Elsewhere in the world, if a Phaeton or Touareg is equipped with keyless entry, it is also equipped with keyless start capability. VW’s imported to North America have the keyless start button deleted at the request of VW of A, most likely because of liability concerns. To a certain extent, this concern of VW of A is understandable – if the key fob is present in the cabin of the car (in a jacket pocket or purse, for example), all an enterprising 10 year old needs to do to start and drive away is simply put their foot on the brake pedal, then press the start button.

In principle, it is not difficult to retrofit the keyless start button. No software needs to be changed, all you do is buy the button, a new trim plate, a wiring harness, and connect it to the existing access / start control module (this is sometimes called the Kessy module, it is component J518, shown on Phaeton wiring diagram 14/4). Once it is connected, everything works as it should. The difficult and time consuming part of this job is removing the various bits of trim – most especially, the driver footwell carpet – to get access to the access / start control module. If you have previous experience removing trim components from VW products, and have a patient disposition, this can be a ‘do-it-yourself’ task. If you have no previous experience disassembling VW products, then best if you have the service technician at your dealership do the work for you. Whatever they will charge you in labour (my guess is about 4 hours for a skilled technician) will be less than the cost of replacing one broken or scratched trim component.

Before I get into the details, some thanks and credits are in order: To Spockcat from the Touareg forum, who was part of the group that pioneered this modification on the Touareg, and who gave me the encouragement to go ahead and try it on the Phaeton; to Blaine, the parts manager at my VW dealer, who did all the work to get me the parts I needed (everything you need can be ordered from your North American VW dealer), and to Mark; the Phaeton service technician at my dealership, who was always there to help me out when I got in over my head, and to re-install the shift lever cover for me. Terence (Pilgrim7777) very kindly supplied the scanned images of the UK Phaeton owners manual that explain how to use the start button.

Here’s a list of the parts you will need:

1) 1 Trim piece - 3D1 857 747 CG 5W8
This is not listed in the North American ETKA (VW Electronic Parts Catalogue), but it can be ordered from a North American VW dealer. It is the grey colour trim piece that surrounds the shift lever and contains the left and right rear view mirror control and the flashlight / cigarette lighter receptacle.

There are three possible variants of this trim piece: The standard North American one, with two holes in it (mirror and 12 volt outlet), the basic European one, with three holes in it (additional hole for turning passenger airbag off), and the European one for cars with keyless entry, which has 4 holes in it (one for turning the airbag off, and one for the start button). It is NOT possible to get one that has a start button hole but not an airbag off hole.

2) 1 start-stop-switch for vehicles with keyless entry - 3D0 959 839 C
This is the start button itself. It is identified on Phaeton wiring diagrams as component E408.

3) 5 screws – Part Number N 910 199 01
These are special self-tapping screws that will hold the start button in place on the bottom of the trim piece. You will need 3 screws for the start button, and 2 for the airbag switch. Do not use any screw other than the exact part number specified, otherwise, you run the risk of breaking the boss that the screw fits into. These are the same screws that are used to hold the control panel for the heated seats, ESP, suspension settings, etc. control panel in the bottom of the same trim piece. Note that these are NOT the same screws used to hold the start button in place in a Touareg, although I think the start button itself is the same for both the Phaeton or the Touareg.

Note added later: It is possible that the part number for these five screws is N 907 750 01. See illustration below:

4) 1 lock cylinder - 107 857 113 JB
This is the lock cylinder that operates the airbag on/off switch. It needs to be ordered from Germany, custom-manufactured to your VIN number, so that it matches your car key. However…. I decided halfway through the process that I really didn’t want to bother hooking up the switch for disabling the airbag. I still needed a lock cylinder, though, to fill the hole on the trim plate. What I could have (and should have) done was just asked the staff at the dealership if they had an old lock cylinder from a current model Golf or Jetta glovebox lying around. It’s the same part, and for cosmetic purposes, will do the job just as well. The custom-made cylinder from Germany that matches your key is expensive, a leftover cylinder that looks identical but doesn’t match your key will probably cost you a box of donuts.

5) 1 key switch for deactivating airbag – 3D1 919 211 A
Whether you intend to hook up the airbag switch or not, you still need this part to hold the lock cylinder in place... unless you cheat. This part number does not refer to the key cylinder, it refers to the electrical switch that the key cylinder sits in. It is NOT the same part number as the switch that serves the same function on a Touareg. You can get the job done without this switch if you are willing to glue the lock cylinder onto the lower face of the trim panel with cyanoacrylate glue. If you don’t intend to hook up the airbag deactivation function, that is a more than satisfactory (and inexpensive) workaround. That’s actually what I did…

6) 1 Phaeton start button wiring harness - fabricated by Spockcat
You can either make your own wiring harness, using VW repair wires, or order a custom made harness from Spockcat. I ordered a harness from Spockcat, but it was delayed in the mail between the USA and Canada, so eventually I wound up making my own harness from VW repair wires. The following day, Spockcat’s harness arrived in my mailbox (Murphy’s law, right?). Personally, I recommend you order Spockcat’s harness, it is an absolutely first-rate piece of workmanship and is military spec in every way – it would not look out of place on the assembly floor in Dresden. You will still need some VW repair wires to put on the end of Spockcat’s harness, though, in order to have the correct pins to install into the T81K connector, which is the connector that fits into the access / start control module.

