Here comes a "seasonal" topic - it's freezing outside and we've finally gotten snow up here in Finland… …and I have now finally completed my heated steering wheel retrofit! As I wrote already a year ago, I exchanged the wooden wheel - which my car originally came with - for the leather wheel which is better suited for our cold climate.
I installed a heated version of the leather steering wheel. My idea was to get the heating sorted out too, but it ended up being quite a bit more complicated (read: expensive) than I had anticipated. But, as it usually happens with my projects, I end up taking the plunge anyway. Now the retrofit is complete and all is well. I am writing this post just to report how I did it. Another (probably more useful) issue I am discussing here is how you calibrate the steering angle sensor and re-code the ABS control unit. This is a required part of the retrofit and was pretty darn complicated (may even seem scary to some!)
The parts.
Now, the heated steering wheel: There are three kind of Phaeton wheels (this is valid for MY 2002-2010). They are mechanically identical with Touareg wheels of the same era (different color combos exist). There's already discussion on different wheels on this board, so I will skip to the part numbers for different wheels:
3D0 419 091 K - leather, no heat
3D0 419 091 Q - leather, heated
3D0 419 091 T - leather, heated, for certain leather colors
3D0 419 091 R - wooden, no heat
There are a lot of color codes for different leather (and wood) combinations. I will skip those now.
The heated version of the leather wheel is also recognizable by the wiring: there are two sets of wires, both with connectors at the end, coming from the recess of the wheel where the airbag goes into. There are no loose wires on non-heated wheel. A new wheel costs about 500 euros but there are (nearly un-)used ones available from eBay and elsewhere for much less (I paid 120 euros for mine).
In addition to the wheel, you will need a different type of slip ring (there are heating pins missing from the regular slip ring - who the heck would go through the trouble of making different parts for this purpose?). Phaeton slip ring has original part # 3D0 951 541 plus a letter indicating the type. There are even earlier versions, but from 2004 on the D-type is non-heat and E-type is for heated wheel.
I found the right slip ring (which is part 3D0 953 541 E: my car originally had a part ending in D) for 50 euros, used - a good bargain. The same part # is no longer available new, as it seems to be one of the parts which have been "rationalized" by VW Group. Nowadays all of the previous slip ring types are superseded with one single part, with code 8E0 953 541 E. It should fit all years and models and does support heated wheel. It costs about 250 euros new.
No, we're not done exchanging parts yet! The steering column control module needs to be changed, too! It is located behind the stalk switches and is pretty easy to get to, once you get off the steering wheel. Controller has part # 3D0 953 549 plus a letter indicating the variant. Common variants are D and E. The E-part is for heated wheel. It is rare and hard to find used. It is nowadays superseded by a new part 7L6 953 549 L. It costs about 160 euros new. Now, what's interesting is that the new 7L6… part originally comes from Touareg. And it's been used in Touaregs already when the 3D0… part was still put into the Phaetons. Funny thing is, they are fully interchangeable! So I bought the Touareg part used (coming from a 2006 Treg) for 75 euros.
So, that was all the parts needed. The lesson learned was, that all Phaeton-specific versions of slip rings and control units have been superseded with generic parts: the newest slip ring type comes from (judging by the part #) Audi A4 series (8E) and the controller originates from Touareg (7L). I wonder why did they - at one time - make specialized 3D0… parts for the Phaeton even though the parts were/are fully interchangeable with "lesser" car's parts.
That completes the parts inventory. My parts budget was: wheel 120 EUR + slip ring 50 EUR + controller 75 EUR = 245 EUR total. Warm fingers? Priceless!
The installation.
First of all, you cannot complete this retrofit without VCDS or dealer-only VAS programming tool. Don't even start the mechanical retrofit without having VCDS at hand as the car is barely drivable until you re-code the controllers.
Before starting any mechanical retrofit work, make sure you have notes on the current coding of the following controllers:
- ABS (#3)
- Steering wheel (#16)
The info on current coding you will find from a regular VCDS controller scan, see this example:
In this case, the current coding of steering wheel is "0000032". Make similar notes on the coding of ABS controller (#3).
