Adding an additional button to your MK6 (The Button Mk2) Remote Garage Door Open

[The_Hawk]

After moving to the new Cabriolet I have had the remote for the garage door sitting in the centre console and generally annoying me.

In the VR6 I had this.

After umming and Arring my way through what I could do I bit the bullet, paid my AU$70 and had one of these shipped over from CarStyle4U.

I still say it's expensive for a button, but it does look puuuurty when it's installed.

It's relatively straight forward, pop the plastic surrounding the gear shift and unscrew the two T20 screws so you can pull the button assembly out"



From there it's a matter of unplugging the two cables and getting the tray out:



The new switch piggy backs off one of the existing switches for power to light it up. It uses a little pass through adaptor, I thought the original unit could do with a little notch to let the new wiring out and still let the factory plug fit as snug as possible:



It doesn't secure itself in unfortunately:



But a little electrical tape for good measure should solve that:



If the worst were to happy and that cable were to come unplugged it's only the switch to turn the TCS off so it wouldn't be a major problem, but it looks like it should be secure enough.


I decided to mount the remote into the space above the fuse box, this means that it's easy to get at when I need to change the batteries (also means I don't have to hard wire in power for the thing).



A little creative use of some material off cuts means there won't be any rattling in there. (I'd love to get some of the factory foam stuff to use instead, but this is almost as good although maybe not the professional look.



The cable itself has a couple of bullet connectors so I can remove the remote at sale time and the new owner can plug in their own remote with minimal fuss. The cable is otherwise cable tied into place to it can't run away.



Everything else is neatly soldered and heat shrunk:




To get the wire across I found it easiest to remove the radio and first run the cable up to that space, then across behind the steering wheel and into the fuse box space.





And here it is all put back together and working, the colour looks a little off in the photo's, but in full daylight it's much closer to the stock button (although still a shade or two off):


and in the dark it fits perfectly:





I think a good clean with the products I use will see it match a little closer. In reality I don't think anyone but an enthusiast or a perfectionist would notice.... sadly I'm both

That aid, I think it fits nicely and works a treat. Installation was probably 30 minutes or so with the aid of some nice 7yr old hands (read small) which could reach down somewhere my big hands couldn't. I'm very happy with this install and will likely have to put one in the sister in laws new Polo 6R now too

[Brian]

Super cool Hawk! Love your determination
Brian

[The_Hawk]

What can I say... I'm a tinkerer

I don't know what to do next... although I'm sure I will find something.

[AdamD]

Fantastic DIY Aaron, as always. Thanks for sharing!

[Ryan_R]

Thanks for the guide - although I'll probably never find it again with that title xD

Make sure you update Corey's sticky of important threads

[The_Hawk]

Small update.

The garage door remote has been replaced a couple of times thanks to moving houses, but this install made that nice and easy. It still works a treat. But 10 years later the clips holding the stock ECS button on have failed.

Waaaaaay too much money later I bought an OEM replacement from VW because it was easy

I'm debating if use the same install method this time around or if I de-pin the OEM plug and solder it in properly so I don't have this dodgyness in there. We will see soon enough. (In other news, I need a new soldering iron after my very old unit snapped it's pencil and I don't seem to be able to find parts for it anymore).

[Barathsuresh]

Hello,

Amazing idea you’ve got there, I’m actually thinking about doing the same with an oem button.

Did you end up de-pinning the OEM plug and soldering it in?

If so I would love to know how you’ve done so.

Thank you

[The_Hawk]

Nope, no depinning, just slapped it in the same way and two years later it's still working just fine.