# Absolutely Wrecked Clean Title Tiguan (Re)Build



## sachivichik (Oct 22, 2011)

Hey all,

Wanted to start a thread to track progress on this crashed Tiguan I picked up from an auction sight unseen. The car is a 2018 MY SE 4motion with just under 60k miles. My girlfriend loves the Tiguan, which is why I picked this one up. She currently drives a '16 A3 Cabriolet and is sick of the horrendous blind spots, and want's something more spacious. What better gift than a crashed car? 

Anyway, I bought the car thinking the damage was mostly cosmetic. Came to find out that both frame rails were tweaked about 25 degrees. Still not sure what caused the damage - no paint transfer on the bumper, no free limbs in sight. The carfax shows that the car spent time in Colorado, and the accident happened in April. The tires are all basically bald. I'm thinking maybe they slid off the road in icy conditions and hit a pile of ice or something. Otherwise, the car looked to be in great shape. Inside still smells like new, and I found a bottle of leather conditioner in the luggage area (good sign). Steering wheel, both curtains, driver's seat airbags blew in the accident. 
So the car shows up, and I thought I could start it and drive off. Not the case, turned out that the frame rail had broken the starter. I had to get creative in getting the car off the trailer - used a Jeep to pull it off. 

I'll let the pictures do the talking, but this was way more damage that I had ever dealt with. It's gonna be fun guessing how much this is all gonna cost to repair. I'll be doing everything except for the frame work so hoping I can save some money on labor. Hope you guys enjoy the journey, this should be a fun one.























































Oh and i'll drop the video that goes into a lot more detail on what went down:


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## azgman9 (Nov 8, 2021)

I hope you got it real cheap 'cause that is gonna cost some $$ to fix! I will be following and hoping for the best for you.


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## BAFUdaGreat (May 7, 2021)

TBH it really doesn't look all that "absolutely wrecked" if I'm being fair. Yes, a lot of front end damage granted. I'd probably part it out for some quick $$$ return but hey- good luck! I think you're going to have a fun adventure


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## OEMplusCC (Jan 27, 2013)

Yep that rail damage was probably what got this car "totaled". Anyway good luck, I will be following for entertainment  . Always wanted to do something like this


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## jonese (Jun 21, 2020)

Judging by the auction photo of the front end, you car looks like it was "dressed" to hide the damage.


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## BSM (Jul 4, 2020)

jonese said:


> Judging by the auction photo of the front end, you car looks like it was "dressed" to hide the damage.


Not really. It looks like a wrecked car that was totalled without needing to be disassembled. The Tiguan engine bay is fairly open, so the replacement of both lower rails would be obvious as soon as you popped the hood.

In fact, I’m afraid that the sway was quite evident from all those photos. I’m sure that’s how OP won the auction - most people didn’t want to touch it.


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## BSM (Jul 4, 2020)

sachivichik said:


> I'm thinking maybe they slid off the road in icy conditions and hit a pile of ice or something.


That car was t-boned in the left front, probably at an intersection.


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## Volkswagens-for-life (Jun 24, 2013)

For blind spots in the a3 why not just get Euro aspherical mirrors or spotter-mirror.com aspherical mirrors?


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## sachivichik (Oct 22, 2011)

BAFUdaGreat said:


> TBH it really doesn't look all that "absolutely wrecked" if I'm being fair. Yes, a lot of front end damage granted. I'd probably part it out for some quick $$$ return but hey- good luck! I think you're going to have a fun adventure


Thanks, I thought the same thing during the auction, that it's not that bad. I bought a JSW with similar looking damage and it did not have any frame damage, so I was hoping for the same thing here. Totally did not account for frame damage on this one. Lesson learned: always check out the vehicle in person. Had i done that, I wouldn't have bought it.



