Transporter

A few months ago I fitted this rather lovely multifunction steering wheel from a mk6 Golf GTi. Most would be content with this much higher end piece of kit being used for the simple but important purpose of steering but not me. This thing has bling buttons and I want to use them as reaching half a meter across to the head unit is clearly far too hard for me so I started the job of achieving the "impossible" and tried to convince my T5 it should chat to a golf steering wheel. Before we get started though I'd like to point out that I have written down my whole process to achieve this job. As such there are some false turns and dead ends so make sure you read the whole thing before going shopping yourself. Alternatively just skip to the end and use the shopping list there. I have done this so others can carry on from where I left off should they wish to try an alternative root. Right research head is on! First off I picked up a multi function steering wheel conv...

Choices The standard head unit on the T5 is a fairly uninspiring lump reminiscent of my first Audi's Concert II. It is admittedly functional and the previous owner had added a parrot blue tooth and ipod dock to spice things up. I do not own an ipod however and the parrot doesn't stream music so it was definitely stuck in the naughties. There is a huge collection of after market head unit options available for this van requiring some serious review reading to pick out a winner. I was keen to keep the OEM look which was somewhat restricting me unless I went for the new shape centre console which would allow me an RNS510. Changing the centre console opened up a quite a few more options including the Kenwood DNX520 which not only offered even more features than the RNS510 and better navigation, it was also designed to work specifically with VW's unlike most other aftermarket head units. I read a mixed bag of reviews for this and the later 521 complaining about poor pe...