After some advice guys,

I installed a new Alpine Head Unit in my Fabia vRS last night and everything went reasonably well (getting all the wires in was a bit tight) and came to lock the car after using the remote - and nothing!

I tried the spare remote and still no joy, the only way I can lock the car is using the key (the central locking still works luckily) reading through the handbook the alarm only has a fuse for the siren so I don't reckon it's that anybody got any suggestions?

One other problem I have - I had a '98 Golf GT Tdi before the Fabia and I had the dealer fit the 6 CD Changer from that into the Fabia. So I whipped that out last week to bang on e-bay as it won't work with the Alpine and like a prat I forgot to eject the CD carrier from the changer beforehand. No problem I thought I'll plug it back in and eject it, the Head unit would not see the Changer no matter what I did so I was still stuck. I have since taken the car back to the dealer to get the original Head unit removed in readiness to fit the Alpine and the Technician reckoned plugging the Head unit back in again would re-set the units and it would see the Changer - nope no good. So I'm stuck with the changer with the magazine still in it - is there any way I can just put a feed to it to get the magazine to eject and if so which wires do I use in the plug (it's the rectangular type with about a dozen wires).

Most grateful for any advice

Adrian :(

if you disconnected the battery, chances are the keys have got out of sync. Follow the instructions in the manual to re-sync you key and see it that helps.

...and reset the one touch front windows.

Had a good look thru manual last night, can't recall seeing anything on that - what do you have to do?

Cheers,

Adrian

Had the same on my Octy.

Take the stereo out and look at the ISO power connector (on the lead that came with the stereo) and you should have Red (12V Permanent) Yellow (12V Switched) Black (12v Earth) Orange (Lights On/Dimmer) Blue Cut and tape both ends and try your central locking again.

Hopefully will sort it out for you.

Hi There,

I had this problem on my TT, and it's down to the fact that VAG cars have the permanent +12v line and the switched +12v line swapped on their ISO connectors (contrary to the industry standard).

I think Monkey Boy was referring to this problem in his post, but not quite so directly.

In the ISO standard for car audio, the switched +12V line is a yellow wire, and the permanent +12V is red. On my TT, these two were reversed, which meant that the stereo was always fully powered with the ignition was off.

I don't know if you noticed with the standard head unit, but if you turn the ignition on, and then off, the radio will still work until you actually remove the key. It appears that the car has some electronics which can detect if the stereo is still powered, and having the power leads reversed confuses it. For some reason, the car still seems to believe that the key is in the ignition, as this is the only state in which the stereo can normally be drawing power on it's switched +12V line.

The bottom line is this, check that the switched +12V from the car loom is actually going to the switched +12V line on the stereo, and the same for the permanent +12V. If they aren't, simply switch the wires around in the ISO connector on the stereo.

Alternatively, pop down to Halfords, and ask them to order your a late model VW/Audi ISO adapter harness (which does the swapping for you).

Hope this helps,

Bagpuss.

Cheers Guys,

That seems to make sense as the thing was fine until I swopped the Head unit. Out of interest how much are the adaptors (ie cheap or silly money!)

Adrian

Anyone throw any light on the CD Changer problem above?

Hi Adrian,

I believe the adapters cost

Cheers for that, I'll give that a go

Adrian

Sorted!

Whipped the Head unit out again last night and luckily the Alpine connector has provision to swop the switched and permanent lives round, remote locking and alarm work perfectly again.

Much obliged to you gents for your help.

Adrian

A good result.

A good result.

and saved you

Glad you got it sorted, and without having to spend any money.

The fact that the Alpine loom has the provision to swap the leads shows how common this problem actually is.

Bagpuss.

I think this might be a problem for some cars possibly? I had a Alpine unit in my car which was eating current with the ignition turned off. My local Halford's were stumped by the idea, but it was caused by the problem outlined above.