US Friendly, VW Plug-and-Play

Using passenger vehicles to tow is commonplace in Europe, and thus most Volkswagen vehicles are especially adept at pulling an extra load.  Bosal, a well known European high manufacturer, makes the OEM hitches for VW.  These hitches, along with those made by Westphalia, are considered the best in the world.  Their no-drill, bolt-on-frame design gives most VW passenger vehicles towing capacity over 3,000 lbs. The Bosal Hitch for MkVI Jetta and Golf is available from our partner, IDParts.com.

The second challenge is wiring.  Most VW models to date use a European style wiring for the rear tail lights where the blinker, brake and running light are on separate circuits.  US trailers, however, use an arrangement that puts all those things into one bulb.  Hooking your Volkswagen to a US trailer requires an adapter to switch from the EU style circuit to the US style circuit.

Luckily for us many VW models include open plugs on the backside of the tail light specifically for trailer wiring.  This article will show you the parts you need to make an easy-to-find wiring adapter work with the OEM trailer wiring connections on your A4 platform VW, otherwise known as the MkIV Golf and Jetta…

For the purposes of this article we will be using a U-HAUL wiring harness adapter, model number XXXX, available for $16.95 as of this writing.  Similar products are available from other manufacturers like Modulite.

You will also need 3 OEM VW connectors, depending on model

Look at the chart below to see which connectors your vehicle needs:

The part number for the respective connectors are:

• 3-Pin 1J0 972 924
• 2-Pin 1J0 972 923 * (these connectors have tabs that need to be filed down to work)
• 1-Pin 191 972 701

And finally you will need 4 VW terminal connectors, available on two repair wires (Qty (2) VW part# 000 979 1

Unwrap your purchased adapter harness and line up all the wires. You’ll find that you have 5 wires total (6 if you have a 12V powered adapter), one each for left turn, right turn, brake, running lights and a ground wire. On the U-HAUL model ‘XXXX’ adapter , 4 of them should be grouped together and one, the right-side-turn-signal, will be separate.

This installation is done on a Jetta Wagon that has been converted to European-Style Tail Lights, but its the same for the Golf and the Jetta Sedan.  The North-American Jetta Wagon taillights, however, use a different wiring scheme which we’ll put at the bottom of this post.

For this installation the three pin connector will take the left turn, tail light and ground wire.

In Order - Left Turn Yellow, Ground White, Tail Brown

These will fit into one of the 3-pin connectors, set the connector with the two alignment fins pointing up and insert, left to right, as follows: Ground – Left Turn – Tail.

Golf IV Towing Harness Pin Layout

The last wire for that side is the brake light, use the 1-pin connector for that.

Brake Lights All on Their Own

Finally, use remaining long wire (right side turn) and insert that into the last three-pin connector, middle slot.

Golf IV Towing Harness - Right Turn Signal

Finally, hop into your hatch, remove the left side compartment panel cover.

Left Side Panel Cover Removed, The Blue Bag is the utility kit that comes with every Bosal

In this photo the U-HAUL harness is double-side-taped to the back of the styrofoam insert (where the 6-disk CD changer would go).

U-HAUL Harness Attached Securely

The only thing left is to plug in the connectors when you are ready to tow. They only fit into one location each, so you can’t make a mistake. I don’t have the harness plugged in when I’m not using it, so I have the connectors and wires nearly wrapped up.

Towing Harness Wires Wrapped Up

Thats all there is to it! Feel free to substitute the U-HAUL kit from one from Modulite or similar, as long as its the same adapter style it should work fine. Some kits use the 12V socket for power, which may be a good idea if your trailer has a lot of lighting.

Special thanks to Chris R. for feedback and suggestions!

There isn’t anything new here in our minds, the things that have made the TDI powered VWs so spectacular are the same things that Motor Trend cited as the reasons it won this year.

We have to commend the extra space and larger fuel tank, though.

Read more on Motor Trend.com. 2012 Motor Trend Car of the Year – Volkswagen Passat.

2012 Golf TDI on Cape Cod

Although the MKVI is fairly new (this is its third year in the US), it’s an evolution from the MKV and most of you are pretty familiar with it by now. What’s special about the MKVI Golf is the bolstered seats, and nicer interior finishes. The interior looks durable, is great quality, but not luxurious. If you’re used to VWs you’ll be comfortable here. Finishes are excellent, the instruments are very readable, the MFD and stereo work well.
The rear seating area is more spacious than the MKIV, although the luggage area seems smaller. Sightlines are good, the cowl is low enough to provide good visibility, bu vision to the rear is more difficult. The C-pillar is wide and the rear window is fairly small, making parallel parking more challenging than in the MIV.

Lower Visibility Makes Parallel Parking Harder, but the 2-door Golf stll fits nicely in compact city spots...

