[DIY] Polo 6C Headlight Washer Retrofit

[Eduard]

Hello!

I am retrofitting the HWS into my Polo 6C ( which looks like a 6R so you don't get confused by the pictures ) so I thought it's best to share the work I've done so far.
Note: The car did not come with HWS, the reason I'm doing it is because there are legal requirements to having Xenon headlights on your care in most of EU countries at least ( Romania being one of them as well ).

Parts needed:
- Front Bumper with Washer holes
- New washer tank ( 5.4l instead the old 4.5l )
- Pump / hoses
- Two Nozzles ( 6R0 955 978 )
- 30 AMP Fuse ( light green )
- Relay and harness


So, I went on and took the logical steps ( didn't really disassemble any other car before, as I'm by no means a mechanic.
1. Remove front bumper
2. Unscrew the headlights
3. Remove the headlight supports

This is what you get so far:



4. Pull out the windshield pump from the water tank ( white one in my case )
5. Unscrew the two rings from the washer tank support and then pull it out
6. I placed in the new washer tank, pushed in the old pump ( front / rear screen washers pump ) and connected it's power
7. Pushed in the headlight washer pump
8. Connected the hose with the nozzles to the front of the car ( not sure if that is where they are supposed to be, probably not, could not find any schematic, help appreciated if possible )

In the meanwhile ( since this is part of a bigger "project" which is having xenon headlights ) I've also placed in the new headlights.

9. This is where I made my mistake ( not much of an electrician either lol ) so I went on and cut the wires for the windscreen washer pump and made a bridge for the headlight washer pump as well ( so they both would "start" ) when washing my windshield. I anticipated that it would split the power in between them and they both would run "slower". I hoped they wont ... until I tested them haha, so here's what I had so far.



Now, I'm waiting to get the front bumper and the nozzle lids to get painted, so I can pick them up, but, in the meanwhile, I have placed in the old front bumper ( with the new grill I got, simple one, to get cold air into the engine area, as the bluemotion one blocks all the air, which is quite annoying in the summer when you can hear the front fan working all day long ). So, here's the current state of the car



Now, there's the wiring to be done, placing in the relay and the coding. So ... here's comes the tricky part .. I have ordered this headlight washer harness from Kufatec ( https://www.kufatec.de/shop/en/Volkswag ... VW-Polo-6R ) which .. in their image had only one terminal ( connector ) but i received a harness with two different terminals: https://imgur.com/a/19CW7

The cut wires ( purple + brown ) are from the second terminal ( which didn't fit anywhere ). So ... my question is, shouldn't there be only one terminal connector which connects to the headlight washer pump ?

Is this harness made to connect both pumps through the same harness ?

From the ErWin schematics ( thank you very much Fernando ), I understand that I need to place a 30 AMP fuse into the C fuse holder, which is located directly under the steering wheel, into slot 11. ErWin fitting docs here: http://i.imgur.com/tSXBxJe.png which will be used for the J39 relay ( Headlight Washer system relay )

Now there's the part I have no idea about ... so ... I've watched the RossTech Wiring Diagrams which iichel kindly provided and given the valuable lesson, I understand the following, from the next diagram:



A red wire with a black trace ( 11a in our case ) goes from the fuse i previously mentioned ( SC11 ) towards the Washer System relay ( J39 ). Then, going forward, there is a diagram for the grounding ( http://i.imgur.com/ewPZpYc.png ) which basically says the brown wire is the grounding which goes into the 249 grounding point ( Earth connection 2, in interior wiring harness, not sure where is that, can't find it in the ErWin PDF ).

Correct me if I'm wrong so far, I've put quite a bit of effort into understanding all this ... being new to it.

This is the point I start getting lost because I think the relay I got is not the correct one being for a 6R and not a 6C.


This diagram shows the J39 relay as having 4 wires ... but mine only got 3 pins ... even though the schematic drawn on it seems (to me) like the one in the ErWin schematic.

Mine only got pin 2 ( grounding ), 4 and 6 as you can see here: https://i.imgur.com/gRBQUan.jpg

Think I got the wrong harness ... or it is correct, but for a 6R maybe. If so, do you know where can I find a correct harness on ebay or something ?

