# 2011 Touareg, Dynaudio Retrofit



## sobe_death (Jul 31, 2008)

So after selling my DD Honda CRV back in June, I picked up a Touareg TDI for literally the same amount I sold the Honda! This is worlds nicer, more comfortable, powerful, and even gets ~8mpg better on the highway. Pictured with the 20" wheels when I got it, now the 18" wheels with A/T tires as of last week.

















And a little preview of what's coming in round 1... Overnight parts from Lithuania!


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## sobe_death (Jul 31, 2008)

As far as the low-end goes, I've preordered a Wolfram Audio O-2400.1, which should supply anything I'd ever want as far as power. The real trick will be getting the full-range signal from this MOST bus, or hopefully by a thorough analysis of the analog audio signal that comes out with different codings via VCDS.


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## Adurm (Jan 6, 2019)

Try these guys NAV-TV - Interfacing the Future

Vw gti owner here. I couldn't get a flat signal out of the mib ii. Vcds didn't help with the base stereo. I think you can code out the premium audio and use speaker wire out from the back of the mib. I think audison and helix make most25 or most50 interfaces. The mib is full range but not linear when increasing volume.


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## sobe_death (Jul 31, 2008)

That's what I'm worried about. I plan to at least investigate what's coming out between the premium and Dynaudio, but I really don't want to have to move to a separate volume control.


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## BP1Fanatic (Jan 10, 2010)

Looks like a Porsche!


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## sobe_death (Jul 31, 2008)

Indeed! The control modules and electrical systems vary slightly, but the Touareg/Cayenne/Q7 share a common platform. The VW insurance cost is a little more palatable too


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## sobe_death (Jul 31, 2008)

Slight update. I spent WAYYY too long last night trying to replace the rear door wiring. Mostly, disconnecting the door lock solenoid without removing the window and regulator also. Props to VW for making a super stout and sealed door design!









In the end, I got everything replaced, which it sorely needed...


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## Adurm (Jan 6, 2019)

Oh my, that poor surround.


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## sobe_death (Jul 31, 2008)

Adurm said:


> Oh my, that poor surround.


RIP. What's worse, is that all of the others are probably in similar condition; dry and crusty.


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## Adurm (Jan 6, 2019)

You are going to be so happy when this is finished.


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## BP1Fanatic (Jan 10, 2010)

Yeah he is!


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## sobe_death (Jul 31, 2008)

Well, most of this down time has been spent finishing the other rear door (the surround on this mid was _completely _detached), ordering replacement trim clips, and finding pins and de-pinning tools for the OEM connectors. Since this truck didn't have the Dynaudio package installed, the body-side wiring isn't present for the separate speakers. Since I'm not a fan of drilling weather seal connectors, I'll be adding pins. The "premium" package has capacitors on the woofers and the wiring goes there first, then the door tweeters, while the Dynaudio has wiring for each individual speaker from the DSP/amp. So I have this wiring on the amp side, and the door side, but needed to connect them. Trying to find the VW part numbers was quite the task, but eventually I was able to identify that TE/Tyco is the manufacturer of all the connectors. Next was measuring, then realizing that Tyco doesn't use the actual dimensions of the m/f pins!

These male pins measure 3mm, but they're listed as 2.5mm, but you can only find them by searching for 2.8  Good news is they're rated for 24A and hold 14ga wire!








The female pins are included in the Dynaudio door wiring.









Not wanting to buy a set of $700 crimper jaws for ~30 connections, I started searching again. Funny enough, once I had these part numbers I was able to find the VW wiring repair parts! Yes, all the audio wiring in the door is yellow 








Problem, these are $9 each! Found these pigtails for VW part no. 000979226 and ordered 30 of them delivered for the price of 2 from the dealer.

I won't be doing the front doors until I can confirm I'll be able to get the J525 DSP amp coded in and working, and for that I'll need a MOST extension cable and quite a bit more disassembly of the rear cargo area.


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## sobe_death (Jul 31, 2008)

In addition, it needs to be determined whether or not the amp will function without this third connection for microphones...


