Bluetooth in VW Passat Variant 2010 with RCD 310

Two years ago we purchased a used VW Passat Variant of year 2010.

The car had at that time only the standard RCD 310 that look like this.

The car/radio had no handsfree and I wanted one since I had one in my previous car.
After some searching on the web I found that there only was a few handsfree systems that could be integrated with the RCD 310. The other option was to replace the head unit or to get a factory refit handsfree. Unfortunately both those options turned out to be quite expansive or complex to install.

The option that I finally settled for was a solution from a UK company called Dension. They had a black box solution that only required pulling a few cable. The solution was called "Gateway Five"




I purchased one and started the install only to find out that it was unreliable when used.

There where some issues with the sound levels but the most annoying was that it failed every time to synchronize with my phone book in my Sony Xperia V running Android.

There is a setting in the GW5 configuration menu to disable synchronization, but it still failed and was unreliable.

At this point I sort of gave up and left the GW5 and settled for the limited function that it did offer fairly reliable and that was the Bluetooth audio streaming capability.

But I'm not the type that gives up and a year later I sort of stumbled on the solution. I was searching the web for the above problem in general and found that people that had the corresponding Audi system with integrated GSM phones in their cars has a similar problem with the phone book transfer. The solution to their problem also solved my problem. Apparently the Android system allows for transfers of phone-book items that are to big for the older GSM based phone-books to handle.

The solution was to download and install the following android app "Bluetooth Phonebook" from android-rsap.com. The app is available in a test version where it scrambles the phone numbers. But you can test and see if it is the solution to you problem.

You can read about what the app does in details to solve my problem on the above link.

The above app now make my driving more enjoyable and my wife now also use the hands free reliable in the car. The sometimes poor hands-free sound is still there but it is now illegal to use cellphones while driving in Sweden and the GW5 is an affordable solution for a VW car with RCD 310 to get Bluetooth.

Update - The GW5 now works much better with my Sony Xperia Z3!