Better late than never.... Eonon install

[Titanium_Man]

*MODS – I have put this in the Fabia section as this is where all this started... feel free to move!

Ok so here it goes... true to my word, a very quick guide to fitting an Eonon double din head unit.. sorry it’s taken so long people!!

First things first, this is the most extensive install I have done so feel free to make any suggestions/ideas for an easier install next time... but this also may mean I may have done something I shouldn’t have... so you are following this at your own risk!! (I’ve had no probs since install!)

DONT FORGET TO DICONNECT THE BATTERY FOR YOUR SAFETY!!

Secondly, this didn’t go as well as I hoped (surround problems) and I’m still not happy with how it sits. The biggest issue is how far it is sat out of the dash, THIS IS DOWN TO THE HEADUNIT and the sheer size of the detachable facia... I’m fairly certain that had I not gone down this route (detachable face plate) it would all sit flush and I would be happier... but I didn’t and it’s now tough ...!

IMHO there is no way the unit with the facia on this will sit flush to the dash so if this is a problem for you do not buy this unit!

The bits I used

This stereo removal key

The head unit which I got from this shop here

This double din cage from the same shop

This ISO adapter

This lead for the booster aerial

These red insulated crimp terminals

This hacksaw

Size 20 torx key

Decent wire cutter & stripper tool

I also brought some trim removal tool for £3 off an Ebay shop but unable to find them again to post a link.

The start

The leads which come with the head unit have the pins in the wrong place and i did originally try to take these out and replace in the correct position using this guide, however the metal pins started to bend and i panicked, so decided to buy the ISO adapter, crimps etc, cut down and attach the new adapter with all the pins in the right place.

However when I installed it originally, the unit stuck out a fair bit due to the amount of wires behind the unit, so decided i needed to shrink them down to save on space consumption.

Started with these..

Ended with this...

I cut the wires from the head unit about 3/4 away from the small white connector making sure i left enough on the red and yellow wire after the black plastic tubes in the above picture and the rest to the same length.

Take hold of a crimp and look through it to see where the metal inner finishes as you will need the coated wire inside the metal inner to get a decent grip and to make sure it doesn't work itself loose. Leaving enough coated wire doesn't leave alot of room for the bare wire, so hold a wire against a crimp about half way and try and look inside the crimp to judge just how much bare wire.... i reckon it was about 3mm, not much! Once you have inserted the wire into the crimp, squash it with the wire cutter all along one half of the crimp.

I cut the wires on the ISO adapter about 1/4 from the big end and swapped the red and yellow pins around for a permanant live feed and although the clock and radios stations remain correct and saved, i still can't turn the unit on without turning the ignition on?!? (i suppose it could be possible i didn't need to change the pins around on the ISO adapter but haven't had chance to take it all out to try it) then insert each wire into the crimps on the other wiring loom ensuring the exact same colour wire is connected to the other end (E.G red to red, grey and black to grey and black etc) I was left with a blue wire which wasn't needed so i put a crimp on the end.

Using the stereo keys, pull out the old head unit and I was left with this....

Mine took a bit of persuasion, but i got there in the end! I was left with the drawer which simply pulls out with a good tug.

The middle

Once you have pulled out the cubby drawer (or whatever you have) you will be left with this bit gap..

To help the unit to sit as flush as you can, using the Irwin hacksaw, cut out the plastic bars arrowed above.... be careful, there is a collection of thin wires at the back, make sure you don’t cut them (I have no idea what they’re for, i can only guess it’s for the fan switch below the hole!)

hey presto...

As there is very little room once the unit is in, you need to remove the centre air vent using a couple of the trim tools... the tools i brought were plastic and didn’t mark the trim... use a microfiber cloth or similar to protect your dash if you don’t have these or want some extra protection.

You will also need to get the hazard button out... 2 simple clips to press on the back of it

And then i removed the glove box.... firsts unscrew the 3 torx screws arrowed below...

Then prize off the little side bit

..... and finally the last 2 screws at the bottom...

