so last week was a week of fails and facepalms first the custom bumper im working on ended up having a crapload of airbubbles in the fibre so i will have to sand it down and reapply some more layers also this past weekend i finally installed the w8 interior light, guys on the online forums claimed its a 30 minute job, it definately wasnt.
because i didnt wanto to spend more money on an overpriced wiring loom for it that might not even work on my car, i decided to make my own one, i used some pins from a extra headlight plug i bought a few years ago and added wiring which is insulated with heatshrink tubing afterwards.
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this is the difference between the old light (which is purely mechanical, it doesnt have a pcb and the new one)
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initially after connecting the light and wiring up the battery i experienced some smoke and then immediately said to myself oh **** you F$%CKn idiot you just blew a really expensive interior light. After bactracking my wiring i realised that whoever designed the switch is a backward hillbilly, pin 1 that should be on the outside as it is on all the plugs on the car is on the inside so my pin 1 was actually pin 6.
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After my mishap i swapped the pins around and there was life, which was a relieve, this is really a weirdly designed switch when the buttons are pressed in on the map lights they go off when you release them they go on (like i said backwards hillbilly) and after seeing youtube videos i can confirm the buttons really work like that (on means off)
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i then wired up the ambient lights, i also wasnt satisfied with the all bright led look so i only left the map lights as leds.
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now there are some issues i need to sort out, its not going on when i unlock the doors or open them, the rear light goes on as normal in the car so i know i didnt blow the comfort control module, also checked all the 10 amp fuses as the alarm and comfort module and they all seemed fine.
All the buttons and lights on the switch are working so i doubt i blew anything on there. Due to the old switch being mechanical, the comfort module controlled the dimming of the locking and unlocking etc, i suspect the new switch might be looking for a CAN signal from the comfort module which my car doesnt have and thats why those features are not working. No one can help me cause everyone fitted these switches to golf 4's and they all have can bus literally. so that i need to sort out in the coming weeks as im in uncharted territory.