Aftermarket Stereo - Have I opened pandora's box?

TechMinerUK · 2 Apr 2018 at 19:59

Hi all,

Recently I bought a Pioneer FH-X840DAB radio for my trusty Fabia MK2 however I neglected the fact that I have never fitted one of these before so I have no idea what I am doing.

So far I have checked the wiring and setup and worked out that I will need a DAB antenna, Fascia kit with ISO wiring converter however after this I really am lost haha

I've heard that I might need a "cam-bus" (No idea what that is) however the current stereo doesnt really integrate anywhere else (It's a basic skoda with no reverse sensors/dot matrix display).

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated as it seems to be getting more complicated by the minute

paradigm · 2 Apr 2018 at 20:11

The CAN-BUS adapter will also be responsible for steering wheel controls if you have them.

Connects2 will likely make the right adapter for your radio and car combination.

TechMinerUK · 2 Apr 2018 at 20:37

paradigm said:
The CAN-BUS adapter will also be responsible for steering wheel controls if you have them.
Connects2 will likely make the right adapter for your radio and car combination.

So if I don't have any controls on my steering wheel I can get away without one? I was mainly concerned about the Stereo not turning on without the car being powered etc

paradigm · 2 Apr 2018 at 20:41

You’ll be fine without canbus integration I should imagine. Unless the radio did anything specific to the car that I’m unaware of.

TechMinerUK · 2 Apr 2018 at 20:45

paradigm said:
You’ll be fine without canbus integration I should imagine. Unless the radio did anything specific to the car that I’m unaware of.

Perfect, is there anything else that I need to be aware of regarding powering the unit (Does it need a separate power feed etc?)

scaza · 2 Apr 2018 at 21:45

TechMinerUK said:
Perfect, is there anything else that I need to be aware of regarding powering the unit (Does it need a separate power feed etc?)

Usually has a remote wire that turns it on/off either the car as the standard stereo within the wiring adaptor harness that you simply attatch to the standard wiring.

TechMinerUK · 2 Apr 2018 at 21:49

scaza said:
Usually has a remote wire that turns it on/off either the car as the standard stereo within the wiring adaptor harness that you simply attatch to the standard wiring.

So if I have the ISO adapter kit that should be included as part of that wiring unit?

xs2man · 2 Apr 2018 at 21:52

You "should" be able to cross-over the yellow and red wire in the harness, as is usually needed for VAG motors. This is to save your radio stations and settings and such.

BUT, without CANBUS integration, you may need the ignition right on, just before cranking, to power the radio. Rather than the canbus control where when you park up somewhere and turn the engine off, the radio stays on. In this case, you need to turn the ignition on again to start the radio.

I didn't need any special harness when wiring my Alpine into my Alhambra, but I did need to run a power line to a switched fuse in the fuse box to power it. A special harness, however, may have integrated it correctly and had it switch on and off in the same manner as the OEM headunit.

Scottland · 2 Apr 2018 at 21:55

You should be ok with a DAB aerial splitter cable, rather than a dedicated dab aerial.

Kenai · 3 Apr 2018 at 09:30

If it's anything like the Octavia, if your CANBUS gateway is too old a revision, the stereo will cause excessive battery drain, regardless of if you have any CANBUS 'features'

Probably needs to be changed for a newer version, which needs VCDS coding when adding the new one

TechMinerUK · 3 Apr 2018 at 11:58

xs2man said:
You "should" be able to cross-over the yellow and red wire in the harness, as is usually needed for VAG motors. This is to save your radio stations and settings and such.
BUT, without CANBUS integration, you may need the ignition right on, just before cranking, to power the radio. Rather than the canbus control where when you park up somewhere and turn the engine off, the radio stays on. In this case, you need to turn the ignition on again to start the radio.
I didn't need any special harness when wiring my Alpine into my Alhambra, but I did need to run a power line to a switched fuse in the fuse box to power it. A special harness, however, may have integrated it correctly and had it switch on and off in the same manner as the OEM headunit.

So the CANBUS unit is responsible for the ability to power on the unit without the key in the ignition as well as the steering controls etc (On aplicable cars?)

Scottland said:
You should be ok with a DAB aerial splitter cable, rather than a dedicated dab aerial.

