Obscure Features

[Jakeys]

I just found out the bottom of the rear seat in my R36 wagon slides forwards and up so the rear seats fold completely flat. This has blooown my mind, have had the car for a year and a half and moved house using it without knowing this. So I wondered what else I had missed and figured it might make a good idea for a thread. What weird VW features have you discovered in the course of owning your Passat?

[kamold]

Will have to check that, haven't ever tried.
There is a button to the right of the driver's seat, on the B pillar, with a picture of an airbag or something on it.
It is illuminated.
I have no idea what it is for, haven't looked in the manual yet.

[Jakeys]

Will have to check that, haven't ever tried.
There is a button to the right of the driver's seat, on the B pillar, with a picture of an airbag or something on it.
It is illuminated.
I have no idea what it is for, haven't looked in the manual yet.

Yep in hindsight it's obvious, there are visible black pull tabs on the front of the seats. I have seen them but sorta didn't think much of it at the time I guessed it was to aid in trim removal for maintenance or something. I assume this is wagon only but all wagons would do it. I have to vacuum there now because it had gum wrappers and stuff from the previous owner under the seats, haha.

On the button, I can help you! I found that but I looked it up in the manual. It disables your cabin motion sensors so if you have something moving in the car or your windows down, it will stop the alarm being tripped. You press it every time you get out and it occurs until you next unlock the car.

[kamold]

Cool thanks for bothering to RTFM for me !

Sent from my HTC One_M8 using Tapatalk

[3C4M Guy]

One of my pet hates is leaving the car for a service and getting it back only to find the mechanic adjusted the side mirrors during a test drive. (I guess its' necessary for safety reasons) For years I adjusted each mirror back separately starting with the driver's side mirror. I had no idea until recently that there's a way of doing the passenger mirror first that will adjust both at the same time!

[Guest001]

Yep in hindsight it's obvious, there are visible black pull tabs on the front of the seats. I have seen them but sorta didn't think much of it at the time I guessed it was to aid in trim removal for maintenance or something. I assume this is wagon only but all wagons would do it. I have to vacuum there now because it had gum wrappers and stuff from the previous owner under the seats, haha.

On the button, I can help you! I found that but I looked it up in the manual. It disables your cabin motion sensors so if you have something moving in the car or your windows down, it will stop the alarm being tripped. You press it every time you get out and it occurs until you next unlock the car.

My Passat does that but you have to take the headrests off to get the seat backs right down to make the floor really flat. There is a way to place them though so they arent just lying around The manual if you choose to read it tells you how LOL

The length of the floor is that position is approx 1900mm

[Jakeys]

My Passat does that but you have to take the headrests off to get the seat backs right down to make the floor really flat. There is a way to place them though so they arent just lying around The manual if you choose to read it tells you how LOL

The length of the floor is that position is approx 1900mm

Yeah there are holes on the top of the seat bottom part to mount them. It's pretty genius, really.

[kleung]

I had no idea until recently that there's a way of doing the passenger mirror first that will adjust both at the same time!

Wait 'till you discover that not only can your mirrors remember their position, but you can also have them linked with your key, so when you press the 'unlock' button, your seats and your mirrors move to their preset positions.

Other cool stuff I like:

• Self-adjusting perpetually backlit instruments
• Two-speed auto mode on the climatronic
• Cruise control set speed can be adjusted up or down in 1km/h or 10km/h increments
• Self-parking wipers with one-touch service mode
• Indicators that always do a full flash (ie even if it self-cancels halfway thruogh a flash, that flash completes.

[3C4M Guy]

Wait 'till you discover that not only can your mirrors remember their position, but you can also have them linked with your key, so when you press the 'unlock' button, your seats and your mirrors move to their preset positions.

Other cool stuff I like:

• Self-adjusting perpetually backlit instruments
• Two-speed auto mode on the climatronic
• Cruise control set speed can be adjusted up or down in 1km/h or 10km/h increments
• Self-parking wipers with one-touch service mode
• Indicators that always do a full flash (ie even if it self-cancels halfway thruogh a flash, that flash completes.

Thanks for those tips kleung. Thanks also to Jakeys for starting this thread. The thread is a good idea.

I had the car years and was always frustrated that the Climatronic unit had to be switched on in order to get some fresh air flow. Some days you don't want heat or cooling - just nice filtered air from outside. I must have been bored enough to read the manual one day and discovered that pushing the lower right ECON button turns off the air con and allows fresh air from outside. A bit like a 60s car with a knob to pull called “VENT”!

[Jakeys]

Wait 'till you discover that not only can your mirrors remember their position, but you can also have them linked with your key, so when you press the 'unlock' button, your seats and your mirrors move to their preset positions.

