Scirocco Central

A bit late, but I thought I'd share some of the jobs done since buying my 1.4 TSI base spec Scirocco six months ago. I bought it as a car to enjoy driving, but before too long, it turned into a bit of a project!

But first, a pleasing result in the water-cooled VW coupe Concours class at Sunday's Stanford Hall VW Show. Just my Scirocco and 3 Corrados (plus last year's winning Corrado in the "Super Class"):
I'll post some pictures over the next few days showing some of the work done over the first 6 months and 2,500 miles

First job was to tighten the battery terminal screws - left undone by the second hand car dealer:
and to source missing rubber covers for the back of the headlight unit:
Next job was to peel off the headlamp eyelids. Note how far they obstructed the reflectors - not great for light output, especially on dip:
and to peel off the driver's side sill protectors, possibly a left-over from the first owner's Motability adaptations:

As already mentioned, the car had received Motability adaptations to the interior. The conversion back to standard spec had left some minor issues in the rear, including loose C-pillar trims, cracked rear left side panel trim and many damaged clips. The rear backrest centre mount had come loose due to non-standard bolts and the hinge covers were missing. In addition the left side backrest wouldn't fold due to rust in the hinge mechanism:
So I decided to strip out everything from the B-pillar back, other than the headlining:
Being a base spec car, 2nd hand interior trim and seats are rare, but I managed to source a replacement backrest as part of a full set of seats in the correct check fabric 50 miles away, and rear side trim panels from Germany. As seems common, the copper plated steel hooks on the rear of the seat base were rusty, so I rubbed down and protected them with a couple of coats of Hammerite Direct to Rust Satin Black, job in progress here:
After getting used to the raw sound of the tyres, brakes and exhaust with everything stripped out, it was nice after a few weeks to get the interior perfectly reassembled with the correct VW bolts, clips and covers:

Next I turned my attention to the exterior. The front bumper had received a poor quality SMART repair to the lower left and various scrapes to the underside. However, the biggest issue was that the rear bumper had been resprayed using the wrong colour - the original VW Flash Red on the left blending into VW Tornado Red on the right, creating an obvious colour mismatch at the wheel arch: After looking into a couple of options, I soon realised the chances of finding second hand bumper covers that didn't require work were slim. So I decided to strip the front and rear ends, with a view to getting the bumper covers repainted. Removing the bumper covers was straightforward, unclipping the black trims from them less so, especially the main front grille assembly. Knowing that the rest of the bodywork was near enough perfect, after discussion with the bodyshop, I decided to go all out with brand new bumper covers. The additional cost of going for new was a lot less than I expected, given the cost saving of not having to prep the old ones. Why didn't I take the opportunity to upgrade to R-line or even R trim? Quite apart from the additional cost, this was never an option for me, as I prefer the basic trim - closer to the spirit of the original Scirocco, and less of a magnet for crime.

While the bumpers were off, I took the opportunity to give everything a good clean, and to clear out the nine years' accumulation of mud and leaf mulch hidden under the water box covers and behind the wheel arch liners. When putting everything back together, I took the opportunity to renew dozens of screws and speed nuts, which had suffered various degrees of surface corrosion, most shown below, alongside some of the interior fixings replaced earlier, and anti-theft wheel bolt covers also replaced due to staining: The finishing touch, after refitting the water box cover, was to fit a new pair of wiper arms, sourced at a good price from Deutscheparts, to replace the old ones which had been looking tired with surface corrosion: This involved first using VCDS to temporarily disable the alternating park position feature, to ensure correct alignment, as once torqued up, fine adjustments to wiper position are no longer possible.

After I collected the car 6 months ago, I inherited a few electrical gremlins to resolve. My first VCDS scan revealed some stored fault codes. First to resolve was a fault in the passenger door module, luckily just a failed W6W filament bulb. The mirror assembly had to be stripped down to reach it, but it was nice to get it back working:
I deleted some historical fault codes in the engine control module, two related to misfires and three relating to the ABS system, and thankfully, they haven't returned.

Then I found my biggest headache. There were a dozen fault codes in the information electronics plus related faults in the instrument module and CAN gateway. A previous owner had ditched the original Composition Media unit and fitted a second hand Discover Media unit, "hacked" to remove Component Protection and to enable App Connect (CarPlay & Android Auto). Unfortunately, Bluetooth didn't work, nor did Wi-Fi, the navigation system, or telephone connectivity. Android Auto sometimes refused to load, and the phone app on Android Auto couldn't use the car's microphone.

After researching options, I decided to invest in a brand new Composition Media unit, to bring the car back to stock. Only then could I be sure everything would work as it should. It was a lot of money, but I got nearly 25% off the VW list price from LLL Parts. The unit took about a month to arrive, and came without its original packaging, but the saving was worthwhile. As expected, Component Protection was active, so initially nothing worked:
I had also bought discounted upgrade licenses for App Connect (from Deutscheparts) and voice control (from Parts Depot):
So now I needed someone to properly commission everything. My VW dealer refused to help - "in case it goes wrong". After making a few enquiries, not finding much enthusiasm, I found Professional Retrofits in Nuneaton, an independent VW specialist with access to VW factory systems. They were more than happy to book the car in and did a great job registering the unit and activating all the functions using their dealer-level software:
The only feature I really missed in the spec of the car was cruise control. Although it was available on all Sciroccos as a factory-fitted option, VW never offered a retrofit kit for model years later than 2015. My suspicion is that this cut-off coincides with introduction of the MIB II infotainment system for the 2016 model year, potentially requiring a minor change to the steering wheel control module.

Identifying the column switch assembly for cruise was straightforward, part number 5K0 953 502 M. The steering wheel control module needed a bit more research, as the parts diagram doesn't list part numbers for the module. However, I was able to use the parts diagram for the 2017 VW Caddy, which shares the same PQ35 platform, steering column switch assemblies, infotainment units, multifunction display type, and steering wheel button configurations. The part number for the Caddy without cruise control was 5K0 953 569 BC, the same as fitted to my Scirocco. So I figured it was safe to use the part number listed for the Caddy with cruise control, 5K0 953 569 BD.

I sourced the new steering column switch assembly at a good price from Germany, and found a used steering wheel control module with a recent date code on ebay. The only other part needed was a new steering wheel fixing bolt. After adapting the codings for the engine and steering wheel control modules using VCDS, it was a relief to find the system working perfectly: