I reckon I'll probably have to bite the bullet and see if a dealer can code the functions for me... In the meantime I'll wait for Ross Tech to see what they can do.

I reckon I'll probably have to bite the bullet and see if a dealer can code the functions for me... In the meantime I'll wait for Ross Tech to see what they can do.

Skoda will not allow retrofit, so you cant get it to work. the win number on the car is matched with the radio that is fitted in your car on the assymbly line. My dealer told me this when i ordered my car. "make sure that the radio u want is factory installed" u cant change it when the car is finished. Skoda and other new VAG cars. Vw golf7, Skoda Oct, Seat Leon. is locked. 

hkp -Out of curiosity what does and what doesn't work on this now that you've installed it?

Skoda will not allow retrofit, so you cant get it to work. the win number on the car is matched with the radio that is fitted in your car on the assymbly line. My dealer told me this when i ordered my car. "make sure that the radio u want is factory installed" u cant change it when the car is finished. Skoda and other new VAG cars. Vw golf7, Skoda Oct, Seat Leon. is locked.

And if the unit becomes faulty? They can't swap another one in? I don't believe it.

P

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Skoda will not allow retrofit, so you cant get it to work. the win number on the car is matched with the radio that is fitted in your car on the assymbly line. My dealer told me this when i ordered my car. "make sure that the radio u want is factory installed" u cant change it when the car is finished. Skoda and other new VAG cars. Vw golf7, Skoda Oct, Seat Leon. is locked. 

What would happen if the stereo in your car developed a fault though? Surely a replacement unit could be coded to the car?

 

I can't believe it is completely impossible to retrofit a stereo? Perhaps VAG won't allow it, and I've dropped some money down the drain - someone has to try it though don't they? 

hkp -Out of curiosity what does and what doesn't work on this now that you've installed it?

 

It powers on, radio works, but interface with other components doesn't - so it won't do telephone, or navigation or MDI currently.  The dashboard thinks the car has nav though after coding that in Vagcom.

 

I 'think' right now, to make it work, a dealer will have to remove the component protection, and then I'll have to find out from another car or Ross Tech what the coding is for the infotainment bus.  Currently the MIB unit is coded as a string of zeros which is half the problem I think.

Silly question perhaps -what firmware have you loaded on the unit? or have you not got that far.

@ greenstripe - I've not loaded a firmware yet. Still struggling with getting it coded tbh - it's a factory fresh unit so has no coding.

I was just musing if the Columbus might identify itself differently with UK firmware on it -I do stress though that I have never done any coding on cars, let alone know the vagaries of encrypted systems. 

 

The only CANbus coding I've done is on printing presses 

Not sure really mate. I will speak to the dealer tomorrow. I know they can be a bit awkward about this kind of stuff, especially if their hands are tied by SUK.  

 

And of course we have Ross Tech who I'm waiting to get back to me - hopefully forum member Theresias (Sebastian) who has been very helpful with my MQB issues so far...

What would happen if the stereo in your car developed a fault though? Surely a replacement unit could be coded to the car?

 

I can't believe it is completely impossible to retrofit a stereo? Perhaps VAG won't allow it, and I've dropped some money down the drain - someone has to try it though don't they

 

If a radio dies, lets say if you have a Bolero radio, the car is from the start paired with a Bolero radio, and the servers will "allow the new replacement  Bolero radio. its very simple.

it has something to do with safety and. "blackmarked sale"  Volvo Has used this for more than 10 years and it works, you cant retrofit anything on a volvo 

If a radio dies, lets say if you have a Bolero radio, the car is from the start paired with a Bolero radio, and the servers will "allow the new replacement  Bolero radio. its very simple.

it has something to do with safety and. "blackmarked sale"  Volvo Has used this for more than 10 years and it works, you cant retrofit anything on a volvo 

Audi also block retrofitting on newer cars through a system called "component protection", I mentioned it earlier. Nothing can be retrofitted without a visit to a main dealer, however Audi will at customer request disable "component protection" for a large sum of money.

Audi also block retrofitting on newer cars through a system called "component protection", I mentioned it earlier. Nothing can be retrofitted without a visit to a main dealer, however Audi will at customer request disable "component protection" for a large sum of money.

I think that is the problem I'm having mannyo.. What kind of sums of money are we talking about here?..

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The dealers cant do anything for you, its out of there hands, it has nothing to do with money, they cant help you. I wrote this looong time ago in this forum to all the new octavia 3 owners. "get everything installed from the factory"

Edited 23 September, 201312 yr by Aknedude

hkp, apologies if you've already said, but did you have to pay a lot of money for the Columbus? Hope you manage to get it working, interesting little project, but to be honest I think you have your work cut out :(

£775 ish.. Yes - a lot of money down the drain if it doesn't work.  But then again, people said you couldn't retrofit Audi MMI systems when they came out and some enterprising souls managed it in the end.  I'm happy to sit on my Columbus until it can be retrofitted. It's a shame I have to put the Bolero back for now, but so be it.

Uhm ... isn't it a question of coding the unit to accept the car?

I mean if it's for theft protection the unit would have to be locked from working in an old Golf mk3 or something like that!

 

Kind of silly by VAG to make it THIS hard to retro-fit tho, at least a dealer should be able to code the unit for you IMHO! Just imagine someone has an unfortunate incident with his unit (loose thermos hitting it or whatever ) and has to replace it! No can-do? No way ...  

I should have an update tomorrow - I went to the dealer today and it's booked in for diagnostics tomorrow.  It will either be able to be coded or not. If not, I'll put it back in the box and wait until someone else has worked out how to do it.  The unit WILL take a coding in VCDS, but there is no long coding helper for it yet.  The bigger problem right now is the CAN gateway won't take any coding, and the component protection is on as was suspected above.  This can probably be turned off by the dealer, but I doubt they will know the coding for a new columbus.  In this sense, my understanding is VCDS is better than the dealer computer.

How did you get on at the dealers today?

How did you get on at the dealers today?

Not much further than I did on VCDS. CAN gateway will not accept new coding without permission from the Skoda mothership it would seem. The dealer will try and speak to SUK, but one wonders how far they'll get.  Could get a bit computer says no!

 

No going to give up yet though.  As I said above, eventually someone will work it out even if it is via some kind of crack.  Too many people will be buying these cars s/h soon and want navigation and/or big screen.  It'd be nice if I could get the VCDS coding string from someone with a pre-installed Columbus actually so at least I can do that bit...

Looking forward to your success, as I couldn't force myself to spend 6% of car value on a Columbus but would really love to have it!

Update today:

 

Essentially, not good. Two dealers have looked at the retrofit now, and both are drawing blanks so far with their attempts to code the Columbus into the car.

 

The Infotainment bus and CAN gateway are far more complex than before, and there are no procedures to guide them through coding. SUK have been consulted, but no info is forthcoming as yet from them.

 

Ross-tech have been helpful, but are unable to get around the encrypted component protection (and never have I believe as this is used in Audis too and has been for some time).

 

So, as my learned friends above have warned, retrofits in MQB cars are not as easy as they used to be, but more importantly are not as understood yet.

 

I will most likely be sending the Columbus back for a refund once removed, but will try once more through a dealer and SUK to get it retrofitted.

 

Ho-hum, you live and learn!

Maybe have Skodateile contact either Skoda or his component supplier to hear what it takes?

I refuse to believe it can't be done! It must just be a question of proving you acquired everything legally to someone with access to a Skoda parts server.

 

Locking the car this badly to the factory spec is just poor design!

Try OEM Retrofits in Bradford. Thet are really clued up on all VAG retrofits.

If it can be done I'm sure they will help.