OEMplusCC said:


> Yep that rail damage was probably what got this car "totaled". Anyway good luck, I will be following for entertainment  . Always wanted to do something like this


Yea what's weird is that the title is clean, so the insurance people must have missed the frame damage...



jonese said:


> Judging by the auction photo of the front end, you car looks like it was "dressed" to hide the damage.





BSM said:


> Not really. It looks like a wrecked car that was totalled without needing to be disassembled. The Tiguan engine bay is fairly open, so the replacement of both lower rails would be obvious as soon as you popped the hood.
> 
> In fact, I’m afraid that the sway was quite evident from all those photos. I’m sure that’s how OP won the auction - most people didn’t want to touch it.


I'd have to agree, this was not a dressed car as the seller was Progressive and it had not made rounds through auctions before. The hood looks suspiciously damage free, but I later came to learn that it's the way that it happened. Thankfully the hood can be repaired (I hope).



Volkswagens-for-life said:


> For blind spots in the a3 why not just get Euro aspherical mirrors or spotter-mirror.com aspherical mirrors?


I've thought about that, but that B pillar is absolutely huge. I've also thought about retrofitting blind spot monitoring to the car. The other side of that coin is when the roof is down = no blind spots at all.


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## sachivichik (Oct 22, 2011)

Well I began taking apart the car and removing the starter and found that a part of it was bent. I'm not sure if that's the solenoid or what it's called but I'm pretty sure it's the reason the car wouldn't start. I also observed that the apron was torn because of the frame damage - not sure how much that's gonna cost to repair but i don't think it will be cheap. 










I then proceeded to begin removing the interior to pull all of the blow airbags and seat belts. I've used safety restore to rebuild seat belts and clear the airbag module and have never had an issue - it does take a while to ship and receive those items back though since they're in Boston. I wanted to knock this out to first so that i can get done with the interior as efficiently as possible. Pretty much every air bag was blown except for the dash - not sure how that happened but I'm happy any time I don't have to pull the dash. The seat airbag is a new one for me - I will try to sow up the skin myself and see how it goes because I've seen some used seat airbags sold separately. Makes me wonder why people sell used seat airbags when they could probably get more money to sell the seat as a whole. Because the curtain airbags blew, they pushed and crinkled the headliner. The headliner is made of some cardboard-fiber material that does not like to bend, so that will be a challenge to fix and I'm not keen on trying to find a used one that also wasn't damaged. i guess we will see how that goes. 

Volkswagen is no longer using screws to secure items to the roof. They have some special clip that needs to be squeezed on the inside to release. Supposedly there is some special tool for this but i was able to use a couple of picks to release them (not very elegantly. These clips hold on the headliner, grab handles, sun visors, and curtain airbags. 










At the end I was left with everything that was either gonna be thrown out or shipped off. The airbag module lives under the head unit, basically against the firewall in the center of the car - real fun to get to - on your knees reaching way down low. The steering wheel airbag was decently easy to find. The curtain airbags and the seat airbag I found at LKQ. Now it's just a matter of waiting for the parts to come in and figure out what to do about the crinkled headliner.










Video here:


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## OEMplusCC (Jan 27, 2013)

Sorry VW snoob here. Little correction on your video capture. North America Tiguans are the long wheel base version and the code for that is BW2 not AD1. Check the production sticker


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## sachivichik (Oct 22, 2011)

OEMplusCC said:


> Sorry VW snoob here. Little correction on your video capture. North America Tiguans are the long wheel base version and the code for that is BW2 not AD1. Check the production sticker


Ah I stand corrected. Thank you. AD1 is swb - my mistake. 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## sachivichik (Oct 22, 2011)

After speaking to some body shops, I found out that they would charge me about $1k in removing the engine for frame work - I decided to save some money and do it myself. Pulling the engine is actually not that difficult but I did have to do some finagling around the bent driver side frame rail. 

