Keyfob Range Fix by meatster

9 minute read

Keyfob Range Fix

Compliments of meatster @ vwvortex.com

1-23-2004

I just got back from North Penn Imports where they performed the keyfob antenna reroute that was mentioned in here by sandeepim. My experience with North Penn's service department could not have been any better and I'm not exaggerating. They knew their stuff, explained everything VERY WELL (Ralph) and were VERY courteous and professional (Pete & Hal). The antenna reroute took almost 2 hours to perform. The good news (at least I thought it was good news) is that it is actually a lot less involved than what I thought. I have a copy of the useless TSB that VWoA put out in September and was happy to find out that you don't even need to open up the front end to do this reroute. 

Here are the overall steps. 

1. Pop off the cover above the pedals. I'll post links to diagrams as soon as Bentley gets their act together and sends me the t-reg CDs I ordered from them.

2. There is a control module to the top-right of the gas pedal as you look at it. Remove the connectors from it and pull it out. This is what it looks like when it's out:

http://www.tm-techmark.com/tou...2.jpg

http://www.tm-techmark.com/tou...2.jpg

3. One of the connectors has a rear cover the you can pop off. Remove the rear connector cover to expose the wires. You should see something along these lines

http://www.tm-techmark.com/tou...2.jpg

(Note, this picture is actually rotated 90 degrees counterclockwise. It was hard to hold the camera, the t-reg flashlight and still fit Ralph and myself in there so I could get the picture)

4. Next you need to find the clear wire. It's hard to see in the above photo but Ralph is actually pointing it out with a pick. This is the keyfob antenna wire. At this point you have 2 choices. Ralph said that for previous t-regs they did, they cut the existing antenna wire and simply attached a new one that gets routed up the A pillar. I asked him to leave the existing wire and to splice a new wire into it instead. 

5. Once you have the new wire attached, pry off the small plastic molding on the side of the fuse box cover and then pry off the cover to the fuse box.

http://www.tm-techmark.com/tou...2.jpg

6. Run the wire below the steering wheel and out this hole:

http://www.tm-techmark.com/tou...2.jpg

Make sure you have enough wire to make it up the A pillar and to the roof. At this point you can tie down the wire under the steering wheel with twisty ties.

7. Run the wire up the A pillar by prying the rubber molding and A pillar cover, just enough to make room for the wire. Ralph said not to pry the A pillar covers off completely as they house an air bag. Basically, just make enough room to fit the new wire into. 

http://www.tm-techmark.com/tou...2.jpg

The wire should be run up to about this point:

http://www.tm-techmark.com/tou...2.jpg

From this point on, I was not present so these are just assumptions on my part.

8. Replace the control module and re-attach all the connectors to it. 

9. Replace the cover above the pedals.

That's it, except for some "possible" hiccups. When Ralph pulled out the control module, we immediately got some warnings on the MFI. I believe it was "STOP IGNITION" (even though the vehicle was not running) in flashing red letters. I'm not sure if there were any warnings still showing when he first put the control module back and started the vehicle. I wasn't there for that part. There may be some codes that will need to be cleared with a VAG...

Results: The range is phenomenal! OK maybe that's exaggerating a bit but considering what Ive had for the past months, it truly is phenomenal. The reality is it works just like it should right now. No dead spots and reception from at least a few car lengths.

I have a feeling that this will become a new TSB, despite what the A-holes at VWoA told me on 11/18/2003 regarding the t-reg being "designed" to have this piss poor keyfob range and that there weren't gonna be any new TSB's. Ralph told me that it was North Penn's VW OTS (don't know what that stands for. Actually it could have been OTC... can't remember) that came up with this reroute. He also said that they've received a lot of calls about this, both from customers and from other dealerships and as of today, vwhub.com is still not passing this method on to other dealers. That's just doesn't make any sense to me but then again MOST of the stuff that VWoA does and says to their customers makes absolutely no sense. I can only think of one "possible" reason for VWoA to not make this more available but I won't list it here because I don't want to do any favors for them and give them an excuse for their piss poor customer service and response time.

Hope this helps and thanks again sandeepim and North Penn Imports.

Meat

They didn't use a wire tap. They cut and spliced the 3 together. I don't think this matters though. I'd say do whatever is easiest because there really isn't a lot of room to work under there...

They didn't say anything. If they can splice one wire, why not two? To be honest though, the reception is so GOOD right now, there really isn't any need to try to make it any better unless we have some sort of keyfob range contest;-) 

Meat

Btw, thanks for hosting the pics.

I may do this over the weekend or next week myself.