A Few Daft Questions re Fitting Double Din Head Unit

[gilligan905]

I've spent a fair bit of time lurking on here and reading up on fitting a new head unit and I'm now hopeful that I'm nearing the end of the journey. However, there are a few points that still puzzle me. I have got the old radio out OK, and have the fascia from Dave along with the clips. The Connects 2 lead to keep the steering wheel controls is here, as is the Fakra adaptor. The unit I'm fitting is the Sony XAV-601BT which has come with its own cage. My questions are:

Should the cage not be screwed into either the fascia or the hole in the dash in some way? I can see how it all fits together, but at the moment the cage it kept in place purely by gravity and I don't seem to have any screws/fittings to deal with this.

Secondly I have two green wires, one from the head unit itself and one from the Connects2 lead, that are marked as parking brake. I understand these should be grounded, but am I right in thinking I could do this by simply attaching the wires underneath the pair of T25 screws at the rear of the hole?

I am hoping to fit the microphone to the top of the A-pillar and have found out how to remove this OK. However I can't work out what I need to do to route the microphone wire from the head unit to the foot of the A pillar. Any tips would be great.

 

[mac music]

hi ya lets see

the cage you should find there are a series of " triangles " around the front edge . bend these out into the space to hold the cage in use a flat bladed screw driver and try not to let the triangles get up into the head unit slot as it will stop you getting the HU in

the green's if they are to be earthed connect them to the wiring loom as it is better to keep the earthing points the same as less chance of alternator whine etc

a pillar as you have found unsecews and then pulls off , with the door open the end of the dash pulls out and you can feed the wire down

the lower dash around the fuse box also pulls off and the next few panels above the foot well either pull off or are held in with T 25 ( i think might be t 20 ) screws , once you get to the centre the bottom bit pulls off and you can use a bit of wire fed down thru the double din hole to get the wire up if you cant reach it

all the wires and gubbins will tuck down to the left side at the back , watch you dont have wires crossing the plate at the back of the hole

hows that ?

MM

 

[gilligan905]

That's brilliant MM. Many thanks once again. I should be able to get fired in tomorrow evening now.

 

[mac music]

That's brilliant MM. Many thanks once again. I should be able to get fired in tomorrow evening now.

no worries have a peek here if you need some idea of what i am on about
http://elsaweb.spaghetticoder.org/nav/EN/Seat/Altea/5P/1/1646/15685/68/10083428/10676281/

the end of dash side panel just pulls off and once the A pillar trim is out you can find a way down

http://elsaweb.spaghetticoder.org/doc/S.en-GB.S01DGXX8S/34652176/3

MM

 

[gilligan905]

That's fantastically useful, thanks MM. One final question (hopefully!). What is the score with all the posts I've seen about live ignition? The instructions with the Connects2 lead are next to useless. Is there anything "creative" I need to be doing here?

Oh and finally, I have 2 green wires (marked parking brake), one direct from the head unit and one form the Connects2 lead. Do I ground both of these? I am presuming I can pretty much ignore the pink speedpulse wire and the purple reverse wire. And when you said ground to the wiring loom, are you meaning the main thing under the dash?

 

[mac music]

Hi Gilligan

the loom adapter sorts the live ignition out but you may have to swap the red and yellow wires on the headunit around if it does not hold the pre sets

i guess you ground both the green wires ( but dont quote me on that) i soldered them to the ground wire on the loom adaptor ( the bit between the Hu & the original plug ) that way you dont mess up either the car or the hu Looms , should you wish to revert to stock at some point in the future

pink just make sure no actual wire is showing out the end of the insulation

purple is only if you have a reversing camera

i seem to remember the connects2 info saying something about pluging their black box in last of all for some reason this was 18 months ago btw !

MM

MM

 

[gilligan905]

Great, I'm on the march just as soon as I can borrow a soldering iron.

 

[gilligan905]

Well, that's my Sony head unit fitted and by and large I'm really chuffed. The sound through the new Kappas is spot on. However, there are 2 big buts. Firstly the remote locking has now stopped working altogether and the alarm goes off when I manually open the door until I put the key in the ignition.

Secondly the FM quality is generally really good, but from time to time on pretty much all stations is goes kind of "scratchy". I don't think it's the moisture issue that Mac Music mentioned on another thread as it worked fine on the old factory unit until a few days ago. Could it be something to do with the Fakra adaptor? The fit into the head unit socket is really tight and I am wondering whether to take it out and fit the plug that came with the Sony. I have wired the blue wire from the Fakra to the blue power wire from the head unit. AM reception seems fine.

In the end I put the parking brake green wire from the HU into the ground in the loom like MM suggested, and it seems to work fine. The unit able to play DVD with the handbrake off. The other parking brake green wire from the Connects2 lead I simply taped up.

Any ideas anyone?

 

[mac music]

i have feeling you have popped one of the accessory system fuses , you may find other things dont work too . some interior lights maybe , sorry to sayi havent done this on a altea mainly cause i always disconnect the battery as is did it a few times on a golf we had

the FM tbh isnt the best i have a 32gb ipod touch in the car all the time and that does the job , but plans are a foot for a new HU with dab in it

glad the green wire worked

MM

 

[gilligan905]

Just when you think you've nearly finished........

I've been googling quite a bit and it seems a not unknown problem among VAG cars. However I'm still puzzled by the apparent solutions. They seem to relate to ignition live wiring issues. For example:

Your wiring to your head unit must be to ignition live, who did the wiring?

Have a look at your wiring, it sounds like it has been bridge to make it ignition live, make it direct to permanent and it should be ok

In my case I am using a standard Connects2 lead CTSST001, steering wheel adaptor. Could it be that I should have gone for the CTSST002 version which is also listed as Altea compatible. I presumed I needed the one that mentioned Can-Bus.

 

[mac music]

actually thinking back i think i did pop a fuse and the locking stoped and the alarm went off , check that fuse box !

 

[gilligan905]

I'll give the fuses a check tomorrow Mac. It would be great it that is the case. The FM radio reception seems to have got better, or maybe I'm just getting used to it. On the digital radio front I've just been experimenting playing Radio 6 from my phone using Bluetooth audio streaming and it seemed to work pretty damn well. I was driving for around 45 minures across Edinburgh and it only buffered when I stopped outside my house.