Fitted a new Stereo to my Passat (with pictures) in place of the RCD300

[PNS2007]

Hi all, I have finally taken the plunge and bought a new Stereo to replace the RCD 300 which is curremtly in my Passat.

With the help of this forum and others I decided to have a go myself as I was quoted between £40-50 for a new one to be fitted. I've done a little research on double din stereos and nearly bought the OEM MFD2 but these are quite expensive and if you can pick up one on e-bay your still looking at £400 with no real guarentee and its probably going to be an import. I found out that the navigation unit has to have the CD or DVD inside the machine which limits your options, I quite fancied a DVD player aswell. I therefore gave the MFD2 a miss.

Anyway, I have chosen the Kenwood DDX-5022 and now its in i'm over the moon. Fitting:-





Gently prise off the stereo surround in the approximate position shown by the green arrows (i removed the surrounding around the hazzard warning triangle first which just popped out so I could get some leverage). Use a plastic object fairly wide so that it doesn't mark the plastic. Once the top two metal clips have popped out you can go around the facia with your fingers and prise the rest of the metal clips out. I have marked all the clips by a green arrow. This was allot easier than expected and took only a couple of minutes but be carefull.

Leave the front facia face down around the gear stick. I didn't disconnect the air bag light wire as others on this forum have advised to leave it connected as it may cause an airbag fault which will need to be reset by your dealer.

Next undo the four retaining screws shown by the red arrows with a torx screwdriver. The stereo will then just slide out.

There are two separate aerial leads connected into the rear bottom right handside of the unit with a small clip on each at the bottom which easily pull out once the clip has been pressed. The main connections to the unit are plugged into the lower left handside of the unit by one big connection block with an 'arm' type clip which you pull out. (A bit like a very very small bucket handle if you know what I mean!!) The whole block will then pull out of the back of the stereo and the stereo can be removed.

To fit your new stereo you will need a new stereo (obviously!!), a facia plate, an aerial adapter and an ISO Adapter. I've added some pictures of these for info only







Each of these items are between £10-20 and are readily available from ebay etc or from your stereo vendor.

Finally refit in the reverse order and the outcome is as follows





I'm really please with the outcome and on this particular model you can change the back light to match the red or blue of the cars display.

I have fitted an ipod connection and you can also watch DVDs whilst stationary.

Hope this helps others, any question please ask.

[james_tiger_woo]

Looks pretty good How much was the stereo?

[Astonm]

Looking good passat170TD1

[PNS2007]

Thanks for your comments.

I got it from here :-

http://www.bassjunkies.com/?pid=3366...&source=search


You can buy it cheaper by 20 or 30 quid but wanted to collect it and deal face to face so that if there were/are any problems I can return it and deal with any potential problems face to face (if you know what I mean!).

Looks and sounds great even with the standard speakers

Cheers

Neil

[james_tiger_woo]

How does the Kenwood's cage fit?

[PNS2007]

I've taken a copy of the page in the manual hope its clear. You insert the stereo cage into the facia adapter (which is fairly thick plastic) and bend over the metal tabs in the cage to secure a tight fit. Their tapered which helps a little.

The whole thing then inserts into the dashboard and is fixed with the four torx screws which held the original stereo in. There is about an 80mm gap top and bottow towards the back of the cage (inside the dashboard) which I packed out with some plastic blocks to stop any potential movement when going over bumps, alternatively you can buy a metal strap which is shown in the diagram.

There's allot of wires to cram in and these need to be sorted and neatly pushed out of the way.


My original VW ipod connector which I used with the OEM stereo is now lying unused. I put it on e-bay today, will it break the forum rules if I post a link to it? Anyone know?

[PNS2007]

Whoops! better add the photo

[PGW8000]

Hi, Looks good and now looking at fitting on my car. Just a few questions;
1. I presume that the DVD player will only work when stationary. If so how does the unit know?
2. Use my passat for towing and might go for the camera option for alignment when hitching-up. Any thoughts/ideas on this? I have a feeling that mounting it in the only logical place (just above reg plate) would be too low to be of any use(?)

Many thanks

[PNS2007]

Technically yes the DVD will only work when stationary. The chap I bought the unit off did however ask me if I wanted to enable this function (so to speak) and he cut a couple of wires on the harness and joined them together. My daughter has watched her films on it whilst I'm driving quite happily.

If you buy one ask the dealer if he will do this for you if not I don't mind taking mine out and telling you what colour wires he joined (so long as you choose the same Kenwood).

I too have a caravan, and when her in doors lets me have a few more pennies I would like a Camera to either go on the back of the car or on the back of the caravan for reversing. For 'hooking up' I don't really know where I would put the camera, they are quite wide angled but I think it would be a case of trial and error. If you do it before me let me know.

The Kenwood is a great piece of kit, I have connected my ipod to it and can watch films, podcasts and music. It has the functions of adding a further screen in the back and you can split zones so the front and back of the car are different. Great for my daughter in the future when she wants to watch her DVD and we want to listen to music. It also has Blue tooth and sat Nav functions when I can afford to add them. There is a unit (DDX-5220) which has all this but is £200 dearer.

[james_tiger_woo]

Can it be hooked up to screens for the rear at all?

(Sorry for the 20 questions )