I asked about this in another thread but it wasn't strictly relevant there. Has anyone here replaced their Skoda 202 radio/cassette player, as used in the more basic Fabias? This model isn't compatible with CD changers.

I just want a basic single CD player that plays MP3s.

What's involved in doing this, and where's the best place to get the adaptor plate to make a standard unit fit? Do Skoda dealers keep these in stock? Are any other bits required to make an alternative player work or fit?

TIA

Welliesorter

I believe Stimps has done this

When I was looking for a car, I did enquire with the dealear about getting a CD player

in a Fabia (one of my "desires" was a CD changer). They said it would involve upgrading

the headunit to another one which was compatible with the changer, then fitting the

changer. Or, if I just wanted a single slot one, they'd just put an aftermarket one in as

it was easier.

Which won't tell you a lot, except that it si possible to do! I'd imagine (from having done

swaps on Micras and Astras), it's pretty much a case of getting a wiring adaptor from

somewhere like Halfords and plugging that between the existing loom and the new unit.

I'm not sure on the adaptor plates, I'd imagine if you need one Halfords will also have

them.

You might have issues with the aerial though...some people have had poor reception after

swapping the unit, possibly something to do with the power to the aerial or something...(?)

Rob.

Hi Wellie,

As TaviaRS says, I have indeed done this

First of all - Facia Adaptors. Mine was from AutoLeads - see this page on their website for details. You should be able to get on in your local Halfords, or they could order one for you (alternatively, buy from autoloeads direct)

You may or may not need an aerial adaptor too.

I paid a local company

I got a single CD Kenwood player for my Fabia. It doesn't play MP3's, but then I can just rip them onto CD, as the unit is CD-R compatible.

I hope you're chuffed with the general sound of the speakers, etc. I've never wanted to change mine yet, something Octy drivers have been forced to do, to get a decent sound.

I did have to get a signal boost fitted to my setup, as there was a problem between my aerial and the new stereo, but it was dirt cheap, and any decent car hi-fi shop should do it. I used "mobile radio" in Exeter, but I don't know if they have any other outlets around the UK. They supplied the casing to adapt the existing hole, to the new unit, and a lovely looking silver blanking off plate (because the CD player is about 60% narrower than the original Skoda unit)

Apart from that, it was a very painless job to go from radio/tape to CD player and I'd recommend it to anyone

Wow! Thanks for the rapid replies.

I hadn't spotted the ICE forum.

What does the adaptor thingy consist of? Is it just a plate to make the hole smaller? If so, what holds the replacement player in place?

TIA

Stimps I moved it before you posted

Hello welliesorter,

I got a Blaupunkt single shot CD player which sounds fine.

I bought the facia adaptor at In car discount

You may also need a wiring adaptor available from Bluespot

I needed the adaptor on mine, but not sure if this is just for Blaupunkt.

Nice friendly local Skoda dealer lent me the tool for removing the original unit.

Matthew - Either the picture on the In Car Discount is upside down, or the company I used stuck mine on upside down - although my HU fits perfectly! That's the autoleads plate they've got there

Wellie - I'll try and take a pic tonight if I remember (or maybe even today) so you can see how the plate looks. IMHO it blends in pretty well!

My dealer just released the standard Hu for me; no charge.

As for the adapter I'm not sure. I kind of assumed it was for all aftermarket HU as it's for connecting to the Blaupunkt type wiring loom of the car; better check this out before buying though.

There is a link some where for the memory loss and K-line problems. The K-line problem is easily solved by making sure that you short out the correct pin i.e remove relevant connection from pin3 on multi-connector III.

Cheers.

Adrian.

p.s my dealer didn't know about either problems and Halfords didn't either.

If for some reason your dealer won't lend you the removal tool, you can get a variety of different types from Halfords

Originally posted by Stimps in this post

Matthew - Either the picture on the In Car Discount is upside down, or the company I used stuck mine on upside down - although my HU fits perfectly! That's the autoleads plate they've got there

Yes you're right, looks like the've got it upside down!

Mine fits well, but there is a slight gap between the bottom of the HU and the storage tray thing.

Was thinking of fitting the push release tray from the elegance, as you dont get the gap with this.

I wish I had a digital camera of my own - The company I used did a real tidy job on my CD player. Wish I had a piccie...

Here's a pic of mine - had to pop out to the car to get something, so took the phone with me and grabbed a quick piccie...

Nice. My unit (I don't know if you saw it at NEC meet?) is similar, but the blanking off plate above the unit is about twice the size, and silver in colour to match the player. I may have to invest in one of those cheap tiny digital's some time...

Thanks again for all the replies, especially to Stimps for posting the picture. I've had a chat today with a Fabia owning colleague. He paid Halfords to fit his JVC player but said he'd be happy to tackle it himself next time. He's got the tool for removing his current player but isn't sure whether it can be used to remove the original Skoda one.

I've taken the plunge and ordered the face plate and a Sony player. I'll work out what else I need at the weekend and update you on whether I'm successful.

I have changed the head unit to a Sony CDX-L450 which is a single CD player. I got a local firm to fit it in for me which cost

It's a brilliant effect when you get a really good bass track and the door mirrors vibrate!!

*cough* subwoofer! *cough*

:speaker: :speaker: :speaker:

Wellie - which Sony H.U. did you order? The CDXMP40? (details)

If so, post a quick review somewhere once it's up and running - I was quite tempted to go down the MP3 route... may still end up doing so now I finally have broadband at home :evil:

Found one of the best bass tracks this morning, its not a "nts nts nts nts" one, but that song "It's been a while" by Staind. Plenty of bass guitar in that to get your insides shaking on max bass.

PS: I'm going to cry I think - I'm never going to get on bloody broadband down here.

Mine went live yesterday, so had to test it out to see how many mp3s, etc, could be downloaded

If you want something with serious bass, you could try checking out some classical music...

Think EZ Rollers - Walk This Land has good bass, or anything IASCA related...

Found Kazaa's performance on broadband (only 150k) to be quite disappointing - either

works at about 18kb/s, or doesn't work at all. And usually the latter... :(

Anyway, getting slightly back on topic - has anyone managed to get their Fabia door

speakers off to see if the waterproof plastic is stretched across the door behind it?

Rob.

Rob - Kazaa worked ok when I gave it a twirl last night - combined downloads of about 60k/s on 500k dsl. Try your ISP's news server too, in case they carry any of the mp3 groups... Have you used something like Kazaap! to remove the spyware and boost download speeds?

Never tried taking the door cards off my Fabia - although I'm not sure it suffers from the same problem as the Octys (mine sounds fine at high volume...)

Hmm. I remember the good 'ole days when I could get a d/l speed of 70 kb/s using 512K cable modem on NTL... The bloody MP3's used to download faster than you could listen to them. It used to be so quick it would occaisonally just crash the PC - I think the ethernet card couldn't cope or something.

PS: Just got the new stereophonics album. A bit weird, but a brilliant album! :speaker: :speaker:

Kazaa is all about other people's poor connections.

The most important column in the search results is the 'Bandwidth' column! Even then, you don't know how many concurrent connections a high-bandwidth user is allowing, leaving you to suffer.

Another trick is to right-click on the file and select 'Find more sources to download'...

I'm using Kazaa Lite - another ad and spyware free version.