Now let's get to the actual installation. Mechanicals are not that complicated. Get off the steering wheel. Dismantle the steering column covers. Get out the combined slip ring + stalk switch + controller assembly. It is easy to take apart on a desk and put in the new parts. I recall seeing photos of this process on the FAQ so no photos here. A few things to look out for:
- VW instructs to disconnect both batteries before removing airbag. You probably should do so. Especially if you are in the US where you have a different SRS/Airbag system. I have never disconnected my battery in order to remove steering wheel airbag. I have just turned of the car and taken out the keys. Not even a fault code has been triggered during removal/reinstall. Your mileage may wary.
- Be very careful when loosening the airbag from the wheel. There are holes where you insert a screwdriver. You should NOT mess around with the screwdriver inside the steering wheel. The screwdriver needs to be twisted into the right direction to "click" the airbag free. Do observe VW service manual's instructions when doing this!
- DO NOT mess with the slip ring! When you remove the steering wheel, the slip ring "locks" into the last position. You can not turn it (and never should!) unless you press in the little stud facing the back of the steering wheel. The locking mechanism is needed because there are thin foil conductors inside the slip ring and if you mess around with the center position, the foil conductors may "use all the slack" before the steering wheel comes to the fully turned position. This would simply snap the foil conductors and destroy the slip ring at once! As I had bought my slip ring used, someone had turned it from the "fully centered" position and I was unsure which direction I should turn it back to. I had to - very carefully - rotate it fully to the left, then fully to the right while counting the revs. Multiplying the "lock to lock" revs by two I found the "center" position and set the slip ring in that position. I got it right the first time - you would not get a second try anyway…
Other than those caveats, getting in the new parts and putting it all together was pretty simple. Now comes the hard part - CODING!
The coding.
Once you have put it all together, it's time to start the car. Beware: there will be LOTS of warnings and beeps. You will see a brake system failure and a warning will tell you not the drive the car at all. This is "normal" - eeeeks! Plug in the VCDS cable.
First you should code the steering wheel controller. My used part came from a Touareg and had a whole different coding and this caused quite a few (bizarre) fault codes. Coding the new controller is explained by the VCDS coding helper (Michael: result of your work, I suppose?). You need to change just one bit from the original coding to enable steering wheel heat. I will not talk about exact coding here as you need to put in whatever you had in your old controller and change the bit in question only.
When you're done with the coding, read and reset any existing fault codes on the controller (#16). After resetting the fault codes, close the controller, re-open and reread the fault codes. If there are no faults found, you're done. You should now be able to turn on the steering wheel heat by pressing the small button on the right side of the steering wheel hub. If everything's ok, you will see a green steering wheel heat symbol on the FIS display. Take your time to warm your hands on the wheel and relax. You have just one more thing to do. And boy, was that complicated and stressful for me!
The thing is, when you replace electronics on the steering column, the ABS/ESP electronics will require calibration of the steering angle sensor. The sensor is built into the slip ring and it communicates via steering column controller and drivetrain CAN BUS with various other controllers.
If you replace the slip ring only, this is simple: once you've put in the new slip ring and start the car, you will see a warning on the dash (ESP light). No beeps or blinking red lights or anything that serious. This means that the steering angle sensor needs to be calibrated. It is simple: just take the car for a spin. Turn right on a corner, turn left on a corner, drive straight for a short distance. The fastest way to calibrate is by driving an "8" on a parking lot. The yellow light will go off and all is fine.
This is not the case, however, when you replace the steering wheel controller. Meeting with a new steering column controller will totally ruin the day for the ABS control unit. It will get furious! When you start the car, you will see three warning lights on the dash: ABS, ESP and the general brake fault will lit up. The FIS will tell you not the drive the car because the braking system is at fault. When you plug in the VCDS and access controller #3 (ABS) you should see two faults:
- Steering angle sensor (G85) is not adapted
- Control unit is incorrectly coded
The latter one is can be confirmed by looking at the diagnostic scan of controller #3: the proper coding is indeed gone for good! Just zeroes are reported as the current coding and dealer code. I must say I was quite scared before I browsed the internet on this subject! I had not even touched the ABS and how come it looses its coding completely?
