First off, I have to say a MASSIVE thank you to Sergey and his family for putting up with me 'popping round' and taking up so much of their day. Huge thanks for the lovely cheesecake and lunch too - I wasn't expecting to leave feeling fuller than when I arrived
OK, the job at hand. I'd already bought the factory bracket and screw to install the module and assumed when I read in ElsaWIN that installing through the instrument cluster was possible.....lets just say even with my small-ish hands there was no way on earth you were getting near it, but there were other places behind the cluster it might've been possible to mount it.
However I was extra keen to try and access the OE location so we started to explore getting the centre console area stripped out. Cutting out how we got to this point, the easiest way to do it as follows:
Remove the front mats, front seats all the way back, remove the trim from under the steering column to give you access to the back of the instrument cluster, remove the 2 side panels from the transmission tunnel (foot rest needs to come out the drivers side first), pull off the wood trim from around the radio area, then there are 4 bolts holding the frame for the climate/radio in place which are only visible once the side panels are removed from the transmission tunnel - 2 on each side. With those removed the radio etc will drop down a little, allowing easer removal of the air vents from the centre console which requires a hook shaped tool to fit into holes in the side of the vent and a really good tug!
With the vents removed you can then pull the entire radio etc forward (don't forget to protect everything around the gear selector!) and unplug EVERYTHING so you can get it right out of the way.
Now you can finally SEE where the radio module is supposed to be mounted, up behind where the vents come out:
In the picture above we've already mounted the bracket for the receiver just below the 2 small stickers to the right of the centre line of the car. There is a black plastic panel with no pre-drilled hole so we test fitted the bracket on both sides (there is a recess there which the bracket is obviously designed to sit in) and despite it being the 'wrong' side compared to the OEM location for LHD it actually sits better on the right! We ended up holding the bracket in place and marking it with the screw, then pre-drilled with a small drill so we could get the screw in easier. Note that there is a gaping air intake right under where you're working so either be extra careful or put something over the vents to stop stuff disappearing!
Fitted the bracket and then got the radio receiver mounted again, once Sergey had worked his magic with auto foam padding and fabric tape to give it an OEM look and stop vibration.
Close up of the bracket installed:
Radio module fitted in place:
Ran the wiring along the same path as the rest to behind the cluster - it should be possible to do this job without removing the cluster and just removing the knee trim to get hold of the cable and plug it into the back of the cluster.
Quick bit of coding later (on my new second hand VCDS cable - cheers Sergey
) to tell the cluster it has the radio module and we set the time to 2.59am and switched ignition off - checked a few minutes later and sure enough the clock had set and the radio symbol is showing
Car is away in the garage now and will probably get some use tomorrow, but after that will spend the week locked away so will be interesting to see if the radio symbol is still there on Friday next week when I use the car again.
We moved my car to where Sergey had been testing his and reset the clock and it did again get a fix very quickly.
Hope that makes sense and happy to answer any questions.
Thanks again Sergey - above and beyond the call of duty!
Adrian