Once you have undone these the glove box will drop, but be careful not to let it completely drops as mine has an air con pipe going into my glove box... simply pull the black pipe off pictured below

And unclip the light connector

I then used a box to sit the glove box as there was another wire attached for something and decided not to take it off!

Once that is all done it’s time to route the usb and ipod/iphone leads.

I went for a fag and coffee break at this point... it looks worse than it is!

Looking through centre air vent you will be able to look to through and to the left to see the passenger foot well...

Feed the cables through this hole, pull out through the bottom as arrowed...

I have fed it thought there as there was no need to cut bits of the dash which are on show and to help keep the wires tidy.... however I reckon i will probably play most of my music via Bluetooth and my iphone, but thought best to route them whilst i had it all apart.

There are 2 small plastic bits either side of where the stereo and cubby hole fits... just prize them out with a trim tool...

At this point i installed the cage... this was a bit of a pain!! I found that the corners of the cage kept catching the plastic walls inside the space left by the stereo.... i simply pushed with my fingers on the bits which were caught whilst pushing.... eventually it will go!

I then attached the aerial booster, wound up the gps wire (leaving enough slack to screw on the unit!) as this was really long, hiding as much as i can down the hole right at the rear of the dash , attach this and the main wiring loom to the car wire ...

This is the fiddly bit...... to allow the unit to sit as far back as it can, you need to end up with the arial up towards the left hand side of the air vent (sorry no pic of this :( ) and the car wiring loom towards the from and right of the air vent....

i pulled on the loom and wires (gently so not to break the connections!) as i pushed the head unit as far back as you can.

I tested the system at this point before you put everything back to make sure all was well.

Once this is in, i simply rested the black gps box on top of the cage... reception is pretty good there i found (but open to other suggestions if you have them!) but does take an age to find the signal when you crank it up for the first time.

The end

Now we’re done... almost.... this is where I am up to but having trouble finding the time to go to the closest Skoda parts department to complete the install.

I originally brought this double din surround. I tried fitting this but it didn’t fit! 2 of the connectors were a few mm out to the holes in the car... i did try to file these down to size, but i was a bit heavy handed and snapped them... arrgh... anyone else brought one of these and managed to fit it?!?! (i reckon with the right tools and more time i would have got this right and fitted it but not sure i want to spend another £20?!?)

Before i broke it, i did kind of manage to fit it, but it was so tight that the buttons above the trim would get stuck in when pressed.... any ideas?!?

And that’s that! It’s not perfect at the moment as there is a small gap on the left, right and the top (although i know you can get the top bit from Skoda) but it’s in and working for now! (Haven't got a picture of it installed yet, but i willtake one on my phone tomorrow and update this thread)

Thanks for looking.

Jay

[DanHam]

Thanks for the write up. Certainly does look very involving getting it to fit....

Glad I waited for you to write this thread, good luck getting it all sorted but I've now decided that its not the headunit for me lol.

Be good to see you update the thread in time to see how it performs

[anewman]

Just get the strip for the top from a Skoda dealer. Only costs a couple of quid and is the best thing for the job!

You do seem to be missing a left and right bit that should be there from the factory though.

Edited 2 August, 2012 by anewman

[Titanium_Man]

Thanks for the write up. Certainly does look very involving getting it to fit....

Glad I waited for you to write this thread, good luck getting it all sorted but I've now decided that its not the headunit for me lol.

Be good to see you update the thread in time to see how it performs

Yeah was a lot more involved than I ha originally read about I'm not gonna lie!

I've already started to build up an opinion but will give it a bit longer before I update this thread...

[Titanium_Man]

Just get the strip for the top from a Skoda dealer. Only costs a couple of quid and is the best thing for the job!

You do seem to be missing a left and right bit that should be there from the factory though.

Left and right bit?!? You talking about the 2 littl plastic bits either side of the head unit?!?

I didn't buy the bit from skoda as I thought the complete surround would fit without and but now It doesn't quite fit, I maybe picking up the little black bit you said about this weekend.

