Hi all,

 

Looking at previous posts on the subject I couldn't see this method, so I just wanted to log it for posterity. Took a second person for step 12. Needed a long spare bit of wire, and a long torx screwdriver (not sure of size, sorry!)

 

1. Purchase a cheapo bluetooth dongle for the Skoda Swing (I believe it emulates a CD changer); I know, I'm mad for cheap Chinese tat, but I have to order it all before they invade Taiwan and we have to boycott them! Here's the link: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32884724837.html?spm=a2g0o.order_list.order_list_main.5.14191802Bc6Lo4
2. Pry off shiny plastic fascia plate which provides the immediate surrounding of the CD insertion aperture
3. Undo 4 screws holding in radio
4. Pull radio slightly out
5. Undo pax airbag light wire connector. I used a mobile phone's front-facing camera (having placed it just infront of the gear lever, and with a torch next to it illuminating the area of interest) to give me a view of what I was doing. A little make-up mirror would have been simpler.
6. Pull radio all the way out
7. Remove extant wiring loom and plug it into the cheapo bluetooth wiring loom dongle, and plug the dongle's loom in turn into the radio
8. Plug mic in - your mileage may vary, but I furtled with the shiny plastic dashboard fascia adjacent the hazard light button and managed to run the mic wire upwards and outwards (laterally) toward the steering wheel a little, so the mic is held where the shiny plastic meets the duller plastic close to the steering wheel. Your mileage may vary, but I get excellent sound pickup unless I use the vent immediately adjacent it on a setting >2.
9. Prepare to bury the junction block whilst replacing the radio. There is little spare space behind the radio when it is in situ: I took a long spare wire, doubled it back upon itself, and poked the loop just outside the radio enclosure (there was a little gap on the drivers' side) forwards until I could grab it and pull it into my operating field (IE within the radio enclosure). I then unplugged the wiring loom, pushed it through my spare-wire-loop such that the loop would allow me - by pulling on it - to provide traction to a bit of wire that would draw the wiring loom connection block off to the drivers' side and thus into space where it could sit and allow the radio to be pushed all the way home.
10. Switch radio on/check bluetooth works OK, test-call to ensure audio pickup ok.
11. Push radio back in most of the way and reconnect pax airbag light
12. A second person slowly slid the radio back in for me while I gently drew my wire loop toward me. This took a few tries and much patience.
13. Once the radio was pushed home, the screws were done up: loose first, then tight.
14. Re-tested bluetooth.
15. Replace fascia.
16. Tea and medals.

 

Sorry I didn't get photos; if one of the mic position would be useful to anyone do let me know. I'm told the sound pickup is great. There's probably enough mic wire to go all the way to the top of the side pillars if one wanted to really do some dashboard dismantling!

 

Credit to the Chinese hero in a factory somewhere who knocks out these wee wiring-loom-and-bluetooth thingies, and to my father for being a second pair of hands and pulling up and showing me videos online while I was trying to pry apart random bits of dashboard!

Sorry just to add: the "long torx screwdriver" was just because my normal screwdriver's heads were the interchangeable kind and they were too 'fat' to reach into the little hole for the radio screws. Any non-interchangeable head screwdriver would, I expect, do.

Sorry, also to add: I got the pre-made wiring loom as I wanted something plug and play. In retrospect I might have tried just the bluetooth  module and mic. If I understand correctly, I would have had to figure out how to crimp the power cables into the radio loom wiring myself somehow, but it would have taken up far less space.  If I had to advise someone in the future I'd say buy it with the wiring adaptor, and if my technique for getting it to fit doesn't work, cut the wiring adaptor off and figure out how to crimp it in oneself.