Had an epic day on Friday. Kids were off due to an Inset day (teachers boot them out and expect tax paying parents to take the day off to look after them...awesome!!) Still this meant I had 3 clear days to fit the Touran Dash as I was not sure how much work was involved. Having heard what a nightmare centre consoles were, and how easy I found it I decided to for it. The first obstacle was getting the air bag off. There are a few explanations about but none seem very clear. I don't suppose I am going to help much but here goes. Remove the positive on the battery. Leave for 10 minutes. I don't know if this is really necessary but didn't fancy finding out for sure by having the bag explode in my face! Turning the wheel 90 degrees left and right exposes a hole behind the wheel. A mirror really helps here along with a small short thin screwdriver. With the air bag fitted there is a metal spring over this clip in the picture.
This is the spring on the airbag so you can see what you are looking for.
Put the screwdriver above the spring and push it down, then push the screw driver through the spring and lever against the clip whilst pulling the airbag from above. It takes a lot of effort to get it to move. I spent at least 10 minutes wondering why it was not moving. Suddenly it just seemed to give a little and rotating the wheel and undoing the clip on the other side was easy with the bag out in seconds. I am happy that I could do it fairly quickly now. Just be aware that it takes more effort than you might think reasonable.
Removing the dash is straightforward. There are three T20 under the glove box and three or four by the fuse box. 1 Each side (remove the side trim first) and a couple under the centre storage box on top of the dash.
There are a few around the radio and you need to take the air control box apart using the 4 really long T20 screws.
Remove the clock (a couple of screws and one plug on the back) and remove the plugs from the light switch and push out the OBD socket and a plug at the top of the fuse box.
You also need to take of the steering wheel and control stalks. Next problem. This was a 12mm Spline. I had 2 that I had bought for previous work. I found one but it was too small at 10mm. I spent and hour searching for the other one, gave up and tried taking the dash out with the wheel in. Not a chance. I had to bite the bullet and went to Machine mart to buy a bit. Rather annoyingly I had to buy a set which cost £30. On the plus side I ended up using more than just the 12mm spline I set out to buy, so I wasn't too disappointed, and it was reasonable quality for the money. With the wheel and control stalks off it was an easy lift off and extraction. I also took out the window pillar trims.
So to sum up, a dozen or so screws and 5 plugs and we were away. I knew I then had to change the brackets at either end of the dash. These show the new ones in place so you know what you are looking for.
I had read that there was also a centre bracket but this was a bit vague. I was therefore concerned that I might not have it. The centre bracket in question is shown here with 36 11 stamped on it.
This unbolts and was removed but has a metal flat plate at the bottom into which the centre console fits. It was at this point I decided to loosen of the centre console. The new dash had the bracket attached and a plastic plate that the centre console fits into. Went in with a bit of pushing and adjusting, then just a case of replacing the crews and plugs. Others how to's hadn't shown pictures of the refit, probably because there is not much to see, and in any case I just wanted to get it back together and turn it on to see what I had ballsed up.
I thought taking out the window pillar trims would give me a bit more space. I also intended to fit the Touran ones I had. Low and behold they did not fit. Whats more a spent a while trying to get the caddy ones back in. Real knack to that. They come apart, the bit at the bottom can be removed. Push it as far forward in the van as poss then I stood outside and looked through the windscreen to ensure the clips lined up then wack it in.
So here it is. If you take out fag and tea breaks and trips to the shops for missing tools, it probably took less then 4 hours. I could probably do it quicker now, and I could understand why it would take longer if doing a ICE instal t the same time.
Needs a clean and some extra parts. I have a top box coming from Fleabay but need a surround trim if anyone has one knocking around.
but looks nice so far!