7) 3 Volkswagen Repair Wires, part number 000 979 018
Repair wires are a neat little component that VW provides to dealerships in case an electrical connector is damaged and needs to be repaired. They are generic, about a foot long, and have a OEM electrical connecting pin at each end. They are available either with gold plated connectors (for low voltage applications, such as gauges) or normal connectors. For this project, you just need the normal ones. The first thing you do when you want to use a VW repair wire is cut it in half – now you have two 6 inch wires with an OEM connector on the end. You then splice the wire, with connector, onto the end of the wiring harness.

The easiest way to get this done is to take the wiring harness to the parts department of your VW dealer. Not only will they have the correct repair wires, they will also have the special crimp tool and butt connectors needed to properly connect the repair wire to the harness. If there is any doubt about selecting the correct repair wire, the parts person can refer to the ETKA catalogue, which will list the exact size and specification of pin used on connector T81K, which is the access / start control connector.

The illustrated Touareg installation instructions at Spockcat’s website ( VW Touareg Keyless Start Installation Instructions) suggest that you can just crimp the existing unused pins in the Kessy connector around the wires on Spockcat’s harness. This may be true for the Touareg, but the Phaeton Kessy connector does not have blank pins in the 5 slots that you will be using – the slots are completely empty on the Phaeton T81K connector, hence, the need to get the repair wires from your dealership. Besides, once you see the amount of work needed to get access to the T81K connector, you won’t want to take any chances of having a wire come loose later on.

The repair wire needed for this job is the smallest one shown in the photo below.

8) 4 Driver Seat retaining bolts, part number still need to get PN
These bolts have a special coating on them, and can only be used (tightened) once. Even though the bolt looks perfectly good after you remove it, you still need to discard it and install a new one. Lord only knows why…

Tools required:

…..Torx screwdrivers – 10, 15, 20, 25 for various trim pieces, and a Torx 50 driver for the four bolts that hold the driver seat in place.
…..A deep 10 mm socket wrench
…..A reasonable assortment of standard shop tools, including needle nose pliers, both straight and offset.
…..A portable shop work light, preferably a fluorescent one. This is essential.
…..A large, good quality magnifying glass to read the connector pin numbers on the T81K connector.
…..Either a selection of good quality dental picks or automotive trim picks, or a Mercedes trim removal tool P/N 140 589 02 33 00. VW also makes a trim removal tool, VW tool P/N 3370, however, the Mercedes tool is easier to work with, and it is less expensive than the VW tool.

Step by step instructions:

1) Park the car in such a way that you can open the driver door fully. Ensure that the front wheels are exactly centered, and that the steering wheel is perfectly in the ‘straight ahead’ position. This will minimize work later on associated with re-adapting the steering wheel position sensor. Apply the parking brake firmly, then release pressure from the main brake pedal (allowing the car to be held in place by the parking brake), then, after you have done that, put the transmission selector in Neutral. You will be moving the transmission selector around later on, so you don’t want any pressure on the dog that engages to hold the car in position. Turn the engine off, but leave the ignition power on. Move the driver seat to the most forward and highest possible position. Turn the ignition power off. The key won’t come out, because the transmission is not in Park – don’t worry about that.

2) Remove the trim strips that cover the seat rails at the back of the driver seat. Remove the two bolts that secure the seat rail to the floor of the car. Set the bolts and trim strips out of the way in the right rear passenger footwell.

Seat Rail after Trim Strip has been removed
The trick to getting the trim strip off is to stuff a very small slotted screwdriver into the inboard (footwell) side of the trim strip, and pry it outwards and away from the retaining tangs that you can see in this picture. Stuff your screwdriver in about where the arrow is, from the same angle. Once you have slid the trim strip back about an inch and a half, it will be clear of the retaining tangs. There are no tangs on the outboard side.

The photo below shows the technique for releasing the seat rail cover trim strip. At the same time, you have to lift the middle, rear strip of plastic free of a nut that it covers. The nut is not visible in the photo below, the view of it is blocked by the forward end of the screwdriver handle. Once the trim strip has been slid back about a quarter of an inch, this nut is no longer a concern.

How to pry the trim strip free of the retaining bracket shown in the photo above

Removing the bolts that hold the seat in place

3) Move the driver seat to the rearward and lowest position. Double check that the steering wheel remains exactly centered. Turn the ignition off - you still won't be able to get the key out, because the shift leave is (or should be) in Neutral. Remove the trim strips that cover the seat rails at the front of the car, using the same technique as you used for the rear seat rail trim strips. Loosen, but do not remove the two bolts that hold the driver’s seat in place at the front. Screw them out about a quarter of an inch.

4) Using the deep 10 mm socket wrench, disconnect the negative terminal of both batteries. This is essential to avoid having dozens of fault codes generated by the car as you remove and reconnect the various electrical connectors. NB that battery terminals on the Phaeton should NOT be greased.

