Volkswagen ID.3 Forum

Look what I managed to get working this evening!
This is on my lowly life pro - and it works just fine!

I’ve heard rumours this might be possible over the last year - but there’s been lots of stuff about it not working because sensors being missing etc… apparently not! The only caveat is that unless you have a steering wheel with capacitive touch you have to gently move the steering wheel (even a tiny nudge) every 15 secs otherwise the car beeps at you to hold the wheel. The capacitive touch wheel means you can just rest your hand or a finger on the wheel. These were fitted only on those with TA fitted.

Anyway. How do you do it?
1. buy/borrow an OBD11 (eleven) dongle with the pro licence (£110 on Amazon) sign up, download the app, plug in and connect.
2. Go to the control module A5 and select the long coding option and then follow these instructions: And. That. Is. It.

These instructions were from an Italian id3 forum - but based on those thebOBD11 forum (which was not at all clear!). https://www.forumelettrico.it/forum/obd ... 21683.html

If you want a capacitive touch steering wheel - they are €700 or the same as some fitted to Passat 8’s (on eBay for £170 or so) but you also have to disassemble/ reassemble from one to the other a bit.

I did look at doing this a while back, but the instructions on the ODB11 forum were a bit poor. Its one of those things that I wanted just because it was free, but wouldn't likely end up using it as I hate lane assist so much, I had my OBD11 turn it off by default and stay off unless I turn it back on again.

I really want to make the wing mirrors only deploy on start up and not on opening the car - haven't seen instructions for it, but prepared to have another poke around, it must be there somewhere.

This isn’t anything like as intrusive as LA. When it’s in the car just gently steers in the middle of the lane and there is little/no resistance to your inputs if you want to correct it.

You can also turn down the LA - so it still corrects / warns but not as vigorously.

Thanks for posting this MotMot, you are tempting me. I'm not bothered about using any other OBD changes but would really like travel assist. I hadn't realised that coding this would make the button appear and everything, that's pretty neat.
I've never used OBD11 or similar before - are there any insurance or warranty risks? I assume there must be precedent for this.
I think I read somewhere that OBD changes get reset when there is a software update by the way. I guess if they can be easily reapplied afterwards then it doesn't really matter.

When you say you can turn down lane keep assist - do you mean, that's another obd change you can make, or do you mean it's something you can do in the infotainment once you've made the travel assist obd change?

(As for beeping at me to put my hands on the wheel...my LKA is always beeping at me to tell me to drive down the middle anyway so it can't be any worse )

Re warranty - not sure. I’m enabling a feature found in other models rather than adding something? OBD mods have been done on thousands - if not hundreds of thousands of VAG cars…

Re upgrades - on the Italian forum one owner went through the 2.1-2.3 update with no changes.

I might set it back when it goes (if it goes!) into have the 2.4 work done just to save any questions being asked.

Sorry for the potentially daft question.
I'm currently awaiting a ID4 Life - will mine have the prerequisite tech to enable travel assist via OBD?

Thanks.

Thanks for this. I must say I didn't realise until now that the icons 'lit up' I went out to my car without the key and had never seen the steering wheel buttons as blank. (Keyless entry for you I guess). What I can't work out is what it does that my Family edition already doesn't already do? Does this actually steer for you?

G43FAN wrote: ↑Thu May 26, 2022 9:15 am Thanks for this. I must say I didn't realise until now that the icons 'lit up' I went out to my car without the key and had never seen the steering wheel buttons as blank. (Keyless entry for you I guess). What I can't work out is what it does that my Family edition already doesn't already do? Does this actually steer for you?

Yes.

When activated it steers you between the white lines of a lane for example. As I’ve just found out it doesn’t work well on urban/suburban roads where the lane markings are crap/worn and there’s the odd parked car… but works just fine on the motorway.

I think it’s in the same category as the ACC. It helps rather than being in complete control. Unlike the ACC it requires you to make a minor movement on the steering wheel every 15 secs so it knows you’re not there.

