Does your Remote only work close to the car?

[03Jetta1.8T]

Well our remotes only worked close the car and was driving us nuts. You'd have to be within 10 feet or so to arm or unarm the car. So i looked at the wiring diagram for the comfort control module and found which pin the antenna wire is at. Its pin 10 of the smaller connector (12 pin i think) and is a copper wound wire with a clear sheath around it. its the only one that doesnt have a colored insulation around it. I removed the terminal and wire from that slot and installed a new terminal with 6 feet of wire spliced on. I then routed the new antenna wire along the door sill and to the rear seat area. Its now a 6 foot antenna instead of the small 2 foot one. I then started walking away and arming and un-arming the car. i got to the end of my court (roughly 50 feet) and it was still arming and un-arming even if i held the remote low and not up in the air. Id have to say this was a HUGE imrovement and i am much happier not having to walk down stairs to arm the car.
So if any of you are tired of dealing with the weak range of the remote, perform this repair/upgrade and you will be much happier with the remotes range!

Edit: Look on Page 2 for Write up.


Modified by 03Jetta1.8T at 7:59 PM 7-12-2004

[golfhm472]

[Slipstream]

Iiiiiiiiiinteresting. That always pisses me off.

[Zealot]

very useful mod

[amerikanzero]

Yeah, that was something that bothered me too. Very useful mod. Now all I gotta do is get off my ass and do it.

[03Jetta1.8T]

One thing i forgot to mention that may help you get the necc parts at the dealer. You will need one wire with a terminal the size of the AMF sensor terminals. unplug your MAF sensor and look at the female terminal in the connector. thats the same terminal size as the antenna wire at the module. Im sure you guys can find bulk wire at your local auto parts store so no need to buy that at the dealer, but its up to you if you want to buy the small yellow AirBag butt connector that has heat shrink built in. Its abit pricey but very professional and ensures a moisture tight seal.
Ahh, one more thing.. lol to remove the terminal from the connector you will need the terminal release tool. Its a VW specialty tool we have at the dealers, not sure if you'll find that at a local auto store. You can try searching the web for them, i know they are made aftermarket as univeral wire tools.
Good Luck!

[DubberNix]

Great upgrade...but one question. Why replace the existing antenna wire and go through the hassle of getting the correct wire connector? Couldn't you just splice into the existing wire and add on wire? You'd end up with the stock 2footer going one way, and the add-on 6footer going the other way.

[burningmoney97]

great idea. so easy and cheap,very most useful mod.

[dubbr]

at school i lived 20 floors up and could still lock and unlock my car

[SILVRGTIVR6]

awsome mod. Im gonna have to do that too that short range pisses me off

[typoon]

Any photos on this? I'm more of a visual person and it helps me to see how something is done as opposed to just seeing the written directions.

['97Trek2.0]

Quote, originally posted by typoon »

Any photos on this? I'm more of a visual person and it helps me to see how something is done as opposed to just seeing the written directions.

same here

[La_Man]

ddo you have any pics?

this would be sooo damn useful...specially when you can't find your car in the parking lot.

[DubGeek]

Quote, originally posted by La_Man »

ddo you have any pics? this would be sooo damn useful...specially when you can't find your car in the parking lot.

Just what I was thinking. Hit the panic button and you'll find it really quickly. Nice mod!

[Bora Wolf]

this is terrific, i HATE the short range

... but from your post i still have no idea what to do

[Der Kommissar]

Put the remote against your head, it works wonders.

[03Jetta1.8T]

Ok, well it seems you all really like this "mod" so ill take pictures for you of the steps.
And the reason i didnt splice into the exsisting antenna wire is because its wraped with the harness and goes up into the dash area and you cant follow it to find the end. and if you were to cut that wire and splice into it and use 6ft of new wire and use that terminal, you would have a great deal of difficulty getting any crimping tools or wire strippers up in there. the harness doesnt pull out and down where you can easily get to it.
When i more time i pull all that stuff back off and post pictures with a short summary for future people.
Give me a few days, i work saturday and may not get to it right away.

[SinisterMind]

I can unlock and lock my car from at least 20ft away. I'm fine with that.


Modified by SinisterMind at 10:34 AM 7-9-2004

[DubberNix]

Quote, originally posted by 03Jetta1.8T »

Ok, well it seems you all really like this "mod" so ill take pictures for you of the steps. And the reason i didnt splice into the exsisting antenna wire is because its wraped with the harness and goes up into the dash area and you cant follow it to find the end. and if you were to cut that wire and splice into it and use 6ft of new wire and use that terminal, you would have a great deal of difficulty getting any crimping tools or wire strippers up in there. the harness doesnt pull out and down where you can easily get to it. When i more time i pull all that stuff back off and post pictures with a short summary for future people. Give me a few days, i work saturday and may not get to it right away.

Thanks for the explanation...since I haven't seen the harness location, I wasn't aware of how tough it would be to splice into. You know, you could always do this on a customer's car (mine) and take pictures of it

This would make my Alientech even more useful...roll the windows down from across the parking lot so the inside cools off before I get there

[LSinLV]

FYI - an antennae is a "tuned" device, and as such is usually match.

What this means, is that the transmitter (remote) has a matched RF output to the reciever antennae (convienience module pink wire). By modifying the length of the antennae, you have effectively "un-matched" the transmitter to the reciever, and you may have "just gotten lucky" to get a length of wire to a close enough wavelength to recieve the transmitter signal in a usefull way.

My suggestion is NOT to modify this part of the car, as there are many factors as to why YOU do not have the range you desire. You may have a low transmitter battery, you may have an issue within the factory wiring harness, or even atmospheric conditions can affect the RF transmissions.....

Good luck though with yours....

