hi folks

is there a problem with fitting a aftermarket stereo in a vrs

(asking because a few people say it messes up the diagnostics)

and will a double din fit if i take out the cubbyhole ?

because im fancing one of these ebays pieces of junk(mates had one for over 1 year and its faultless)

626 7" TFT LCD CAR IN DASH TV MONITOR FM DVD MP3 PLAYER - eBay, Monitors, DVD Players Monitors, In-Car Entertainment GPS, Cars, Parts Vehicles (end time 17-Sep-07 21:15:00 BST)

or thewy do a similar single din model(clip/off face)

cannot believe what it can do ,and due to the fact there ranging between 70 an £100 from uk sellers ill take a risk with it (supposed to have 12 warranty).

bought a £500 alpine and sony headunit before know and had problems with both so its not just about brand/cost.(hence the skoda octavia was better than the rest of the models based on the golf floor pan and the cheapest:thumbup:

thanks for any advice

You may have problems if you don't get the correct loom which fits between the car's wiring and the radio's. You can buy them from Halfords for around £10 I think.

Double din will fit with the cubby hole removed.

Just swap the red and yellow wires around rather than buy an adapter.

Thats what i did and works a charm

Just swap the red and yellow wires around rather than buy an adapter.

Thats what i did and works a charm

I thought the adaptor was there to solve a problem with the diagnostics cable which runs to the radio?

thanks chaps

thought the double din would go in (keeps my options open)

as for swapping the wires round did this on a old vectra i had as the radio never kept its memory until i did it.

does the iso connector combat the aftermarket stereo issue ?

the main issue ive got is will vagcom/diagnostics still be okay if i replace the stereo:confused: as i dont want to blow up my laptop etc or have any fault lights on etc :confused:

You wont get a fault light, you might get a fault code but I doubt it. My guess would be that it'll try and access the radio, fail and move on.

Just swap the red and yellow wires around rather than buy an adapter.

Thats what i did and works a charm

Until you take the car in for a service, and the dealer connects up there multi thousand pound diagnostic tool and it blows up, either that or the dealer will remove your tidy installed HU to disconnect it before hooking up.

I believe my local dealer now removes all aftermarket HUs prior to connecting their equipment after blowing up several diagnostic tools.

The loom is required to stop a pin which on a non standard HU will output 12V into the cars diagnostic system.

I thought thats all the loom did :(

better get one soon then as i plan to get mine remapped soon

i've just stuck an aftermarket unit in mine (see this thread).

it came with it's own iso adaptor which allowed me to switch around perm/switched 12v feeds.

there have been no probs with fault codes and no light on the dashboard - and i don't expect to have any problems with vagcom either..

also, remapping shouldn't be a problem - because it's not likely that the radio will be an integral part of the engine management system! lol.

I thought thats all the loom did :(

better get one soon then as i plan to get mine remapped soon

I think I have a spare in my garage. I bought it to fit an alpine head unit but went down the sat nav MFD route instead. If it's any good to you, let me know and you can have it FOC. Assuming I can find it. Saves it going in the bin.

Phil your a legend.

If you find it give me a shout and ill send you a few quid to cover the postage

I'll try and dig it out tomorrow

I did alot of research on this prior to fitting my old Pioneer headunit. The problem with the internet is its a bit like Chinese whispers and things can get warped.

The most useful link I found on the subject is from Ross Tech (VAG COM people) Ross-Tech: VAG-COM: Afterrmarket Radio Problem

This gives 2 useful bits of info- firstly a wiring diagram. From this I found that the offending pin was blank on my Pioneers wiring loom. Secondly an easy way to test after instalation whether your headunit is out putting 12V through the diagnostic line (which is what causes problems with the VAG diagnostic machines)

If you do both of those you can be sure you won't have problems.

Another thing you may come up against is whether you need an ariel adaptor or not. Again I dd alot of digging on this and found alot of contradicting stuff. However I read the following more than anything else so is most likely to be the correct info.

01>04 models don't need an adaptor as they don't have the amplified ariel

04> models do need an adaptor to ensure the amplified ariel gets power.

Mine is a 52 plate and the radio works fine without the powered adaptor. The only thing I needed was a male to female iso adaptor. There was one in the box with my head unit originally but as I never needed it in my old car it got lost If you don't have one I'd buy one before you start the instal, keep it in the packet and return it if you don't need it. Its about £4 from Halfords or £2 online.

Lastly many people say you may need to remove the glovebox. My advice would be don't wait to see if you need to, just take it out. Its a piece of cake to do (just watch the wire on the back of the glovebox light as you ease it out) and it gives you a handy place to tuck the cables as you slide the unit in. Without doing so your likely to crush the connectors as you ram it in.

Hope that helps

My aftermarket head unit came with a standard DIN adaptor but before fitting it I double-checked the connections and there was one wire (can't remember what colour) for the antenna which wasn't needed. I just moved the pin in the plug to a different position with no connection and connected it up. Works a treat.

I would be interested to see what your video screen HU looks like once you have it fitted in the Occy. I can't believe the price either - I will definitley be getting one of those if I upgrade to an Octavia!

i've just stuck an aftermarket unit in mine (see this thread).

it came with it's own iso adaptor which allowed me to switch around perm/switched 12v feeds.

there have been no probs with fault codes and no light on the dashboard - and i don't expect to have any problems with vagcom either..

also, remapping shouldn't be a problem - because it's not likely that the radio will be an integral part of the engine management system! lol.

Mine came with one of those adapters too. Car has been remapped and VAG-COM-ed since with the HU in place with no issues whatsoever.

thanks guys

so i take it its straight plug and play with a iso connector