So what is It like to drive? Not a lot like a TDI to those of us who’ve driven earlier TDIs for years. The engine is quieter, smoother, and more powerful than we’re used to. Cold starts are much quieter, and when warm the old saw “it doesn’t sound like a diesel” really is true. But there’s also good news: VW seems to have sorted out the driveability issues of the ’10 and ’11 cars. No stalling, lots of low speed torque, no stumbling. Power is good, impressive, even. We noticed that power seemed to be fading in 4th gear on a recent drive until we noticed we were passing 4000 RPM and 100 MPH. It got there remarkably easily.

6th Gear is Wonderfully Tall - Low RPM, High Speed Driving!

But as excellent as the common-rail TDI is, it’s the six-speed manual transmission that is the star. Light clutch, clear sift gates without being notchy, and gear ratios that are any diesel driver’s dream. 4th is good to over 100 MPH, 5th provides a great loafing gear on state highways, and 6th is a dream: 2000 RPM is 72 MPH, 2200 at an indicated 80. This gearing can’t help but contribute to the car’s fuel economy: we saw 42.8 MPG on our first tank despite a brand new engine, mixed driving, no special mileage techniques, and highway driving at 70+ MPH.

One major disappointment for MKIV owners was the mushy stock ride and lackluster handling. Understeer ruled. The MKV was considerably firmer, but in the MKVI VW got it right. The Golf still understeers, but you can get the rear to rotate by lifting in a corner. Turn in is crisp, the steering is linear, although the steering is somewhat numb. This may be in part because of the mediocre Continental all-season tires. Although they keep quiet, they’re eager to scrub in hard cornering and don’t provide much feedback. A good set of summer tires would be a big improvement.
The combination of firmer suspension, lower ride height than the sedan or wagon, and 17” wheels with 45 series tires makes for a firm ride. Road noise is noticeable on some surfaces, and the ride can get harsh on bad roads. Overall the ride-handling compromise is a good one, although some drives may prefer the taller ride height and 16” wheels the sedan provides.

Good Brakes Under Nice Wheels

Brakes? They work fine. They’re classic VW: sensitive to initial braking, spongy pedal, don’t inspire a lot of confidence in hard braking, ABS isn’t too easy to invoke. No surprises.

So what do we think so far? We’re very impressed. Roomy, refined, easy to drive, very quiet, spacious, tight and rattle free, great handling with acceptable ride quality. Although it’s too early to draw any conclusions on fuel economy, preliminary data is positive. This car could be a winner.

The Lumbar Lever is a really nice touch...

The seats are typical VW with the wide range of adjustments that are lacking on many of its competitors including height and lumbar adjustment. The height is adjusted as you may be used to on earlier cars using a push-pull lever on the outside of the seat. The lumbar adjustment is more interesting – rather than a knob you get a much easier to use lever on the side of the seat. I find lumbar adjustment very important, especially on long drives where I will be changing my seating position.

Slide-Forward Lever on the Front Seat

Getting to the back seat is an easy affair and I was impressed again by the release lever on the seat. One of my cars is a MkIV Golf TDI (year 2000) and the handle is prone to being knocked off or broken by a over-zealous passenger getting into the backseat. The 2012 Golf TDI addresses this by protecting the bottom edge of the lever. It looks good too.

Seats fold down easily & without removing the headrests...

The rear seats fold down and are split 60/40. Thankfully folding down the seats does not require either lifting up the seat bottoms nor removing the head rests. In this two-door model I was able to release and flip down the back seats completely from the hatch and I did not need to use the side doors at all. Folding the rear seat back up is also headache free as the seatbelt is out of the way enough not to get stuck behind the seat.

The belt is far enough out of the way that it won't get stuck behind the seat back.

Overhead lighting is well done too. The front overhead lighting console incorporates some red ambient lighting as well as the controls for the Bluetooth integration with a cellphone. All controls have text that is backlit in red so they are easy to find, see and use at night. There is also a sunglass holder, but we’re not using it yet. The console has the two independent passenger and driver map light.

2012 Golf TDI Overhead Console

Rear passengers get their own map lights as well, though their controls aren’t backlit.

The rear seat lights have plenty of power to fully illuminate the backseat.

Thats a short outline of little stuff that we really liked. The next chapter we’ll go over the 2012 Golf TDI Interior from the drivers seat!

2012 Golf TDI Side Shot - Note the Blue "I"

This is chapter one of what may be a 10-year long-term test, to see if this Golf TDI is as spectacular as its older sibling.

We picked up our vehicle on a Saturday from Paul Clark Volkswagen in Brockton, Massachusetts. Paul Clark is a smaller VW dealer and it not part of a larger “family of dealers” so the experience is much more personal than we’ve had in the past with other dealerships. The owner, Paul Clark, is an active part of daily operations and that seems to make a large impact on the experience.

