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DIY carkit replacement

The factory-installed UHV carkit[0] in my Volkswagen Touran worked well with a normal cellphone-holder, but in combination with the Bluetooth Touch Adapter[1], it became a very unreliable combination. I've read many succes stories with the Touch Adapter, but the flaky communication between the TA and the UHV was a nightmare sometimes.

To fix that, I ordered a replacement carkit from Kufatec[2]. The module replaces the simple factory UHV with a newer one (also original from VW). The new module does not only bluetooth sound, but also address book, call lists, etc. It doesn't offer cellphone specific holders for power and antenna connections.

Installation was quite easy, as there are many howto's describing VW Low-to-Premium modding. In the Touran (1T0), the UHV is under the passenger seat, and requires removal of the lowest drawer. A T15 Torx screwdriver does the trick. Then you can open the floor cover, get the original module out, and the new module in. Replace the drawer, and that's it. You'll just need to program the module, so that it knows how to talk to the rest of the car. You'll get phone menu's on the MFA+ display in front of the driver, and on the RNS/RCD navigation system in the central console. Any VW workshop with VAS or VCDS can do that for you.

  • [0] Factory installed unit: 3C0 035 729G. Only does sound over BT. No screen output.
  • [1] VW Bluetooth Touch Adapter: 3C0 051 435 TA. Does address book, call list, and sound with a phone, and passes the sound through to the UHV unit [0]. Has its own little touch screen.
  • [2] VW replacement part from Kufatec: 1Z0 035 729B. This does address book, call list and sound natively, and displays it on the MFA+ and RNS510 screens.
P.S. I didn't remove the passenger seat for this mod. If you don't already have a VW carkit, or you're changing to the VW Premium car kit (the one that does rSAP, and has its own antenna), that's probably a different story.

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