To remove the engine:
1. I started with the prop shaft. It has three twelve point 10mm bolts that I wizzed off with an impact. Turning these by hand turns the wheels. In order to get to the prop shaft you have to remove the passenger side axle heat shield (i believe 8mm allen), and the prop shaft heat shield held on with a triple square facing the back, and a 16mm angle drive housing bolt facing the passenger side.
2. Next I moved on to the axles. These are circlip axles and they don't have any bolts holding them inboard. I first unbolted the three lower control arm bolts under the spindle, and also had my gf step on the brakes to remove the large axle bolt in the spindle hub. Interestingly the grease is inside this axle bolt hole. I was then able to pull the spindle with suspension outward and turned at and angle to unseat the axle. After that I pried and yanked the two axles out of the transmission on the drivers side, and out of the angle drive on the passenger side. Because I wanted the car to be able to roll, I re attached the lower control arms.
3. Next I removed the exhaust from the turbo. The exhaust attaches to the hot side of the turbo via a v-band clamp, secured with I believe a 6 or 8mm allen. The exhaust is also attached to the block via two 13mm bolts facing backwards. It's impossible to get these out with the passenger axle in the way. After that I was able to push the exhaust out of the way.
4. Next I unplugged the O2 sensors above the turbo, and any other wiring in the way. I also removed the transmission cable retainer held on with two 13 mm bolts on the top of the transmission. I also removed the small triple square bolt attaching the transmission cable to the transmission selector on top of the trans. The two heater core lines in the firewall were also disconnected using a screw driver and some pulling.
5. I also disconnected the top ECU connector next to the fusebox and laid it on the engine, out of the way.
6. The fuel lines were disconnected from the HPFP because I did not have the required release tool to disconnect from the coolant bottle area. I also pulled that coolant bottle out of place but did not need to disconnect any additional coolant lines.
7. Lastly I unbolted the three 18mm bolt facing down into the transmission (trans mount), and the two 18mm bolts facing down into the engine side (engine mount). The doggone mount is attached via two 16mm bolts in the trans, and 1 21mm bolt in the bushing. 

After that, the engine was free from the car to sit and wait the car's return from the body shop.




















Video here:


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## sachivichik (Oct 22, 2011)

While waiting to send the car to the body shop, I began putting all the airbags in. The biggest concern was the seat airbag that blew. I didn't want to pay up to get an entire seat as the replacement, as the existing leather/vinyl on the seat was perfect. I found some seat airbags for sale on LKQ Online, so I pulled the trigger and decided to attempt in replacing it myself - it turned out to be much cheaper than the whole seat. I saw some videos on Youtube of upholsterers doing the same thing and it didn't look too difficult. It actually turned out 99% as good as original. See a rough outline below:










Taking the seat out is relatively easy (if you have power to move the power seat back and forth), 4 triple square bolts on the seat frame and the seat is free. A couple connectors under the carpet and the seat can be removed out of the car. Once out of the car, the two plastic side pieces on the seat bottom have to get removed, both sides have those little pop clip things and, strangely, a T30 bolt on the seat controls trim. Once those plastic panels are removed, the wiring on the bottom of the seat has to get unplugged. 










After that, you'll find two triple square bolts on each side - connecting the seat back to the seat bottom. Once those are removed, the two parts are separated. The next task is to pull the seat skin and foam off the seat frame. That is done by unclipping the bottom clip keeping the material taught. The foam and skin can be removed once two anchoring push pins are popped out from behind the rear seat pocket area. After that, the seat back frame is separated from the material and foam.










The next task is to pull the vinyl from the foam. It's secured with circular rings connecting the vinyl to metal rods through the foam. Simply twist with needle nose pliers and they will bend out of the way and release the material.










Once the foam and vinyl were separated, I turned the cover inside out and hand sewed using the existing holes using a two over and one back sewing method. I had to go back occasionally and tighten everything up so that the the seam didn't separate. It turned out really nicely, especially once it was flipped back the right way.