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## sobe_death (Jul 31, 2008)

Progress has been slow, but a few things have happened! It took 4 weeks for the MOST extension cable to arrive, and I was able to adapt it to become a loop with an extra component in the middle (Dynaudio Amp) so the communications path matches OEM. I've yet to get sound out of the amp, but I do know that the vehicle is confused by my actions! Having previously coded the radio to use the Dynaudio sound profile, I think the rest will be up to the vehicle to recognize the added component and give me the proper error codes. The audio adjustment menu now shows as "Dynaudio Confidence" with the amp hooked to power, and I'm getting a component protection error so I think I'm definitely on the right track.

Additionally, my subwoofer amp came in. The Wolfram 0-2400.1 is the smallest physical volume per watt I think I've ever held...


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## chefhow (Apr 29, 2007)

Fellow Touareg owner here (2012 TDi) and looking forward to your work.


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## Jscoyne2 (Oct 29, 2014)

sobe_death said:


> Wolfram 0-2400.1


i have one of the original Wolfram 3k. Its like 4x that size.


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## BP1Fanatic (Jan 10, 2010)

What's the model Big D Wiz (Williston Audio Labs) dyno'd a year or 2 ago?


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## sobe_death (Jul 31, 2008)

Jscoyne2 said:


> i have one of the original Wolfram 3k. Its like 4x that size.


Yeah, those 3k class-D amps are quite hefty!


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## sobe_death (Jul 31, 2008)

BP1Fanatic said:


> What's the model Big D Wiz (Williston Audio Labs) dyno'd a year or 2 ago?


I think it was the W-3000.1


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## sobe_death (Jul 31, 2008)

chefhow said:


> Fellow Touareg owner here (2012 TDi) and looking forward to your work.


Thanks for following! There are a few Touareg builds, but almost nobody on the forums ever digs deep and posts technical items and part numbers with respect to the OEM application.

Do you have an idea which direction you will be going with a subwoofer?


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## sobe_death (Jul 31, 2008)

Found the appropriate connectors to tap switched power for the amplifier. The big gamble was wiring harness differences, since VAG/Porsche make each harness to the individual vehicle. Luckily, the fuse location for the J525 amp has switched power, just no wire output to the amp. This connector is yet another piece to OE integration


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## My98RT10 (Dec 25, 2014)

Just stumbling over this thread... as it is only a year old ;-) I am wondering how it went? I am owning a 2014 Treg (non-dynaudio) and have remodeled the stereo completely (still working on further upgrades/improvements).


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## Tommysweetcarve (10 mo ago)

I bought a 2012 two years ago with 40,000 miles (75,000 now). 

I have looked at different Touareg projects and sub builds several times this past week while on spring break. 

I have been trying to figure out how to get the signal from the system. 

Is there a harness/adapter available to result in a signal (pair/RCAs) out to install my system? 

I have Nav. and no interface tuning tools. 

Since my head unit is now 10 years old, should I move to a current updated unit?


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## Adurm (Jan 6, 2019)

You'd have to find the wiring diagram for your deck. If just adding a sub, tap the front door speakers at the harness behind the deck and run that to a line out converter to get your rca jacks.


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## Tommysweetcarve (10 mo ago)

I am looking to do the whole system but would consider doing the "add a sub" line depending on what the stock amp puts out to the doors.

The deck for 2011 Touaregs is in the rear wheel cargo area.


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## Adurm (Jan 6, 2019)

I believe your amp is in the back. The deck i was referring to is your cd player. Is there already a factory sub? If you have an amp, i suspect you do. You may need mobridge or navtv to interface with the MOST fiber connections you might have. Getting a signal after the amp is going to give you a processed and filtered signal. I'm going to step out of this before i cause more harm than good. You might want to check out some toureg forums.


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## Tommysweetcarve (10 mo ago)

The DVD/CD player is in the glove box. The radio, brain, and amp is in the rear. 2011 and later models are this way from what I have read and seen. 

I am looking to find the power of the amp and/or how to buy a harness to get the signal out (either to add a sub or to DPS/amps/speakers).

