Fabia radio replacement guide

[pinkelephant]

Hi,

I was wondering if anybody has come across a guide (preferably photographic) on how to replace the factory fitted radio with an aftermarket unit.

I would like to try and do this myself as it is supposed to be a simple enough job from what I have read. However it would just be simpler and I would feel more comfortable if I had some sort of guide to refer to.

thanks

[Confused_Cheese]

I can't supply a guide with pics i'm afraid, but I can give you some step by steps. Its really easy to do and won't take long! I did mine in the skoda dealers car park

You'll need a fascia plate from a dealer. Don't buy the expensive halfords ones they look rubbish and are generally a bad fit. A dealer will supply one for about £2.50

If you want to use the radio, you'll need a booster (available from halfrauds i think for about £10):

http://www.incarexpress.co.uk/view_product.php?partno=PC552

One of those will do.

1. You'll need to remove the old stereo. Easiest way is to pop to a skoda or possibly a VW dealer and ask them nicely if you can borrow the keys to pop the stereo out. It just pulls out, and is 2-3 plugs to disconnect
   
2. Clip in the fascia plate
   
3. On your aftermarket stereo wiring loom, locate the bullet connectors on the yellow and red wires (live and ignition power, might be different colours check the manual) and swap them over yellow to red. If you don't have bullet connectors you'll need to cut and reconnect these the old school way If you don't do this you may either drain the battery or lose radio presets etc. everytime you remove the key from the ignition
   
4. Connect the aerial booster. They come with instructions where the blue wire will need connecting to a power source from the wiring loom.. most the time you can jam them in the connector block and link it up to the aerial cable. Its the easiest way and works for me
   
5. Plug the 2 iso looms into the female sockets so its all connected up. Turn the ignition on and give it a little test!
   
6. If its all working, then lose several fingers trying to feed all the cables back into the tiny gap you have at the back of the stereo and push it home. Go have a cup of tea and reattach severed fingers
   

If you have any problems, post back!

Edited 2 January, 2010 by Confused_Cheese

[LexVRS]

yh exactly like that some stereos you dont need to swap over live and earth(red and yellow) leads the last kenwood i fitted into a golf didnt, just check before hand turn it on set your stations or sumit then turn of and back on ignition if settings lost swap over!

[Confused_Cheese]

Hmm fitted 3 kenwoods, 3 pioneers, 2 alpines, 1 blaupunkt, 1 clarion and one none brand stereo and I had to swap them all over! Buts its definitely worth checking

[LexVRS]

ive no idea then haha my fiesta didnt need them swapped, but my mates seat did, i dont understand how something soooo easy has to have stupid fidley bits in, least with the fabia i get tomoro someone already put an aftermarket one in so all i have to do is put my one in no fuss! how easy are the fabs to amp cc wheres the best place to feed through the power cable?

[Confused_Cheese]

sure some people replaced some of the rubber gromits to the bulkhead with larger ones or something... is a few posts on here but not done it myself

Most vag group cars have them switched, fiestas don't... some vauxhalls do! Theres always one that has to be different :p

[Spedz]

I had to swap them over with a Sony MP3 player.

It's an easy job to do it, but now the unit seems to stick out slightly and you can see the cage. (You can also just take it out without any tools)

It seems stuck and unable to go any further but there doesn't seem to be anything blocking it.

It's worrying considering someone could just slide it out and take it, but I havn't found a solution for it as of yet..

[MoggyTech]

It's not Live and Earth you switch over, it's Permanent Live and Switched Live. Honestly, these Halfords people.

[Confused_Cheese]

I had to swap them over with a Sony MP3 player.

It's an easy job to do it, but now the unit seems to stick out slightly and you can see the cage. (You can also just take it out without any tools)

It seems stuck and unable to go any further but there doesn't seem to be anything blocking it.

It's worrying considering someone could just slide it out and take it, but I havn't found a solution for it as of yet..

Its probably the cables at the back, theres just not enough room. I had to feed the cables into the gaps at the side at the back of the plastic enclosure, slide back slowly and push until it clicked.

If your cage is showing theres something up, as that should be pushed back nice and snuggly before you slide the stereo in (bending the metal prongs to hold in place)

Not sure if theres anyway to remove the back of the enclosure to give more room

[cjb]

I had to swap them over with a Sony MP3 player.

It's an easy job to do it, but now the unit seems to stick out slightly and you can see the cage. (You can also just take it out without any tools)

It seems stuck and unable to go any further but there doesn't seem to be anything blocking it.

It's worrying considering someone could just slide it out and take it, but I havn't found a solution for it as of yet..

I found that one HU I fitted fouled the back of the hole in the dash slightly, and had to cut out one of the reinforcing struts to get it to fit flush.

[Spedz]

Its probably the cables at the back, theres just not enough room. I had to feed the cables into the gaps at the side at the back of the plastic enclosure, slide back slowly and push until it clicked.

If your cage is showing theres something up, as that should be pushed back nice and snuggly before you slide the stereo in (bending the metal prongs to hold in place)

Not sure if theres anyway to remove the back of the enclosure to give more room

Alright thanks, i'll give it another go tomorrow.

When I bought the car, it had a JVC headunit in there, which worked fine.

I only had to switch over the live for the Sony Unit.

That confused me, but it all works.. So I'm not fussed!

