Hello y'all, this is a thread only to inform all of you that yes a cluster swap is possible, pretty much anything you can think of with some
re-wiring and doing custom shells/frames and you're good to go.
![253287]()
First lets talk about the Cluster swap, yes it's possible but you need money to invest on it, roughly around $150-400 depending on what you want and what you currently have,
If your beetle its an early model 98-99, your best bet is an audi tt cluster from 99-2001, because all signals lights are controlled by wires instead of CAN, if you want another newer cluser 2000+ basically have to replace some modules, ecu, wirings, but you'll be looking to spend a good amount of money. My friend @gäs_güzlr can help you guys with it as he did it. Why? Because some ecus didn't have CAN enabled although they have the wires for it.
Now if you have a 2000-2010 then its easier, first the easiest way to do it is doing a immobilizer delete on the ecu so your car can start with any cluster, but if you want to keep the immobilizer, you'll need both skc (secret key codes) of both clusters and you need vcds to program keys which involves more money and time, for me it wasn't worth it.
So once you figure that out, then you need to decide wich cluster you want, i decided to go with a tt cluster because i can easily cut the dash frame from the tt and put it on the beetle dash
![253288]()
![253291]()
![253292]()
Like that and then do some bondo, but you can choose whatever as long as you can do a shell for that cluster. So with the wiring, the tt cluster was unstable with my car's setup being it a 2000 beetle with can and the tt cluster being a non can cluster, i wasn't able to do that much with it, so i decided use the tt cluster shell and use a motherboard from a w8 passat cluster
![253293]()
![253289]()
![253290]()
Because it has the same display and looks good once fitted, but you have modify the w8 cluster because the w8 cluster gas needle wouldn't move and you'll also get an immo active message and abs and brake blinking light, to fix all of that you need to send it to Clusters by Litke so he can reprogram it and remove the immo message and also do some other mods like needle sweep and all of that, after you do it, you just need to add 4 wires to the cluster, 3 are for the wiper stalk buttons and 1 is for the outside temp sensor,
Heres the diagram, on the 32 pin green plug
![253294]()
you'll have a fully working custom cluster on your new beetle, if you need more help, send me a message and I'll gladly respond.
Now with the rns-e audi Navigation radio,
This one is more easy to do, you just need the following things: Bose amp, rns-e with all plugs, GPS antenna, can simulator, VCDS and do the custom shell (you'll also need the Code for the radio) so you may wonder why do we need an amp, well its because the rns-e doesn't have output for the rear speakers only the front ones, so its better to use the amp wich allows you to have 12 speakers on your beetle, 4 dash, 2 on the pilars and the 4 of the doors.
So now you need to to do the custom wiring harness for the radio, if you want to do it, I'll share with you the wiring, but you need the CAN simulator so it doesn't drain your battery and it turns on when you put your key and it lights up on the night, now you need vcds to program the radio to an audi A6 because thats the only audi that has a physical vss (speed sensor wire aka gala) as with our beetles since our beetles aren't capable to send the vss over can only through a wire. This was a shame because i had it progammed so it showed the lambo boot screen but because the redio requires the speed signal i had to configure it to an A6.
![253295]()
![253296]()
Once you do that, you pretty much have almost everything done, you just need to do the custom shell and figure out where you'll put the antenna.
re-wiring and doing custom shells/frames and you're good to go.
First lets talk about the Cluster swap, yes it's possible but you need money to invest on it, roughly around $150-400 depending on what you want and what you currently have,
If your beetle its an early model 98-99, your best bet is an audi tt cluster from 99-2001, because all signals lights are controlled by wires instead of CAN, if you want another newer cluser 2000+ basically have to replace some modules, ecu, wirings, but you'll be looking to spend a good amount of money. My friend @gäs_güzlr can help you guys with it as he did it. Why? Because some ecus didn't have CAN enabled although they have the wires for it.
Now if you have a 2000-2010 then its easier, first the easiest way to do it is doing a immobilizer delete on the ecu so your car can start with any cluster, but if you want to keep the immobilizer, you'll need both skc (secret key codes) of both clusters and you need vcds to program keys which involves more money and time, for me it wasn't worth it.
So once you figure that out, then you need to decide wich cluster you want, i decided to go with a tt cluster because i can easily cut the dash frame from the tt and put it on the beetle dash
Like that and then do some bondo, but you can choose whatever as long as you can do a shell for that cluster. So with the wiring, the tt cluster was unstable with my car's setup being it a 2000 beetle with can and the tt cluster being a non can cluster, i wasn't able to do that much with it, so i decided use the tt cluster shell and use a motherboard from a w8 passat cluster
Because it has the same display and looks good once fitted, but you have modify the w8 cluster because the w8 cluster gas needle wouldn't move and you'll also get an immo active message and abs and brake blinking light, to fix all of that you need to send it to Clusters by Litke so he can reprogram it and remove the immo message and also do some other mods like needle sweep and all of that, after you do it, you just need to add 4 wires to the cluster, 3 are for the wiper stalk buttons and 1 is for the outside temp sensor,
Heres the diagram, on the 32 pin green plug
you'll have a fully working custom cluster on your new beetle, if you need more help, send me a message and I'll gladly respond.
Now with the rns-e audi Navigation radio,
This one is more easy to do, you just need the following things: Bose amp, rns-e with all plugs, GPS antenna, can simulator, VCDS and do the custom shell (you'll also need the Code for the radio) so you may wonder why do we need an amp, well its because the rns-e doesn't have output for the rear speakers only the front ones, so its better to use the amp wich allows you to have 12 speakers on your beetle, 4 dash, 2 on the pilars and the 4 of the doors.
So now you need to to do the custom wiring harness for the radio, if you want to do it, I'll share with you the wiring, but you need the CAN simulator so it doesn't drain your battery and it turns on when you put your key and it lights up on the night, now you need vcds to program the radio to an audi A6 because thats the only audi that has a physical vss (speed sensor wire aka gala) as with our beetles since our beetles aren't capable to send the vss over can only through a wire. This was a shame because i had it progammed so it showed the lambo boot screen but because the redio requires the speed signal i had to configure it to an A6.
Once you do that, you pretty much have almost everything done, you just need to do the custom shell and figure out where you'll put the antenna.
