# Touareg + Tekonsha Prodigy



## terps4 (Jan 14, 2004)

I've exchanged some email with Tekonsha, looking to get their recommendations on which brake controller would best fit a Touareg. The first response I got listed the Voyager and Sentinel as the best choices for the Touareg as plug-n-play controllers.
I ended up asking specifically about the Prodigy because I thought it was their best unit. First, they confirmed it as top-of-the-line. I was told the Prodigy works, but the installation isn't as straight forward. Apparently, the Prodigy needs to be connected to the brake pedal sensor instead of the Touareg brake module.
Tekonsha sent me the following PDF to explain how we can install the Prodigy and get rid of the annoying display gremlins... They even list the parts needed from VW to make a harness.








http://tm-techmark.com/touareg...e.pdf
Thanks to spockcat for hosting the file








Be sure to post results if you use these directions!
-Andy
_Modified by terps4 at 1:37 PM 5-12-2004_


_Modified by terps4 at 1:39 PM 5-12-2004_


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## Xrayo (Feb 25, 2004)

*Re: Touareg + Tekonsha Prodigy (terps4)*

I bailed on the Prodigy today after a month of dinking around with it. The Tekonsha Envoy seems to be a better match to the Treg's high tech trailer wiring harness. The Envoy works exactly as it should.
Too many subtle issues to detail. Go with something less sophisticated than the Prodigy for now if you have anything valuable to tow.








BTW, my Prodigy is FS: relatively cheap.
X


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## S4inSoFla (Sep 23, 2001)

*Re: Touareg + Tekonsha Prodigy (Xrayo)*

I have a prodigy and plan to do the brake pedal switch. Where exaclty is the brake pedal switch?
I'm using it now but getting the erratic displays.


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## vracer (Jul 2, 2003)

I used the Prodigy for about six months. It worked perfectly, but showed blinking LEDs. My local T'reg tech took care of it in about five minutes at no charge. It still works perfectly, but the LEDs now show what they should. You owe it to your Touareg and yourself to give it the best controller, even if it costs a bit more. My guess is that a good trailer shop will be able to make perfect sense of the Prodigy instructions - even if you or I can't.


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## Xrayo (Feb 25, 2004)

*Re: (vracer)*

Oh, I understand the Prodigy controller. I've installed about a half dozen controllers before. The test signals the Prodigy sends to my Airstream brakes cause the brakes to "flutter" on and off. There was no way that I could set the brakes high enough to brake the trailer effectively and still eliminate the flutter unless I connected directly to the brake light switch, which I did *(on mine it was third of four wires from the left on the plug - black and red)* . Even then, it caused uneven braking. I thought everything was fine but realized after a couple thousand miles of towing that the Treg's awsome disk brakes were making up for the insufficient controller settings. My controller settings were too low by necessity.
The Envoy, when using the exact same hookup, works perfectly. 
There are variations in the Treg wiring/trailer electronics scenario between owners as depicted by the numerous differing posts relating to "this light warning" and "that light warning" or "my right turn signal does not work", etc. There is even a fix posted on this forum that requires installation of a light bulb and switch on the trailer circuit to "fake out" the Treg diagnostics... This one was done by a PA VW dealer after talking to the VWOA technical folks.
I am not poking at the Treg. Frankly, the Tekonsha folks admit that they have a problem when it comes to the Treg and the Prodigy. I've called them and discussed it with them. The Treg seems to be too advanced in many ways when it comes to the Prodigy. They seem to be fighting one another, IMHO, diagnostically.
Anyway, if the Prodigy works for you - really works, you do have a great controller.
X


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## spockcat (Jun 5, 2003)

*Re: (Xrayo)*

Maybe the Prodigy you got was defective??


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## Xrayo (Feb 25, 2004)

Could be, I suppose...


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## wkaml (Jan 12, 2003)

*Re: Touareg + Tekonsha Prodigy (terps4)*

I am in the process of purchasing a dump trailer (most likely the Pace American Hammer Dump HR610TA3) and will need a brake controller. I talked to the owner of the trailer store and he said that the Prodigy will be one of the best choices, otherwise the Intella-Stop will be the second best choice. 
Does anyone have some more experience to share on brake controllers since these postings here are from quite some time back?


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## trackjunke (Feb 3, 2007)

I just installed a tekonsha prodigy. Works great. You just have to tap in to the brake pedal wire.


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## Melensdad (Aug 14, 2005)

*Re: Touareg + Tekonsha Prodigy (wkaml)*


_Quote, originally posted by *wkaml* »_
Does anyone have some more experience to share on brake controllers since these postings here are from quite some time back?

