First of all, THANX to 'sveda', ian and 'encrypted' for all the help with figuring this out, the diagrams to get us all started and further testing to do this right.

You can add a resistor on the +12V line -- adding this resolves the ECU throwing a diagnostic code for the vacuum-solenoid. (This code does not trigger an MFI light, but is reportable via VAG-COM)

'encrypted' first tested this theory and posted his successful-results! Yes, it works and i would suggest you do this right , run four wires and set it up to not throw a code (so you're clear when you go for service.)

Personally, I am running the original design, 3-position switch and recently took in my .:R for warranty work on the brake light switch. I flipped the Exhaust switch to the default[OEM] setting, started up and drove over. The service department decided to completely reprogram my .:R32, and to replace the defective-brake light switch they removed the lower panels to work beneath the steering wheel. I'm glad that I did a discrete job with the wiring; also the Exhaust switch triggered ุ VAG-CODES.

I RECREATED THE PDF for Printing the Instructions!!!! --- 15 Steps, 19 Pages, Full Color High Quality Photos (2.02 MB, but worth the download )
[This is the latest version of this walk-through to use while working available in PDF format. Print it out and review it against the steps below. Some small bits of information gradually added to this thread may be missing---I'm doing my best to revise both the thread and the PDF with the most up-to-date info, so please be patient and use this for now, I'll try to finish updating both asap.]

Tools:
• Flash Light
• Torx driver (not sure of size ~ sorry)
• Metric Sockets (13mm used)
• Needle Nose Pliers
• A 4-strand wire (with a marker line on 1-side) /or/ two 2-stranded wire (with a marker line on 1-side of each to make distinguishable) /or/ four single strand different colored wires ~ about 4 feet, but check running them all with plenty of slack along the outside from the gear shifter back under the dash, across and down to the Grey+blue wire
• High-temp Soldering iron
• Rosin Core Solder
• Flux
• Three-way or Two-way, single pole or double pole Switch (try to find one with a small footprint, Radio Shack or your local electronics store)
• 1K 1/2W Resistor (see below; buy a couple in case one gets messed up)
• Zip-ties
• Drill & bits
• Electrical Tape
• MultiMeter (not a must, but Recommended-for-Testing!)
• Hot glue gun (not a must)
• Heat-shrink tubing (not a must)
[I hope I got it all for ya ]

Here's a step-by-step breakdown of how to do this:

STEP 1 - REMOVING THE LOWER DASH PANEL

1., 2. & 3. Remove these screws, then pop the left (1.) and right (3.) tabs out from the panel in front of it. next, push both in opposite directions and pop the center tab out; slide the lower dash panel out towards the steering wheel. you can now place the lower dash panel off to the side.

STEP 2 - REMOVING COMPONENTS

1. & 2. Remove these nuts. Take the front component off and place it below by the dead-pedal. Take the second/upper component off, and then you should be able to sneak it up and out of the way.

STEP 3 - LOCATING THE GREY w/ BLUE-STRIPE WIRE

See-Above. Notice in my picture, I was VERY LUCKY, because I took my exacto knife and lightly sliced the wrapping to find the Grey with Blue-stripe wire directly behind it. (Now notice where I cut; Once I pulled the wrapping back, it was right behind there so I pulled it to get some slack ~ there's a bit of extra, luckily) I found that the Grey+blue wire ran up from the large bunch (on the left), then over to the smaller bunch (on the right) and up to the ECU --- i hope this helps you locate it.