Yet this is normal. The ABS/ESP is a complex unit but it has a pretty primitive programming interface. I did not find any Phaeton-specific instructions on coding the ABS controller and because of this I spent a good part of last night worrying if I will ever get my beloved car back on the road again…
So, here's the instructions on how to adapt the G85 steering angle sensor and code the ABS controller. The information is from Ross-Tech, makers of VCDS, but I "copied" it from their Audi section. Both the Phaeton and several models of Audi use the Bosch ESP 5.7 system.
First, park your car with the steering wheel on dead center position. Leave on the engine. Plug in VCDS.
I can assure you it did not go that smoothly the first time. There are lots of confusing instructions in the net. The important thing is, that you will need to complete the whole procedure at once. If you mistype anything or if any code is rejected at any time, you will need to start again from step one.
This ends my report on the retrofit. Hope this is of use to someone. Best of luck with your project!
Jouko
I installed a heated version of the leather steering wheel. My idea was to get the heating sorted out too, but it ended up being quite a bit more complicated (read: expensive) than I had anticipated. But, as it usually happens with my projects, I end up taking the plunge anyway. Now the retrofit is complete and all is well. I am writing this post just to report how I did it. Another (probably more useful) issue I am discussing here is how you calibrate the steering angle sensor and re-code the ABS control unit. This is a required part of the retrofit and was pretty darn complicated (may even seem scary to some!)
The parts.
Now, the heated steering wheel: There are three kind of Phaeton wheels (this is valid for MY 2002-2010). They are mechanically identical with Touareg wheels of the same era (different color combos exist). There's already discussion on different wheels on this board, so I will skip to the part numbers for different wheels:
3D0 419 091 K - leather, no heat
3D0 419 091 Q - leather, heated
3D0 419 091 T - leather, heated, for certain leather colors
3D0 419 091 R - wooden, no heat
There are a lot of color codes for different leather (and wood) combinations. I will skip those now.
The heated version of the leather wheel is also recognizable by the wiring: there are two sets of wires, both with connectors at the end, coming from the recess of the wheel where the airbag goes into. There are no loose wires on non-heated wheel. A new wheel costs about 500 euros but there are (nearly un-)used ones available from eBay and elsewhere for much less (I paid 120 euros for mine).
In addition to the wheel, you will need a different type of slip ring (there are heating pins missing from the regular slip ring - who the heck would go through the trouble of making different parts for this purpose?). Phaeton slip ring has original part # 3D0 951 541 plus a letter indicating the type. There are even earlier versions, but from 2004 on the D-type is non-heat and E-type is for heated wheel.
I found the right slip ring (which is part 3D0 953 541 E: my car originally had a part ending in D) for 50 euros, used - a good bargain. The same part # is no longer available new, as it seems to be one of the parts which have been "rationalized" by VW Group. Nowadays all of the previous slip ring types are superseded with one single part, with code 8E0 953 541 E. It should fit all years and models and does support heated wheel. It costs about 250 euros new.
No, we're not done exchanging parts yet! The steering column control module needs to be changed, too! It is located behind the stalk switches and is pretty easy to get to, once you get off the steering wheel. Controller has part # 3D0 953 549 plus a letter indicating the variant. Common variants are D and E. The E-part is for heated wheel. It is rare and hard to find used. It is nowadays superseded by a new part 7L6 953 549 L. It costs about 160 euros new. Now, what's interesting is that the new 7L6… part originally comes from Touareg. And it's been used in Touaregs already when the 3D0… part was still put into the Phaetons. Funny thing is, they are fully interchangeable! So I bought the Touareg part used (coming from a 2006 Treg) for 75 euros.
So, that was all the parts needed. The lesson learned was, that all Phaeton-specific versions of slip rings and control units have been superseded with generic parts: the newest slip ring type comes from (judging by the part #) Audi A4 series (8E) and the controller originates from Touareg (7L). I wonder why did they - at one time - make specialized 3D0… parts for the Phaeton even though the parts were/are fully interchangeable with "lesser" car's parts.
