2007 Altea radio not working

[john a]

Folks I've fitted an RNS315 to my 07 Altea after the previous one stopped working (it had pennies fed into the CD slot by a naughty child). I've made sure there is a 15A fuse in the correct slot (F8) in the fuse box in the engine bay, but no luck. I've read another thread that suggested there were two fuses on an Ibiza, is there anything I need to do as I can't get it to power on.

Ta

 

[Viking]

Did the other one work at all before you removed it?

 

[john a]

Nope. The 10A fuse in the back of the unit was blown l, so I changed it and tested it and it still didn't work.

 

[Viking]

Do you have 12v on terminals 15 and 16 on the quadlock?

 

[john a]

Additionally the cigarette lighter doesn't work. I've not been able to test a 12v plug in there yet but have swapped the fuse out of the rear wiper and that still works, which rules out a blown fuse. How many fuses are there that can have an effect? I've made sure fuse 8 in the engine bay fuse box is ok. It's quite frustrating.

 

[Viking]

I've not had my Altea for about 5 years or so now, so I can't recall what fuses were where I'm afraid. However, checking for 12v at those two terminals will establish whether the fault is power related or not. There's a permanent 12v live on terminal 16, and a secondary 12v live on terminal 15, both will have seperate fuses.

 

[Viking]

A quick google lead me to this thread...

http://www.seatcupra.net/forums/showthread.php?t=238304

 

[john a]

I checked that thread as well Viking.

How do I check for 12v? Presumably work out which terminal is which and poke the probe of a meter down there?

I'll have to go through the works and then try and locate the blown fuse.

 

[Viking]

Yep, multimeter with the black lead fixed to a ground point on the car, and the red lead probe the two terminals.

 

[john a]

My quad lock only has 4 terminals on the power side (black connector) plus whatever is on the blue and beige connectors. I've got one of this test leads that you clip onto an earth and it lights up when it finds power. There is power on one of the terminals of the quad lock, but not the others, one of which I assume is CAN +

I've also put it across every fuse (which is fine) and onto the 12v socket. Interestingly there is power going to the socket but the lighter doesn't work.

I'm stumped. Could it be the CAN gateway?

 

[john a]

I've put a meter on each terminal and I get with ignition off:

Terminal 9 - 0V
Terminal 10 - 12V
Terminal 12 - 0V
Terminal 15 - 12V

I don't have terminal 16.

With ignition on I get:

Terminal 9 - 3V
Terminal 10 - 3V
Terminal 12 - 0V
Terminal 15 - 14V (what I'd expect)

Whats the next step? I've tried plugging the old headunit back in and no luck. I've checked all the fuses, are there any more hidden fuses?

 

[Viking]

The RNS315 needs (irrespective of what you have in your quadlock) 12v on terminals 15 and 16, ground (or neutral) on terminal 12, CAN high and CAN low on terminals 9 and 10 respectively. I'm not certain, but I wouldn't expect to see 12v on either terminal 9 or terminal 10 for any reason.

This is the wiring pinout diagram for the RNS315, and it should also be on the top of the unit.

If you only have a test lamp, then how are you checking and reporting the voltages?

 

[john a]

I haven't only got a test lamp - as said in the above post, I used my meter.

I did kind of think earlier, it won't work without terminal 16 will it, and then it's just coincidence that the old headunit won't switched, because it's fried.

I must have had terminal 16 on my 07 plate Octavia as my RNS315 (and subsequent RNS510) worked ok.

Looks like I'll have to have a permanent live added to terminal 16 then.

Thanks for the advice - hopefully that's job done

 

[Viking]

It's not so much the 12v on T16 I'd be worried about, it's the apparent 12v on the CAN low terminal. The 12v on T15 and T16 are required for ensuring the unit always has a 12v supply on T16 to make sure it doesn't need to talk to the ECU to validate the security code every time you start the car. Without T16, it'll simply take longer to boot because the two will need to communicate every time to ensure it's a known unit. T15 is the other supply to run the unit.

If I can find the time later I'll check the CAN wires on the car and see what the voltages are, but I would expect a 12v supply on the CAN to cause damage.

 

[Viking]

Just checked my Yeti.

Ignition off I have

T16 - 12v
T15 - 0v
T12 - 0v (ground so should only ever be 0v)
T8 - 0v
T9 - 12v

Ignition on I have

T16 - 12v
T15 - 12v
T12 - 0v
T8 - 0.5v
T9 - 4.5v

 

[john a]

That's great, thanks for that.

I'll check all my connections again. So my headunit should power on even without T16?

 

[Viking]

I'm presuming so. T16 is the "Code" terminal, not the main power terminal.

 

[john a]

Thanks for the info.
I've found a thread from another member who had a similar issue - RNS315 wouldn't power on, had the same wiring config as me by the sound of it, and adding a power input to T16 sorted it out.
I expect I'll get the battery drain issue too, but I've got a revised CAN gateway in my Octavia that I'll pull out and swap over.

 

[Viking]

Cool...

 

[john a]

I've stripped a wire out of an old MDI loom and will fit this into the terminal 16 position, but what I'm trying to establish is whether or not I should connect it to a switched or perm live - 15 in my Altea is permanent (and gives 12V irrespective of whether he ignition is on), so should I wire up 16 to a switched live (e.g. The power to the HVAC controls) or can I just jump from T15?