I have discovered a few things about my car which I didn't know initially, and found by virtue of a 'tip-off' or by stumbling upon it!

If you know any gems, please share!

{Note: Some features may not be available or present on all models}

1) Remote Window Closure / Opening

After leaving the car, press the 'lock' on the remote, and keep it held down (on)....the windows and sunroof will close (only whilst you hold the remote button)

Conversely, pressing the 'unlock' on the remote, and keeping it held down will open the windows (but not sunroof)
Release the remote when they are at desired position!

2) Windscreen Wiper Access

The windscreen wipers are neatly tucked away when not in use for aerodynamics and safety.

To clean under them or change the blades is easy!

With the ignition key in 'off' position or removed, pull the wiper stalk down momentarily.
The wipers will wipe to 12 o'clock position and remain in that position.

After completing your task, simply repeat the wiper stalk action and the wipers will 'park' in the usual position.

3) Fuel Flap Release

The electric fuel flap release is inhibited if travelling at over 5mph (a guess)

4) Automatic Rear Screen Wipe

With your windscreen wipers activated in any mode, selecting reverse will cause the rear screen wiper to wipe once.

5) Headlamp Washers

Headlamp washers will only wash if your headlights are switched 'on' - at the first time you wash your windscreen, and then every fifth time your wash your windscreen (resets after ingition switched off)

Topic now sticky.

Please try and keep this thread tidy i.e. so it only contains the information is supposed to and doesn't get cluttered with replies

2Zone Climate Control Synchronization

if you hold down the AUTO button for three seconds, it will synchronize the temperature setting on both sides of the car to match that of the drivers side. When ever the driver changes his temp setting it will also change it on the passenger side, until a passenger changes their side.

Passenger Door not unlocking

If you press the unlock button more than twice in quick succession the passenger door ONLY locks itself, unlocks on the fourth, locks on the fifth etc.

Its a software problem that hasnt been rectified yet but its nothing to worry about

Coming Home Lights

The headlights only stay on for the 30seconds or so if you have put just taken the key out of the ignition. If you dont want them to stay on when youve parked up then lock the car, unlock and lock again.

(Save that oh too familiar "you've left your lights on mate!")

2Zone Climate Control Degrees C to Degrees F

Pressing and holding the Auto and Econ Buttons at the same time will swap the temperature from oC to oF and Visa Versa

The MFD lights up when you open a door but will go out after about 30 seconds unless you do something. Just press briefly the trip button and the display will light back up.

(There's a tip/trick which ISN'T mentioned in the manual)

Stuart
http://www.stuartdalby.co.uk/vwgolfmk5

Hi all,

If you push ECON + rights button near Recirculated air. You will show into each screen in the climatronic several interesting values. If you go to channel 19 you will show in the right screen the speed, rpm, motor temp. The are others interesting channels but by the moment there is no info. To go to another channel just move the left temp selector to move to another subchannel just move the right temp selector.

In Spanish (http://www.clubvwgolf.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=7918)

If you have the lux pack, and the dimming rearview mirrors:

To turn the dimming feature 'off' feel under the rearview mirror and push the little switch....the LED should extinguish and your mirrors will be clear.

To make lane change 'three blinks' on your indicators on the motorway (etc), push the indicator stalk up/down but not so far that it clicks into place.....then release.

I don't know whether all you members realise this but if you select Right hand adjustment for the driver's door mirror, ie 'R' and adjust using the toggle action then the left-hand mirror will adjust synchronously (if that's the right term to use). In other words it will mirror (excuse the pun) the actions of the Driver's mirror.

If you have the "climatic" AC then if you want to save fuel and have it on the "economy" setting (where the AC compressor is not used) as an added safety feature the AC automatically comes on to help clear the windscreen when you direct air to it.

If you use the middle button to open the boot only then never lay your key inside as when you close the boot the car is fully locked with the alarm on.

Arm Rest

The top of the centre armrest slides forwards.

A/C

If you find your windscreen very slow to de-mist on a cold day it is because the A/C is disabled when the temp is <3C.

Arm Rest

The armrest opens up with a latching action so it stops at different heights. This allows you to set it at different levels to whatever is most comfortable.

You need to fully raise it before it will lower.

The rear wiper function (# 4) was on my old Focus ST170. It used to drive me nuts when I had my MTB strapped to the hatch. Here's the scene. Get in car after spending a few minutes fitting bike to hatch in the rain. Start car, put wipers on. Back off drive, b*gger! Wiper attacks bike.
My cure was to spring the wiper off the window when I fitted the carrier. If you happened to to set the wiper off then it just wagged around in the air in an amusing way.

Ade

If you hold the wiper stalk down (for a flick wipe), you get one slow wipe then fast wipes afterwards. Wow

If you have a rear interior courtesy light, you can switch it on from the front of the car, by switching the main front courtesy light to 'manual on' position on the rocker switch.

got in car today GT-TDI put keys in ign then accidentally pressed the rear wiper down and it gave me the reading to the next service

This went down well in another thread so I thought it worth not getting lost.

Regards FSI owners mainly.

The higher the octane rating of the fuel the longer the FSI engine will run in FSI mode.

You see, when the FSI is running in 'Fuel Stratified Injection' mode it creates a lot of NoX (NoX - Very bad as far as emisions go) due to it being such a lean burn, so it has a NoX Cat which abrorbs the NoX, once its full the Nox probe (fancy lambda probe) senses this and the engine switches back to normal running and can safely clear the NoX out with the other gases through the main Cat so it can switch back into in FSI mode again.

