New generic radio and CANBUS issues?

Simples, find space to mount the old radio hidden behind the dash and pinch an illumination signal from its internal lighting ...

On Tuesday 14 January 2014 16:36 Adrian C wrote in uk.rec.cars.maintenance:

Haha...

On Tue, 14 Jan 2014 15:22:30 -0000, Tim Watts wro= te:

It's not removing it, it's the VW non-standard wiring means if you don't= =

use a VW harness it pulls the power aerial feed to ground

You probably want a more professional fitter!

On Wednesday 15 January 2014 09:01 Duncan Wood wrote in uk.rec.cars.maintenance:

Hi Duncan,

Ah - thank you for that. Is this by any chance the "yellow/red wire" thing? (or similar colours - can't remember exactly - I came across something on google about certain older wiring adaptors needing a wire or pair of wires modified)?

This is the bane of my life - nearly every "professional" I employ[1] needs something fixed up afterwards. Everyone's happy with "just good enough" rather than "properly done".

[1] Which isn't that many because it's actually easier in many cass to DIY it as I know I'll take more care...

I'm tempted to fit the thing myself - I was hoping to avoid the endless research, but it looks like I'll have to do that just to check them out!

I did ask VW if they'd do it - Nope. But they would sell me a VW approved Kenwood for £1000!

Would you recommend a CANBUS adaptor or just a decent wiring adaptor (with mods made as necessary)? Either way am I likely to need VAGCOM or someone with VAGCOM to recode anything?

All the best!

Tim

??

Ok, me serious hat on.

Not VW, but I've got a 2004 Skoda Octavia that I've replaced the stock Symphony radio with a Kenwood. Previous to the install I was aware of the CANBUS connection on the car's ISO connector and verified that on the new set it don't connect anywhere, I'd no interest in features from that - and really didn't want to connect unnecessary things there that could later cause expensive problems with the ECU. This car is complicated enough with my other unecessary things... ;-)

FWIW My vagcom does log a fault code -

01304 - Radio 49-00 - No Communications

But I've not had a flat battery from ECU polling that fact.

I can understand flat batterys from not switching the red/yellow leads as ye are instructed to do for VW family vehicles.

One lead is switched live, the other is unswitched live. The latter is used (still?) to keep the radio's memory contents and power close connected electric aerials after ignition off. If wired the wrong way, the radio will not turn off when the ignition keys are removed - and that will be a flat battery (eventually...).

+1!

Hi adrian,

On Wednesday 15 January 2014 12:16 Adrian C wrote in uk.rec.cars.maintenance:

Ah - OK - that's good to know...

That is useful - thanks. Feels more "old school" now. I do know that mine has the Quadlock connector and that that needs an adaptor to fit the back of most radios.

I think, armed with that knowledge, I feel competant to make the required checks.

I wonder how it came about that those ot reversed on some setups?

There does seem to be a consensus that some Tourans (at least) do not have the illumination or switched +12V - did you find that on your Octavia?

This is starting to feel like DIY time. Why pay £85 to a fitter that I have no confidence in...

Cheers - and thanks!

Tim

I've done that on my Skoda fabia, turned out as you described. However, things may be different on a 2006 Touran. ISTR that the battery issue was caused by an earlier CAN gateway, and upgrading to the latest cures that.

*searches*

Ah. Found it. It's if you fit an OEM Satnav unit to an earlier car:

Anyway, is this any help?

It suggests that you'll need to mod the wiring to supply switched 12v, but also suggests a cable for the wheel controls, which seems to take care of the power too?

Obviously this is for a 1P Leon, but I'll bet there's one for the Touran, it's all PQ35 platform.

Also have a look at

On Wednesday 15 January 2014 19:41 Chris Bartram wrote in uk.rec.cars.maintenance:

Thanks for all that. I chanced upon the Connects2 website (they make CANBUS radio adaptors) and their link of resellers led me to these guys:

They're quite near me. Had a chat and they sound like they know what they are about. They say they are VAGCOM equipped so coding stuff in is not a problem. They did relate one horror story where they had to upgrade firmware in the car (gateway thingy I assume). But they said they were equipped to sort out weirdnesses properly and had VW expertise

- and absolutely recommended using a CANBUS adaptor rather than hacking wires into the fusebox.

They cautioned against me buying a random head as the problem above was due to a certain make and model of radio not playing nicely.

So I told them my requirements (AUX in, USB with Android support and USB MP3, and Bluetooth) and asked what they would recommend. The answer was a Pioneer DEH4600BT.

The all in fitting cost including supply of the head and parts would be about the same as me supplying my original choice of Sony head and someone bodging it in.

I need to read some reviews of that Pioneer, but I'm fairly sold on Auto Solutions - having studied the subject matter, they seem to take the problems seriously.

If anyone has an opinion on the Pioneer heads, I'd welcome that...

In all probablity, I may take the route of buying several cheap USB flashkeys and loading each one with a theme of tracks - it removes the temptation to keep poking the phone (mounted on the dash as a GPS) while driving and picking up a USB key and shoving it in is more natural to me.

Having said that, BT is still useful.

Cheers!

Tim