has anyone upgraded their stereos?

[BL33SU]

I've got an amp and 10inch sub from an old car, is it possible to hook this up to the factory head unit?

line level convertors

[BlackVr6ix]

just make sure you use good quality ones otherwise your just asking for engine noise!

[dodgeGTI]

Awesome, thanks guys.
Now I just need ways to make this week go faster so i can take delivery of the car on Friday!

[leck]

ok popped into freeway dandenong today and had a bit of a look. Im pretty tempted to get one of those eclipse AV6000 screens as its double din, and has inbuilt nav and SIMPLE stereo controls. Fairly pricy, but considering the other navs on the market, itd be nice to have it all integrated. Bout 3500 installed for it from initiial discussion.

need to decide whether im going to put in some decent splits and an amp too. Anyone had a go with that headunit yet?

[BlackVr6ix]

ok popped into freeway dandenong today and had a bit of a look. Im pretty tempted to get one of those eclipse AV6000 screens as its double din, and has inbuilt nav and SIMPLE stereo controls. Fairly pricy, but considering the other navs on the market, itd be nice to have it all integrated. Bout 3500 installed for it from initiial discussion.

need to decide whether im going to put in some decent splits and an amp too. Anyone had a go with that headunit yet?

What price did they quote you on that unit? have you looked into the kenwood unit with the nav? im pretty sure you can get that setup with the bluetooth setup for cheaper than the eclipse. I'll get you a firm price if you are interested.

[leck]

yeah that would be awesome if you could.

im only in the prelim stages and 3500 fitted seems quite steep, although it is a very nice unit, simple, fast etc.

Cant be bothered fiddling with a navman or anything, just want it in the car when i need it

[dodgey GTI]

Tuesday Dude! Sorry...........

[GTIkitten]

Stereo - Radio v CD volume

Hey guys just a very minor thing wondering if this happens to everyone.......

When i'm driving along with the radio on at a reasonable volume level and I flick over to listen to a CD the volume virtually doubles and nearly blows my head off... doesn't matter what CD I have happens with every one.

Is this normal or should I get it checked out?

[jasn78]

Hey guys just a very minor thing wondering if this happens to everyone.......

When i'm driving along with the radio on at a reasonable volume level and I flick over to listen to a CD the volume virtually doubles and nearly blows my head off... doesn't matter what CD I have happens with every one.

Is this normal or should I get it checked out?

Thats just the difference between CD quality and Radio happens with all head units I've ever used.

[Adam]

Ok. Just FYI. For those who's looking at DIY installation of a headunit in their Polo, and don't wish to cut any wires. There's an ebay seller which sells a wiring harness suitable for the Polo.

Here's the link to the seller:
http://myworld.ebay.com/ebaymotors/autoware302/

And it's the " Vw Volkswagen 02+ Car Radio Wiring Harness Stereo Wire"

Works out to be 13-14 Australia Dollar delivered in less than a week!

More Details later.....will have to install it tonight! =)

[morbo2000]

By the looks of it that adapter doesn't have a CANBUS adapter so you'll have to get switching power and illumination from elsewhere (ie: the cigarette lighter socket). It still saves a lot of hassle though as you'll only have to splice for those two things and not have to worry about all of the speaker wires.

[Adam]

Would someone be able to explain what these following means?

SAFE:
+UB:
CAN/L
CAN/H

Edit:

Ok. Sorry to be a pain. but while i am searching for what the upper word means... the link below say the 9N3 polo doesn't use CAN-BUS?

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=2465335

And. i don't have any seperate connectors to the car, other than the 2x 8 pins plug...

I am confused now

[BlackVr6ix]

Blaupunkt/Bosch make a canbus adaptor loom that makes it plug and play. not cheap thou.

[morbo2000]

Would someone be able to explain what these following means?

SAFE:
+UB:
CAN/L
CAN/H

Edit:

Ok. Sorry to be a pain. but while i am searching for what the upper word means... the link below say the 9N3 polo doesn't use CAN-BUS?

http://forums.vwvortex.com/zerothread?id=2465335

And. i don't have any seperate connectors to the car, other than the 2x 8 pins plug...

I am confused now

As far as I could tell SAFE and +UB both seemed to be permanent power. I think when I did mine my mate hooked up the permanent power to SAFE. There may be a difference but not one we could tell with a multimeter.

CAN/L and CAN/H are the CANBUS connections. You won't be able to use them for anything with the harness you have. This is where the power on/off, illumination, speed etc signals come down. You'll have to either use a canbus adapter as mentioned above which will generate the signals on separate wires for you, or find another source for it (ie: the cigarette lighter socket as i mentioned before)

[morbo2000]

I'm going to post the reply I sent to your PM a while back so that so that other people can read it or add to it. Some of the things you've asked about i've mentioned in the message.

Hi Adam,

The only extra thing I needed to buy was an adapter for the aerial. I wasn't able to find one in a shop but my mate who is an auto elec sourced it for me. I think this is the one...
http://www.aerpro.com.au/list.php?pc...n o=&cat_sno=
It's a VW/BMW to Japanese aerial adapter.

The only other thing i bought was a single din pocket to go underneath and some masonite to make up a support for the head unit when sitting in the top din.

I don't know if you need the following info or not. I tend to ramble so forgive the length.

One of the difficulties with the Polo is that it uses CAN BUS for everything instead of individual wires for each function which is why it's hard to get a wiring harness. Fortunately there are ways around it.

My auto electrician friend helped me do the install so he was able to think of a trick that i hadn't considered.

The way he does his installs is to splice into the existing loom rather than cutting the original plug off. That way if you ever need to replace the stock head unit you don't have to rewire the original plug. You'll have to do this for permanent positive, negative and all your speaker wires. The stock head unit has a wiring diagram sticker on it though which takes the guess work out of it.

There are two positives listed. One is marked as SAFE and i can't remember what the other is marked but from what I could tell with the multimeter they are always permanent positive so using either for that should be fine. You'll have to use the negative from the wiring harness as well as there isn't any metal to screw into close by in the dash.

Because of the CAN BUS there is no accessories or illumination switching wires in the harness (there is CAN H and CAN L, one of which looks like it might be switched with the ignition but isn't so don't try and use them). You can get these from the cigarette lighter/aux power socket though. There are screws in under the rubber mat in front of the ash tray that you have to unscrew and you have to unclip the plastic cub holder area from around the handbrake lever which should allow you to pull up the plastic from around the ashtray to get into the ciggy lighter.

Unfortunately doing it like this you lose the feature that keeps the radio going after you turn the car off until you open the door. The only way around this is to spend probably $100 on a wiring harness adapter from the UK that includes an accessories wire that is generated from the CAN BUS signal.

If you find this info useful it might be an idea to post it in the headunit removal thread so that other people can find it. I'll leave that up to you.

If you have any questions send me a pm.

Ben.