MK6 Golf Fire Extinguisher Install

[The_Hawk]

You might have seen my comments over in this thread. Long story short these *factory* parts just aren't available. I have spoken to VW Australia as well as VW UK (who rang Germany for me).




But where there is a will and all that... So I decided to make my own.

As always, this is a write up of my method, if you want to have a bash yourself I take no responsibility for scraped knees, bruised egos or any air bags you might cop to the face.

So on to it:

Crawling under the seat just wasn't going to cut it, so out came the tools and out came the seat. One bolt in each corner and then carefully unplug the few electronic cables under the seat. I assume these are for the seatbelt sensing system and the airbag. I made sure the car was off the whole time I had everything out and not turned back on until I finished. When all was said and done there was no error lights on the dash so it seems it's not necessary to remove the battery. (I assume if you turn the ignition on it will sense the missing seat airbag and throw errors... just a warning to anyone attempting this).



It's worth noting that the back bolts are clear of the seat if it's leaned forward (nice and easy in a 2 door cab) and the front bolts are clear if the seat is pushed all the way back AND you lower it to it's lowest position (which moves it back a fraction more).

Most of the cables are connected with clips on the underside of the seat, however mine had a rouge cable which passes through the meshing and plugs into a socket on the floor:



There was a cable tie on each end of the webbing which a clipped off to get the plug through. Easy enough to replace later



So now the seat lifts out quite easily. Again, in a Golf Cabriolet with the roof down everything is nice and accessible!


So with the seat out and flipped upside down I had a look and picked these mounting points:



A little measuring and a little cardboard cut to size and I had a bit of a template mocked up and marked out on some .9 Gal.



For reference if you can't read my markings:

* They main body is 250 x 105.
* The two front tabs are 20 x 20 inset 15mm from the edges, which makes the centres exactly 200mm apart to fit the front mounting points.
* The rear piece is 85 x 20 (including the 20 x 20 tab for mounting). Conveniently this is dead centre.


I started with a Dremel but quickly gave up and whipped out the jigsaw (after a trip to Bunnings for some steel blades). This is the rough shape I ended up with:



A bit of a clean up of the edges with the Dremel and a grinding stone to remove the sharp edges and round of the corners along with some bending and a quick coat of black paint to make it look more presentable left me with this:



From here it was a matter of bolting up the extinguisher mount that came with the bottle I bought:



Then riveting it into place under the seat (you will want to raise the seat up to it's highest position to gain enough clearance to get at the rear mounting point with the rivet gun).



And with the bottle in place:



From here it's just a matter of putting the seat back in the car and reconnecting the wires then bolting the seat back down.

And done!

All the way back:


and all the way forward:



You can hardly see the bottle unless you look for it, however reaching for it's easily accessible.


So a mornings work and it's all together rather nicely even if I do say so myself. This is as close to factory as I think you could possibly get without actually finding the factory bracket.


*******************
Thread update 25/04/2015:

I was flicking through the ECS website today and stumbled across this little gem:

Rennline ES#2840053


A bit of a poke around google doesn't turn up much else except this link to the Rennline site direct:
Rennline Fire Extinguisher Mount - VW-Rennline, Inc.

So it looks like there are some off the shelf options available now.

[Ryan_R]

Fantastic work, Aaron. Thanks for the write-up.

[kaanage]

Won't that block the underseat drawer (for those of use who have them)?

[The_Hawk]

Won't that block the underseat drawer (for those of use who have them)?

If the drawer is in the front.. Then yes. In my case I don't have any so it wasn't a concern.

edit:
I have grabbed out the diagram for the drawer and yes, when it comes to this install it's one or the other since it looks like both options involve rivets.


You could choose to have one of each and get the best of both worlds.

I'll have to dig up some prices for a retrofit drawer, ECS have a kit listed, but from my readings in ETKA it seems that the 2012 model gets a different part number on the drawer vs the 2012 models (although the actual frame guide is common across both).

In 2011 make vehicles the drawer is 1K0 882 601 J
In 2012 make vehicles the drawer is 5K0 882 601

Common Parts (full set needed for each drawer):

N 900 978 02 - Pop Rivet x 2
N 909 998 01 - Oval hexagon socket bolt x 4
1K0 881 891 A - Insert for stowage compartment x 1

The the specific parts for a 2012 model (or a cabriolet for me)

Left Front:

1K0 881 547 A - Bracket x 1

5K0 882 601 - Drawer
1K0 882 599 B - Guide Frame x 1
-OR-
5K0 882 601 82V - Drawer (Titanium Black)
1K0 882 599B 9B9 - Guide Frame (Satin Black) x 1


Right Front (although this is where my fire extinguisher is):

1K0 881 548 A - Bracket x 1

5K0 882 602 - Drawer
1K0 882 600 B - Guide Frame x 1
-OR-
5K0 882 602 82V - Drawer (Titanium Black)
1K0 882 600B 9B9 - Guide Frame (Satin Black) x 1


Of course then the real question is do I want a drawer to put crap in (which might just be handy) or would I prefer/enjoy an under seat subwoofer more

[Pullstarter]

Good work Aaron! What IS that foam thing under the seat on the floor?

[The_Hawk]

I'd take a stab at the MDI interface but to be honest I'm not sure.

[kaanage]

Just as another point, you can just tip the seat backwards after undoing the bolts to install the extiguisher mount, rather than removing it. Then you don't have to reset for the error caused by unplugging the seat airbag/sensor connector.

That's what I did when installing the underseat drawers (on advice from another thread in this forum).

[Ryan_R]

Good work Aaron! What IS that foam thing under the seat on the floor?

Standard location for the bluetooth module.

[AdamD]

Good work Aaron! What IS that foam thing under the seat on the floor?

Whatever it is, it's in the same location as the poweramp when you have the factory Dynaudio option.

[The_Hawk]

Just as another point, you can just tip the seat backwards after undoing the bolts to install the extiguisher mount, rather than removing it.

In my case I had to fabricate the mount so needed good access. If you had a pre made part everything would just neatly line up so you could just lean the seat back.

As for errors, I just left everything turned off while the seat was out and back in and like I mentioned didn't get any errors.