[RavinJetta]

Sweet can't wait for the writeup

[Benard]

"FYI - an antennae is a "tuned" device, and as such is usually match.

What this means, is that the transmitter (remote) has a matched RF output to the reciever antennae (convienience module pink wire). By modifying the length of the antennae, you have effectively "un-matched" the transmitter to the reciever, and you may have "just gotten lucky" to get a length of wire to a close enough wavelength to recieve the transmitter signal in a usefull way.

My suggestion is NOT to modify this part of the car, as there are many factors as to why YOU do not have the range you desire. You may have a low transmitter battery, you may have an issue within the factory wiring harness, or even atmospheric conditions can affect the RF transmissions.....

Good luck though with yours...."

....i used to be a ham radio junkie, so i can second this, it may take lots of tunning to get this to work in every situtation...but i say experiment away...what the worse that could happen? you would have to open the door with the key! haha


Modified by Benard at 8:28 PM 7-9-2004

[VWcrazed1976]

Quote, originally posted by 03Jetta1.8T »

Ok, well it seems you all really like this "mod" so ill take pictures for you of the steps. And the reason i didnt splice into the exsisting antenna wire is because its wraped with the harness and goes up into the dash area and you cant follow it to find the end. and if you were to cut that wire and splice into it and use 6ft of new wire and use that terminal, you would have a great deal of difficulty getting any crimping tools or wire strippers up in there. the harness doesnt pull out and down where you can easily get to it. When i more time i pull all that stuff back off and post pictures with a short summary for future people. Give me a few days, i work saturday and may not get to it right away.

Use a scotchlok connector. No cutting involved at all, just a wire and a pair of plyers.


Modified by VWcrazed1976 at 3:55 PM 7-9-2004

[ShockWaveVT]

Quote, originally posted by 03Jetta1.8T »

i got to the end of my court (roughly 50 feet) and it was still arming and un-arming even if i held the remote low and not up in the air. Id have to say this was a HUGE imrovement and i am much happier not having to walk down stairs to arm the car. So if any of you are tired of dealing with the weak range of the remote, perform this repair/upgrade and you will be much happier with the remotes range!

wow, now you can unlock your car from so far away that by the time you walk over, it has gotten tired of waiting and re-locked it self.

good one

[VWcrazed1976]

Quote, originally posted by ShockWaveVT »

wow, now you can unlock your car from so far away that by the time you walk over, it has re-locked it self. good one

My stock Jetta alarm never armed itself. Yours does??

[Das Eighty]

A write-up with pics would be so appreciated!

[La_Man]

mine don't relock itself.

how you do that?

[Miamiblue]

That's a huge DIY mod! I usually just blame it on the battery, saying I'll change it some day.
But again that is huge especially if you've done the alientech mod!! I have the alientech window mod & HATE how I have to basically be up on the car to put the windows down!

[MI_canuck]

here's a TRICK... won't cost you a dime!

place the remote key fob against the bottom of your chin when activating (locking or unlocking)... you'll double or triple your range...

SERIOUSLY - give it a shot!... walk out of range of the remote fob as used normally (until you can't lock or unlock it)... then... try it by placing under your chin... BINGO... you'll see the tail lights flashing... will work every time! (don't believe me? try it and see )

disclaimer: whether it gives you brain tumours on the other hand... i'm NOT responsible!

cheers

[majinmix18t]

i have to walk all the way to my windshield for it to lock/unlock , vw said its cuz of all the stuff i did to the car but i dunno i hope sumthin like this works out for me

[MI_canuck]

Quote, originally posted by majinmix18t »

i have to walk all the way to my windshield for it to lock/unlock ...

maybe the battery in your key fob is almost dead? just a thought...

try the chin trick ... it might help - try it!!

cheers

[03Jetta1.8T]

Quote, originally posted by lsinlv »

FYI - an antennae is a "tuned" device, and as such is usually match. What this means, is that the transmitter (remote) has a matched RF output to the reciever antennae (convienience module pink wire). By modifying the length of the antennae, you have effectively "un-matched" the transmitter to the reciever, and you may have "just gotten lucky" to get a length of wire to a close enough wavelength to recieve the transmitter signal in a usefull way. My suggestion is NOT to modify this part of the car, as there are many factors as to why YOU do not have the range you desire. You may have a low transmitter battery, you may have an issue within the factory wiring harness, or even atmospheric conditions can affect the RF transmissions..... Good luck though with yours....

I knew this post would be raided by people who disagree with what I did, but let me explain abit why I did this.
I work at a dealer and peform the BD recall on the T'regs daily. This recall has us remove the terminal at the comfort control module and add a new 6 ft section of wire and terminal and route it across and down the dash. They also state to measure the distance before and after the repair of the transmitter's range. Its usually an imporvement from 9ft stock to roughly 40-50ft after. They seem to think that thier product was engineer'd to accept this repair and not effect the "tuned" characteristics of the remote. Now they may be wrong and the hundreds of T'regs out there that now have further remote range are freak occurances, but i doubt it. It works for the recall, it works for my car, and it will shortly work for DubberNix car tomorrow. But hey, no body is tryin to force you guys to do this.
And to the rest of the guys who are interested in this, i will take some basic pictures while doing DubberNix and get a simple write up soon. Most likely around Sunday.
Have a till then.

[DubberNix]

All I can say to this is

[Bora Wolf]

after this & the alientech the only complaint i'll have is the torque steer

& that i can deal with

especially after the few 's i've had tonight

[idwurks]

With our 4.5 Jetta GL, it works (with a clear path) for about 100ft. I am assuming that with more interferance, from objects and signals, the range decreases. But i was very pleased with it being so far and still working I think it has to do with the newer Key/remote. I know they changed them in 2004 ( i think ) , maybe 2003. Anyways.. i ramble... good work on the remote.