Homelink Install Writeup

[kwstantino]

Install is done and it works beautifully. Personally, this is my favorite way of doing it. So let's start.
Here is a pic of the visor

Here is a picture of the three wire plug that comes on the homelink visor. This differs from the non-homelink visor in that the non-homelink visor has only two wires. The wires on the non-homelink visor consists of a red wire(Ground) and a brown wire(Battery or Positive). The homelink consists of Red(Power for the sliding mirror which turns on the light) Green(Power for the Homelink unit) and black (Ground for the whole visor).

Now to start disassembly. You need to look at the left hand corner of where the visor meets the headliner and you will see this.

You must pull down the clip to reach the screw to remove the visor. I used a pick.

Once that is pulled down you will see a T-20 Torx Screw.

You use a t-20 socket or driver to take that down. After removing the screw, you can pull back on that clip that was just unfastened and it will release. Don't forget to undo the bar that clips into the holder on the other side. The visor will now drop but you will not see the clip. You need to stick your finger in the hole and just help feed the wires out. You will come to a connecter that you need to just press to release. Unclip the visor and then snip the wires giving you at least an inch of room to do what you need to do.

Below you see three items. The first is the clip from the non-homelink visor. This will be needed because as you can see from the second clip, they are not the same size. The third pic shows three wire from the new visor that I told you about.

I then needed to setup the homelink visor for install. I twisted the red and green wires together which are my power side and left the ground on its own.

After this was done I had soldered the red and green wire from the visor to the brown wire of the plug, and then I soldered the black wire of the visor to the red wire of the plug. Sorry I forgot to take a pic of that. Then I taped the power and grounds individually. Then I taped the whole thing together.

After this we are ready for the re-install. I simply plugged the visor back in and then worked the wires back into the headliner.

Then you clip the visor back in and put the T-20 screw back in and snap the cover right back over the screw. It should look like this when you are done. If you have any other questions please do not hesitate to contact me.

I already recieved a message asking what the pn's on the plugs.The pn for the non-homelink plug which needs to be used and is on all non-homelink visors is 1H0 973 131 A. The other side of the same plug says KBR>PA66<B4. Any other questions please let me know.


Modified by svander at 11:50 AM 4-2-2006

[svander]

Added to the forum FAQ.

[Sincity]

Since you twisted both of the power wires together, that means the Homelink is always "hot", correct? I'm not sure beacuse I do not have my 5-door GTI yet, but with other cars, you can use the mirror light with the ignition off. If this is the case, if you park your car outside of your house, a thief can get into the car and open the garage. Homelink for autos is not supposed to do that. You have to have the ignition on in order to power the Homelink. The GREEN wire should be from a switched source.

But I'm glad you took the time to write this up. Thank you!


Modified by Sincity at 1:03 PM 4-2-2006

[Tim Birney]

Quote, originally posted by Sincity »

Since you twisted both of the power wires together, that means the Homelink is always "hot", correct? I'm not sure beacuse I do not have my 5-door GTI yet, but with other cars, you can use the mirror light with the ignition off. If this is the case, if you park your car outside of your house, a thief can get into the car and open the garage. Homelink for autos is not supposed to do that. You have to have the ignition on in order to power the Homelink. The GREEN wire should be from a switched source. But I'm glad you took the time to write this up. Thank you! Modified by Sincity at 1:03 PM 4-2-2006

My first thought is...if a thief gets in my car, then bye - bye car.

The garage? Mine is detached, and all that is worth stealing is locked down.

To address the reality, most of the newer construction housing do(es) have attached Garages which could pose a very serious issue, as posted.

[Tim Birney]

The part number for the HomeLink Visor?
Cost? Sources?

[venr122]

homelink on our volvo is always hot...I like it that way

[kwstantino]

The pn is 1ko 857 551. I picked it up for 160, which is better than the 400 from VW.
VW and 04 and up BMW's are the only companies I know of that uses key on for their homelink. I personally like it to be accessible all the time.
If someone wanted to they could route a wire up from either the fuse box or the climatronic to grab a key on source.
As a note, you really don't have room if you want to put any type of connectors in the wiring.
If someone is worried about someone breaking into their house via homelink, lock the car.

I hope that I answered all of the questions and didn't miss anything. I do understand why some people would prefer it to not be hot all of the time. That is basically a personal preference and depends on where each person resides and how the neighborhood is.

[Sureguy]

Land Rover requires the key as well.

[Knighthammer]

What does it matter if its always hot or not - how many people have garage door openers just sitting in the car 99% of the time?

Our Subaru's homelink is always hot - its not that big of deal if you ask me.

[Preppy]

Quote, originally posted by Knighthammer »

What does it matter if its always hot or not - how many people have garage door openers just sitting in the car 99% of the time?

[Sincity]

Mercedes, BMW, Infiniti are key on. From a secuirty point of view, it is best not to have it hot. For instance, if you leave your car outside and you have to leave and forget to roll up windows, all a perp has to do is push your un-hot Homelink, open garage door, close door, and take his time opening your interior access door (assuming you have an attached garage). At least with a garage remote, you can just grab it. Like the author stated, you can always run a key-on wire and that will solve any issues.