Other cool stuff I like:

• Self-adjusting perpetually backlit instruments
• Two-speed auto mode on the climatronic
• Cruise control set speed can be adjusted up or down in 1km/h or 10km/h increments
• Self-parking wipers with one-touch service mode
• Indicators that always do a full flash (ie even if it self-cancels halfway thruogh a flash, that flash completes.

What do you mean by self adjusting perpetually backlit instruments?

I know about all the rest. With the cruise control, initially I thought it sucked until I figured the 1km/h trick out. It's not obvious but once you learn it the whole thing is surprisingly intuitive. I scratched my paint first time I tried to wash the car because I lifted the wiper up and hit the bonnet with it. Read the manual and felt like a ****.

On the note of indicators, with the comfort indicating (Just tap it to make it flash three times) two cool things about that. One is if you want you can set it to be five times in VCDS if you have a cable, and two is if you comfort indicate again while it's doing it, it resets the timer for another three. So mid lane change you decide it's taking a bit long and you want to indicate more just tap it again. Not exciting but since it was brought up already, I figured I'd mention it.

Thanks for those tips kleung. Thanks also to Jakeys for starting this thread. The thread is a good idea.

I had the car years and was always frustrated that the Climatronic unit had to be switched on in order to get some fresh air flow. Some days you don't want heat or cooling - just nice filtered air from outside. I must have been bored enough to read the manual one day and discovered that pushing the lower right ECON button turns off the air con and allows fresh air from outside. A bit like a 60s car with a knob to pull called “VENT”!

Interesting. My MY10.5 doesn't work like this, if you just switch the whole system off with the OFF button, you still get air filtering in. I think you have to switch it off the face vents first before you turn the system off, but I could be wrong about that, it's been a while.

[Guest001]

Another thing i have done is when I open the door my seat slides back to make it easier to get out and when I get in and put the key in it slides up to normal position. My indicators are set on 5 and would prefer iton 3 or 4 actually.

[3C4M Guy]

On the note of indicators, with the comfort indicating (Just tap it to make it flash three times) two cool things about that. One is if you want you can set it to be five times in VCDS if you have a cable, and two is if you comfort indicate again while it's doing it, it resets the timer for another three. So mid lane change you decide it's taking a bit long and you want to indicate more just tap it again. Not exciting but since it was brought up already, I figured I'd mention it.

That's interesting about being able to use VCDS to change the comfort setting from 3 to 5 flashes. Also good to know you can reactivate for another 3. Generally I like the feature but just occasionally when I activate accidentally, I wish I could stop the flashing before it gets to 3.

[Jakeys]

Another thing i have done is when I open the door my seat slides back to make it easier to get out and when I get in and put the key in it slides up to normal position. My indicators are set on 5 and would prefer iton 3 or 4 actually.

Yeah, VCDS you can set it to 3, or maybe even in the convenience menu in the MFD, double check there too. And the door seat slide thing I also have activated with VCDS, as well as my windows and sunroof closing when it detects rain. (Unbelievable that isn't stock, guess they weren't convinced they could always rely on it.)

[kleung]

I had the car years and was always frustrated that the Climatronic unit had to be switched on in order to get some fresh air flow. Some days you don't want heat or cooling - just nice filtered air from outside. I must have been bored enough to read the manual one day and discovered that pushing the lower right ECON button turns off the air con and allows fresh air from outside. A bit like a 60s car with a knob to pull called “VENT”!

With the MY09 update (two dial climatronic), they went back to the standard AC button - I know the MkV Golfs and the early B6 Passats had the 'Econ' button instead of an 'AC' button, where the operation was reversed - light on = AC off.

I usually just leave my climatronic on fan speed 1, AC off, temp set to 'low', recirc on auto, and air flow either to face or floor+windscreen.

What do you mean by self adjusting perpetually backlit instruments?

Not sure about the early B6es, but the instrument cluster fitted to MY09+ B6es (white MFD) have dials that have variable automatic backlighting that operates even with the headlights off. If you are driving into the sunset in the late afternoon for example, the backlighting cranks right up to improve the contrast of the dials.

It's most noticeable when you go from a brightly lit environment into somewhere dark, like an underground car park - you can see the backlight on the dials fading out.

From memory they also light up dimly when you first turn the ignition on - again you can see this if you go to start the car in a dark environment without the headlight switch in the 'off' position.

With the cruise control, initially I thought it sucked until I figured the 1km/h trick out.

The +/-10km/h function is clever - the first push up or down rounds up or down to the nearest 10km/h increment, which is very handy when you're out on the open road and have to slow down from highway speeds as you pass through towns.

You can also preset the speed while the cruise control disengaged, so when you pull the lever for 'resume', it goes to whatever your new set speed is.