I went with a JORDAN ULTIMA brake controller. http://www.bestbrakecontroller.com/moreInfo.html
I did have problems with my install, but the problem turned out to be the LED lights on my trailer, not the brake controller. The ULTIMA works differently than many of the other brake controllers.


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## wkaml (Jan 12, 2003)

*Re: (trackjunke)*


_Quote, originally posted by *trackjunke* »_I just installed a tekonsha prodigy. Works great. You just have to tap in to the brake pedal wire.

Even with the risk of making myself a fool here, I will post anyways and post a couple of questions with the only thought: "Better to be safe than sorry".








So here I go... and I am hoping that you will be able to provide some answers as you just went through the exercise. I will make some more pictures to document the process and hopefully this will help some of the other do-it-yourselfers. 
I purchased the VW parts


1x 1J0-972-782 Plug Housing

2x 000-979-228 Wires and Connectors

as lined out in the PDF file Tip 2 Volkswagen Touareg Porsche Cayenne.pdf but am not sure if I can put the pieces of the puzzle together correctly.
The questions I have are:


I have only ordered 2 wire connectors #000-979-228 from VW per instructions from the PDF but seem to need one more. As far as I understand, I need to pretty much assemble a male connector that plus into the female brake control connector from the car and forward every connection with the exception of the brake signal that is on the black/red connector on the Touareg's brake control connector. So in forwarding 3 of the 4 connections, I am thinking I will need 3 of the #000-979-228 wires instead of only 2. Maybe the author of the PDF file thought to skip the ground and go to the frame instead, but I thought I read somewhere in the instruction that this is not something I am supposed to do. What is your thought on that issue?

The red wire of the Prodigy (brake signal) is supposed to come from the brake pedal (black/red) wire. However, as Image 3 shows, I have 2 of the black/red wires on that brake pedal switch connector. Which of the two I am supposed to use?


Image 1: VW Touareg '04 Plug Housing and Wire Connectors - Prodigy wire harness

Image 2: VW Touareg '04 brake control connector

Image 3: VW Touareg '04 brake switch connector



_Modified by wkaml at 3:47 PM 3-15-2007_


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## wkaml (Jan 12, 2003)

*Touareg + Tekonsha Prodigy brake controller installation*

Step 1:

Image 1: Take off the panel cover underneath the driver's side dash. Once take off, this is what you will see. I already pulled back the foam to reveal the brake controller connector pre-installed by VW on the left side. The connector that you see on the right side goes to the brake pedal switch.
Step 2:

Image 2: Now you will need to decide if you want to go with Option 1 or Option 2 for the brake signal that the brake controller will need.
Option 1 is the straight forward approach to connect the brake signal wire (red) from the controller’s wire harness to the pre-installed plug (black/red wire) connector 3 from VW.
Option 2 (recommended in the description Tip 2 Volkswagen Touareg Porsche Cayenne.pdf document) is to connect the brake signal wire (red) from the controller’s wire harness to the brake switch connector on the brake pedal directly (black/red wire - on mine I used the 3rd wire/connector from the left on the brake switch plug).
Since I went with Option 2, I had to disassemble the brake switch plug to tie in another cable that I could connect directly to the red wire of the brake controller harness. First step was to open the cover on the plug that will reveal the individual wire connectors.
If you choose to go with Option 1, you can jump directly to Step #7 and skip the next steps of unplugging and disassembling the brake switch plug.
Step 3:

Image 3: To get wire connector #3 out of the plug housing nicely, you most likely will have to fabricate a couple pins that you will need to slide into the opening from the front to bend the barb a bit so that the connector will be able to slide out towards the back without breaking it.
Step 4:

Image 4: Here you can see the wire connector #3 that came out of the brake switch plug. On the top of that connector you can see the little barb that will hold the connector in place unless you hold it down by sliding in a couple of pins from the front.
Step 5:

Image 5: Here you can see the newly assembled brake switch plug now having a 5th wire connected up to brake switch connector #3. That 5th wire can now be connected to the red wire (brake signal) of the brake controller wire harness.
Step 6:

Image 6: On the other end of the newly inserted wire to the brake switch plug I added a connector that will allow me to plug in and unplug the brake controller's red wire if I want to. I basically wanted to keep the option open to connect the brake signal wire (red) from the brake controller directly to the pre-installed wire harness by VW. If I ever want to use a different brake controller, I now have that option available without cutting and installing new wires and what not.
Step 7:

Image 7: Initially I was puzzled of what to do with the 2x Wires and Connectors #000-979-228 (VW part number) I ordered from the dealer's parts department. Well, once I started working on this job, the light bulb went finally on and it was clear that the two wires I ordered from VW were intended to be cut in half. That gives you 4 wire contacts that you can insert in the empty plug housing #1J0-972-782 (VW part number). Once that plug housing was assembled with the four (yellow) wires and contacts, all I had to do was to connect three wires according to the following table:








I went with Option 2.
Step 8:

Image 8: Assembled wire harnesses with optional connection for brake controller to be connected either to the brake switch itself or to the pre-installed wire harness connected to the tow hitch controller
Step 9:

Image 9: Panel under driver side dash with wire harness for brake controller
Step 10:

Image 10: Finished work
So if you want to hook up your brake controller all by yourself, it can definitely be done. Just make sure you got a good 1 hour of time available. Also, if you want to keep both options open, make sure you get some of those wire connectors in addition to the parts you will need to order from VW.
Good luck!


