just got our 2002 octavia ambient estate and very pleased with it, but yesterday the radio got itself stuck on one station. wouldn't change station, go to cd, change volume or any other setting. in the end i had to pull the fuse to avoid morning service. now the fuse is back in but the radio is dead. is this common? is there an answer or will i have to replace the radio and if so where? can anyone help?

Never heard of that problem with the stereo before..... I assume it is a Skoda factory fit head unit?

Welcome to Briskoda though

as far as i know it's the original radio.

I used two junior hacksaw blades to pull the radio free, hoping to find a connection block that had worked free, but everything seemed plugged in.

Isn't there a fuse on the back of the HU. My old one lost all the bass on the passenger side but it still worked. Not seen any reports of one dying completely though.

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ok. back to basics for an old dog learning new tricks. the HU would be the head unit?, and that would be the box that i pulled from the fascia with two snapped junior hacksaw blades?

i'll do that again and look for a fuse. i thought i might photo the connectors at the back of that unit and disconnect it and see if i could reach my hand in to find any other connector blocks back there that might have come loose.

thanks for the info on the fuse.

Spot on there. Assuming you don't have a CD changer then you should have two connectors which are rectangular and 8 pin IIRC. The connector for the CD changer is smaller and square.

found the fuse on the back of the HU. that was ok.

neighbour noticed the other night that tho the car was locked the tell tales on the radio controls were on. i pulled the black plug to avoid running down the battery.

i've found a guy breaking an octie with the same radio so i'm going to try that. don't want a brand new radio and find that doesn't work either

My guess is that the previous owner had a different HU and put the original back before selling. The switched +ve and permanent +ve may be reversed

Yep. Sounds most likely.

i know the previous owners and i will check with them when they come home.

the radio and cd player were working perfectly untill mid journey one morning it just failed to obey any switches. it just carried on playing the station it was on, untill i tok the fuse out. thanks for the suggestions. all the new radios available seem to be of the flashing lights brash displays and incomprehensible instructions types.