[Confused_Cheese]

Whoever fitted it before had probably changed them over on the JVC wiring loom

[LexVRS]

It's not Live and Earth you switch over, it's Permanent Live and Switched Live. Honestly, these Halfords people.

i just know them as yellow and red normaly i was racking my brains to remember what the were called, unfortunatly my dad who is an electrical design engineer, walked in and i just put it down

[dcr_1999]

Hi guys,

Was wondering if any of you could help.

I've had a Kenwood stereo fitted by the Skoda dealership I bought my Fabia from, however they didn't fit a signal booster to it.

I bought one from Halfords, and connected the power supply for the signal booster up to the blue cable for the antenna at the back of the stereo but it still doesn't work as the signal keeps dropping.

Any ideas what's up?

Edited 2 January, 2010 by dcr_1999

[LexVRS]

try and get a more definate connection with the arial if you can other than that i duno

[Confused_Cheese]

Did it come with instructions? Did you follow them? i take it you plugged the aerial into the one end of the booster and the other into the stereo? (just checking)

Could be a defective booster, of the stereo isn't providing charge via the cable you're hooked into. If you have a multimeter try checking its actually passing some current through when you use the radio. Not sure exactly what it should read though

[dcr_1999]

Did it come with instructions? Did you follow them? i take it you plugged the aerial into the one end of the booster and the other into the stereo? (just checking)

Could be a defective booster, of the stereo isn't providing charge via the cable you're hooked into. If you have a multimeter try checking its actually passing some current through when you use the radio. Not sure exactly what it should read though

The metal clip at the end of the power cable for the booster is too big to clip into the housing where the other leads go into, so I spliced (took plastic covering off the booster power cable and the antenna cable on the stereo and taped them together with electrical tape). It seemed better but still cuts out

[grr666]

I had to swap them over with a Sony MP3 player.

It's an easy job to do it, but now the unit seems to stick out slightly and you can see the cage. (You can also just take it out without any tools)

It seems stuck and unable to go any further but there doesn't seem to be anything blocking it.

It's worrying considering someone could just slide it out and take it, but I havn't found a solution for it as of yet..

My advice is to take the glove box out from the car. Its fairly easy to do you just need a couple of spline keys (torx?)

undo a couple of screws and hey presto the whole thing lifts out. With it removed you should have much better access to

the rear of the stereo to pull the wires/connections through.

I have a parrot kit fitted to mine and iif you think it's tight behind there with just the wires from the stereo, you should try it

with the extra gubbins from a hands free kit plus storage tray beneath and oem cupholder...

My knuckles will never be the same again...

Edited 3 January, 2010 by grr666

[Polo6n1600i]

Try fitting an aftermarket double din with 2 lots of phonos coming out along with all the handfree gubbins! Welcome to my knuckle shreaded hell!

[A Woodster]

Anyone know if this kit will be ok for my 05 VRS?:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/STEREO-FITTING-FASCIA-ADAPTOR-REMOVAL/dp/B003JIG0OA/ref=cm_cr_pr_pb_t

Not had stereo out yet so don't know what aerial type it is, but for a tenner may just give this kit a go.

Cheers

Andy

[A Woodster]

No one tried or seen one of these then??

May just give it a go, will post findings back up on here.....

Andy

[Furby138]

I cant see why it wouldn't work.

But, the fascia adaptor wont fit as well as the genuine Skoda one, the Aerial adaptor is available on ebay for less than £2.50 delivered:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PC5-90-SKODA-FABIA-AMPLIFIED-ISO-DIN-AERIAL-REPLACEMENT-ADAPTOR-MAST-ANTENNA-/150713521002?pt=UK_In_Car_Technology&hash=item231739d36a

and Kenwood removal tools are less than a quid and work well.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PC5-107-Kenwood-2001-Onwards-Stereo-Radio-Unit-Removal-Extraction-Release-Keys-/160668587196?pt=UK_In_Car_Technology&hash=item25689814bc

I doubt the ISO adaptor is required. This probably just swaps the permanent and switched live connections. IIRC this can be done by swapping the pins in the car/HU loom. (some HU's have bullet connections to facilitate this).

[Red Studio]

The aerial lead was stopping the radio sliding all the way back for me. In mine this seems better routed over the reinforcing bar and to the right with the remainder of the wiring going under the bar just right of centre.

Big puzzle for me is where my red and yellow wires are. There's a red on the brown connector but I'm almost certain it's a speaker connection. There's no yellow at all.

Do some Fabias use different colours for the switched and permanent lives?

Mitch

[grr666]

The aerial lead was stopping the radio sliding all the way back for me. In mine this seems better routed over the reinforcing bar and to the right with the remainder of the wiring going under the bar just right of centre.

Big puzzle for me is where my red and yellow wires are. There's a red on the brown connector but I'm almost certain it's a speaker connection. There's no yellow at all.

Do some Fabias use different colours for the switched and permanent lives?

Mitch

I'd expect the yellow and red wires to be on the radios own wiring

rather than the cars installed wiring. Often the manufacturers of head units will leave

bullet connectors on the two wires in question to make swapping them easier.

HTH

[Red Studio]

Ah, I see. No the two standard connectors from the car's loom plug directly into the back of the radio, the same as on the original Skoda unit. There's no trailing wire of any sort on the unit itself. Any changes will have to be made to the vehicle wiring or I'll have to get an adaptor cable just for the sake of switching two connections over.