# How To: Wiring MK3 Power Window Switches into an MKk2 (MK3 Dash Swap)



## smokinjoe644 (Nov 29, 2001)

Ok.... well here it is... another smokinjoe secret








Before I go any further here is what this is relavent for: First this is assuming you have an MK2 with an MK3 dash swap. Next this is assuming you have/want to have power windows and want to control them with the MK3 switches (specificly the in dash switch typically used for the rear windows) Lastly it is assuming you are comfortable with wiring!!!
I am going to detail how to get the MK3 rear window switch to control front windows in a 2 door MK2. This is to keep a clean look and not have to deal with switches in the doors. This can easily be adapted to work with 4 doors or with multiple switch positions such as in dash and doors. but I am going to be showing just a 2 door setup with an in-dash switch only.
That being said... here we go.
First you will need to find a B3 Passat window wiring harness and control box. A corrado could be used but will be harder to locate and probably cost more... passats are always being parted out.
Next is to eliminate all of the unnecessary wiring (or leave it if you dont care, but I like things clean). Unwrap one side at a time.  
Starting with the passengers side wiring, you will have 2 switch and motor connections and one main connection for the in-dash switch. You will be removing the wires for both of the door switches and one of the motors. After you have the wiring unwrapped it will be fairly clear what needs to be done. You will see that the 3 switches all have a good amount of common wires that are crimped together near the rear door split in the wiring. If you follow the wiring from the door switches to these junctions you will be able to clip them free and leave the other wires alone. Each switch will also have a single wire that will run directly back to the controler (blue, green) These are removed all the way back to the control box. 
With the door switch wiring removed you should be left with a set of 8 wires that run directly from the in-dash switch to the controler as well as 4 heavier wires running to the motors. There will also be a wire for the door pop sensors (brown/white strip) that can be completely removed. You should now see that both of the motors share a common wire (brown/red strip). You can remove that wire from the rear motor all the way to the junction. Next lay the motor wires all out straight next to each other. Because you want the rear wiring to control the front window you will need the length of the front wiring. Pick a place to mate the two wires together and remove the front wire the rest of the way back to the control box. 
You should now have the following:
8 wires to the in-dash switch connected back to the control box 
-grey/blue (illumination +)
-brown (ground -)
-blue/white (right trigger)
-grey (common -)
-grey/red (common +)
-grey/white (left trigger)
-brown/white (ground -)
-brown/yellow (lock out)
2 motor wires
-brown/red (direct to control box)
-black/white (at box) spliced to yellow at motor
You can now rewrap the passengers side.
Moving on to the drivers side. Again start by unwrapping all of the wiring. This time you will remove the door pop sensors again (brown/white). But now you will remove all of the switch wiring back to the control box. The motor wires will follow the same proceedure. Remove the brown/red from the rear motor to the juction and splice the remaining wires black/red to black/yellow where appropriate. I suggest leaving the full length of wire to the rear motor and then cutting the front wire at the point were it stops, but it can really be spliced anywhere.
In addition to those wires you will find a few additional wires leading to the fuse box. These will be a solid red (+) a solid black (+ switched) and a grey/blue (illumination) All three of these wires will remain in the harness. You can now rewrap the drivers side.
You should have the following:
2 wires to motor:
-brown/red (direct to contol box)
-black with yellow (at controller) spliced to black/red at motor
3 wires to fuse box
-black (swithed power)
-red (always hot-fused)
-grey/blue (illumination)
Now for the finishing touches add the passat motor wiring connection to the MK2 motors and they will be ready to plug and play.
To bring the setup to life you will need to make 5 connections.
- Solid red at fuse box
-- this is a fused line and gets connected directly to the main power juction at Y1
- Solid black
-- this is a switched hot connection, it can easily be connected at the green junction box ontop of the fuse box or directly to D9 or another switched power source
- Grey/blue
-- this is the illumination power, it can easily be connected at the blue junction box on top of the fuse box or directly to D12 or another illumination source
- Brown (2 wires at control box)
-- main grounds, ground direcly to body with a screw
- Red/yellow (single plug at control box)
-- switched hot, connect to any switched hot, this can be jumped off of the black wire running back from the fuse box or the fuel pump wiring, or any other switched hot wire
You are now ready to go....
Here is another recap of what was eliminated from the harness:
White Plug:
-Yellow (pass front motor +)
-Black/red (drivers front motor +)
Brown Plug:
-grey/red (common switch +)
-brwon white (2) (door pop grounds -)
-white (pass front trigger on drivers switch)
-grey (common switch -)
-green (left rear trigger)
-green/yellow (left front trigger)
Black Plug:
-blue (right rear trigger)
-blue/yellow (right front trigger)
-grey/red (common switch +)
I highly suggest heat shrinking or taping off the wires you cut, remember they some of them will still be hot or open grounds and you dont want to just let them hang out back there open. 
*NOTE:*
*** You will see there are two sets of grey/red wires one on each plug... make sure you leave one from each plug connected to each other or it will not work***
So there you have it. The control box is now only controling 2 windows instead of 4 and the rear window switch in the dash is controling the front windows. As stated you can easily add switches in your doors or do a 4 door setup, but the main point was to have a clean install with no door switches in a 2 door car.
For those of you that think this is alot of work, there is not really another option... you cannot use MK3 wiring because you need the "smart" window motors. You could you MK2 wiring but you would need to do alot of stretching to hide relays and to get the switches into the front doors or somewhere on the dash.

