[DLucas]

I'm a bit surprised VW used different wiring for homelink and non-homelink cars. Doesn't it seem like an aweful lot of trouble to have a completely different connection threaded into the vehicle wiring? One would think for simplicity, the various visors would just be plug and play and that only the visor itself would be different...

[markjb]

Quote, originally posted by kwstantino »

The pn is 1ko 857 551. I picked it up for 160, which is better than the 400 from VW. VW and 04 and up BMW's are the only companies I know of that uses key on for their homelink. I personally like it to be accessible all the time. If someone wanted to they could route a wire up from either the fuse box or the climatronic to grab a key on source. As a note, you really don't have room if you want to put any type of connectors in the wiring. If someone is worried about someone breaking into their house via homelink, lock the car. I hope that I answered all of the questions and didn't miss anything. I do understand why some people would prefer it to not be hot all of the time. That is basically a personal preference and depends on where each person resides and how the neighborhood is.

I'd still like to know where you got this, cheapest I can find it for is $228 from 1stvwparts. Do you have a weblink for your source? Thanks.

[Estate]

Quote, originally posted by kwstantino »

The wires on the non-homelink visor consists of a red wire(Ground) and a brown wire(Battery or Positive).

Are you sure?

Brown has historically been the ground, not power in VW's.

[Cactus]

Please let us know where you got your homelink visor!

[rickerbr]

On the 2 wire plug on my GTI, the 12 V wire was black and the return/ground was red with brown. I tied the red and green wires from the visor to the black wire on the plug and the black wire from the visor to the red/brown wire on the plug, works perfectly. FWIW my Daimler-Chrysler Grand Cherokee's Homelink is hot all the time, so it even varies within manufacturers.

[08CandyWhite]

Is there any real difference between buying a right visor vs. left visor?

Left visor is 224.85
Right visor is 94.96

[rickerbr]

Right visor doesn't have homelink and is the same on homelink and non homelink cars. Only the left visor has the homelink in it.

[BruinToo]

The Homelink in my Audi A3 is also key on.

[esilvin]

Can you please let us know where you bought the homelink visor?

Thanks

[tpowel2]

I got one off ebay for $25.00 !!!

[eagle243]

Are Jetta and Passat visors the same model? There's one on eBay right now, but it's for an Passat. I have an 03 Jetta, so if they're the same, I'll probably bid.

[azvwgli]

My service department told me that I would also have to order a sending unit to mount in the front of the car...is this correct, or is the entire unit contianed in the Visor?

[OEMplus.com]

Quote, originally posted by eagle243 »

Are Jetta and Passat visors the same model? There's one on eBay right now, but it's for an Passat. I have an 03 Jetta, so if they're the same, I'll probably bid.

Not the same p/n...

Quote, originally posted by azvwgli »

My service department told me that I would also have to order a sending unit to mount in the front of the car...is this correct, or is the entire unit contianed in the Visor?

It's all in the visor, which is why they are so ******* expensive.

[azvwgli]

Bastards...they lied to me...I need to check everything out here first...they told me that it would cost over a thousand dollars to get it done, Guess I can put it back on my list of things to do!!


Modified by azvwgli at 1:06 AM 8-24-2006

[ATLeos]

I would like to install a Homelink visor in my Eos. VW will offer this option on the soon to be released V6 Eos only. I am told there is no VW part number for the Eos Homelink visor at this time. Does anyone know if the Eos' visors are the same as another VW model? Thanks.

[Rob@HillsideImports]

Looks as though the EOS doesn't have the separate transmitter in the front bumper (at least not what I found with a quick n' dirty look through e-bahn and ETKA). Part nos for the EOS transmitter are:

1Q0 857 551 K 3H8 = black

1Q0 857 551 K 2F4 = pearl gray

[ATLeos]

Thanks for the part numbers! I was told that the Homelink transmitter is located within the visor.

Can you order this part? What is the cost?


Modified by ATLeos at 1:02 PM 10-12-2006

[Rob@HillsideImports]

Current price for the EOS part is $345.

For the Jetta/Golf5 is $275.

[vDubr]

If anyone is doing this to their Anthracite interior, I'm interested in buying your OEM visor. Long story, but I need one

PM me

[Cactus]

Quote, originally posted by Auf Wiedersehen! »

If anyone is doing this to their Anthracite interior, I'm interested in buying your OEM visor. Long story, but I need one PM me

I have an anthracite Homelink visor on back order at this time. I'm not sure when it will be in, but I would be happy to sell you my old visor for $50.00 shipped when the new one arrives.

You can e-mail or PM me if interested.

[ATLeos]

Cactus, What did you pay for your Homelink visor? Where did you order it? I am interested adding Homelink to my car as well.

[Cactus]

I'm getting it from http://vw.oempl.us/

It is around $290.00

[gridcore]

Excellent DIY! Thank you.

[gridcore]

So this version of the VW Homelink visor will connect directly to the existing plug(w/o modification) in my 2007 MKV GTI, and will run off of the ignition?


Modified by gridcore at 10:12 AM 11-2-2006