I am having a difficult time trying to find documentation that illustrates the location of connector T17c in a Phaeton. The only reference I can find is a comment in the wiring diagram that says 'under instrument panel, left side'.

I have looked through my Phaeton repair manual (on the CD), and my dealership has looked through the VESIS system, but this connector is not listed in the 'component locations' directory. Can anyone help me by providing a picture or illustration showing the location of this connector, or a more precise description of the location of the connector?

Also - just a postscript here - the Phaeton repair manual on CD that we owners can purchase from RB does not contain the 'component locations' feature that the VESIS system has. I think it would be a good idea to include this in future releases of the CD.

Michael

Hi Art:

Thanks for that information. I do appreciate you mentioning that there are additional 17 pin connectors, and providing the colour of these connectors. That will help me a lot.

I am a bit reluctant to go digging behind the instrument panel to try and find the connector without first having a pretty good idea of where the thing is. I suspect it is close to the steering column, because there are a fair number of wires that go into it from the J527 Steering Wheel Electronics controller. The disadvantage of working on Phaetons is that they have so many electrical connectors - and they are packed in so tightly - that if one does not know exactly where to go looking, it can be difficult to get everything back together again.

I have some friends who work at an automobile assembly plant in Dresden who have promised to try to provide more detail for me - if I get more info, I'll post it here.

Here is a link to the discussion we are having in the VW Vortex Phaeton forum about retrofitting paddle shifters to a Phaeton. This is why we are trying to find this connector. http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=1609467&page=3

Best regards,

Michael

Hi Art:

Well, actually, the finished result is pretty simple - it consists of two paddles that stick out either side of the steering column, and allow you to operate the TipTronic feature with these paddles. There are some better pictures of the finished installation on the first page of that thread, which can be found at this link: http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=1609467&page=1

The link I posted above takes you directly to the third page of the thread, which is where we ran into problems finding the connectors.

It's actually very, very simple to retrofit this component, all the confusion and delay has resulted from not knowing where the connector is. But, to be honest, I think it is kind of a dumb option - paddle shifters on a large luxury car. I'm just doing it because there is not much else left to do.

I am not sure why VW does not offer this option in North America. It is available on many VW products in the ROW (rest of world) market, including all the Phaetons and all the Touaregs, and the Phaeton and Touareg derivatives (the Bentleys and the Cayennes). Perhaps VW is concerned about North American users not reading the owner manual, and accidentally downshifting when they are trying to turn on their turn signal...

Hopefully I will get some information about the location of this connector from my European friends. If all else fails, I will physically follow some of the wires that come out of the J527. It seems that T17c primarily serves the J527.

The challenge is to ensure that the retrofit installation is exactly, absolutely, 100% OEM specification. Every time we (the Phaeton owner group) document a retrofit, we do it exactly in accordance with the original VW wiring diagram, even using the specified ground locations. This way, we don't run into any difficulty getting our cars serviced later on - the technicians at the VW dealerships can always follow the VW wiring diagram, and the work we have done will match the wiring diagram, so the Phaeton technician doesn't have to waste any time working around a less than 'mil-spec' retrofit. A good example of this is our start button retrofit: http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=1683482 We were given an informal award from the factory in Dresden for the quality of our retrofit.

Michael