STEP 4 - RUNNING WIRES

1. First, notice there are two metal bars above the screw in the lower-middle console area. First, run your wires (Switches, Ground & +12V) behind those metal-bars, curve them so they comes back out
2. When the wires comes out here, pull a bunch of slack and put them back through right before the panel curves up. you should be able to aim them very easily through the opening.
3. To pop this panel out to run the wires through, put your hand on the bottom edge and pull forward, it should easily come forward. Run the wires through there; I would recommend having enough slack to reach the shifter (this will give you space to test with once you're ready)

STEP 5 - RUNNING WIRES

1. & 2. Back where you ran the wires up for step 4, go under the dash and run the wires up behind the paneling. you'll see this clip, which will allow you to run these wires very low-profile (in case the service-dep ever goes poking around). after clipping them in, run the wires up behind that round-thing, then up over the metal bar (I showed in green where the wires would be behind things and above that bar)

STEP 6 - SECURING WIRES

1. & 2. Notice the bar we ran the wires on top of in step 5; we're now going to zip-tie those up there for two reasons: first we don't want them getting caught in any of the moving parts back there, second we want them hidden from techs (notice how the green lines represent where the wire is above the bar)

STEP 7 - RUNNING WIRES

1., 2. & 3. This photo is from looking up while lying under the dash. starting from the right, run your wires up above the other sets (to conceal them and keep them out of the way)
4. Bring your wires down right next to the Grey with Blue-stripe wire

STEP 8 - CONNECTING THE GROUND WIRE AND +12V LINE

Connect your ground wire to a metal contact (preferably the frame). To the left and up from the Grey+blue wire, I found three bolts going into the side-frame. I completely removed the very top one (more-discrete), wrapped the stripped ground-wire around it and then screwed it back into the frame.

Connect your +12V wire the post illustrated above. I would recommend trying to keep the connector+wire discrete and possibly hiding it under the other connector.

As 'g60racer' has shown with his multimeter, this point is the backside of fuse #34.

Quote, originally posted by encrypted »

CHOOSING A RESISTOR - 1K resistor - use 1/4W rated or higher (power draw ~0.14 W) OR - 2K resistor - use 1/8W rated or higher (power draw ~0.07 W). You have plenty of leeway - I used 2.7K. The bigger the resistor value, the smaller the dummy load. Just pick a resistor with a conservative wattage rating (power consumed by a resistor is V*V/R, where V=12 in our case). - SOURCE

This is the newest-revised schematic ian drew up (thanx man). in case you don't want to run the +12V line, the wire-line (with 1-2Kohm Resistor above 'normal operation') is optional. if you don't run that, the ECU will throw a code (which clears after a bit if you put it back into norm.operation mode)

STEP 9 - CUTTING WIRES

See-Above. Notice in my picture, how the Grey+blue wire goes to the left into thick bunch of wires, and to the right into another smaller set of wires. The thick set of wires runs to the solenoid; the smaller set runs to the ECU (feel around, you'll see how it goes down towards the components.) Pull as much slack as you safely can from the Grey w/ Blue-stripe wire, then cut it in the middle. On my Switch wires, one side is marked with a white line; I connected the white line wire to the ECU side -- twisted it together, in prep for soldering. I connected the solenoid side to the non-white stripe wire, then twisted the spiced ends together. next, I thick paper down to protect the insides of the .:R from solder drippings. I then applied flux to both twisted wire sets, and soldered them. Wrap the soldered wires with elec-tape to protect them from shorting (or, if you're familiar with heat-shrink, you could have put a piece on the wires before soldering, connected them, slide it back down and shrunk it with a lighter ~ if you're so inclined; elec-tape is easier)