Replacing the airbag in the seat back side is relatively easy while the seat cover was off. Just one T30 bolt and a connector and it's free. So nothing remarkable there.










Putting the seat back together is just the reverse order, I had a tough time securing the vinyl to the foam, otherwise no issues. Once the seat was installed in the car, no airbag light, so a nice little win, and I finally have a spot to sit 

Full video here:


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## azgman9 (Nov 8, 2021)

I applaud your skills to do all this work. You have got an insane amount of labor value in this project!


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## sachivichik (Oct 22, 2011)

Because the roof airbags blew during the crash, they creased the headliner along the windows on either side. The headliner itself is beige in color and the crease marks were very visible due to the nature of the color. I looked around and could not find a reasonable replacement headliner (barring the dealer), so I decided to wrap the upper portion of the interior with black fabric. I always loved the black headliner cars, something about it makes it feel more Euro to me, and maybe a touch more "premium." I also knew that the black fabric would do a good job of masking the crease lines from the airbags. 

I went with a foam backed black headliner material on amazon (with fabric glue): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XNJ5MN4?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1

I was impressed with the quality and depth of color, it was also more stretchy than I was expecting, so I was looking forward to try it out. 

First step was to remove the old material. It was pretty well glued on to the headliner, and I ended up just peeling it off with no major issues. I'm not sure on this, but it seems that the factory glue will not come off and degrade over time for when these Tiguans get into 10+ years old. 










After that I prepped the new fabric but cutting to be roughly the shape that I needed it. The directions for the fabric glue said to coat both the fabric and the receiving material two to 3 times, and allow some time for the glue to tack up, so as to not soak the fabric. Because I did not have anyone available to help, I could not find a better method other than to apply the fabric in two steps (glue one half down, and then glue the other), so that's what I did and it turned out alright. I would recommend finding a large table to do this, and with two people, if you can. 








The fabric is probably a quarter inch thick, and it ended up being quite a challenge to get it to adhere to the curvy bits (around the sun visors, dome light, grab handles), it's not perfect but pretty close, no major or visible creases either. One thing to remember is that once the material is applied to the headliner, it's game over. You have to be very careful and place the fabric strategically. 

I then did the rear side the same way, it was easier because there were less curves and corners. When everything was laid down I cut all of the openings to relieve any tension in those areas (grab handles, dome lights, etc). After a few minutes I went back in and made my final cuts, spraying adhesive on the very edges and making sure they stick. 










In all I think it turned out pretty good. It feels nice and soft to touch and I suspect it will insulate some noise as well. I just hope this glue sticks for the long haul, as I don't wanna do this very often.

Next I wrapped the A and B pillars with this same material and technique. These pieces were much more manageable and I found that the glue stuck well to the plastic pillar covers. Before applying the fabric i wiped the pieces with some acetone to get as good of adhesion as possible.


















After that I set aside the pieces to wait for the car to come back from the body shop. I think they turned out pretty well, but if you get really close you could probably tell that it's not as good as factory. Overall, i am pleased with the result, and I can't wait to put these pieces back in the car!

Check out the full video here:


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## sachivichik (Oct 22, 2011)

So I found a body shop that agreed to let me give them the car without an engine to save some $$. In preparation for sending the car off, I loaded the back with all parts that they would need such as the bumper, radiator support, headlights, fenders, brackets, etc. I also made sure to put all bolts in their correct locations, and move engine bay wiring out of the way of the damaged frame rails to make it as easy for the body shop as possible to get right down to work.










Because the car is missing its engine and everything else under the hood, it would not have power. The trunk lock on the tiguans is an electromechanical one, and it's not possible to open unless you climb through the interior and pull the latch. Because of all the junk in the truck (lol), I zip tied the hatch latch to keep it open all the time so the body shop guys would not have to pull bulky items through the back passenger door.









I also released the electromechanical parking brake so that the car could roll both onto the flatbed and when it's at their shop.


















