

 

 

Edited 26 January by ApertureS

[numskull]

We are not worthy….. quite astonishing. 

[ApertureS]

So i thought id test the wing mirror gamble today!

 

LHD wing mirrors for 1/4 the price of RHD mirrors.... well.... they didnt fit exactly.

 

So they physically mount up and such, the connections are all the same. The angle of the internal mirror frame is the problem.

The mirror glass need adjusting to their absolute extremes for any chance of seeing anything - even then you cant get them into a good position. Even spacing them out with washers to tilt them.

So if someone like my partner drove the car and had to move the seat forward - she would see nothing at all out the mirrors.

 

So ill have to purchase the RHD mirrors as at this point im already very deep into the retrofit. £700 per mirror! As no one has a used one for sale anywhere in the UK 😞

 

 

 

[J.R.]

It would be cheaper to move the steering wheel and pedals 😁

 

I should not make fun because I will probably soon have a mirror clash incident with an oncoming car (I'm long overdue after 15 years!) and all I will be able to source will be LHD units.

 

Bad luck on that one, I too would have taken the punt but it sounds like the same issue I had with the LHD mirror glass, I'm assuming the mirrors would be correctly aligned from the passenger seat.

[ApertureS]

New mirror units ordered at £850 for the pair.

 

better than the £750 each that other places sold them for!

 

Should be able to sell the lhd ones and my original ones for £150ish each so £600 returned which helps to offset the cost from the brand new units.

 

On another note, 2 of the door pocket lights are now fitted, just got to code them in;

 

[ApertureS]

New mirror units arrived. All seem good and legit! No idea how I managed to find some so 'cheap'.

 

For anyone wondering or looking to do it themselves, the mirror units with heated, blind spot, dimming and cameras is 3V2857507F and 3V2857508F.

 

The next part is, the blind spot connector wiring is short on facelift as the FL mirror housing contains the blind spot light as pictured here

 

Now I didnt want to buy new LED blind spot lights and new mirror glass without the inbuilt light at £600 for the 4 bits, so im just going to extend the wiring on each mirror by 10cm or so to allow the pre facelift mirror glass to be used, As i didnt want to chop into the wires and add joins, ive purchased new terminals and connectors which are JAE MX19002P51 

 

 

As soon as the correct colour wiring turns up in 0.5mm SQ then ill get these wires extended and then fit them onto the vehicle to fully complete the wing mirror part of the job.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Next up is the door connectors themselves - these go from: 27 pin connectors which use 2x MCP 2.8mm terminals and 25x MCON 1,2mm terminals. To 25+4 pin connectors which use 2x MCP 2.8mm terminals, 23x MCON 1.2mm terminals and a 4pin HSD connector. As the pins dont match up like for like, ive made a excel sheet that matches my car wiring so i can swap the pins to the new connectors. Ill take photos of this up close in the next few weeks.

 

Something worth noting - the new connectors with part number 3Q0972701 and 3Q0972702 - the aperture for terminals 1-4 are larger than the rest, this is to accommodate the larger 1.5mmSQ wiring for the speaker system (2 or 4 wires depending if canton or not).

 

 

 

Edited 6 February by ApertureS

[ApertureS]

So today i had a spare few hours so i started on the passenger door. The plan is to run all the wires in all 4 doors and the tailgate, that means when it comes to doing the big strip out, ill of saved a massive amount of time.

 

What was carried out? Well, first is to strip out the front door so door card off, speaker out, all covers off and remove the complete wiring assembly as one. 

 

Now the wiring was out i had to strip all the insulation from between the 2 gasket sections to allow the new wires to be ran.

 

 

The wires then all need to be moved from the 27 pin to the 25 pin, and add the LVDS cable. This took a long time, and 4 of the wires needed their pins changing to MCON 1.2 pins from the previous MCP 2.8mm pins.

As you can see, the actual housing for the connector is different as well, this is to allow the LVDS cable more room, Part numbers in the pictures

 

 

Note: The post above with the excel spreadsheet of wiring covered everything, except 2 things of note - the wiring sometimes changes colour across the plug, and also the original 27 pin connector had a red/white wire on pin 12 that I simply moved to pin 12 of the new plug that i didnt account for in my post above.

 

Once this was done, the loom was refitted to the car and then the same process was repeated on the car side, this was a bit more of a squeeze working in the passenger footwell.

All moved from the black connector to the new white connector, the LVDS cable which is 4m long was then coiled up inside the car behind the trim and all was boxed back up.

 

 

To add to the OE feel and to also reduce vibrations in the door, I didnt want the LVDS connector to rattle around where it connects to the mirror and the OE solution to this is a foam sock that goes over the connector to prevent vibration and noise. This cant be purchased from Skoda so i had to make my own.