The storage bin that covers this battery just pulls straight out and off.

5) Open the rear driver side passenger door. Tilt the entire driver seat forward a little bit (rotating it about the axis of the two loose bolts holding it in place at the front) and shove a towel under the rear end of seat rails, to protect the carpet of the car. Put a few more towels down in the left rear passenger footwell.

6) Remove the two loose bolts from the front of the driver seat rails. Go find a helper – the driver seat weighs over 200 pounds! Tilt the entire driver seat assembly backwards, and slide it back into the left rear passenger footwell. Pay attention that you do not stress the cable coming up from the floor into the bottom of the driver seat. You only need to move it back far enough to have access to the seam between the driver footwell carpet and the left rear passenger footwell carpet – this seam is about midway under the driver seat rails. The seat will probably remain wedged back in a tilted position, as you see in the photo below. Leave it that way.

About how you want the seat to look once you have removed all 4 bolts and slid it back a bit.
NOTE: There is a pin sticking down from the bottom of the inboard seat rail, towards the rear (about under where your right elbow would be if you were sitting in the seat). You need to tilt the seat outboard a bit, to get that locating pin out of its hole, before you can slide the seat back. This will normally happen by itself when you stuff the towels under the aft ends of the seat rails, but if for some reason the seat won’t slide back, it’s the pin that’s still holding it in.

Continued (at step 7) in next post

Modified by PanEuropean at 10:46 PM 1-21-2008

7) Pop both ashtrays open, and remove the wood trim from the front by sliding the trim pieces towards the outboard side of the car. Push the ashtrays back into the closed position.

Ashtrays with front wood trim strips removed.

8) Remove the wood trim surround from the Front Information Display Control Head Control Module J523 (the radio), using the Mercedes tool or dental pick. Be very careful to avoid having the radio trim surround fall and damage the wood trim on the center console. You might want to put a towel down over the center console, between the shift lever and the ashtrays, before you remove the radio trim surround. Once you have that trim panel off, set it aside in a safe place, the clear finish on it chips easily.

Just put the dental pick underneath the wood trim panel and pull out. The trim panel is very strong. Repeat this process on both sides, top and bottom.

It is held in place by 4 press-fit pins, two on either side.

Before you begin to remove the shift lever trim, the radio area should look like this. If you try to remove the shift lever trim with the radio or ashtray trim still in place, you will wind up damaging the horizontal wood trim on the center console.
Note: These pictures were not taken in sequence, for this reason, you see power applied to the radio in the picture below. It is critical that you disconnect the batteries as described in step 4 before you get this far, otherwise, you will be in a heap of trouble so far as fault code generation is concerned.

9) Remove the shift lever cover, as shown in the photos below:

First gently pry off the wood trim strip, working from the top

Now pry out the little retaining clip – it will come completely out, and it looks just like a large staple – don’t lose it…
Once this retaining clip is out, just pull the shift lever straight up. You don’t have to push the button in, just pull it straight up and it will come off

10) Now remove the trim panel from the side of the transmission area.

Stick your hand under it, near the front, and pull it straight out

This will pop a spring clip out of a hole directly above…

…so you can stick your hand in the top and pop a few more clips loose.
You don’t have to actually ‘remove’ this panel, you just need to pop a few clips loose, so you can get your hand in between the top of this trim panel and the bottom of the wood trim that runs above it. There is no need to pop the clips at the extreme front and rear ends of this trim panel.

11) Stick your hand into the opening, and gently press up on the entire wood trim assembly that holds the transmission lever cover assembly, mirror adjusting assembly, etc. What you want to do is pop up the wood part within the little rubber seam. Start pressing up at the aft end of this assembly, and then work your way to the front. Don’t try to raise it more than about an inch or so. Push it straight up – there are 4 pins holding it in place, you cannot tilt or otherwise manoeuvre this panel until the pins have cleared their sockets.

Again, be aware that these pictures were taken out of sequence. You need to remove all the vertical wood trim panels from the ashtrays and radio area (steps 7 and 8) before you start lifting this panel. If you try and remove this panel with the vertical trim still in place, you won’t be able to get the front part out, and you will probably scratch this panel.

12) Once the panel is up and the 4 retaining pins are clear of their sockets, you can manoeuvre it around and disconnect all the electrical connectors. All of the connectors have locking mechanisms on them, so have your dental pick or a very small jeweller’s screwdriver handy, to assist you in releasing the locking mechanisms. Take great care to not let the bottom of this panel rest on the surrounding wood trim, otherwise it will scratch it. It’s quite helpful to have a few folded towels ready on the passenger seat, to use to protect the surrounding trim once you have lifted this panel free.

Remove the connectors on the left side (mirror control) and the aft end (seat heating, ESP, etc.) first – then you can lift the panel up and over the transmission select post, and turn it upside down. This makes it much easier to separate the connector that supplies power to the cigarette lighter. That particular connector requires quite a bit of force to get apart.

13) Now that you have the middle panel out, take it inside to a comfortable work area.