I thought about starting a new thread but joined this one. Thank you for responding. I am considering taking out the factory head unit and starting from scratch since the tech is 10 years old.


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## sobe_death (Jul 31, 2008)

Hi, sorry I abandoned this post. Life has been getting in the way of finishing, though it's mostly down to me pulling out seats to start running wires...

It's unlikely you'll be able to remove the factory dash unit without severe issues, as it interfaces with tons of other systems in the vehicle. As far as adapter harnesses to RCA go, there are none I'm aware of. You can get matching jumper harnesses for the plug below (most VW head units have this plug, wiring color varies) and use speaker level inputs on your amp. There are some plug & play MOST DSP adapters out there that would let you run a sub out, but as mentioned above the signals are usually pulled from the front speaker line. The radio unit in the right rear panel has the wiring you can tap. Contacts 9 and 13 are labeled as subwoofer positive and negative, though I'm not sure it's ever been confirmed and I haven't gotten to that stage yet to check it.


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## BP1Fanatic (Jan 10, 2010)

[email protected], you have the same problem as the 2015-2018 Volvo S60.


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## sobe_death (Jul 31, 2008)

Well, I guess I'll update this as I have found a little bit of time to go back through what few photos I was taking through the process.

In order to get the center speaker wired up, I pulled a connector off a door harness in the junkyard that matched the 4-pin connector of the speaker, and patched it to some 4-conductor speaker wire. 


















The door harnesses for the Dynaudio vehicles don't have matching wire in the chassis harness, so I utilized the pigtails I detailed in post #12 and inserted them into the body connectors. Since they're interior, I yanked the seals off. VW really makes this part easy for a change; just pop the purple lock tab and these slide right in! I carefully did this for all 4 doors where the wires were not present, using the same 4-conductor wire above.


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## sobe_death (Jul 31, 2008)

Using the tabs from post #21, I added the fused connection in panel C, location 48 (adjacent to the 10A fuse on the bottom row). I still need to double check the fuse rating that it should be. There's a body ground point just below here that is the OE ground for the Dynaudio amp (brown wires), but that's a solid 15-foot run of 12ga wire that I'd rather just ground at the back.









I didn't get a photo up here, but I stepped this 12ga wire up to 10ga that I had left over from another project and ran it to the cargo area.

It's basically rinse/repeat for the two drivers' doors afterwards.


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## sobe_death (Jul 31, 2008)

I hate the setup in the floor of the TDI, with that stupid DEF tank hump. This amp is just a little too thick for the area forward of the spare, and just a little too wide to fit beside the spare tire...





























Do I really need a collapsible spare that probably won't seal after 11 years? I _do _need to clean out all that dried up urea back there; the PO apparently couldn't figure out a funnel.


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## sobe_death (Jul 31, 2008)

Found some more photos of the Center channel install...

Backside of the Dynaudio center combo









Why not a little bit of damping?









All buttoned up. Honestly, I think gaining a center channel is more exciting to me than functioning door speakers!


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## sobe_death (Jul 31, 2008)

Well, I spent the time wiring today and got pretty much everything connected. While the driver seat was out, I went ahead and ran a 1/0 back to the cargo area. I connected to the input lug on the fuse box and broke a small tab out of the rear edge of the fuse panel. Really poor photos of the routing, but the whole wire was only visible for about an inch from the back of the fuse box to the carpet. It's still amazing to me how flexible this fatty wire is!


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## Tommysweetcarve (10 mo ago)

Hey thanks for the updated photos. I came in to search for 3.5 center channel speakers since I popped the center channel grill off tonight to see what was there. How did you feed the wires through? I have been looking to use an Audio Control DSP AMP to sum the factory speaker wire signal out to the doors and a sub and possibly skip the center channel but my hunch is that it will complete the front sound stage really well.


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## sobe_death (Jul 31, 2008)

Tommysweetcarve said:


> Hey thanks for the updated photos. I came in to search for 3.5 center channel speakers since I popped the center channel grill off tonight to see what was there. How did you feed the wires through? I have been looking to use an Audio Control DSP AMP to sum the factory speaker wire signal out to the doors and a sub and possibly skip the center channel but my hunch is that it will complete the front sound stage really well.