The guys got to work and straightened out the frame, and also painted the fenders and reconditioned the front bumper.

























And I got the car back after about a month. Overall I was pretty happy with their work, they fixed the kinked hood properly and alignment is 97% there. The hood is a bit recessed but it's barely noticeable. The shop told me that the shock perches were not affected and neither was the subframe so just as I suspected only the frame rails were knocked off. An interesting thing i learned is that the frame rails are made from Boron and so it's extremely hard to drill through. As hard as they might be, it's a shame that they were bent so severely. In any case, they replaced just the driver's side frame rail, and only the inside skin at that. They were able to straighten out the passenger frame rail, and everything else. They made the splice of the new frame rail just behind the transmission mount area. Checking their work, they only misplaced a few bolts, but I can't fault them for that. 

The total price was $6,200 and that included the frame repair and the paint for everything that was affected. (Is that a fair deal???) They did a great job on the paint on the hood, fenders, bumper, but they left some overspray on the mirrors and rear doors which i had to clean up later. I'm just happy to have the car back and get ready to start putting it back together!

(P.S. those headlights are hideous!!!).

Watch the video here:


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## BSM (Jul 4, 2020)

sachivichik said:


> The total price was $6,200 and that included the frame repair and the paint for everything that was affected. (Is that a fair deal???)


That shop owes you your $6,200 dollars back and you should probably sue them for damages as well.



sachivichik said:


> An interesting thing i learned is that the frame rails are made from Boron and so it's extremely hard to drill through.


I can't find any documentation to support that assertion. For example, VW didn't mention any boron when they launched this vehicle that I can find. There's also no mention of the rail being boron in my collision estimating guide. Maybe these guys don't know what they're talking about? Hmm...



sachivichik said:


> As hard as they might be, it's a shame that they were bent so severely. In any case, they replaced just the driver's side frame rail, and only the inside skin at that... They made the splice of the new frame rail just behind the transmission mount area.


Well that simply is unacceptable. There are two ways to service the left front lower rail on your vehicle: replace the whole (inner and outer) front rail, or section ("splice") _a few inches_ of the inboard side. Not only is there no procedure from VW describing the repair which was performed on your vehicle, it's actually explicitly prohibited!

Here's VW's warning against this in the workshop manual:









Now, the parts diagram for your frame rail *does* show an inner frame rail which can be ordered:









But as soon as you do *any* research, you find out that you are not allowed to install part #2 in its entirety. It is only provided so you can cut it apart and complete the sectioning procedure above. And even if these guys are the type of yahoos who cut into a modern unibody automobile without reading the workshop manual, A NOTE POPS RIGHT UP IN MY ESTIMATING SYSTEM AND TELLS ME NOT TO DO WHAT THEY DID!









It's not even clear to me if there's a way to safely perform a corrective repair or if the vehicle is truly scrap now. Corrective repairs inherently reach deeper into the vehicle than the original botched repair, and sometimes a non-serviceable part of the vehicle's structure is compromised in a poor repair.

I'm curious: how many shops declined this repair? Did you consider that a shop taking on goofy jobs might be staffed by goofy guys?


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## sachivichik (Oct 22, 2011)

BSM said:


> That shop owes you your $6,200 dollars back and you should probably sue them for damages as well.
> 
> 
> I can't find any documentation to support that assertion. For example, VW didn't mention any boron when they launched this vehicle that I can find. There's also no mention of the rail being boron in my collision estimating guide. Maybe these guys don't know what they're talking about? Hmm...
> ...


Well damn, thank you for looking into this! I am clearly not experienced at all with body repairs, especially frame damage, but this is alarming. I will call the shop and see what they can do for me, but this is unacceptable! They clearly did not read the workshop manual...

Thanks again for your information!


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## sachivichik (Oct 22, 2011)

BSM said:


> I'm curious: how many shops declined this repair? Did you consider that a shop taking on goofy jobs might be staffed by goofy guys?