STEP 10 - SWITCH PREPARATION

See-Above. I wanted a switch with a black-toggle, to keep it low-profile. the screw-shaft and bolt were metal-color, so I taped off the switch and painted both.
1., 2., 3., 4., 5. & 6. First thing you need to attach the switch wires and the ground line. Since the switch is upside-down, you'll be running the wires in from the left side, then when you flip it over they'll come out to the right. Run the wire in from the left side through the hole, then using needle nose pliers wrap it around to the left (away from pole-2). Do this for the second switch wire, on the middle pole; also do the ground line the same way (my photo does not show it, so I represented it with a green line.) Warm up your soldering iron; once it's hot dip the tip in some flux to prep it; also flux around each of the three poles. This will be the best way to solder these poles without melting the inside of the switch: Turn the switch so that sides '2., 4. & 6.' are facing upward. Place the rosin-core solder on side '2.' and then touch side '1.' -- remove the iron as soon as the solder on side '2.' melts -- do a half/small dot (solder runs towards heat, so this will pull it through the wiring/pole). While it's still facing up, do the same with sides '4. & 6.' When those three pole-sides are done, flip the switch over so you can see sides '1., 3. & 5.' (which should be unsoldered); continue the same method, resulting in both sides being lightly soldered with minimum heat (by quickly touching then removing when melted, you lessen the chance of ruining your switch)

STEP 11 - PROTECTION

1. I used some hot glue to cover the poles after soldering.
2. I used heat shrink tubing to consolidate the wires, which isn't totally necessary, but will help reduce the wear on the back of the switch (if you take that panel back off, etc.) If you're not using heat-shrink, you could simply elec-tape it

STEP 12 - TESTING WIRING

See-Above. First thing you'll notice is that there are not four wires above -- this is my original photo, before the +12V resistor was proved to work. (In the above photo, i tested the resistor on the ground-line, which did not work. However, it Does work as illustrated by ian in the schematic above --- DO THIS ) I added this testing stage, because you'd be really bummed if you put it all together just to find something wrong and have to take it apart again. After testing, the 'Up' (default-mode) worked fine, the 'Middle' (always-loud) worked fine and the 'Down' (always-quiet) worked fine. I then took off the test-tape, soldered all wires and wrapped them (heat shrink shown in photo, which is what I used under the final-taping in the next step, but if you don't have it, elec-tape will work fine.)

'g60racer' pointed out a good way to set this up!

Quote, originally posted by g60racer »

One other note for a clean install: I used insulated male-female quick disconnect spade terminals to hook up the switch to the wiring I ran into the dash, in case I need to remove it for any reason (short shifter install, etc) I don't have to cut wires and re-solder it.

STEP 13 - PREPPING WIRES

1. First, I extra wrapped the lines together to add extra strength where the soldering was.
2. I bent the wires from the side towards the back of the switch, to give it clearance for installation of the panel.

STEP 14 - DRILLING THE PANEL

See-Above. On the opposite side of this panel, you'll find a metal guide on the top. You want to use a very small drill bit to make a pilot-hole from the back side; line up the hole with the guide, and half way down from it. Flip the panel over and use your larger bit (same diameter as switch's thread) to drill through the pilot hole from the front side -- once it's through, gently wiggle the bit to remove rough edges.

STEP 15 - SWITCH IN PLACE

See-Above. Push your switch through the hole, with the wires pointing to the right so they easily go through the hole behind there. Use some needle nose pliers to tighten up the switch-bolt that holds it in place (see the black bolt from step 9 -- I didn't use the front lock washer.) Make sure it's straight, and tighten that sucker up as much as you can. Pop the bottom edge of the panel in first, then the top. YOU'RE SET CONGRATULATIONS!

Best of luck to everyone!!! For general info, check out the original post; you can ask questions here as well or IM/email me at any time if you need help

Modified by gabedibble at 12:48 PM 8-8-2006

The best car I've ever driven....

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Over 4 years serving the VW community with perfect feedback!

this old fart went out and "relooked" at the panel, and Daemon32 was right, my recollection was foggy but i had started at the radio panel as i wanted to pull it to see if we had ISO connectors on the backside

now - question
i installed as above, with a spdt switch from radio shack
first time i soldered every connection and on one position of the switch i get quiet all the time, and on the other two positions, get loud all the time
no normal operation

i thought maybe i had burnt the switch (connections to the grey blue at harness were also soldered (with a little cussing)
so this morning i cut the leads at the switch and installed crimped on female connectors and picked up another spdt switch from radio shack

no matter how i connect the leads, still get same result,
one position is always quiet and the other two are both loud

i even took to just rotating positions, doesnt matter

any ideas or suggestions??????