I ended up pulling out the glove box and using an electrical fish tape to get it started. I ran the wire along the passenger side, but it may have also worked just fine on the other.


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## sobe_death (Jul 31, 2008)

The OEM Dynaudio amp is located in the rear cargo area, driver side behind the trim panel. With the Executive trim level, there's a rear HVAC unit sitting in the body opening and the J525 Dynaudio amp is behind that, inside the quarter panel. To fit it there on the Lux trim level, you have to remove a lot of soundproofing insulation which makes it quite loud with regards to road noise. Soooo, I decided to relocate the amp closer to the radio wiring! I opted for a shorter MOST routing and easy access to the J535 CAN gateway on the passenger rear.

I switched the radio from the stock bracket into the plastic bracket , and tapped pin 11 on the radio connector for the CAN connection. There's plenty of slack in the OE harnesses for this relocation. 









I cut the bottom off the bracket and put a couple of rivnuts through it in order to mount the amp.









Everything connected and TESA-taped, et voila! Dynaudio! Well, not exactly voila; I needed to change the coding with VCDS to Dynaudio and External Amplifier before it would output audio, but it worked!


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## sobe_death (Jul 31, 2008)

Right now only the left channels are working with music, and the center channel for telephone, but that's due to VW component protection working its magic. It requires a visit to the dealer to contact the VW mothership in Wolfsburg for reprogramming. There's also a CAN Gateway error showing the J525 unit as unregistered, though it is working on MOST and shows up in VCDS so I'll have them look at that too.


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## sobe_death (Jul 31, 2008)

Small update. I didn't know until today that I can change the registered modules in the CAN gateway, but VCDS is great! Here's how you register the J525 amp for retrofit.

Connect VCDS and auto-scan the modules. You'll get a list of modules with DTC's. The relevant gateways we are dealing with are 19-CAN Gateway and 47-Sound System












Double click the 19-CAN Gateway controller and clear the codes. Then access the Installation List












You'll see a list of registered modules, just select the FIRST 47-sound system then "Write Coding"











Once that is complete, you will see that 47-Sound System will show a malfunction status. Double click the module and you'll see that component protection is active, which I've got to visit the dealership to get sorted. There's also an adaptive microphone somewhere in the system that doesn't show up on wiring diagrams, so I'm not sure how to get that hooked up.











Also, note that in the module information screen, there is a button labeled "Output Tests". In this module, it will send test tones to each speaker, verifying proper connections for all your hard work! Output tests work even with component protection active.


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## slowride (Jan 26, 2009)

sobe_death said:


> Small update. I didn't know until today that I can change the registered modules in the CAN gateway, but VCDS is great! Here's how you register the J525 amp for retrofit.
> 
> Connect VCDS and auto-scan the modules. You'll get a list of modules with DTC's. The relevant gateways we are dealing with are 19-CAN Gateway and 47-Sound System
> 
> ...


could R140 be the microphone in question


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## sobe_death (Jul 31, 2008)

R140 is connected and working. It's giving me a code for an open circuit in R74 microphone. Turns out, the Dynaudio package has some form of active noise cancellation...


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## slowride (Jan 26, 2009)

maybe pins 1, 2 and 10 of the 18 pin connector on j525; r74 connects directly to j525


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## sobe_death (Jul 31, 2008)

Quick update: I got the component protection removed! Weirdly, none of the dealers around here would do the coding, so I ended up spending way too much to have an independent VW mechanic do it (Black Canyon Performance in Denver).

Observations:
The speakers sound amazing, and very low distortion even at high volume! Stereo mode still has some surround processing, but it does very well summing and sending the audio where it needs to be. Vocals are crystal clear and centered above the dash. 

The Dynaudio amp definitely cuts low-end frequencies below about 60hz, maybe higher. Strange, since the Dynaudio coding passes full-range to the standard amp and speakers... Looks like there will be a subwoofer install thread coming soon.


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