I called around to a few and sent pictures of the frame rails for context. One said that the frame rails look fine (like wtf?), another said that they are priced too high for me (without disclosing their quote), and this third one said that this job can be done no problem. These three shops were reputable based on my local car clubs and google reviews. So I'm quite shocked at the methodology of the repair. I'll see what I can do.


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## Zabes64 (Aug 29, 2018)

VW mentions ultra high strength steel:









Next-generation 2018 Volkswagen Tiguan has a lot of ultra-high-strength steel - Repairer Driven News


Volkswagen said this summer its next-generation 2018 Tiguan SUV would be longer and wider than its predecessor, and it is likely to use more ultra-high-strength...




www.repairerdrivennews.com


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## BSM (Jul 4, 2020)

sachivichik said:


> Well damn, thank you for looking into this!


Ironically, my curiosity was piqued by the possibility that the rails were a boron alloy 😜



sachivichik said:


> I am clearly not experienced at all with body repairs, especially frame damage, but this is alarming.


You’re killin’ it! Most people are afraid to change a headlight bulb on a modern car. I’ve observed that a willingness to just _take things apart and_ _*try*_ can take you far in life.


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## BSM (Jul 4, 2020)

Zabes64 said:


> VW mentions ultra high strength steel:


They sure do. Now Ctrl+F and search for “boron”. And see if they mention the front rails being UHSS.


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## sachivichik (Oct 22, 2011)

*Retrofitting SEL Premium LED Headlights: A DIY (kind of)*

Guys, I have successfully retrofitted genuine SEL Premium LED headlights to the car. This was the most challenging retrofit I'd ever done, not because of the wiring, but because of the coding and troubleshooting. Here is a sort of DIY where I will do my best to show for anyone willing to take it on.

I decided to take this on when the engine was out of the car because I thought I might get some more room. I have since realized that i could have done this with the engine in. The pictures to follow are from when the engine was out, but do not be alarmed, you do not have to pull the engine to retrofit these headlights!

I could not have done this without the factory wiring diagrams from Volkswagen. If you do not have these, please make an account with ErWin, and request a 1-day subscription for $35, and download everything your heart desires for a 24 hour period. I would show wiring diagrams here, but the documents explicitly forbid sharing these diagrams, but I will do my best to paraphrase the wiring below.

I think it goes without saying but I do not take any responsibility for your mistakes if you follow this guide, perform this retrofit at your own risk (please).

*Parts needed:*

Left Headlight5NL 941 081 ARight Headlight5NL 941 082 AHeadlight Control Modules (referred to as address D6 for left light, D7 for right) x 27P5 941 572 AGHeadlight Power Modules (referred to as address 29 for left light, 39 for right) x 28V0 907 399 BHeadlight Cornering Module (referred to as address 4B multifunction module)3Q0 907 338 EBCM with high-line headlight configuration (got mine from a Jetta) (address 09)5Q0 937 087 BGLevel sensor for rear left wheel5Q0 512 521 G

(Very) Crude high-level overview of modules and their relations to each other:









Because my car did not have these modules already, I made sure to find modules that sold with cut connectors so that I wouldn't have to source new ones (connectors) from the dealer or elsewhere. This saved me a lot of time on sourcing parts. You might have to pay a bit more for the modules with the wiring, but it's worth it.

Alright, now that you have all the parts, it's time to begin removing, cutting wires, installing wiring and splicing. I used those little soldering shrink-wrap things for all of my splicing. I also developed a habit of saving any and all wiring and connectors I come across and I have enough spare pins and receivers to get be through. If you're going to take this on, make sure you have plenty of spare connectors, wires, pins, at your disposal.


