***Follow this guide at your own risk***
Just mind-dumping after collecting a whole load of research which will leave my feeble brain if I don't write it down:
This applies to a very niche application, which is retrofitting MFSW to a EUR5 T6 (one of the earliest ones). It does not cover cruise control retrofit since, on the EUR5, the stalk is the way to go, and that has been covered in more than enough detail elsewhere on the forum.
There are lots of very helpful guides on here - particularly these two:
Without those guides I wouldn't have attempted this so many thanks to Chang1 and DellMassive. But because of the quirkiness of the EUR5 situation plus the amount of time that's elapsed causing part unavailbility etc, I thought it would be helpful to bring it into one place and up to date for the EUR5.
If you're considering this and have a EUR5, then you're almost certain to have the big rubber steering wheel. I was determined to try and hold on to the airbag, and change the wheel and airbag loom. That way madness lies at the moment, I just could not find a T6 MFSW without CCS, and nor could I find a loom at a price that didn't feel like gouging. I tried all the usual suspects - eBAY etc - but in the end the poor availability of the wheel, the buttons and the loom was a dead end and a huge amount of lost life. At one point I was dreaming about wheels.
I read in one or two places that a Polo wheel would work, and it turns out this is a super easy way to do it BUT you're going to have to change your airbag. The reason is that the two prong airbag connector that's standard on the EUR5 T6 won't work with a Polo wheel of the right electronics era. Or at least, after looking at hundreds of Polo Mk5 wheels, there are none left on the second hand market that have two prongs for the airbag.
Check that the wheel has these buttons:
No CCS
No ACC
Volume up and down on the left side
Mute button in the middle of the left side
Track forwards and back left hand side
Page up and down buttons right hand side
Page left and right buttons right hand side
OK button in the middle of right hand side
Phone at top and voice at bottom of right hand side
If it's got a 'VIEW' button, it won't work (and is probably from a Mk6) - I made this mistake, having got confused between Mk6 and 6C, and not spotting the VIEW button in time.
Polo wheels from Mk5 use the right language of electronics (PQ25) to speak to your BCM. Mk6 Polos use MQB and will not work. The confusing thing here is that the code for Mk5 steering wheel parts is actually 6XX, in my case I stuck with 6C. So, I looked for a Polo Mk5 (6C) wheel with 6C buttons, and bought a 6C airbag. I lost out on a complete 6C assembly - wasn't confident enough at the time. The airbag I bought was specifically for a MFSW and had all five wires present in the black connector on the loom behind. I'd advise not getting lost in the world of airbag looms - buy a wheel or bag with it already fitted, but please check it's the right one. The giveaway is the blue and white wire in the 5, and all five present.
Parts I bought:
Steering wheel with buttons (Polo 6C series from a Mk5, three-prong bag fitment)
Airbag with loom (6C series, ditto)
Repair wire kit - retrofit for MFSW
Total cost £245
When I’ve sold my old airbag and wheel, I’ll update this figure.
VCDS coding is unbelievably simple - just a single tick box and the whole thing worked straight away.
If you're at all unsure, get the pros (
@Dav-Tec,
@Absolut5,
@Lightrofit) to do it - the wiring takes a lot of patience and solder-splicing 0.35mm2 wires on the drive isn't for the feint-hearted.
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