The problem with octane levels is, and this is just an example depending on driving styles.

Out of 100 miles average :-

95RON - 90 miles normal, 10 miles FSI (lots of NoX made in FSI mode)

97+RON - 60 miles normal, 40 miles FSI (some NoX made in FSI mode)

Now regardless of what anyone says this is how the engine is built and as its more efficient in FSI mode VW always recommend the highest octane rating for this reason, they did introduce a 1.4FSI for the uk market that is made to run on 95RON fuel for longer but you want to see the size of the NoX Cat, more like a tanker. lol

And after all that, you will get better miles to the gallon running 97+RON regardless of it being an FSI, its they way they are made these days, the ecu recognises when the fuel mixture combusts and will adjust it accordingly, the cheaper the fuel the more retarded the timing, the more retarded the timing the less power, the less power the more you 'need' to put the foot down.

Satnav

Maybe this is well known but if you're on the "MAP" screen you can press it again to get a big display of direction/turn, distances etc. Dead useful especially if you don't have the bigger MFD.

Satnav

Again if you're in map display on the satnav and you press the right side select knob, it hides the side menus and gives the full display to the map - really cool.

OK, sorted. You have to press ECON and the UP ARROW button, the one that puts the air near the windscreen vents.

The left display and panel show the channel + subchannel. The large number is the main channel, with the little number top right being the sub channel.

The Left twisty bit changes the MAIN channel, the central twisty bit (fan speed) changes the sub channel. I dont think the right twisty bit does anything.

So far ive only worked out the following :

MAIN channel 19 has got engine RPM, engine SPEED (km/h). Ive only looked at it for a few minutes but i really wanna work it all out :)

Wipers

The MK5 platform has seen the introduction of many subtle technological features and innovations........the windscreen wiper system for example, now has it's own computer.

The wipers have a special 'park' mode so you can service the blades or lift the arms for washing the screen; and the rain sensitive wipers are very discerning - not at all 'over sensitive'.

My favourite is this one;

When you have your wipers on 'manual' speed 1 or 2, you come to a halt at a junction and your wipers stop.
They resume when you do.

This *may* be linked to the rain sensor system - so that the wipers *only* halt if the screen is *dry*.

ANOTHER wiper tip:

With the bonnet open, the wipers are inhibited. 

My owners manual was sitting in the glovebox, then I found out there is a space for it at the top of the glovebox you just slide it in, very neat.

For the commnet on the windscreen wipers stopping when you stop, on the S model (with no rain sensor), the wipers actually go from the normal speed to intermitent when you are below 5mph ( perhaps this is linked to the fuel filler cap being inhibited?), though this cannot be altered with the intermitent time gap changer thing .

 

Edit found out today, that the wipers in fact change to the next slowest setting, so from fast to medium speed, or medium to intermittent, and I guess intermittent to stopped.

DSG gearbox (with paddles)

If you're in normal D mode on the gearbox, you can engage manual control by just flipping one of the paddles.  You can then go up and down the gears with the paddles.  It will automatically slip back into D mode if left alone in the same gear for a while, or when you come to a stop.  Another way of changing back to auto is to pull one of the paddles and hold it for about 3 seconds.  All of this is done without having to move the gearstick over to the + - setting.

When you move either sun visor to cover the side windows, you can pull on its edge to extend the cover required.

Very neat!!

Has any one noticed the the little dance the xenons do at start-up?

They reset themselves by dipping all the way down, then flick back up - pretty cool .

Like the STACK instruments do in a Lotus or TVR

A little RCD300 trick

If you hold down the MENU button whilst on FM or AM, until the radio emits a 'boop' the display will then alter to show a signal meter for the station you are listening to and some other useless bumf.

The mirror that you mentioned changes too. Do you mean when you toggle to the right, both right and left mirror moves?

This is hardly a 'feature' but I'm fascinated by it nonetheless. The front grab handles above the doors. When you pull them down and let go, they return to their position with a nice damped movement. But if you do this continously 10 or so times, the damping stops working and they thud back into the roof lining. Leave it for 10 minutes and the damping returns!

Can you tell that I spend too much time in traffic jams?

MrC 2.0GT TDi (Sage Green)

In a moment of absent mindedness, I tried to re-start the engine.

YOU CAN'T !!

The MKV runs a transistorised start with starter motor overide if the engine is running.

I don't know if this is just on the DSGs

... Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that if you wash the windscreen (pull lever towards you), a few seconds after the normal wipe finishes wiping the spray away, there is an extra single wipe to get rid of any dribbles of water.

Also if you leave the lights on (twist switch fully round to driving lights) and lock the car, the lights go off after a minute or so to save the battery. (pressumably you leave the switch on the "side lights" position if you want to conciously leave them on)

I had heard that the air conditioning system automatically switches to recirculation mode if you start reversing or operate the windscreen washers but had never seen this for myself.... until last weekend.

I usually have the fan on position 1 and that's why I hadn't heard it before, but if you have the fan at faster speeds, when you start reversing or operate the windscreen washers, you can hear the fan speed up. The LED on the recirculate button doesn't light up which is why in the past I thought this feature was a myth. By the way I have Climatic air conditioning but I imagine this also applies to Climatronic.

I love features like this on the Mk V and have added a section to my website detailing all the little Mk V secrets (which are not mentioned in the manual) which I know of. Feel free to browse: http://www.stuartdalby.co.uk/vwgolfmk5/vwgolfmk5_secrets.php

Stuart
http://www.stuartdalby.co.uk/vwgolfmk5