Easy solder kit: Amazon.com
14 pin connectors for new headlights: Amazon.com
Hockey tape Wire wrap: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0821HLWCC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o07_s00?ie=UTF8&th=1
Extra wires: Amazon.com
Schwaben Terminal Tool Set: https://www.ecstuning.com/b-schwabe...LDduiPEoBtMhsZQaC4rDX7EHCAMghOcQaApQGEALw_wcB
A good wire stripper
I used a heat gun, find a means to melt the solder safely
A multimeter with continuity setting, to ensure that your wires are all connected and not broken anywhere
VAS 5054 and VCDS cable, you simply cannot do this without these tools
Windows laptop/tablet with internet access


Pull the bumper off (can't take headlights out without it) - plenty of DIYs on this for Tiguans
Remove headlights - again plenty of DIYs
Remove wipers and rain tray
Remove Battery, and battery plate underneath
Remove lower left side trim under dash, remove BCM, remove fuse box and let it dangle down
(OPTIONAL) Untape the wires from each headlight leading into the car. You don't have to do this, I was going for a more OEM look, just tape over the existing harness.










The wiring harness on the passenger side runs above the engine mount, next to the coolant bottle, and up and behind the rain tray. Carefully pull all wiring out of their brackets and body clips and remove them from their original spots. I untaped everything so that i could run the wires along the OEM route:









The wiring continues and loops down next to the brake master cylinder. it swoops down and connects with wiring running along the driver's side frame rail. From there, the wiring runs into the car via the firewall next to the pedals. There is a soft rubber boot that keeps out all the elements. I untaped the boot and popped it out of its firewall hole, then I used a small flat blade to make enough space to run my wires from the headlights into the interior. It's very difficult to show, and very tight quarters, but you can do it!!









Alright, now that the set it clear, you have all your tools and your parts ready to go, it's time to begin wiring everything up.

*Headlights*
The halogen headlights come with a 10 pin connector. These new headlights accept a 14 pin connector. The connectors I used are mentioned above. Please note that I did not use the adapter in the amazon kit as designed - I just de-pinned the 14 pin side and threw away the 10 pin adapter side.


*Left LED Headlight Pinout (14 pin connector)**Purpose and Destination*Pin 1CAN-H - goes to red CANBUS module connector Pin 15 of 20 (T20a/15)Pin 2CAN-L - goes to red CANBUS module connector Pin 5 of 20 (T20a/5)Pin 4 (connect with pin 8 below)Power - goes to fuse box under dash slot 37 (procure a 7.5amp fuse)Pin 5Ground - I pulled this wire from the original 10 pin connector (pin 5)Pin 6Power - I pulled this wire from the original 10 pin connector (pin 6)Pin 7Ground - Connected this with pin 5Pin 8 (connect with pin 4 above)Power - connect with pin 4Pin 11Power - goes to pin 2 of 46 on the B connector of the BCM (T46b/2)


*Right LED Headlight Pinout (14 pin connector)**Purpose and Destination*Pin 1CAN-H - goes to red CANBUS module connector Pin 15 of 20 (T20a/15)Pin 2CAN-L - goes to red CANBUS module connector Pin 5 of 20 (T20a/5)Pin 4 (connect with pin 8 below)Power - goes to fuse box under dash slot 36 (procure a 7.5 amp fuse)Pin 5Ground - I pulled this wire from the original 10 pin connector (pin 5)Pin 6Power - I pulled this wire from the original 10 pin connector (pin 6)Pin 7Ground - connected this with pin 5Pin 8 (connect with pin 4 above)Power - connect with pin 4Pin 11Power - goes to pin 39 of 46 on the B connector of the BCM (T46b/39)


*Cornering Module (4B) Pinout (20 pin connector)*Pin 1 - Power - goes to fuse 8 under dash (5 amp fuse)Pin 11 - Ground - I found a brown ground cable nearbyPin 5 - CAN-L - goes to CANBUS pin 5 of 20 (T20a/5)Pin 15 - CAN-H - goes to CANBUS pin 15 of 20 (T20a/15)Pin 9 - CAN-L - goes to CANBUS pin 5 of 20 (T20a/5)Pin 19 - CAN-H - goes to CANBUS pin 15 of 20 (T20a/15)Pin 10 - CAN-L - goes to CANBUS pin 7 of 20 (T20a/7)Pin 20 - CAN-H - goes to CANBUS pin 17 of 20 (T20a/17)