Remove the screws that secure the grey plastic trim piece to the wooden surround. Be aware that these screws are not all the same length or diameter, even though they appear to have the same screw-heads on them. Make a diagram of which type of screw (long self-tapper or short machine screw – see arrows in photo below) goes in what hole – otherwise, the strength of the assembly will be compromised if you mix the screws up when you re-assemble it later.

Remove the mirror adjustment switch. Use a jeweller’s screwdriver to loosen the small plastic retaining pins, and just push it up from underneath.

Remove the 4 screws that retain the control for the seat heating, ESP, etc. and set them to one side. These are exactly the same screws that you need to purchase an additional 5 of to mount the start button and airbag off switch.

The underside of the stock North American middle panel, BEFORE you have removed the wooden trim that surrounds it, looks like this:

Remove the cigarette lighter assembly from its hole. This is a sonofabitch of a job to do, probably the most frustrating part of the whole project. Rather than repeating the instructions here, I’ll just refer you to Spockcat’s excellent write-up that explains how to do this on a Touareg. It has the same part in it (the part is actually the same in all VW products – Golf, Jetta, Touareg, Phaeton, etc.). Here’s the link: Touareg Keyless Start Install Instructions. The details of how to get the lighter socket out are about halfway down the page. Once you have the metal portion of the cigarette lighter receptacle loosened and you can slide it up within the orange styrene surround, the process of getting it out of the Phaeton trim panel goes like this:

14) Remove the sliding cover that the transmission select lever fits through by releasing the two plastic locking tabs at the aft (rear) portion, then just lifting it up and pulling back.

15) Remove the chrome surround for the transmission select lever by releasing the two tabs that hold it in place. Once you have this part out, you will see 4 little self-adhesive fabric strips in each corner of your ‘old’ grey trim piece. Carefully remove these, and put them in the same locations on your ‘new’ trim piece. They stop the metal assembly from squeaking against the plastic. Note also that your ‘old’ trim piece might have been shaved down, with a knife, in each of the very outboard corners, to allow it to properly sit into the wooden trim surround. (I’m not promising your car will be like this, it just might be like this). If it has been trimmed by hand for a perfect fit into the wood surround, make the necessary trimming to your ‘new’ grey piece now, before you install all the electrical components into it.

At this point, you have pretty much completed dis-assembly of the middle part of the car, and all you have to do now is re-install the components that you just removed onto the new 4-hole grey trim piece, and then put that trim piece back into the wooden surround. By the way – don’t install the wooden surround until you have everything else assembled, because the wooden surround is quite susceptible to scratching.

If you have been unable to get an airbag electrical switch, or just don’t want to spend the $100 or so to buy one, you can kind of ‘fake it’ by just gluing the keyswitch to the bottom side of the new trim panel with cyanoacrylate glue. That’s what I did. Remember the old carpenter’s saying: “Measure twice, and cut once”. In other words, make sure you know exactly how you intend to fit the key cylinder before you get the glue out. Apply the glue very sparingly to the bottom surface of the grey piece – not to the key cylinder – then just press the key cylinder in place, and leave it alone for an hour to dry. I used the gel-type glue, rather than the liquid glue. That eliminates the risk of the glue running down onto the visible face of the grey trim panel.

How you want the key cylinder to appear if you cheat and glue it in place from behind

Continued (at step 16) in next post

Modified by PanEuropean at 1:57 AM 6-26-2008

The easy part of the work is now done. The difficult and annoying part – getting the driver footwell carpet up so you can get to the T81K connector on the access / start control module – comes next.

16) Remove the hood release handle by pulling out the little black locking clip that is mounted on the forward face of this handle, then just gently pulling the handle away from the sidewall of the car.

17) Remove the screw that is located behind where the hood release handle was.

18) Remove the lower trim strip from the driver door aperture by lifting it up and pulling it off. Begin the lifting at the aft end of the strip, near the base of the B pillar. It is easiest to do this if you lift the trim strip from the outboard side of the car (from where it rests in the rubber gasket). If you try to lift it from the inside of the car, you run the risk of breaking it.

This photo shows where the spring tabs are, and if you know where they are ahead of time, it is a lot easier to get the trim strip out.

19) Remove the single Torx screw that secures the trim at the base of the B pillar to the body of the car. You don’t need to remove the entire trim piece.

20) Remove the dead pedal from the floor. It is held on with 6 spring clips, and just pulls straight off. Pry it off from the inboard side, applying equal pressure to the top and bottom at the same time, to avoid snapping it in two.

21) This step is difficult and can be frustrating. Starting at the forward, top, outboard area of the driver footwell carpet – above the deadpedal area – pull the carpet back and downwards, and fold it under the brake pedal, so that that whole area of the carpet is now covering up the brake pedal (in other words, towards the rear of the car, not towards the front of the car).

Gently pry the base of the B pillar trim away from the carpet (see step 19) – you only need to move it about an inch – and pull the little bit of the front footwell carpet out from underneath this trim piece.

