Replacement for non-functioning Amundsen

[marcvarc]

Hello Forum,

After nearly 50 years of driving, I bought my very first brand-new car in September 2015, a wonderful Skoda Yeti Outdoor SEL. I have not been hard on it and it has done only 23,000 miles. Until now it has performed faultlessly; and as I am 71 years old, I had hoped it would see me through to the end of my driving days.

 

Now, the Amundsen sat nav/radio/information centre has failed, just repeatedly turning on and off every few seconds.

 

When I purchased the Yeti I paid extra for Park Assist, SmartLink and Smartgate; so I’ve lost all these features as well as sat nav/radio/MP3/SD card/+DAB.

 

I took the Yeti to my dealers, Vindis Skoda at Cambridge, and was told that their 'technician' had determined the Amundsen could not be repaired and needed to be replaced at a cost of over £1,300!

(I suspect he only did what I had already done, which was to remove the fuse to the Amundsen / disconnect the battery, in order to attempt a hard reset. It didn't help.)

 

I am shocked and appalled that the Amundsen failed after only five and a half years, and that the fault cannot be diagnosed or repaired. To make matters worse, Vindis said that a replacement unit was back-order, and could not say when or if ever it would become available.

 

I would be grateful if anyone could advise what my best course of action is now. Should I try to find an Amundsen second-hand, buy a replacement radio from another manufacturer, or maybe try to find an independent technician who can repair the unit?

 

All suggestions gratefully received.

 

[langers2k]

On a Sept 2015 car you probably have a MIB style Amundsen which looks like this:

 

 

If so, @pab567 might have some ideas about repairing it.

 

You can buy a used one but it'll need a dealer to sort out component protection (anti-theft) and a few other bits after fitting it.

 

The other option is a 'hacked' unit which has component protection disabled and can be fitted without a dealer although it might need coding afterwards

[pab567]

First of all, I think it makes sense to try to have this unit repaired. It might require just SW reflash in emergency mode. In worse scenario, one of the memory chips - either NAND flash or eMMC - might require replacement which is still cheaper than buying any new or second-hand unit. In the worst scenario it indeed may require swap and in such case, as @langers2k wrote, you either need your local Skoda dealer to sort out component protection and reinstall FEC/SWaP codes assigned to your car (by VIN) or, alternatively, have the unit hacked.

If you are interested in repairing the unit pls contact me on PM.

[marcvarc]

Sorry, I should have added a picture. This is what the Amundsen looks like.

Cheers, Marc

[blegton]

On 13/04/2021 at 17:55, pab567 said:

First of all, I think it makes sense to try to have this unit repaired. It might require just SW reflash in emergency mode. In worse scenario, one of the memory chips - either NAND flash or eMMC - might require replacement which is still cheaper than buying any new or second-hand unit. In the worst scenario it indeed may require swap and in such case, as @langers2k wrote, you either need your local Skoda dealer to sort out component protection and reinstall FEC/SWaP codes assigned to your car (by VIN) or, alternatively, have the unit hacked.

If you are interested in repairing the unit pls contact me on PM.

Hi pab567, I have the same issue with what seems to be the same unit, also on a Yeti 1.2 TSI from 2016. I've sent you a PM for advice about repair. Thanks.