UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

HI guys, just bought an Alpine CDE-W235bt headunit which is hopefully coming with a fascia plate and ISO cables(whatever that is). I am completely new at setting headhunts up and need as much help as I can get regarding what wires go where and also I read somewhere that the Alpine needs to be "spliced" into the cigarette lighter to know when to turn off and on. I have no idea about any off this except I have ordered the keys to remove the existing RCD-200 from my VW POLO (9n3) 2008 car. Is there anyone who can help me?

I have no info on that specific equipment but do recall that I had to switch the red and yellow (12V constant and 12V switched) wires at the harness adapter to get my head unit to behave properly. That aside, it's easily done with the correct harness adapters. Is your cigarette lighter constant 12V? Not sure why you would need to hot-wire there unless 12V constant is not provided to the existing head unit from the harness (easy to check with a volt meter).

littlepolo wrote: Sat Nov 14, 2020 10:16 am I have no info on that specific equipment but do recall that I had to switch the red and yellow (12V constant and 12V switched) wires at the harness adapter to get my head unit to behave properly. That aside, it's easily done with the correct harness adapters. Is your cigarette lighter constant 12V? Not sure why you would need to hot-wire there unless 12V constant is not provided to the existing head unit from the harness (easy to check with a volt meter).

How could you tell that the stereo wasn't behaving properly?

Hann_MK wrote: Sat Nov 14, 2020 2:42 pm

littlepolo wrote: Sat Nov 14, 2020 10:16 am I have no info on that specific equipment but do recall that I had to switch the red and yellow (12V constant and 12V switched) wires at the harness adapter to get my head unit to behave properly. That aside, it's easily done with the correct harness adapters. Is your cigarette lighter constant 12V? Not sure why you would need to hot-wire there unless 12V constant is not provided to the existing head unit from the harness (easy to check with a volt meter).

How could you tell that the stereo wasn't behaving properly?

I have a don't head unit, before I switched the red and yellow wires the stereo did not hold data so if I saved radio stations or connected my phone I had to reconnect it every time I started my car. When I turned my ignition off I had to turn the stereo off otherwise it stayed on. Now it remembers my radio stations, my phone and turns on and off with the ignition

Hann_MK wrote: Sat Nov 14, 2020 2:42 pm

littlepolo wrote: Sat Nov 14, 2020 10:16 am I have no info on that specific equipment but do recall that I had to switch the red and yellow (12V constant and 12V switched) wires at the harness adapter to get my head unit to behave properly. That aside, it's easily done with the correct harness adapters. Is your cigarette lighter constant 12V? Not sure why you would need to hot-wire there unless 12V constant is not provided to the existing head unit from the harness (easy to check with a volt meter).

How could you tell that the stereo wasn't behaving properly?

I have a Sony head unit, before I switched the red and yellow wires the stereo did not hold data so if I saved radio stations or connected my phone I had to reconnect it every time I started my car. When I turned my ignition off I had to turn the stereo off otherwise it stayed on. Now it remembers my radio stations, my phone and turns on and off with the ignition

Will keep this in mind when connecting my headunit