That completes the parts inventory. My parts budget was: wheel 120 EUR + slip ring 50 EUR + controller 75 EUR = 245 EUR total. Warm fingers? Priceless!
The installation.
First of all, you cannot complete this retrofit without VCDS or dealer-only VAS programming tool. Don't even start the mechanical retrofit without having VCDS at hand as the car is barely drivable until you re-code the controllers.
Before starting any mechanical retrofit work, make sure you have notes on the current coding of the following controllers:
- ABS (#3)
- Steering wheel (#16)
The info on current coding you will find from a regular VCDS controller scan, see this example:
Code:
Address 16: Steering wheel Labels: 3D0-953-549.lbl
Part No: 3D0 953 549 D
Component: Lenksälenmodul 3401
Coding: 0000032
Shop #: WSC 01065 000 00000
No fault code found.Now let's get to the actual installation. Mechanicals are not that complicated. Get off the steering wheel. Dismantle the steering column covers. Get out the combined slip ring + stalk switch + controller assembly. It is easy to take apart on a desk and put in the new parts. I recall seeing photos of this process on the FAQ so no photos here. A few things to look out for:
- VW instructs to disconnect both batteries before removing airbag. You probably should do so. Especially if you are in the US where you have a different SRS/Airbag system. I have never disconnected my battery in order to remove steering wheel airbag. I have just turned of the car and taken out the keys. Not even a fault code has been triggered during removal/reinstall. Your mileage may wary.
- Be very careful when loosening the airbag from the wheel. There are holes where you insert a screwdriver. You should NOT mess around with the screwdriver inside the steering wheel. The screwdriver needs to be twisted into the right direction to "click" the airbag free. Do observe VW service manual's instructions when doing this!
- DO NOT mess with the slip ring! When you remove the steering wheel, the slip ring "locks" into the last position. You can not turn it (and never should!) unless you press in the little stud facing the back of the steering wheel. The locking mechanism is needed because there are thin foil conductors inside the slip ring and if you mess around with the center position, the foil conductors may "use all the slack" before the steering wheel comes to the fully turned position. This would simply snap the foil conductors and destroy the slip ring at once! As I had bought my slip ring used, someone had turned it from the "fully centered" position and I was unsure which direction I should turn it back to. I had to - very carefully - rotate it fully to the left, then fully to the right while counting the revs. Multiplying the "lock to lock" revs by two I found the "center" position and set the slip ring in that position. I got it right the first time - you would not get a second try anyway…
Other than those caveats, getting in the new parts and putting it all together was pretty simple. Now comes the hard part - CODING!
The coding.
Once you have put it all together, it's time to start the car. Beware: there will be LOTS of warnings and beeps. You will see a brake system failure and a warning will tell you not the drive the car at all. This is "normal" - eeeeks!
Plug in the VCDS cable.First you should code the steering wheel controller. My used part came from a Touareg and had a whole different coding and this caused quite a few (bizarre) fault codes. Coding the new controller is explained by the VCDS coding helper (Michael: result of your work, I suppose?). You need to change just one bit from the original coding to enable steering wheel heat. I will not talk about exact coding here as you need to put in whatever you had in your old controller and change the bit in question only.
When you're done with the coding, read and reset any existing fault codes on the controller (#16). After resetting the fault codes, close the controller, re-open and reread the fault codes. If there are no faults found, you're done. You should now be able to turn on the steering wheel heat by pressing the small button on the right side of the steering wheel hub. If everything's ok, you will see a green steering wheel heat symbol on the FIS display. Take your time to warm your hands on the wheel and relax. You have just one more thing to do. And boy, was that complicated and stressful for me!
The thing is, when you replace electronics on the steering column, the ABS/ESP electronics will require calibration of the steering angle sensor. The sensor is built into the slip ring and it communicates via steering column controller and drivetrain CAN BUS with various other controllers.
If you replace the slip ring only, this is simple: once you've put in the new slip ring and start the car, you will see a warning on the dash (ESP light). No beeps or blinking red lights or anything that serious. This means that the steering angle sensor needs to be calibrated. It is simple: just take the car for a spin. Turn right on a corner, turn left on a corner, drive straight for a short distance. The fastest way to calibrate is by driving an "8" on a parking lot. The yellow light will go off and all is fine.