Please advise onto what's been done so far, and what I can do next in order to get this washing system fixed ...

When we're done with this, next DIY is the Rain Light Sensor with the dimming mirror and the auto headlight switch. ( Planing on doing quite a few DIY's on the 6C, including NAVI change, RVC, GPS, Shark Fin antenna to replace the current one, and hopefully we'll get those xenon headlights fixed in the meanwhile as well ... )

[RUM4MO]

Hi, without reading too much of the final stuff, the first thing I'll say is, VW Group always feed the headlight washer pump from a second supply, one reason will be that if you run the headlight washer pump every time you clean the windows, you will very quickly run out of water, also, I think that the headlight washing pump is stopped running if the tank has reached its low level point - really to save washer fluid for the windscreen.

Kufatec, normally they allow you to get access to "fitting instructions" which you can download and save/print off so that should guide you a bit.

Supports and routing for the washer hose, maybe look at the on-line parts-cat as normally when you look at the correct section there will be a slight help on which supports you need and roughly where they are located - I did that when retro fitting front PDC to my Audi S4 - but bought too many!!

Link to on-line parts-cat:- http://www.oemepc.com/

Edit:- I'd think that you will need to enable headlight washing in module coding, that will allow the car to know that it needs to wash the headlights maybe every 5th or 6th time the windscreen is washed if and only if the headlights are switched on - some people have been saying that headlight washing happens at all times even if the headlights are not switched on, but I've never noticed that happening in any of my and my wife's recent 4 VW and Audi cars that have had factory fitted headlight washing.

[Eduard]

Too bad they don't have fitting instructions for this one ...

But what you said got me thinking ... "it only runs when there's enough solution in the tank" ... maybe that is why it came with two connectors ... one was for the headlight washer pump ( which fitted ) and the other was for the washer fluid level sensor. Or so I think.

Since the fluid inside is a conductor, it would only run when there is enough fluid ? Or is that a separate sensor ... I am not sure ... if someone could enlighten me out .. it'd be great

[iichel]

I'm suffering the same fate as ciclo - holidays - but just try to understand the wiring scheme.

Relay:
Wire to bcm
Wire to ground
Wire to fuse box +30
Wire to pump

At pump, one wire to relay, one to ground

Activate with vcds

Beside this, I agree with RUM4MO

[Eduard]

That is what I didn't understand ... from the wiring diagram ... there should be 4 pins ( 1 / 2 / 3 / 5 ) whereas my relay's got only ( 2 / 4 / 6 / 8 ) -- relay was for 6R Washer system retrofit .. so I guess they're not a match ... Guess I have to look for another relay ?

[iichel]

85 = 1
86 = 2
30 = 3
87 = 5

use this as reference for corresponding pins in the diagram

[Eduard]

Could you explain your logic a bit ? I would really like to know how you got to that .. I mean, aside knowing what each pin is for, the basic notation of the pins starts from the top right corner, with 1, and goes towards the bottom left corner, to 9 in this case.

I'm just trying to understand how this all works ( sorry if I'm a bugger ) ... I'm obviously not smart enough , I mean ... how do you know which to connect where ? Or is it just experience

[iichel]

[Eduard]

God! This makes so much sense, the reason I had three wires is because there's one "missing" from PIN 5 which goes into the relay from the pump cable.. Thank you so much for having the patience and making me understand.

I've also found your thread on the same retrofit ( viewtopic.php?t=65724&start=45 ) and I saw the exact same harness I got with two connectors. I'm wondering about that coolant sensor .. do I need to simply remove it or what is to be done with it ?



Basically, I think I can cut loose the brown/purple terminal, red/white wire goes into relay, brown to GND and the terminal into the headlight washer pump, right ?

But then, what's the purple wire for ? Is it needed in the 6C ? Initially I thought it's used for the washer fluid level sensor ... ( which is not used in my case since the car doesn't have that ), the tank does though, so I think I have to make a harness for that and retrofit that in as well ?

That's the only info I need ... after that, I'm going to give it another shot and come back with the results

[RUM4MO]

Too bad they don't have fitting instructions for this one ...

But what you said got me thinking ... "it only runs when there's enough solution in the tank" ... maybe that is why it came with two connectors ... one was for the headlight washer pump ( which fitted ) and the other was for the washer fluid level sensor. Or so I think.

