Newbie Requires Bora Stereo Help

[Roswell156]

Hi all.

A mate at work collected his brand new Bora TDi a couple of weeks ago. Although it has a leather interior and alloy wheels he was disappointed to find the head unit only has a radio - no CD or even cassette player, unlike the car he test drove.

When he went back to talk to the dealer he was told a single CD head unit was a £390 option but they could let him have it for £325 as he had just bought the car.

What I want to know is what make/model is the radio he has? What make/model is the £390 option? And what reasonably priced single CD head unit would suit the Bora dashboard as an alternative? I believe the dashboard lights are blue & red.

Many thanks in advance

Roswell

[adrianr]

If it's any help, most MKIV Golfs came with a 'Gamma' head unit which has is FM/AM radio & cassette and will control either:

- single CD unit
- 6 disk in-dash CD changer
- boot mounted 6 disk CD changer
- boot mounted Phatnoise HD mp3 player

and some combinations of the above if that takes your fancy. Plenty of these for sale on ebay, or go and have a look at uk-mkivs.net for more advice/options.

AdrianR

[monkeyhanger]

You can get a very nice non VW HU for a lot less that that..

Blaupunkt use to do do HU's with VW Blue illumination, i've had an old model Los Angeles MP3 player for a couple of years...

www.bluespot.co.uk/

[Roswell156]

I got to look at the car this evening and pointed out the slot with a flap over it into which you can insert cassettes. He claimed that after three weeks of owning the car he had never noticed this.

The H.U. is indeed a VW Gamma unit. Should I advice him to replace this with a CD H.U. or use it to drive a separate CD player?

[vee]

If its a Gamma then there is likely to be a CD loom in place.
Just look for a flap in the boot (left hand side I think). There will be a wiring block for the CD autochanger there. H can pick one up off eBay for around £100.

I'm willing to place a small bet that if your mate has missed the cassette flap on the headunit the autochanger is there too !
Most cars with Gamma come with either a Single or 6 CD dashmounted unit or an autochanger in the boot.

[monkeyhanger]

If he can't see a slot for a cassette chances are he's missed the boot-mounted changer too..

As said above, Left-hand side of the boot is the place to look. Given the spec of the car i'll be very surprised if it's not there.

[Roswell156]

Ok, I checked the boot. There's no autochanger there but there's a nice little cubby hole for a first aid kit.

[vee]

Did you find the wiring block that the autochanger plugs into ?
You open a flap, the autochanger sits near the top of the cavity & there is a cubby hole just beneath it.
First Aid kit is somewhere different I think.

[Roswell156]

Nope. I could only find the cubby hole for the first aid kit.

I think he's going to go for the single, front loading CD player in addition to his Gamma radio.

[adrianr]

Another option - if you already have an iPod or other MP3 player check out the kits from Dension. You can get interface boxes which allow you to plug your music box in (held in a cradle or in the glove box) and control it from the buttons on the Gamma. Also now available from VW for the MkV, so might work on the MKIV too.

The VW Single CDs crop up quite cheaply, you may also need the triangular shelf to support it in the console.

AdrianR