This is not the case, however, when you replace the steering wheel controller. Meeting with a new steering column controller will totally ruin the day for the ABS control unit. It will get furious! When you start the car, you will see three warning lights on the dash: ABS, ESP and the general brake fault will lit up. The FIS will tell you not the drive the car because the braking system is at fault. When you plug in the VCDS and access controller #3 (ABS) you should see two faults:
- Steering angle sensor (G85) is not adapted
- Control unit is incorrectly coded
The latter one is can be confirmed by looking at the diagnostic scan of controller #3: the proper coding is indeed gone for good! Just zeroes are reported as the current coding and dealer code. I must say I was quite scared before I browsed the internet on this subject! I had not even touched the ABS and how come it looses its coding completely?
Yet this is normal. The ABS/ESP is a complex unit but it has a pretty primitive programming interface. I did not find any Phaeton-specific instructions on coding the ABS controller and because of this I spent a good part of last night worrying if I will ever get my beloved car back on the road again…
So, here's the instructions on how to adapt the G85 steering angle sensor and code the ABS controller. The information is from Ross-Tech, makers of VCDS, but I "copied" it from their Audi section. Both the Phaeton and several models of Audi use the Bosch ESP 5.7 system.
First, park your car with the steering wheel on dead center position. Leave on the engine. Plug in VCDS.
- Open the ABS controller (#3) (NOTE: Do not close the controller until you have completed all the steps below - otherwise you will have to start again from this step)
- Read the fault codes. You should see (in case of steering wheel retrofit) two faults: G85 not adapted and Control unit incorrectly coded. Do not worry. Proceed to next step.
- Login to the controller. NOTE: this is not the "security access" button, you need to click on the Coding II button instead! Weird.
- Enter login code. This is MODEL SPECIFIC. The coding helper will tell you what to type in. You will need to know things like engine type, brake size… As a result you will generate a 5-digit code (mine is 05456 - don't try this but use the coding helper). Press "Do it!". Controller should accept the coding. If not, you will need to try again to get the code right. You CAN NOT proceed to next step unless you got the coding accepted
- Now it is time to actually code the controller. Select Coding-button from the controller menu. Now enter exactly the same coding (and preferably workshop ID) which you had written down from your VCDS scan before you even started with the retrofit. In case you don't know the right code, the coding helper should help you figure it out. Press "Do it!". The controller should accept the coding and it should now be displayed on the controller main screen as well.
- Now calibrate the G85 sensor. NOTE: if you don't calibrate now and just close the controller it will loose the coding again! Start by turning the steering wheel by at least 30 degs to the left and then turn it back to dead center. You don't need to move the car. Put the wheel as straight as you possibly can (if your steering wheel is not straight when the car is moving straight ahead you should put it into that position) NOTE: some calibration instructions now tell you to observe the angle readings from Measuring blocks (group 005). This field is not updated by the Phaeton's ABS controller while in coding mode, so don't bother.
- Press on Coding II button (again!) Now, instead of the vehicle-specific coding, enter 40168 to enter the calibration mode. Press "Do it!". The coding should be accepted. If not, you're missing some of the prerequisites for the calibration. Is the engine running? Did you complete all the previous steps successfully? You did not close the controller at any time during the process? You turned the steering wheel to the left and then back to the center?
- Once the coding (40168) was accepted, it's time for the final step. Click on Basic settings (04). Select group 001 and press GO!. This simple action of just accessing that channel will commence the calibration and, in a second or two, you should get reading from the group 001 telling you that the calibration was successful.
- Read the fault codes. There should be none.
- Close the controller. Turn off the car. Unplug VCDS.
- Start the car. All the warnings should be gone. You're done!
I can assure you it did not go that smoothly the first time. There are lots of confusing instructions in the net. The important thing is, that you will need to complete the whole procedure at once. If you mistype anything or if any code is rejected at any time, you will need to start again from step one.
This ends my report on the retrofit. Hope this is of use to someone. Best of luck with your project!
Jouko