As far as I'm aware my car doesnt have a DAB antenna as the current stereo is just a normal Swing unit with AM/FM only

Kenai said:
If it's anything like the Octavia, if your CANBUS gateway is too old a revision, the stereo will cause excessive battery drain, regardless of if you have any CANBUS 'features'
Probably needs to be changed for a newer version, which needs VCDS coding when adding the new one

Would the car have a CANBUS even if it doesn't have steering controls/parking sensors etc?

Kenai · 3 Apr 2018 at 12:10

TechMinerUK said:
Would the car have a CANBUS even if it doesn't have steering controls/parking sensors etc?

Yes, pretty sure it'll have a CANBUS gateway regardless

TechMinerUK · 3 Apr 2018 at 12:27

Kenai said:
Yes, pretty sure it'll have a CANBUS gateway regardless

Damn, well it looks like I'll need to run a seperate power wire then as they are quite expensive (About £50/£60)

Kenai · 3 Apr 2018 at 12:57

I'm only working on the assumption the Fabia was built the same as the Octavia, do a bit of Googling on Fabia Canbus canbus gateway battery drain to confirm first before spending money.

TechMinerUK · 3 Apr 2018 at 13:05

Kenai said:
I'm only working on the assumption the Fabia was built the same as the Octavia, do a bit of Googling on Fabia Canbus canbus gateway battery drain to confirm first before spending money.

A quick scout and I can't find much other than issues relating to power steering and Skoda Superb's so (Fingers crossed) I might be in the clear

paradigm · 3 Apr 2018 at 13:37

TechMinerUK said:
As far as I'm aware my car doesnt have a DAB antenna as the current stereo is just a normal Swing unit with AM/FM only

I think what he's getting at is that you can split the FM antenna signal into FM and DAB. This does work, however a decent active splitter with proper filtering and amplification (such as the Apline KAE-DAB1G6) will cost more than a DAB antenna.

TechMinerUK · 3 Apr 2018 at 16:12

paradigm said:
I think what he's getting at is that you can split the FM antenna signal into FM and DAB. This does work, however a decent active splitter with proper filtering and amplification (such as the Apline KAE-DAB1G6) will cost more than a DAB antenna.

Ahh, that makes sense. To be honest if the car was newer I would have gone the extra mile and fitted an external antenna but since it's a '12 reg I couldn't see the point haha

paradigm · 3 Apr 2018 at 16:51

TechMinerUK said:
Ahh, that makes sense. To be honest if the car was newer I would have gone the extra mile and fitted an external antenna but since it's a '12 reg I couldn't see the point haha

Interesting. I just ran the cabling for the external VW shark fin combo antenna (GPS, GSM, DAB, FM) on the wife’s 2010 Polo, which I imagine is exactly the same car underneath. Took me 30 minutes and about £45 using a genuine antenna (used) and two eBay special FAKRA 6m extension leads.

I wasn’t really bothered about the DAB bit, I just wanted to ditch the cruddy GPS aerial I had originally put behind the dash, to resolve GPS accuracy problems. But this was part of an upgrade to a VW RNS-315 satnav unit, rather than an aftermarket radio.

TechMinerUK · 3 Apr 2018 at 20:49

paradigm said:
Interesting. I just ran the cabling for the external VW shark fin combo antenna (GPS, GSM, DAB, FM) on the wife’s 2010 Polo, which I imagine is exactly the same car underneath. Took me 30 minutes and about £45 using a genuine antenna (used) and two eBay special FAKRA 6m extension leads.
I wasn’t really bothered about the DAB bit, I just wanted to ditch the cruddy GPS aerial I had originally put behind the dash, to resolve GPS accuracy problems. But this was part of an upgrade to a VW RNS-315 satnav unit, rather than an aftermarket radio.

On mine (from the research so far) I would have to take down the entire roof trim to replace the aerial and run the cable as a quick try showed I couldn't get enough room by loosening the back of the fabric

TechMinerUK · 9 Apr 2018 at 21:41

Hi again,

So I've managed to get the stereo installed and I have wired up the DAB antenna, mic, ISO kit and ignition live and all is working as expected (Thank you all for your help).

One bit that you were right about was needing the can-bus so the unit can be powered on even whilst the ignition is off. So far I've found this one (Linky) however I was wondering if anyone has any suggestions on how to wire it up or if anyone has used one before?