Car mods

One nice feature of modern Volkswagen (and Audi) cars is that their electronics systems are wired up using the Controller Area Network (CAN) protocol. This makes it very easy for the VW dealers and technicians to hook up their diagnostic computers to the cars and run tests and change car settings using simple PC software. Fortunately for us, it also makes it easy for enthusiasts and hobbyists to plug into their cars, tweak settings, and re-enable features that VW 'forgot' to enable (and to disable annoying features).

The first thing I needed was a USB-CAN cable so that I could hook my laptop up to my car:

Once I got that (thank you, internet), I hooked it up to the car:

It attaches underneath the steering wheel:

Naturally Volkswagen does not give away its diagnostic software for free (they would lose money if people could diagnose cryptic "Service Needed." messages by themselves), so I used the "VAG-COM" software made by the enthusiasts over at Ross-Tech. It's actually pretty good software (even though it looks a bit amateurish). Here are some screenshots:

There were literally hundreds and hundreds of options that could be modified. I was afraid to modify most of them without doing more research (especially ones dealing with things like engine timings and the air-fuel mixture). But, I was able to find and fix most of the settings that had been annoying me:

• Disable the annoying "Beep!" whenever I lock the car (I switched it to flash the tail-lights instead).
• Re-enable the Daytime Running Lights (DRLs). For some reason the VW dealer had disabled this feature without telling me. Now that I have had the DRLs on for a while, I think I see why they did that. It does get rather annoying that it's essentially impossible to ever turn off the headlights.
• Switch the DRLs to use the fog lights instead of the main beams (I eventually switched this back)
• Enable the option to open and close the windows from the remote.
• Enable the option to open/close the sunroof from the remote and the keyhole in the door.
• Force the 'unlock' button on the remote to unlock the passenger side door as well (by default you have to push it twice and hold it)
• Stop the car from automatically locking itself when the trunk door is closed.

Most of these "convenience" options are disabled on purpose (or not made available in the in-dash menu system) by Volkswagen in order to cripple the car. The GTI is essentially the same car as the Audi A3 (VW owns Audi), so they needed to create artificial reasons for people to pay thousands of extra dollars for the A3, even though it has exactly the same engine, transmission, chassis, and in-car computer.

I wasn't able to fix a couple of things I wanted (such as the option to have the passenger-side mirror automatically tilt down when going in reverse), but overall I am pretty happy with how it turned out