[TheLizardKing]

Forum members who are familiar with my car (My pre-worshipped Volkswagen Polo GT TSI with lots of DIYs) know my passion for DIYs. It has been over two years now, and my confidence to take up and execute DIYs has grown, as has my tool collection.

Amid the ongoing lockdown, I decided to clear my DIY pipeline and complete some projects that have been pending for a long time. I have started this thread to describe these projects:

1. Boot illumination (already covered here (My pre-worshipped Volkswagen Polo GT TSI with lots of DIYs) in my ownership thread)
2. Lock/unlock switch on passenger side
3. Courtesy lights on door panels
4. Puddle lamps under ORVMs

[TheLizardKing]

Whenever my wife and I are out at night and I need to step out of the car for some reason (e.g. withdraw money from the ATM), I always insist for safety reasons that my wife lock the car. It is neither easy nor convenient for her to unbuckle the seat belt and lean over to the driver's side to do so, and she has to do it twice.

The British forum UK POLOS has been a source of many DIY ideas for me, and that is where I found the solution to my problem. I used this post on user ciclo's thread as a reference for this DIY. It has all the required information, so I am not reproducing the same here.

Parts required:

1. Connector 1K0972704G x1 (purchased on Boodmo)
2. Terminals 000 979 009 E x4 (purchased on AliExpress)
3. Door handle cover 6R0867171K82V x1 (not purchased, read below)
4. Door handle 6R0867179JTLL x1 (purchased used on eBay)
5. Lock/unlock switch 6R1962125AREH x1 (purchased used on eBay)

Materials required:

1. 0.5 mm2 wire, since the terminals (item no. 2 above) are very small and do not accept 1 mm2 wire.

I planned to reuse the stock door handle cover and hence did not purchase item no. 3, only to realize at the last moment that the locking tabs on the stock door handle cover do not match those on item no. 4.

I recovered from this setback by resorting to jugaad and plugging the hole in the door handle cover that had come with item no. 4.

[TheLizardKing]

I am a big fan of lights, because I find that they really up the premium quotient of the car. A common feature in high-end cars is the courtesy lights in the door panels. In the VW family, this feature is available in the Jetta and higher segment cars. So sometime in 2019 when I saw this post by user Benzinkopf on the UK POLOS forum, I immediately knew that I wanted these in my car too.

I reached out to Benzinkopf, and he was more than happy to help. His real name is Amir, and he is from Malaysia. We have kept in touch ever since, and I find it very helpful to bounce ideas off him. He is a 3D printing expert, and keeps designing and printing small parts for his DIYs.

The way Amir has done it, it requires a hole to be cut in the door panel. A 3D printed bracket specially designed to hold the courtesy light unit (part number 3GD 947 411, purchased on AliExpress) is then fitted into the hole. I took the electrical connections from inside the door panel itself.

[TheLizardKing]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3DlEYor24U

This DIY was again inspired by Gannu_1. Here is the post on his ownership thread.

I sourced the LEDs from the same vendor as Gannu, but I purchased the Premium Stainless Steel (3W) version in warm white. I have powered them using the supply for the footwell lights.

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[gaurav.kokra]

Hi, @TheLizardKing.

Loved the mods done. I have planned the following lighting mods for the future.

1) Passat Dome light
2) Puddle Lamps
3) Courtesy lights in Door Panels.

While I could source the LEDs used in the puddle lamps, could you advise which LEDs or lights have you used for the doors ?

Have you powered them from the interior dome light or channeled it through the door ajar sensor which would only light up if the door was open ?

[Reinhard]

Very useful mods. Thanks for sharing. I have the exact OCD about locking the car with family inside when I go for quick errands.

I always leave the key with the family and ask them to lock the Nexon using the lock button on the key-fob. As a rule. Used to do the same with the Vista also. In case of the Alto - well the front passenger can easily reach the driver side central-push-lock. Doesn't even need to fully stretch the arm .

[TheLizardKing]

Originally Posted by gaurav.kokra

While I could source the LEDs used in the puddle lamps, could you advise which LEDs or lights have you used for the doors ?

Have you powered them from the interior dome light or channeled it through the door ajar sensor which would only light up if the door was open ?

Hi Gaurav. The part number is 3GD 947 411, and it is common to a lot of VW models like the Jetta, Touran, etc. I had purchased them on AliExpress. To power them, I have tapped the window motor for the +ve signal and door lock for the GND signal, so that each one lights up only when the respective door is opened. Hope this helps.

Originally Posted by Reinhard

Very useful mods. Thanks for sharing. I have the exact OCD about locking the car with family inside when I go for quick errands.

It is definitely a risk, especially at night. This particular mod was possible only because the Polo is sold in both the LHD and RHD versions in different markets. It is a fair bit of work, but it was worth it for me.

[thechinmay]

Great set of mods. My GT is still under warranty (2018 MY) and I've been hesitant to pull the trigger on anything that might allow VW to reject warranty claims.

The 3M film looks good - do you mind sharing the cost of just the film?

I'm also based out of Thane and have serviced the car at the Thane workshop for the last couple of years. The experience has been pretty good so far and I've got nothing to complain about on the aftersales front.

[SuperSuri]

Great Mods! The VWs are indeed quite mod friendly cars. The only thing which is holding me back is the warranty. I’m scared of the day if DSG goes kaput and ASC tells me warranty declined due to the mods. 🤪

[Megamind]

Originally Posted by TheLizardKing

1. Boot illumination (already covered here (My pre-worshipped Volkswagen Polo GT TSI with lots of DIYs) in my ownership thread)
2. Lock/unlock switch on passenger side
3. Courtesy lights on door panels
4. Puddle lamps under ORVMs

Those are some sweet DIYs you've done that I've been planning to do in my vento comfortline.

Regarding Oznium, how long did it take to reach you & was there any customs charged?

[debashishsen26]

Congratulations on excellent execution of all the mods.

Originally Posted by TheLizardKing

A 3D printed bracket specially designed to hold the courtesy light unit (part number 3GD 947 411, purchased on AliExpress) is then fitted into the hole.

I wish I knew this earlier. I came across these kind of courtesy lights on AliExpress before the ban happened and ordered the ones which project the VW logo. Then lockdown happened and I had some time to execute it but faced some issues while cutting the door panels. If I look closely there are little gaps (negligible) around the lamp due to improper cutting. Also the fitment is a little poor due to that. I might try getting in touch with him via UKPOLOS forum to acquire these brackets.

(Minor gap on the left top corner)


Although I was happy with the final results (The logo looks a bit skewed due to the pavement)