Now, lift the whole part of the driver footwell carpet that is closest to the door aperture – what you can see the edge of in the photo with the 4 arrows in step 18 - straight up. Don’t try to bend this carpet or to roll it, for starters, it doesn’t bend, and worse than that, it has insulation 6 inches thick hanging off it in places. Just pull it straight up. When you can see the access start control unit (picture below), then you can sort of bend the carpet towards the middle of the car, and shove a screwdriver or something like that in there to keep the carpet propped up.

Access / Start Control Unit

22) Pull the locking handle on connector T81k out (towards the front of the car). Gently pry the connector away from the access / start control module. The locking handle has two stages to its movement. Once the connector is about one quarter of an inch off the Kessy unit, you will be able to move the locking handle fully forward to the final stage, and remove the connector from the module.

23) At this point, I am going to refer you again to Spockcat’s website, Touareg Keyless Start Install Instructions, where he details the process of doing the same thing on a Touareg. The Touareg has the same connector and same access/start control module, it is just located in a much easier position to get at in the Touareg.

Have a look at the pictures and instructions there that show how to take the T81k connector apart, but DON’T follow the instructions on the Touareg site for putting the new wires into the connector. The Touareg has blank pins in the unused holes of the T81k connector, and the Phaeton does not. Besides, if you crimp a wire onto a blank pin yourself on a Touareg (not exactly a military-spec way of doing things) and the wire comes loose later on, it’s easy to get at the connector. As you have already discovered, it’s hell to get at the connector in a Phaeton, so I’m recommending you do it right the first time and use VW repair wires.

24) Run the cable (the one you got from Spockcat, or one you have fabricated yourself, whatever) underneath the carpet and up into the transmission selector area. It is much easier to run it from the door area up towards the transmission selector area than to try and run it in the opposite direction. Be cautious and meticulous about how you route the cable – you don’t want it stressed when you put all that carpet back down, and you especially don’t want to route it over the top of the electric heaters for the rear footwell air supply that are directly under the driver seat.

I forgot to take pictures showing how I routed my cable, but more or less, I shoved it up the side of the transmission tunnel from just behind the frame member that supports the front of the driver seat. Then I ran it forward about 14 inches until I could put the connector in the driver side ashtray – that left enough slack for manoeuvring it into the start button later in the process. I then ran the cable behind the frame area that supports the front part of the driver seat, up, over and through the cable protection clip in the door seal, and along the floor to the access / start control module.

Once you have the cable in place, the end with the loose wires, at the access/start control module will look like this:

As you can see in the photo above, I have marked the ends of the repair wires with a felt pen, each wire having from 1 to 5 dots on it. This is how I keep track of things when I am working off a wiring diagram. In the photo below, you can see that I labelled the 5 connections that run from the start button itself to the access / start control module (Kessy module) from 1 to 5 – then I marked the repair wires with dots corresponding to the appropriate circuit. You don’t have to do this, but I find it more convenient than trying to figure out colour codes.

Wiring Diagram, Repair Wires

25) Following the wiring diagram instructions, poke the 5 wires through the appropriate holes of the rubber seal, then poke them further down into the connector itself. Note that the metal connector on the end of the repair wire has 4 sides to it, and there is only one correct way to put it into the plastic T81k fitting. The correct way is with the crimps facing towards you – this will ensure that the barb in the end of the metal connector properly locks into the plastic frame. The repair wire will fit in incorrectly, if you put it in oriented in any of the other 3 possible ways – it will then slide back out when you shove the T81k connector onto the Kessy module, and you’ll have to do the whole driver seat and carpet re/re all over again to troubleshoot.

Note correct orientation of wire when you put it into the connector!

26) You now need to connect the three ground wires to the appropriate ground point. The three ground wires are probably tied together into a common 1 mm wire within the wiring harness. The wiring diagram indicates that this should be attached to ground point 397, which is the ground point located on the aft face of the frame that supports the driver seat. So, use this ground point. On the Phaeton, not all ground points are created equal, and you don’t want the access / start control module throwing codes at you later on, complaining of a poor quality ground. I suggest you replace the slide tap on the wiring harness with a circular ring crimp connector, and attach that directly to the ground point stud. Remember, you’re going to be shoving that carpet, complete with 6 inches of foam insulation, back down over the cable – you don’t want it ripping the slide tap off. Below is a photo of ground point 397.

Ground Point 397

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OK, that completes the wiring – now just put everything back together. Assembly is the opposite order of disassembly, the only exception being the shift lever handle, which is a bit of a PITA. Put the driver seat back in position, and attach and torque the two front bolts. You won’t be able to get access to the two rear bolts until after you have connected the battery. Don’t connect the battery until you have re-connected everything else with the exception of the shift lever cover and the 2 rear driver seat attach bolts, otherwise, you’ll generate multiple fault codes.

27) Putting the shift lever cover back on is difficult. It’s the type of thing that someone has to show you how to do, otherwise, you will get really frustrated trying to attempt it, and probably wind up breaking a very expensive part in the Tiptronic mechanism in the process. Just drive the car to your dealer without the cover in place (you can lift up on the plastic stick to release the shift lock), and ask the Phaeton technician at your dealership to install it for you. It’s the same part on both the Touareg and the Phaeton, so it’s safe to assume your technician has done it before.