Since the fluid inside is a conductor, it would only run when there is enough fluid ? Or is that a separate sensor ... I am not sure ... if someone could enlighten me out .. it'd be great

Hum, yes a bit annoying that is are no fitting instructions, so maybe Kufatec think that they have made it very obvious - so maybe you are over thinking this, hopefully.
One thing, that Kufatec kit, it looks like it is a cable form and a relay base with cables attached to it - and that relay base looks like it has only 2 connectors in it - for the coil of that relay - is that correct? If so are the other 2 leads not 1 from the other harness and 1 from a fuse - I'm only guessing and maybe not reading all that iichel has written. Though now that I've looked at the picture you posted holding the cables from the harness with the pump supply connector, that is not completely true as the pump 12V feed (red/white) is not terminated with a suitable contact to fit the relay base.

One thing, in case that you do not know this, very few circuits are "actioned" by the switch that allows them to be switched on, these switches are usually only an input to a controller that in conjunction with other inputs will either switch that pump etc on or not, in this case the controller needs at least:- a "wash" demand + a "head lights are switched on" demand + "washer tank still has enough fluid, ie no low fluid warning" + " 5 or 6 windscreen wash demands since headlights last washed".

It is a bit annoying that your car currently does not have a washer fluid sensor connected into that controller.

You do know that Kufatec do print numbers etc on all the cables to try to make life easier, well the common low current violet or gray ones anyway?

Edit:- sorry if I'm causing more confusion than help, I'm just trying to throw some more thoughts etc in your mind!

Another Edit:- sorry I did not check that iichel has already done this mod, so at least you will know how to add that fluid level sensor into your car's wiring.

[Eduard]

In that mod he posted, the picture he used the word "coolant" connector ... did he mean washer fluid or actual engine coolant sensor ... because that would make no sense then hehe. But if it would go into the washer fluid level then it would make sense because even if the positive would go through there's no GND via the lack of washer fluid inside the tank.

Maybe I'm wrong ... but if the car has no sensor there, then it makes sense for it to be connected this way so it wouldn't trigger when there's less than enough fluid. Will give it a try tomorrow, need to buy a 30AMP fuse and see how it goes.

EDIT: By the way, do you know where I can find or what part number to search for in order to buy some of those fuse holders for the 6C ? They seem to be different from the 6R, having some other kind of grip to be kept in place in the fuse holder

[iichel]

Coolant = washer fluid. Sorry, dyslectic...

[Eduard]

Great! You got my hopes up now thanks again for allthe explanations and the patience !!

Will come back tomorrow with results !

My guess is, since this cable is meant for a retrofit and not the OEM deal, it just uses the washer fluid level sensor to know whether or not to trigger the washers, without any info about the washer fluid level actually being sent to the BCM. Will take a look at the ErWin diagrams tomorrow. Who knows, washer fluid sensor retrofit may be incoming as well.

[iichel]

No the washer level sensor will simply show a light in the instrument cluster when the reservoir is almost empty. Nothing else. I guess the sensor itself is already in the reservoir; afaik the headlight washer system always comes with a level sensor.

[RUM4MO]

No the washer level sensor will simply show a light in the instrument cluster when the reservoir is almost empty. Nothing else. I guess the sensor itself is already in the reservoir; afaik the headlight washer system always comes with a level sensor.

So, it might be that I'm am wrong in as much as I thought that the "low level" sensor would feed back into a controller, switch the low level washer fluid light on and stop the headlight washer pump running if the fluid level was low. What might be true is that the headlight washer pump is located higher up in the washer fluid tank and it's inlet stops drawing in washer fluid when the level drops below it - I'm surprised if VW Group had allowed this to happen as these pumps prefer running while filled with washer fluid.

Link to online parts-cat for 6C fuses etc:- http://www.oemepc.com/

Oh bother, I hope that because you are fitting a 6R kit to a 6C that the wiring is not too much different, at least the tank and pump etc will be okay - pump has not changed since at least 2000 I think! I see that Kufatec do not provide fitting instructions for the (bigger more expensive) complete kit - strange.

Edit:- famous words from Kufatec "some cars might need a new controller ------" - have you checked that out yet?