I didn't take photos but the level sensor lives on the lower rear left control arm, and is bolted in with 4 small screws. The factory controls arms have holes for this purpose. I then ran the wire through a grommet under the rear left wheel liner and into the car. The wires then ran along the door sill on the driver's side to the BCM:


*Rear Level Sensor Pinout (4 pin connector)**Destination*Pin 1Signal - goes to BCM pin 23 of 73 A connector (T73a/23)Pin 3Signal - goes to BCM pin 22 of 73 A connector (T73a/22)Pin 4Ground - goes to BCM pin 57 of 73 C connector (T73c/57)

Once you have everything connected, you should see that the headlight low beams work, but no other functions of the headlights work (no high beams, no DRL, no turn signal). This is normal and it means that your headlights and cornering module need to be parametrized to each other. I refrained from wrapping and reinstalling everything back (trim panels, rain trays, etc) until I verified the lights were working. I did not want to double-work myself taking things apart again if I had gotten some wiring wrong.

As mentioned above, I replaced the BCM with 5Q0 937 087 BG. I had to do this because there are pins and allocations missing from the original BCM for high line headlights (maybe some other functions are unavailable also). Everything was plug and play with this new BCM, except for the wiring mentioned above. The interesting thing with MQB is that now the BCM is component protected. So now we move into the coding world to get everything up to snuff and working.

*Now onto the fun part.* Ideally, you should find someone on Ross Tech forums who has access to ODIS and has a license with VW for online parameterization. If you have access to these tools then that is awesome. In my situation, I found someone in Europe who was able to login to the Mothership VW and parametrize my car for the headlights to work. It is IMPERATIVE that you have a VAS 5054 cable, as well as a VCDS cable for this work. My counterpart in Europe connected to the car through a VM that I had created on my computer that already had ODIS installed. From there, I watched in awe as he controlled my virtual machine and parametrized the headlights.

I know very little about ODIS and online work, but, in essence, my counterpart updated the software in both headlights, the cornering module, and then he matched adaptations from my old BCM to the new one in the car. He also removed component protection. I wish I could explain more for those of you with ODIS experience, but that is what I know.

And Voila! We now have fully working genuine LED headlights that dance on start up (up, down, left, right) and they also turn with the wheel and make driving at night much safer. Once everything was working, I grabbed the hockey tape linked above and wrapped everything up as close to factory as possible. I used lots of zip ties and tried to consider future maintenance under the dash, if ever needed.










As mentioned before, this retrofit is not for the faint of heart. And I fully stand with people who are bound to comment something along the lines of *"you should have got one with LEDs already!!!"* I definitely should have - but it all worked out in the end and I am happy with the result. This guide will either motivate or alienate people to do this retrofit. In either case, I hope you learned something new - I definitely did!!

*One word of advice :* try to verify that all of the modules are in working condition before you assemble them in the car. I was snagged up for a month all because a power module was faulty. But once that was figured out, I was off into the night.


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## jonese (Jun 21, 2020)

Good stuff. How much was the European remote ODIS session?


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## sachivichik (Oct 22, 2011)

jonese said:


> Good stuff. How much was the European remote ODIS session?


The guy I was dealing with was not a business, just an enthusiast like myself. As a result he didn't even charge me, but out of good will and time spent I did send him a few hundred Euros. Really genuine guy. Not sure how much it would cost with a business, though.


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## sachivichik (Oct 22, 2011)

The video to go along with the aforementioned retrofit. More of a high-level walk through, but the meat and potatoes are here in this thread.


Check it out if you like:


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