Yet another small issue that bothered me since I bought this car is the annoying “honk” sound the car made when locking it. The alternative was to disable it altogether but this is not something I wanted to do. While the visual blink of the lights and the mechanical sound of the door locks would probably be sufficient in most cases, I find audible confirmation more reassuring. Hence the search began for the retrofit of an European-spec alarm siren module.
The troubleshooting and technical know-how was figured out by several members on VWVortex.com. Thankfully we have several rather technically inclined members on the board that are willing to tackle these sorts of projects successfully. Once most things were figured out, I ordered the parts and got to work. With some help from Brian, I got the module installed in relatively short order.
Installing this module involves removal of the front passenger wheel, wheel well liner and removal of the stock alarm module and mounting bracket by drilling out the rivet that holds the bracket to the body of the car behind the wheel. Sounds worse than it is. Then one has to fish a wire through the firewall to the area behind the glove box and another wire to the fuse box to power the new module.
Then, the real pain begins (at least for me). Removal of the glove box is necessary in order to gain access to the control module necessary to power the siren. This in itself is not that difficult. The hard part comes when it’s time to re-attach the glove box to the car and to make sure the AC duct that feeds air into the glove box (for those times when keeping sushi cool is a must) is correctly re-installed. It’s rather painful. Prepare to bleed.
After the above has been completed, all it takes to enable the module is a few keystrokes with Vag Com and not much else.
Once all is said and done, you’re left with a much more civil “chirp” when locking and unlocking doors:
Locking doors:
Of the two possible configurations for the active siren, I chose to go with the loudest possible sound. It certainly didn’t disappoint. Hearing this in person makes your ears bleed and is likely why these modules were discontinued in this country:
I’d say it’s probably twice as loud as the smoke detectors in our house, if that gives you any idea. Overall, this was a must-do modification for me. Unfortunately it took a long time to come to light but fortunately it’s here now.
Published under: Electronics