On the note of indicators, with the comfort indicating (Just tap it to make it flash three times) two cool things about that.

The full flash thing I mentioned works even if comfort indicators are disabled.

One is if you want you can set it to be five times in VCDS if you have a cable

That's a little uncool actually - I'm somewhat disappointed that VW didn't make that a menu item - Holden have managed to do this in the VF Commodore, but in the VW it's either on or off.

Interesting. My MY10.5 doesn't work like this, if you just switch the whole system off with the OFF button, you still get air filtering in. I think you have to switch it off the face vents first before you turn the system off, but I could be wrong about that, it's been a while.

When you press the 'off' button on climate control systems, I typically find that it simply turns the fan and AC off, and leaves everything else where it was - heater mixer flap position, air direction, recirc setting etc. So if you were getting warm air out of the vents when you pressed 'off', you'd still continue to get warm air, just without fan boost.

More clever stuff:

I've noticed is that the auto headlights are smart enough to know the difference between passing under a bridge, and going into a tunnel. It's still responsive enough so that my HIDs are on and warmed up by the time it gets dark enough in a tunnel for the headlights to make a difference, but they don't switch on every time I go under a bridge on the freeway. Lexus/Toyota, I'm looking at you.

They're also smart enough to recalibrate themselves to come on in lighter conditions during wet weather - I don't know the exact criteria, but as I understand it, if the headlights are in auto mode, they will come on if the wipers operate more than 5 times a minute, or something along those lines.

An emergency lock barrel is hidden under a cover on the driver's door handle, and is operated using the removable emergency key in the key cartridge. The same removable emergency key can be used as a lever to open the fuse box cover.

The radio can be operated even without the ignition on.

When you have the back seat squabs folded forward, you can attach the retractable vertical cargo blind to it, and there are slots in the roof lining to which you can hook the blind.

In terms of build quality - the body is assembled with laser seam welding (vs spot welding commonly used by other manufacturers), and the door hinges are forged steel (as opposed to pressed steel hinges). The B6 and B7 wagon's tailgates use pressed steel hinges, but starting from the B8, even the tailgate hinges are forged steel.

[Jakeys]

I tried quoting inline to your post but there's so much detail, it became a mess so I'll just chuck all my replies in and hope it makes sense.

Climatronic notes: I don't think the upgraded climatronic came in until MY10 or MY10.5? But the behaviour you're describing is accurate.

Instrument lighting: Not sure this is accurate. I have an MY10.5 with white MFD and mine doesn't have this feature. If it is sunset and I have my headlight switch to off, the dials will become unreadable until I turn the parkers on, when it then goes to whatever brightness I set with the brightness dial. The needles are always lit but the dials are not lit until I turn the parkers on and then they're just lit to where I tell them to be.

Cruise stuff: Agreed with everything you said, it's a great system. Same with the indicators, and the auto headlights not turning on instantly for tunnels, I think that must just be a timed delay. Good to know they work in unison with the wipers. All this little engineering, signs of a well designed car. On not being able to change the comfort indicator numbers in the MFD menu, double check, I could be wrong. I haven't adjusted any of those settings since I bought the car and the VCDS cable. Although I did turn two stage locking (Driver's door unlocks on first press remaining doors on second press) off when I got a girlfriend, haha. Cause I kept having to press it twice for her door to unlock.

Emergency lock and radio when car off I knew, although with the radio, you must use the head unit, the steering wheel controls won't work until ignition is on. I didn't think to use the key as a lever for the fuse box but surely that's a coincidence? Remember the car also comes with a screwdriver in the back as well with the tyre jacking tools.

Knew about the blind being able to be attached with the seats forward, didn't know about the welding stuff, that's cool.

I'll add some more details after all that great stuff from kleung. Did you know:

1. When you turn the car off or on, the fuel and temperature gauges no matter where they are always hit zero or their marks at the same time? So if your temp is at 90 but your fuel is at 100% and thus fuel gauge has twice as far to travel, it will move twice as quickly so they both hit zero at the same time. Blew my mind when I noticed, such a tiny feature that would have to have been coded meticulously by a programmer for such minimal gain.

2. On some cars, with VCDS, you can enable "Needle staging" on startup. It doesn't seem to be related to model year as my MY10.5 can't do it but someone else's on here they were able to enable. It is tied to the instrument cluster so if you replace that part, the new one may support it. See a video here. Note also you can see my previous note about the needles working too, his fuel gauge moves way quicker so they both stop in unison.

3. If you have a trailer plugged in, auto tailgate disables itself and you have to manually lift the tailgate, so that it doesn't hit your trailer by accident!

I'm sure I can come up with more later!