I was just reading through the forums and noticed that theft of Columbus head units is an issue with Superb 2's. Has anybody had one stolen from a Superb 3?

I don't really want to go back to the same probs we had with car radio thefts back in the 1980's and early 90's :(

AFAIK there has been a recent one from a notorious car park in Bradford. Not 100% sure that it's possible to recode though. 

In the MkII, the Columbus  could be removed very quickly by pulling off the surrounding trim, undoing 4 bolts, then sliding the unit out.

 

I'm not sure how the Columbus could be removed in the MkIII as the CD/DVD and SD card slots are accessed from the glovebox, so it's presumably too complicated to quickly take it out if it's being stolen.  It looks more integrated into the dash than the MkII as well and I've not seen anyone post details of how to remove it.

If anything it's even simpler to remove the new generation units. At least on the old units there's the trim to remove and the screws holding it in place. It's complicated a little by there being both units to remove though.

Plus component protection to get around, which isn’t trivial without the right tools.

Edited 11 August, 20187 yr by cheezemonkhai

The mk2 Columbus was just one single complete unit.

 

The mk3 Columbus is two units - the screen unit and heading (in the glovebox).

 

Both are exclusively paired.

Re-coding either of them requires more specialist tools than VCDS or VCP.

 

Hence while its easy to get the screen out, it will b useless.

Meanwhile the headunit requires the entire glovebox removed first!!

 

Edited 11 August, 20187 yr by JR RS

There was a big market for the mk2 Columbus to add sat nav or upgrade systems which was easy. I’ve not seen the same for the mk3 or similar cars so far.

The screen unit for the Mk3 Superb Columbus doesn't have any Component Protection. You can remove it and replace with another with no coding or anything needed. It's only the drive unit in the glovebox which has CP activated on it.

Yes, but the screen doesn’t have function other than the display and buttons.

 

if there is going to be a market for second hand upgrades of screens, then we have ourselves a problem in that we as a community shouldn’t be buying these.

15 minutes ago, cheezemonkhai said:

Yes, but the screen doesn’t have function other than the display and buttons.

 

if there is going to be a market for second hand upgrades of screens, then we have ourselves a problem in that we as a community shouldn’t be buying these.

Agreed of course. But why would we need to? The screens aren't an upgrade as I understand it - just a replacement. If ours fail it's a warranty fix. If we break them ourselves (unlikely), it's a cheap(ish) replacement. I don't see the market to be honest unless the "brain" is also stolen, and that's a lot of risk for an opportunist thief. It's very different from the Mk2 problem.

I agree, I personally wouldn’t bother, but if someone had say an 6” screen and wanted the 9” screen is that cheap to buy up the dealer?

 

if you create a market, thieves will steal them :(

Edited 12 August, 20187 yr by cheezemonkhai