For 2012 a lot of the “new engine” bugs seem to be worked out. Reports of fuel-pump failure have dropped like a rock in recent months. In my experience the build quality has improved as well. VW seems to have figured out how to streamline production and make improvements without adding much cost.

There are some tradeoffs – the 2012 packages and options are much more limited than they were in 2011. For instance Xenon/HID headlamps are not available outside of a large, expensive performance package. Our vehicle is a 2-door base model, no options. For the exterior we chose Graphite Blue – and we are very pleased with how this color looks in person. Its got great depth and “flake” in the metallic.

2012 Golf TDI - Graphite Blue

The interior of the 2012 Golf is only available in black – “You can get any color you want as long as its black.” But we think it looks really great. The seat bottoms are a tough-feeling, tight weave cloth with a white-gray pattern on the top surfaces. Along with contrasting stitching the seat design is very tasteful, though not exciting. As we mentioned, the build quality seems very, very good. We will go over the car’s interior material quality in a later post.

With 50 miles on the car so far we are thrilled with how it feels and drives. Our next report will focus on driving and feel, stay tuned!

So, 10 years on, stuff starts breaking. These cars were designed to last a few hundred thousand, certainly, but 300,000 miles and 10 years? Thats a lot of abuse. The glove boxes and armrest hinges are the two most common points of failure.

Armrest Hinge Repair Kit available at IDParts.com

Installation outline past the break…

Installation is hands on but straightforward, and can be broken into three parts – remove old hinge, install first half of new hinge, put top in place & install second half of new hinge. The most difficult task is removing your old, broken hinge. This requires cutting the hinge off using a dremel, hacksaw or sawzall.

The replacement hinge is made to work even if there is some of the old hinge left on the cover. On the underside of the replacement hinge there are two groves that accomodate the leftover material. The groves fit with the leftovers nicely, so it may actually be easier to align the hinge with some of the original hinge left on the cover.

The replacement hinge comes in two pieces. The first piece will be installed while the armrest top is still out of the car. Use the groves and leftover hinge material to align the first piece, then use one of the self-tapping screws to secure the hinge-half to the armrest top.

Now we must go into the car with the armrest top. Align the first half of the hinge into one of the hinge holes in the armrest. With that side in, take the second half of the replacement hinge and align that with the opposite side hole.

Once the second half is aligned you can snap the two halves together. Its a tight fit and it will only click in if its correctly aligned so it may take a few tries to get it right.

With the second half snapped in all thats left is to finish attaching the remaining self-tapping screws.

Installation video also available below:

]]> http://www.tdiblog.com/tdi-do-it-yourself/new-armrest-hinge-fix-kit-for-mkiv-jetta-golf-new-beetle/feed/ 5 http://www.tdiblog.com/tdi-do-it-yourself/how-to-video-idparts-aluminum-belly-pan-install/ http://www.tdiblog.com/tdi-do-it-yourself/how-to-video-idparts-aluminum-belly-pan-install/#comments Sun, 02 Oct 2011 23:24:08 +0000 Corey@IDParts http://www.tdiblog.com/?p=404 In our first HOW-TO video, Corey installs an IDParts Aluminum Belly Pan on a 2004 Jetta TDI.

IDParts Aluminum Belly Pan

Yes, we know that it will be available next year, but why not now?  Honestly the 2.5L engine should be completely forgotten about and removed from the VW lineup.  Beetle 2.0T and Beetle 2.0 TDI, what more do you need?

Pricing is out of line with what I’d expect as a consumer.  The New Beetle started in Golf/Jetta territory as an entry price.  This version, with a 2.5L gas engine and a 5-speed stick is 19,795!  Thats nearly identical to the same configuration 2012 Passat!

The Beetle looks cool, yes, and I think VW is going for this high-end compact segment with this one.  That segment works if you have good options, great build quality and GOOD engines.  The 2.0T would make a great “hot hatch”, but the 2.5? Yuck.

I hope the Beetle TDI isn’t priced similar to the Passat TDI…that’d be crazy…

We are in the middle of deciding which of the new models we want to pick up.  Here are some strong points for each model.

Jetta TDI

• Lowest Base Price

Golf TDI

• Great Size
• Made in Germany
• True “Euro” car that is the same as the European Golf
• Euro-ness means great upgrade options

Passat TDI

• Made in USA – means more value for the price
• Extremely Spacious
• Higher Quality Interior
• Apparently more efficient

SportWagen TDI

• Extreme Utility
• Also identical to European counterpart
• Great upgrade options

Those are our thoughts on the strong suits of all the models.  Which model would you buy?  Let us know in the comments below…