this sounds exactly like the problem i had when i tested the resistor on the ground line. it could be your ground point. maybe it's not totally grounded; try a different bolt on the frame

personally, i looked under the dash and saw a lot of oportunities, but i couldn't be sure Any of them were grounded.
i actually decided to take loose the other two [switch] wires just to run a ground (thus all three together to keep the low-profile clean-install) all the way over to the left-side frame by the Grey+blue wire --- see explination above.
this way i knew the ground would be tied to the body-frame and work perfectly

Modified by gabedibble at 3:17 PM 6-14-2004

Try hooking the leads from the gray+blue wire ends back together directly and
see if you get normal mode. If you do, then it has to be possible to get
it to work though the switch as long as one switch position hooks those two wires
together. The switch should connect top post to middle post in top position,
and bottom post to middle post in bottom position, and nothing to anything else
in middle position. As long as the solenoid wire (down harness) is
connected to the middle post, then it has to work no matter where you put
the other two wires. Only way it can not work that way is if the ground
wire is accidentally touching one of the other two, thus pulling the ECU signal to
ground all the time.

ian

Has anyone installed the Golf V rear wiper--how do you get the old one off--after loosening the nut, I tried a screwdriver and a small pully remover--neither seemed to loosen it.

Thanks for your help

Chuck

i'll go back thru the basics again when i've got the covers off to install the Valentine one hard wire
electricity and i have never been fond of each other

btw, the only thing i did different was installing switch in glove box on left hand side
figured, it would work in normal mode (and it will) and i could lock glove box at dealership

Thanks to Ian for clarifying (again, to +12V)...
http://forums.vwvortex.com/zer...59760

Hope not too many people got in a pickle trying to connect the resistor to ground, which likely does nothing other than weakly turn on the flap pump. Again, while nobody has conclusively tested this, it sure seems like a resistor to (ignition switched?) +12V would prevent the codes.

I'd love to help figure this out. I've a VAG-COM on the way and know a thing or two about circuits -- but I'm no mkIV expert and haven't yet had the time to dig into my wiring (when I do, I'll thank sveda,gabedibble, & ian!). If anyone wants pointers for testing this, let me know...

Edit:
Corrected links...

Modified by encrypted at 10:13 PM 6-14-2004

BTW: I just made this walkthrough into a .PDF file for ease of download and printing. You can view/download it here:

http://www.jcalabro.com/r32switchmod.pdf

Modified by JFlex at 10:36 AM 6-15-2004

Thanks

Take a wide blade flat head screwdriver and insert it between the wiper hub and the glass (from the top down). Gently and evenly pry forward (pulling screwdriver handle towards you) and you will feel the wiper give just a tiny bit. This is enough loosening to wiggle it off of the splined post from there.

Good luck

thanx for doing the PDF, that will make it very easy to print and take out the the garage :thumbsup:

i plan to test the resistor again, could you update this if i am successful?

thanx

i'm glad your switch worked alright!
did you notice any EPS lights come on, or anything that would inidicate an electrical problem?
did you come close to any wires when you cut the bundle to find the Grey wire w/ blue stripe?

You could try temporarily reconnecting the two sides of the Grey+blue-stripe wire, to see if this resolves your wiper issue.
I haven't had this issue, or heard of it otherwise; best of luck to you - let us know what happens.

ian

Modified by Daemon42 at 1:43 PM 6-15-2004

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Ken

However, if someone is worried after they've moved the relay panel around, just
push all the relays down snug before you close up the lower dash cover.