There is a hack of wedging a half full plastic bottle of water in the steering wheel spokes and the movement of the water is supposed to nudge the wheel enough to replicate user input - but that didn’t work for me when I just tried it. Probably for the best

I activated it last night. Some people might need a little bit of extra help from the instructions, it took me a while to get the combination of certain tick boxes in the byte coding to get the bytes to change to the ones I needed from the 3 you had to change (it reminded me of a typical puzzle from the Crystal Maze) Might be coincidence from first use, but my lane assist was on from ignition this morning, even though I hadn't put travel assist on at that point - hopefully it was a first use thing and hasn't over-ridden my previous OBD-11 adjustment for the car to remember that i've turned off the dreaded lane assist.

I drove 32 miles down the A19 with TA on today, and my verdict is... Without the capacitative steering wheel to know you've got a hand or both on it, TA is a waste of time. Having to consciously twitch the steering wheel within every 15 seconds to avoid a "hands free" warning is defeating the purpose of the tech IMO (to minimise driver input) , to then force a micro correction from the system. Nice to have an extra button on the steering wheel lit up, but other than that, quite pointless unless you go out and get the correct steering wheel retrofitted. It also left a massive gap between me and the car in front and didn't seem to respond well to reducing the spacing between you and the car in front as normal ACC would.

I did have a good dig around the door controller functions to see if I could have the mirrors only deploy on start-up and not on opening the car (surprisingly how often I need to go to the car just to retrieve something the kids left in it), but there's nothing there to enable it, you can just tell the car if you have folding /heating mirrors and those blind spot indicators.

No warranty issues as far as i'm concerned, and given the lack of capacitative steering wheel fitment, not something VW will be looking to activate for a charge in the future unless they want you to have a steering wheel replacement too.

I'll give it another go on the way home today, but doubt i'll keep using it.

Yes - it’s not a silver bullet - but will be useful on some bits of motorway.

I have a long journey through France planned in a couple of weeks.. keen to get this.

Will this version of OBDeleven work. £85.29 off their website?

https://obdeleven.com/en/home/62-pro-pa ... currency=4

Thanks

Think that’s the same one as I got on Amazon for £110

It needs the pro licence to do coding - and I think only some of their dongles work on IOS.

This was what I ordered (edit £120 ) OBDeleven OBD2 Diagnostic Tool Scanner for Audi Seat Skoda Volkswagen (Pro Pack) so you can check it’s the same/works.

Ffs - can’t seem to get the links to work!

@monkeyhanger re mirrors - have a look in here: https://forum.obdeleven.com/thread/1471 ... n-ignition

Mine cost me about £36 for the dongle and £21 for the Pro license about 3 years ago - prices seem to have rocketed since.

Tried it again on the way home and I've confirmed, it's not for me. If I've not missed anything, the only advantage TA has over ACC is no need to steer the car yourself to stay central in the lane, except if you don't have the capacitative steering wheel,you have to jerk it every 15 seconds to tell it you are still holding on. I'd rather just steer and use ACC as intended. My lane assist setting memory is gone too,so it's coming on with every ignition cycle again, so I'm off to sort that out and see if the TA remains after doing so.

I've gone for the Pro version off the website.. so lets see what happens..

Thanks
D

That’s very cool! What else can you add to the car with OBD11?

MotMot wrote: ↑Thu May 26, 2022 2:56 pm @monkeyhanger re mirrors - have a look in here: https://forum.obdeleven.com/thread/1471 ... n-ignition

Doesn't work on the ID3 or MK8 Golf. Nothing in Central electrics 09 with those descriptions, or in drivers door controller.

Surprised its not an option.

Anyone in and around Newcastle needing some coding can get in touch.

rikimaru wrote: ↑Thu May 26, 2022 4:32 pm That’s very cool! What else can you add to the car with OBD11?

The most useful thing is to turn the very intrusive lane assist off or get the car to remember you turned it off for every ignition cycle. Some messing with the ambient lighting, I set mine to fade in and out when going on or turning off rather than a hard on/off. Lots of things listed that the UK market models already get activated.