 

4mm Open cell foam sheet is the solution, rolled up into a tube and glued together with superglue to make my own socks. These were then slid over the connector and cable tied in place, exactly how the rest of the door connectors are done.

 

 

The other option for securing the LVDS connector is this holder 7P6937545 which looks like this:  Or 1K8937545 could be used (but that only fits a elongated hole that isnt common).

But this also needs one of the mounting method (6mm hole or sheet metal edge) holders to connect the 2 together. 8Z0971848F is the 6mm hole mount, 3B0919136A is the sheet metal edge mount.

 

 

 

 

 

Then it started to rain so i had to quickly box it all up and forgot to get photos of the inside of the door and plus this side alone took me around 4/5 hours. When I do the drivers side and boot lid ill get the extra photos.

 

[shaun_thompson]

Top work….. makes my mods look like minor work, I’ve got some good inspiration for your posts 👍

[ApertureS]

So thats both doors and mirrors fully complete.

 

First was extending the wires for the blind spot indicator as mentioned before - as much as I wanted to run all new wires to avoid a join, it would of taken hours per side, so instead I decided to go for a crimp style connector and OE clear heatshrink supplied by skoda. Kept the join in an area that does not bend and we are all sorted.

 

Whilst fitting the wing mirror I found a tiny spot of rust no bigger than 2/3mm but to be on the safe side, it was treated, sanded and a good dab of paint to cover it.

 

The final connectors for the door jam were finished and the cables tucked away for now (not my prettiest loom taping job and it will get redone when the dash comes out.) The door looms were refitted and you can see where the HSD connectors and cables meet up now. 

One thing I will monitor is how tight the wires are that live in the door jam since ive re-wrapped them, hopefully we get no early fatigue but in 6 months or so ill strip the boot back and double check for any strain.

 

 

 

And now.... the unsung hero that kept me going even in the rain. The gazebo! Best investment ive made for working on the car - rain or wind, put it up, throw the sides on it and carry on.

 

 

 

Next on the list is to complete the other isolated areas to minimise how much needs doing for the main strip out, so next up is:

- Tailgate wiring and antennas

- Headliner down and new shark fin and rear quarter antennas fitted

- Front seat strip down and fit of ventilation (will start with passenger seat incase I completely butcher it)

 

 

And now ive finally got the correct socket, ill be fitting the new rear wheel bearing tomorrow morning (Old one decided it wanted to sing to me constantly)

 

 

 

[ApertureS]

Bonus picture:

 

First ever test print of the front camera mount, tomorrow we will see if the actual camera fits in it and hopefully if it fits in the front grill.

 

[candasm]

Hi @ApertureS,

How "Wireless phone charger/booster" wireless car play will work with these components? I didn't know wireless carplay exists in mib2/mib2.5.

[ApertureS]

1 hour ago, candasm said:

Hi @ApertureS,

How "Wireless phone charger/booster" wireless car play will work with these components? I didn't know wireless carplay exists in mib2/mib2.5.

It won’t be wireless carplay (although this can be done aftermarket)

 

the booster boosts the cellular signal and the wireless charging pad is in the front cubby hole 

[GordoGT]

Just Wow!

Nobody could accuse these mods of being anything short of Comprehensive.

 

Fantastic work, and a really riveting set of write-ups. Great Job so far!

 

[numskull]

3 hours ago, GordoGT said:

Just Wow!

Nobody could accuse these mods of being anything short of Comprehensive.

 

Fantastic work, and a really riveting set of write-ups. Great Job so far!

 

Comprehensive? That’s the understatement of ‘24. You do know this lunatic removed the dashboard…. in its entirety for one of his mods? 

[ApertureS]

45 minutes ago, numskull said:

Comprehensive? That’s the understatement of ‘24. You do know this lunatic removed the dashboard…. in its entirety for one of his mods? 

I see no issues here

I wanted the 3 zone climate control

 

 

Its all going to be coming out again soon for the rest of the fittings.

[ApertureS]

The camera mount I created was no good - but the joys of 3D printing is i can just start again

 

 

The hole for the camera was too big, the entire body is too big to fit in the honeycomb, so ive had to start from scratch with a 3 piece design and bond them all together. Hopefully it works better this time.

 

 

 

I then had the wheel bearing to sort out, nearside rear wheel bearing needed replacing, the genuine bearing is priced at £200 and made by FAG. A FAG bearing cost me £40. (Same part numbers on the bearing, OE is made in CZ, Aftermarket is CN)

Replacing is fairly straight forward, release the handbrake to service mode, remove the caliper, remove the torx screw on the disc and slide it out from the carrier body and undo the centre hub bolt.

Replace the bearing and make sure all surfaces are clean and dry (Dont oil them! You dont want the inner race to spin, thats what the bearing is for!), the bolt is torqued to 200Nm + 90 degree if its a silver bolt, or 180 degree if its the older black bolt.