If you are not able to put the shift lever cover back on yourself, move the transmission selector into the PARK position, by lifting up on the plastic stick and moving it forward, before you start the car.

28) When you first power up the car, you will be presented with a number of very dire warnings in the instrument cluster display – suspension system needs shop attention, perhaps an ABS warning, etc. This is because the steering wheel position sensor needs to be re-adapted (calibrated) anytime the batteries are disconnected. If you parked the car with the wheels pointing straight ahead, and the steering wheel perfectly straight before you disconnected the battery, there is a good chance that the car will self-calibrate if you put it through about 4 complete operational cycles before you move it.

A ‘complete operational cycle’ is a start, let it run for at least 60 seconds, turn it off and remove the key from the ignition, close and lock the doors (windows up first, or you’ll set off the cabin motion sensing alarm), wait 60 seconds and then repeat the process.

While you are going through these 4 cycles, you can function check the new start button. I suggest you read the instructions in the British Owner’s manual first. They are posted right below.

DISCLAIMER: I don’t believe in disclaimers, in fact, I very much resent the whole perversion of the American legal system that has resulted in disclaimers. If you guys didn’t have those friggin’ tort lawyers, we wouldn’t have to be putting the start button in ourselves, it would be installed at the factory for us, just like it is for European buyers.

Use your common sense. Your car may be different than mine, it might have different options, or even if it is identical, it might have different components if it was built before or after my car. If you encounter something you can’t figure out, don’t go further until you get it figured out.

I have checked this document pretty carefully for errors and omissions, but that doesn’t guarantee that there aren’t any. So, be alert and take responsibility for your own actions, just like people used to do in the old days, before coffee cups had “caution – contents are hot” warnings on them.

If you don’t feel comfortable attempting this task yourself – and it is a task that requires prior experience working on VW’s, like I said at the beginning – print these instructions out and ask your Phaeton service technician to put the button in for you. When you do something like this (asking your VW technician to install a European modification), there are two rules of courtesy that should be observed: 1) Plan on leaving your car with the tech for a few days, so that in case he encounters difficulty, he has the time to consult with others, and; 2) Always offer to pay “straight time” for the job – in other words, whatever time it takes him (or her) to do this custom work, that’s what you pay for.

I have followed those two rules in the past, and the result has always been a satisfying and interesting installation process for both the tech and myself.

Here are the operating instructions from the UK Owner’s Manual for a Touareg. The concept is the same for the Phaeton.

Modified by PanEuropean at 5:47 PM 3-16-2009

Good luck with it... if you have any questions, just post them here.

Michael

Keyless Start System

Important Note! (Added March 15, 2005)
If you install a start button in a North American Phaeton, you still have to put the key blade into the ignition cylinder if you want to enable or disable the 'valet lockout' feature. This is, I presume, because start buttons are not offered in North America, and Phaetons in all regions of the world except North America are equipped with a rear foglight on/off switch in the place where the North American Phaetons have that valet lockout button.

Important Warning and Advice! (Added October 29, 2005) The most difficult part of the whole job is re-installing the leather shift lever handle - and the chrome base that fits on the bottom of it - back onto the shift lever stick once you have finished all of the re-assembly. The problem here is that there is a 'trick' to doing this, and unless someone has taught you the trick (visually demonstrated it), it is otherwise impossible to accomplish. Worse still, you can easily cause several hundred dollars of damage to the Tiptronic position sensing switch if you don't know what you have to be 'very careful' about.

So, my suggestion to all of you is that unless you know exactly how to re-install the leather shift lever cover and its chrome base piece, you should take your Phaeton to a VW dealer and have them refit those parts for you. It's only a 2 minute job, and the parts go back together the same way a Golf, Jetta, Passat or Touareg shift lever goes back together. For that reason you can be assured your VW tech will know how to do it properly. Please see this post for more information (and warning) about what damage can be done during the refitting process: Tiptronic Sliding Plate Tabs

Modified by PanEuropean at 5:49 PM 3-16-2009

Are you sure you're not a surgeon and not a commercial airline pilot (perhaps you're both)!

An amazing project to watch. I do not know anybody who would purchase a $100k masterpiece and take it home and do what you've successfully done. Congrats to you (and Spockcat)

So...what next? I want to see you put the refrigerator in (would that mean a 4-seater conversion?) Also, why did you not put in the airbag switch in (just curious)?

Again, awesome

Modified by MoreA4 at 1:59 PM 11-13-2004

Regfrigerator - nothing to do that, it's plug and play. Did it last week, not even complex enough to warrant a write-up.

Refrigerator Compressor (view from trunk)

Quote, originally posted by MoreA4 »

Also, why did you not put in the airbag switch in (just curious)?

That would have required re-coding the airbag control module to have it recognize the presence of the keyswitch, and the codes for the airbag module are not in the 'public domain' yet. So, I figured, why bother? There's enough room in the rear seat to put little kids and their child seats - and if you fill the refrigerator up with juice first, they prefer the back seat to the front anyway.