[mattievrs]

I had the same unit in my car but pulled it out in favour of some dash gauges. The gps aerial in mine was run up the passenger a pillar and was magnetic so stuck to the cars metal, theoretically making the whole car an aerial. This sped up the gps signal a lot. You might want to think about getting the gps program changed from that crappy go thing to tomtom mobile? It's a lot better and quicker!

Couple of pics from mine

[anewman]

If this is one of those Windows Mobile 5 type things, try Igo Primo (I think that's the latest version). The Tomtom mobile version is quite well behind the current Tomtom satnav units, and IMO, Igo Primo is way better (although a bit more technical).

[Titanium_Man]

Yep got TomTom ready to go, just need to put in on the sd card... I've also read somewhere that you can somehow install some kind of equaliser to improve the sounds?!?

Good shout on the aerial Mattie, but will install the TomTom first to see if that helps, if not then will do as you suggest mate.

[mattievrs]

Yep got TomTom ready to go, just need to put in on the sd card... I've also read somewhere that you can somehow install some kind of equaliser to improve the sounds?!?

Good shout on the aerial Mattie, but will install the TomTom first to see if that helps, if not then will do as you suggest mate.

I read something about that aswell somewhere but never found it when I wanted it, so I just amped it up and it sounded a lot better!

[Titanium_Man]

I read something about that aswell somewhere but never found it when I wanted it, so I just amped it up and it sounded a lot better!

I've got a website saved in my email with a 20page+ thread about igo8 and the equaliser was mentioned there, but this was for units with WIN CE 5 but loadsa people were saying there was an issue running it on version 6 (which my unit has) so stopped reading.... May have to hunt it out as about to replace my coilovers and possibly putting my front and rear bumpers in for a re-spray so can't really afford to chuck money at an amp right now :(

How did you get your all in one surround to fit?!?

[grr666]

I'm about at the weekend mate, gis a bell when you're ready to pop over

How does £25 for the pair grab you?

[Titanium_Man]

I'm about at the weekend mate, gis a bell when you're ready to pop over

How does £25 for the pair grab you?

Sounds perfect to me buddy!

Probably after work tomorrow dude if that's cool?!?

That Vax I bought mate worked a treat on the rear seats.... give us a hollar when you wanna borrow it for yours!

[mattievrs]

I've got a website saved in my email with a 20page+ thread about igo8 and the equaliser was mentioned there, but this was for units with WIN CE 5 but loadsa people were saying there was an issue running it on version 6 (which my unit has) so stopped reading.... May have to hunt it out as about to replace my coilovers and possibly putting my front and rear bumpers in for a re-spray so can't really afford to chuck money at an amp right now :(

How did you get your all in one surround to fit?!?

I used a single din eBay surround and cut the left to right middle bar out of it, then snapped the 2 clips off the side of it so it fitted flush. Held it in with the cage and then put the eonon plastic surround on it to finish it off.

[Titanium_Man]

I used a single din eBay surround and cut the left to right middle bar out of it, then snapped the 2 clips off the side of it so it fitted flush. Held it in with the cage and then put the eonon plastic surround on it to finish it off.

Haha! I'm waiting on the same thing from Amazon.

After I wrecked the all in one, I initially considered buying another £20 surround but came across it and thought it was only £7 so worth a punt!

[Titanium_Man]

So I've finally got the little black bit for above the head unit....

As you can see it still leaves a gap, which is no good for me so opened up the box from Amazon which was meant to contain this....

.... And as mattievrs said above, I was going to cut the middle plastic bit and use that as the surround instead, but they sent the wrong one!!

I've reordered it and will post again when it's arrived and fitted.

As I said right at the start of this post, if you want this unit to sit flush, it won't.... This is as far back as I can get it without cutting all of the plastic bit which was left in the hole

On another note... The gps signal is pretty much perfect now most of the time and only takes a couple of minutes to find the signal.... It used to literally take about 10 minutes to find it when I first installed it.

Not sure if my gps aerial as moved from on top of the metal cage, not had chance to open it up again, but it works really well now

[MattH]

Could do with this being made a sticky. It's taken me ages to find it again!