VW Transporter T5 to T5.1 Mirror

There are many references to how the T5 and T5.1 mirrors have different wiring. I encountered that today.

The left hand, near side in the UK, mirror on a VW Transporter T5 was damaged. I helped to replace both mirrors with the newer T5.1 style.

When connected without modification the T5.1 left hand mirror has reversed operation when plugged in to the older T5, the up down control moved the mirror in and out and the in out control moves it up and down.

The fix is very easy, simply swap two wires in the connector. On the original connector this is swap the grey wire and the purple wire positions.

To make things as confusing as possible, one of the other wires is grey with a purple stripe. Very difficult to differentiate without looking very closely.

To my surprise the right hand, UK drivers, side worked correctly without modification.

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VW Transporter T5 ignition feed for a radio

The radio wiring in the VW T5 and T28, at least for the 2008 model year, does not have an ignition switched live feed. 

It's easy enough to buy an adapter from the Quadlock plug to the standard ISO connectors, but they will have one or two wires not connected to anything. One is for power on and the other is for the illumination.  The simplest, and an acceptable, solution is to connect them both to an ignition live feed.

From what I can find on the internet, there are a couple of places to get this feed. 

A possible location is the Anti-Slip Regulation (ASR) switch, which is usually near the radio. The trouble is, I could not find any details of the wiring, so I do not know what current rating the feed has, nor what fuse it is attached to. I could have tested the wires to determine which to use but I'd rather a known quantity.

The other suggested option is Fuse 19, which I prefer. 

Fuse 19 

This is Fuse 19 in the top fuse box. That is designated for, among other things, radio and navigation systems. It is a mini 5A fuse. 

To get to the wire, it is necessary to remove the passenger side dash panels. This is a few screws and a couple of pull off panels. An easy job but takes a few minutes. 

Once the panels are removed, the top fuse box can be unbolted and I found there was just enough slack, that with a little care, I could slide it out sideways and have good access to the rear cabling. 

Fuse 19 is one of the tiny fuses in the middle. 4th in from the right. The feed comes in, from the ignition, on a brown/green wire and exits on a brown/red wire. 

I spliced into the brown/red wire. 

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Other similar articles:

https://audiotechdirect.com/blog/vw-transporter-t5-stereos-installation/

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VW T28 reversing sensor housing

The plastic shrouds that hold two of the reversing sensors in the rear bumper on a friends van, had broken. A search to get hold of the right size replacement, had proved fruitless.

An original

It is a VW T28 Transporter from 2008. Based on a T5.

The reversing sensor fits in a 20mm diameter hole in the bumper and the sensor has a 15mm outside diameter with some alignment keys and clips to fit a specific housing.

A 3D printed solution

I've made a 3D printed version of the housing that holds the sensor to fit in to the bumper.

It fits both the sensor and the bumper well. It's tight pushing it in to the bumper.

The production is not perfect but that does not affect it's appearance or ultimate function. The lack of flex in the 3D filament, that I used, means that the inner clips tend to snap off. The sensor fits snugly in to the shroud so as long as one clip is holding this secures it in place. A bit of tape could also be wrapped round the housing, to hold the clips in but that has not proved necessary.

The end result works well, so far.

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3D Printing Method

• Filament: ColorFabb nGen. Used to survive the possible outside temperatures.
• Walls: 2mm thick
• Infill: 30%
• Supports: From the build plate, only where the overhang angle is greater than 80 degrees.

I printed it, outside uppermost. This was to get the best finish on the curved edges of the part of the lip that would be visible when fitted to the van. That required the use of supports for the print.

Download 3D models:
VW T28 Reversing Sensor Housing, STEP and STL (Zip)
Licence attribution - small business exception

My models in the GrabCAD library.

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