Michael

You know I'm just kidding about the fridge, right?

Not knowing that the Phaeton keyless connector didn't have the contacts in place like the Touareg connector has, I fabricated the harness for Michael without contacts on the end. But I think I actually have contacts that will fit the plug. I use them for another application and have to test them before I say that I have them for sure. So if anyone wants a complete wiring harness, including the contacts, they should email me. Michael has told me just how long the harness needs to be and I will be making it according to his instructions.

Nice write-up Michael!

TOUAREG HOW TO INFO: MP3, XM, CELL or VIDEO, KEYLESS START, PADDLE SHIFT.

Terence

Michael

I have followed your procedure with much interest....

I was wondering about the refrigerator.....how is it accessed from the passenger compartment and is it a factory item?

Cheers;

Peter

The OEM for the fridge supplies the exact same unit to Mercedes, Bentley, Rolls, and VW.

Michael

I'm jealous I can't do this install, since the Phaeton I bought a week ago doesn't have keyless entry (I'm guessing THAT would be REALLY difficult to retrofit, since I'd have to replace my door handles, as well as install additional electronics.).

But I'm looking forward to installing keyless start on my Touareg, which DOES have keyless entry.

- Dave

If you have a diagnostic scan tool (VAG-COM, VAS 5052), you could then clear these codes once the work was done, but it would require several cycles to clear them all - more time than it would take to simply disconnect the two negative battery terminals. If you don't have a scan tool, then you will be creating an extra hour of work for your service technician next time he looks at the car - because he or she will need to look the report over, determine that most of the codes are spurious, and clear them all (through several cycles). The worst part of that will be that any legitimate fault codes that were generated post-install and actually need to be looked at carefully will be 'thrown out in the wash', along with the dozens of codes from the button install.

Lastly - whenever I am doing any kind of work on any VW product that involves immobilizer or start / access control systems, I always disconnect batteries as a matter of principle. The time it take to disconnect the batteries is minimal, compared to the time it takes to do a complete re-adaptation of keys, etc. if I happen to wiggle the connector the wrong way when I take it out.

Although I didn't mention it in the text of the original 'how-to', best practice suggests that a full diagnostic scan should be done before starting work, so that you have a record of what the vehicle status was before disassembly begins. That way, if you do wind up needing to clear fault codes after the work is done, at least you know what the status was before you started work. I did this, and noted 5 fault codes before I started disassembly. While I was putting the start button in, I investigated and fixed the problems that were causing 4 of the 5 codes. When the whole install process was done, I did another full diagnostic scan - the final scan showed 1 fault code remaining, both the Phaeton technician at my dealership and I know what is causing that one, it is minor, doesn't affect functionality, and we have agreed to defer it until the first oil change is due.

Michael

I think disconnecting the batteries sets off more codes than not disconnecting them. I say this because I have seen code reports generated after a Touareg with a dead battery. It is a much longer list.

TOUAREG HOW TO INFO: MP3, XM, CELL or VIDEO, KEYLESS START, PADDLE SHIFT.

You will get multiple fault codes generated if the battery in the vehicle is allowed to run down, because the vehicle (Touareg or Phaeton) has an automated load-shedding routine that is invoked when battery voltage starts to drop. If you simply disconnect the batteries, you don't get codes (other than ABS and suspension, due to the steering wheel position sensor wanting a re-adaptation) because the load shedding routine does not run.

If the Phaeton is parked with the wheels straight ahead and the steering wheel perfectly centered before the batteries are disconnected, it will still throw a code requesting re-adaptation of the steering wheel position sensor after power is re-established, but after about 4 complete operational cycles (as described in the original text), it will take note that everything is properly aligned, and then drop the 'workshop' messages from the instrument panel display. This is why I emphasized the need to park with the wheels straight ahead and the steering wheel centered, then to go through 4 operational cycles once battery power is re-established.

After all this is done, a fault code will remain, but it will be annotated as 'sporadic', and will not return again if it is cleared. A VW technician who has gone through Phaeton training will understand why this code is present, if you explain that you disconnected the battery, and given that information, he or she will just clear the code and think nothing more of it.

Michael

Modified by PanEuropean at 4:50 PM 11-14-2004

Michael

Retrofit Cable for Phaeton Start Button Installation

I'll do the keyless mod when I am finished moving, but I am immediately interested in the fridge as my son requires medication that must be kept cold.

Can you please create a thread similar to this one outlining the source, cost, etc. for a fridge install?

Thanks in advance.

FYI, when I was in Dresden the last time, the customer service rep told me that the majority of the folks who order the fridge order it for medication storage, not to keep champagne cold.

Michael

as i understand, you have to leave the key in the ignition through the entire process, including disconnecting the kessy module. while installing the keyless button on my t-reg, i made a mistake, which essentially simulated the situation of leaving the key in the ignition and disconnecting the hot kessy module. the car's computer went crazy and did not want to give the key back from the ignition, essentially exchanging the on and off state of the ignition. hard to explain but the whole ordeal was really unpleasant and i was ready to get the car towed to the dealer. eventually, i found a sequence out of the following actions: connecting the kessy module, starting the engine, disconnecting the module and such, that "straitened" out the computer. however, i would strongly discourage from disconnecting the hot kessy module with the key in the ignition.