_Modified by smokinjoe644 at 5:42 PM 6-22-2006_


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## smokinjoe644 (Nov 29, 2001)

*Re: How To: Wiring MK3 Power Window Switches into an MKk2 (smokinjoe644)*

Here are the pictures.... if anyone needs more info feel free to ask
Original harness (5 switches and 4 motor connections)








Final harness (1 switch and 2 motor connections)








Main splices








Crimped factory connection before and after








Motor connection








End connection points








Illumination and Power connection points (at fuse box)








Cleaned up loose wires


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## vwbmx (Jan 25, 2002)

*Re: How To: Wiring MK3 Power Window Switches into an MKk2 (smokinjoe644)*

sweet setup it sounds like. Does it have to be from a B3 and waht if I have a jetta then do this setup twice correct? LMK thanks for the detailed write up


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## smokinjoe644 (Nov 29, 2001)

*Re: How To: Wiring MK3 Power Window Switches into an MKk2 (vwbmx)*

I am pretty sure that only the B3 uses the "dumb" motors like the MK2s do.... B4s have the smart ones like MK3s and I am pretty sure have the same wiring as MK3s.
If you have a Jetta you are going to have to decide how you want it to work and what switches you want where. For example, if you want all of the doors to have switches in them and the control in the dash to work the rears you are ready to go. If you want just the rear doors to have switches and you want the control in the dash to control the front windows you will need to do some wiring. That would be slightly different from what I did.... it would mainly be connecting the front signal wires from the doors to the in dash switch, not too hard I can explain further if you need me too.


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## efritsch (Aug 21, 2002)

*Re: How To: Wiring MK3 Power Window Switches into an MKk2 (smokinjoe644)*

I have a similar project in mind. I want to use the Power window setup from a B3 Passat and make my 2 door Fox have power windows. Can I disconnect the rear window sections and have it work just fine?


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## smokinjoe644 (Nov 29, 2001)

*Re: How To: Wiring MK3 Power Window Switches into an MKk2 (efritsch)*

Yes, it will work fine with any or all motors in the setup... they dont all need to be used, as that is what I did. If you are just going to put the switches in the doors simply delete the wiring for the rear door switches and the center dash switches as well as the rear motors. It is a pretty easy harness to deal with.


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## efritsch (Aug 21, 2002)

*Re: How To: Wiring MK3 Power Window Switches into an MKk2 (smokinjoe644)*

Sweet! Thanks for the info.


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## EcKoVr6 (May 21, 2006)

pm send


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## EcKoVr6 (May 21, 2006)

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=2666982 please help me


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## smokinjoe644 (Nov 29, 2001)

*Re: (EcKoVr6)*

Got your email... trying to get pics to help you
Here is the last bit of wiring... ran into a small problem that needed to be fixed. While the B3 switch looks alot like the MK3 switch they are pinned completely different. So if you want your MK3 switch you will need to keep the pig tail to connect to the B3 wiring
**Also for some reason my motors are reversed, up is down and vice versa... again easy swap of the plug to the other direction to fix it... not sure if the MK2s are just opposite the B3 motors or if I missed something, but it is an easy fix**
Passat Switch to MK3 switch
Grey/blue -- Grey/blue
Brown -- Brown/white
Brown/yellow -- Black
Grey/red -- Brown
Grey -- Red/yellow
Green/blue --Brown/grey
Blue/white -- Brown/black
Brown/white -- Brown/red
The Grey/red and Grey are your common (+ and -) if you want one touch up instead of down you can swap them around... nice with alarms that have window roll up, no extra relays needed. Otherwise as marked above will give you correct window functionsn with one touch down.


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## EcKoVr6 (May 21, 2006)

thanks for replying, my motor and switch door are okay with the origne wire and plus but my probleme is to connect them at the fuse box i have 5 wire .... 
you say 3 wires to fuse box
-black (swithed power)
-red (always hot-fused)
-grey/blue (illumination)
always hot-fused sorry i don't understand this , my big red strip yellow i need a fuse to plus in 12+V ? 
ps: in my fuse box i have bloc green,grey and wite but i don't find any place for black and big red 
sorry for my poor english I espere that you will understand


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## smokinjoe644 (Nov 29, 2001)

*Re: (EcKoVr6)*

The small wire plugs... grey, green, white. Those will plug directly into the small blocks on top of the fuse box with the same color wires.
The Red/yellow wire needs to have a constant 12V from the battery. On the back of your fuse box where the plugs go in, you can get this power from two places. One is at the very top left corner, there should already be one single red connection there. There should also be some open spaces for more wires, you can connect there. Or if there are no open spaces you can look on the very left bottom corner. You should see 2 more large spaces for single wire connections (above the single brown connection), or it might have a block in it making it 4 smaller connections. You can also connect there.
The black wire can go to the same place as the black/white wire (green connection).
Both the black wire and the red/yellow will not plug in the way they are. You are going to have to put the correct ends on them. Your wiring is not complete the way you have it. I am just telling you where you can connect to make it work, not how it was from the factory.


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## EcKoVr6 (May 21, 2006)

cool thanks you are my god, they work !!!!!!!!! nut 1 probleme the alarm system will start when a ride







i don't have plug the black wire


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## TurboNOSGTi (Jul 19, 2003)

*Re: (EcKoVr6)*

I have a B3 passat I am parting out but while I owned the car the power windows would only work 1 at a time. I never took the time to check just figured the module is bad. Can I use the central locking module from my MK3 dash for this instead of the B3 passat 1 I think took a dump on me. If not I will use it 1 window at a time... Well, until i find another 1.


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## Tund Vr (Apr 7, 2005)

*Re: How To: Wiring MK3 Power Window Switches into an MKk2 (smokinjoe644)*

Being this one back, does anyone have pics how to do this swap?


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## stevey1993 (Jun 22, 2011)

alright do you wire it in the same way for a mk3 golf 3 door. as im wanting to go from manual windows to electric windows.

cheers 

steve


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