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## wkaml (Jan 12, 2003)

*Re: Touareg + Tekonsha Prodigy brake controller installation (wkaml)*









Since _Xrayo_ reported on _6-26-2004 5:42_ here on this thread that he used the third connector from the left on the brake pedal plug on his 2004 VW Touareg V8, I went with the third connector as well.








However, the third connector did not work correctly with the Prodigy brake controller on my 2004 VW Touareg V8 at all. Actually, it produced exactly the opposite result. The harder I would step on the accelerator the more power output it sent to the trailer. When I stepped on the brakes, the brake controller would read 'n.c.', which means not connected. 
I had to rewire the brake contact today and went with connector #4 - that is the fourth wire (also black/red, just as wire #3) on the brake pedal plug from the left (1st wire from the right).
Now the brake controller works just fine. http://****************.com/smile/emthup.gif
My guess is that either some folks did not come back here and report their findings and just wired their brake controllers incorrectly, because I simply can not imagine that VW would have those wires swapped on some of the Touaregs. That is simply impossible, has no logic what so ever and would require a tremendous effort on maintenance. All brake pedal switches on all VW Touaregs have to be the same, all the other components that receive the signals have to be the same, so why in the world would VW wire some Touaregs differently? Otherwise this would be a maintenance nightmare. Or, VW is really that







which I do not believe either.
Be very careful here which wire you use from the brake pedal switch, but my take would be contact #4 (that is the first right contact on the brake pedal switch). And yes, I confirmed this as well, the reading on the brake controller would be completely erratic if the brake signal wire from the brake controller would be wired directly to the wire harness prepared by the factory. Not only that, but the braking behavior would get really bad if using e.g. boost level 3. Then the brakes would just lock on the trailer every other second, come completely off again, and so on. So forget the brake signal on the brake controller wire harness that was factory installed by VW if you want to use the Prodigy. 
And as always, I am not an expert, but I am reporting my findings only and want to caution you to be careful with brake controllers if you want to perform the installation yourself.



_Modified by wkaml at 8:47 PM 3-18-2007_


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## ICAN2147 (Jun 3, 2009)

*Re: Touareg + Tekonsha Prodigy brake controller installation (wkaml)*

HOW IS THAT CONTROLLER WORKING FOR YOU SINCE YOU CHANGE THE WIRES?


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## 0320thGTI (Feb 28, 2004)

*Re: Touareg + Tekonsha Prodigy brake controller installation (ICAN2147)*


_Quote, originally posted by *ICAN2147* »_HOW IS THAT CONTROLLER WORKING FOR YOU SINCE YOU CHANGE THE WIRES?

Upate?? Watching...


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## ScratchRob13 (Feb 7, 2006)

Sorry to bring up such an old post, But those who run the prodigy long term, did you have any issues?

I run the prodigy in my Chevy, and need to wire up a controller the the touareg. Thanks!


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## DicknNancy (Nov 6, 2004)

I installed ours in our 2004 V10 a little over 5 years ago and it has worked flawlessly. Install took me about 1 hour IIRC.

Nancy


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## BoostAddiction (Aug 31, 2004)

DicknNancy said:


> I installed ours in our 2004 V10 a little over 5 years ago and it has worked flawlessly. Install took me about 1 hour IIRC.
> 
> Nancy


Same here- my Prodigy has been working in my 2004 V10 since 2004, and it works great. It is sensitive to poor wire connections (e.g., corrosion at the 7-pin connector) but that is a feature, really, not a bug, as it tells you when you have a wiring issue.

My trailer, with LED lights, worked fine.

Pic for proof:


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## spinnetti (Feb 18, 2000)

wkaml said:


> Since _Xrayo_ reported on _6-26-2004 5:42_ here on this thread that he used the third connector from the left on the brake pedal plug on his 2004 VW Touareg V8, I went with the third connector as well.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I know this is old, but I just tried to install a P3.. Using the 3rd wire, it was backwards for me too. I have the factory hitch, and wonder why people don't use the wire from the plug rather than the brake switch? - I'm going to try that next.


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