Michael

In my writeup for the Touareg, I have in LARGE, BOLD TYPE that the key must be removed from the ignition and the vehicle. Did you miss that part?

TOUAREG HOW TO INFO: MP3, XM, CELL or VIDEO, KEYLESS START, PADDLE SHIFT.

In other words, all new production Phaetons and Touaregs will NOT allow the owner the ability to remove the key from the ignition (using a paper clip or similar to activate the emergency release function) unless the shift selector is in the PARK position.

Although this will not affect the instructions I wrote above for the keyless start button retrofit (because the key is left in the ignition, and step 4 calls for both battery negative terminals to be disconnected), this information might be of interest to folks planning to do this modification in the future.

The original VW PDF of this bulletin (48-04-01) is attached.

Michael

Attachment: IgnitonSwitch48-04-01PH.pdf (13392 bytes, downloaded 202 times)

- Dave

Michael

Quote, originally posted by PanEuropean »

If the Phaeton is parked with the wheels straight ahead and the steering wheel perfectly centered before the batteries are disconnected, it will still throw a code requesting re-adaptation of the steering wheel position sensor after power is re-established, but after about 4 complete operational cycles (as described in the original text), it will take note that everything is properly aligned, and then drop the 'workshop' messages from the instrument panel display. This is why I emphasized the need to park with the wheels straight ahead and the steering wheel centered, then to go through 4 operational cycles once battery power is re-established. After all this is done, a fault code will remain, but it will be annotated as 'sporadic', and will not return again if it is cleared. A VW technician who has gone through Phaeton training will understand why this code is present, if you explain that you disconnected the battery. Given that information, he or she will just clear the code and think nothing more of it.

I have since found out that you can expedite the process of clearing the "Workshop!" message on the display between the speedometer and the tachometer following battery disconnection by just driving the car in a figure 8 pattern at speeds between 15 and 30 km/h (10 to 20 MPH). If there is a big shopping mall near you, you can probably find space in a corner of the parking lot to do this safely.

This process provokes the car to re-calibrate the steering wheel position sensor (the slip ring) on its own. The fault code will still remain in the cars diagnostic memory, but the instrument cluster message will go away, and suspension control functionality (low-normal-high settings) will return.

Michael

Somewhat OT: has anyone stopped and looked at the intricacy and craftsmanship of this car in the photos when Michael was disassembling its bits to install the keyless start? It is like peering into a giant-sized Patek Philippe.

This is my kind of mod! Now when my wife hunts you down and tells you not to give me any more crazy ideas, at least you will know why. Great post.

So can you share approximate cost for the components? I re-read the posts and I don’t think I missed it. I also love the “full wood” around the bezel that is being replaced. Mine is only wood around the bezel and interior gray around the cup holders. I’ll look and see if there is a post on the possibility of changing this piece to the one in your pics. I assume this is a W12 option.

I purposely did not post the price of the parts, because I bought them in Canada, and parts prices in the USA may be different. I haven't added up the bill yet, but I think the total parts cost was about USD $300. The trim surround (grey piece) was the most expensive part, the starter button was the next most expensive.

I spent a lot of money to get a custom key cylinder made in Germany, to match my car keys, only to decide later on to just glue it to the underside of the trim panel and not hook it up. What I should have done was just ask the technicians at my dealership for an identical lock cylinder that they had removed from a Golf or Jetta glovebox due to internal problems (key not turning in cylinder). This would have looked exactly the same, served the purpose just as well, and saved a ton of money.

If you take the part numbers to your dealership, they can look up the prices (in America) for you.

Michael

spockcat and PanEuropean,

do not flame me. i just tried to comment on spock's comment that disconnecting the hot kessy module with the key in the ignition is not a good idea. either remove the key from the car, as spock's instructions say (i RTFM) for the t-reg or disconnect the battery with the key in the ignition, as pan's indicate for the phaeton.

take care and good luck. i will refrain from browsing phaeton forums in the future.

No flames or need to discontinue browsing the Phaeton forum. I just wanted to be sure that the instruction to remove the key from the car was obvious enough in my instructions. There was already one other person who tried to lock his car in the middle of the procedure with the kessy module, without pretty results.

TOUAREG HOW TO INFO: MP3, XM, CELL or VIDEO, KEYLESS START, PADDLE SHIFT.

In fact, it is so fantastic that I'd like to add the keyless start to my W12. As a first step, I talked to my VW dealer--they said that they wouldn't do this for legal reasons.

Next, I tried a couple of specialty shops in the Twin Cities (Minnesota) area (German Motowerks and another recommended by them). They both said they would recommend that the dealer do this as they would have access to the necessary European instructions, etc.

While I wish I were handy enough to just do this myself, I'm just smart enough to know that I shouldn't. So, can anyone recommend a dealer/shop in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area that I should trust my car with?

Thanks in advance for any help!