ian

well, everyone just be really careful and check everything before you put it all back together.
i for one had an issue kind of similar. see, i was sold a momentary switch, and after disasembling the whole thing, i removed the switch from it's sealed container just to find it was wrong; had to reassemble it all and drive to radio shack (to get the switch you see above.) on my way there, the EPS (electronic power system or something) came on in the RPM guage; then it went off, then it came on. obviously something was loose and i was then worried. (before driving home from radio shack, i looked in the manual, to find that when the EPS light comes on, the computer jumps back to a fallback program, so i was confident i could drive home.) after getting back, i disassembled the whole thing again, then started from scratch. when i reassembled, i kept in mind the warning light earlier and checked all connections, made sure it all looked good then put the bottom of the dash back on. i then moved up and tested my wiring, and then popped the switch-panel back in.
after this, i took a drove and no EPS light, it was a loose relay or something and i had fixed it.

moral of the story, be careful under there and you should have no problem

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Over 4 years serving the VW community with perfect feedback!

Ken

Quote, originally posted by hingedthinker »

Well, my install of this mod failed miserably. I'm beat and going to have to fix it later. My best guess is a bad ground. There's only three wires right... Geez, I'm pissed. It took me four hours to get nothing.

Define "nothing". Always quiet? Always loud? Even without a ground, you should
have "always loud" and "normal" on two of the switch's positions. If it's anything
other than that, then just needs a little diagnosis to figure out what's up.
If it's always quiet regardless of switch position, then chances are that your ground wire is touching one of
the other posts on the switch. If it's always loud regardles of switch position then chances are the wire
to the solenoid (down harness) is simply disconnected completely somewhere, or is out of place on the switch.
The solenoid wire should be on the middle post of the switch.

Another possibility is that you found a different grey+blue wire (I know there's only one in
that bundle, but that's why I included additional photos pointing out the *other* wire
pairs in that bundle near the grey+blue wire, to ensure that you're in the right bundle).

And yes, it's only 3 wires.

ian

Modified by Daemon42 at 9:39 PM 6-15-2004

was going to move the ground to a new location (i used that "plastic basket thingee that has two grounds already connected to it)
will simply go to new ground and check before i cover the panel

but am going to pull all the knee panels again, as i want to reroute the leads as well as route the hardwiring for the valentine one

found a perfect place for the valentine (i'll be installing remote up front, thinking into one of the top center vents, so if ever pulled, i can just close that vent (by the way, has anyone pulled that double vent cover/grills just over top the radio console, on the dash - where are the pop points?

but either putting the valentine on top of the middle rear seat, headrests have been removed, either visit my local junk yard for an abbreviated head rest with same spread on the posts, or fabricate a bracket from fiberglass that attaches to back of center seat holding valentine unit up above the rear seat, and put a baseball cap or a dark towel over it

is there any chance aftermarket source for can of spray paint mixed to VW paint colors?

It is always quiet. I couldn't tell if the switch was working at all. I don't have a multimeter so I didn't test it. I used three different colors of wire and I was careful soldering them to the switch before I installed it. I was thinking because the grey/blue wire was so hard to find (I could hardly work in there it was so tight) perhaps I switched my red and green wires, thereby switching the ecu/solinoid wires on the switch side which would screw it up right?

The second bad idea I had was mounting the switch in the glove compartment. I had to take so much dash out it was a pain in the (_*_).

I guess I'm going to have to take it all apart again. Thanks for the help.

Even if the solenoid/ECU wires were swapped on the switch.. say solenoid wire on bottom post
ECU in the middle and ground on top, then you'd get normal mode when down, always loud in the
middle position and again always loud when up.

ian

Cool! Kinda like this...
http://www.vb.quik.com/jmciver/pages/v1.html
http://www.sanders-stuff.com/C....html


Modified by encrypted at 11:22 PM 6-15-2004

no problem bro.. ill keep an eye out for and update and ill update the pdf.

but i didn't think about the loss of laser from both installation, which my towel or baseball hat would also kill

thanks for the links
might just go out to the junk yard and see if i can't find a rear shelf from a golf similiar color to use to cut material for an enclosure out of