The Columbus system in my 2010 Yeti is paying up - I get funny noises intermittently through the speakers making sounds like some sort of signal feedback, and when it does it I can also hear noises from either the HDD or the CD drive which sounds like a computer disc drive that's loading data. The sounds continue for up to 5 minutes or so after switching off & locking the car.

When playing up, the sounds may last for an hour or so, at other times there are no noises at all and everything is normal.

 

The loudness of the "feedback" sounds are not affected by the volume setting of the radio/cd and the classic way of stopping them being annoying is to turn up the radio to drown them out.

 

The Telegraph's Honest John says that he's getting lots of people complaining about Columbus/RNS510 failures, and there are certainly plenty of "non-working" ones for sale on eBay.

 

Does anyone know if the failures are particularly the LCD screen versions, or the later LED versions, or are the faulty ones of completely random age?

 

Also, does anyone know of a reliable Columbus/RNS510 repair service in the Manchester area?

Sounds to me like the cooling fan on the rear of the unit. Nice easy cheap fix, and I have one for sale in the classifieds (there's a link in my sig). First up, pull the unit out of the dash and fire it up to see if you can see / hear the fan, it's easy to diagnose.

The other possibility, albeit a remote one.....your mobile isn't anywhere near the Columbus is it? Some mobys have been know to cause interference.

 

Is just a thought....

Sounds to me like the cooling fan on the rear of the unit. Nice easy cheap fix, and I have one for sale in the classifieds (there's a link in my sig). First up, pull the unit out of the dash and fire it up to see if you can see / hear the fan, it's easy to diagnose.

I doubt very much that it's the cooling fan as the "interference" noise comes from the speakers, not the unit itself. It can even be heard outside the car after you lock it!

I assume that if it was the fan, it would be coming from the head unit itself as a mechanical noise.

The other possibility, albeit a remote one.....your mobile isn't anywhere near the Columbus is it? Some mobys have been know to cause interference.

 

Is just a thought....

No I thought of that early on too, but it's definitely a fault within the unit. It still does it without the phone anywhere near or even when phone is off.

I reckon it's something wrong with the circuitry inside the unit, but whether it's the main board or the power supply, I've no idea which is why I'm looking for a repair service in the Manchester area.

I could buy a S/H unit off eBay, but am I risking another duff one if I get one of similar age (LCD) or did they solve the reliability issues when they brought out the LED version which presumably has a different main board in it. But that's around £100 more expensive!

I note that Skoda has now dropped Columbus from the new car options list - certainly for the Yeti anyway.

Edited 22 April, 201511 yr by speedsport

The cooling fan is driven off the radio board so it's entirely possible that the interference is bleeding into the speaker output. It could also be the hard drive, but that's off the main board rather than the radio board. Both of these spin up as soon as the unit is active. If it were the dvd drive then that's only active when in use, so unlikely to be that.

 

If yours is an LCD unit then for the worth of it I'd not bother with a repair if it's dodgy (unless it's the cooling fan which is very straightforward). Many of the early units are now becoming faulty, and it's just the way things go I'm afraid. The newer LED ones are much more robust as long as they don't get broken by people trying to update them with dodgy firmwares.

The cooling fan is driven off the radio board so it's entirely possible that the interference is bleeding into the speaker output. It could also be the hard drive, but that's off the main board rather than the radio board. Both of these spin up as soon as the unit is active. If it were the dvd drive then that's only active when in use, so unlikely to be that.

 

If yours is an LCD unit then for the worth of it I'd not bother with a repair if it's dodgy (unless it's the cooling fan which is very straightforward). Many of the early units are now becoming faulty, and it's just the way things go I'm afraid. The newer LED ones are much more robust as long as they don't get broken by people trying to update them with dodgy firmwares.

How does a numpty like me tell if it's the cooling fan that's causing the signal interference short of actually replacing it? Supposed to be going on hols in the car next week after running motorsport this weekend, so I'm getting rather short of time to investigate!

In your first post you said you could also hear noises from the unit itself. The fan is on the rear of the unit so if you pull it out from the dash you should be able to hear if it's faulty (bearings in the motor making it noisy is usually the fault).

Ok, thanks RN.... having pulled the unit forwards there is some bearing noise from the fan, but there's definitely another sound from further into the unit that sounds just like a CD player that's struggling to read a faulty disc.  I think that given the age of the unit and various comments (including yours - many thanks) I'm probably best going for a S/H LED unit. Lots out there around the same sort of price, mostly from Lithuania for some reason, but I've seen one locally on eBay that seems ok and could be returned if not.

 

It's not good that a manufacturer fitted radio seems to have such a short life but then the environment in a motor vehicle is not exactly the best place for what is essentially a computer HDD to exist - no wonder solid SSD's are now appearing instead.

 

Thanks again.

It's unlikely to be the hard drive mate, really. I've never known one fail, other than occasionally having a brain fart and losing the maps or music from the partition.

I've sent you a message.