A Stock-Like Radio Upgrade

[vwwestyman]

My Eurovan came with an old CD player. I was tired of it not pairing with the BT on my phone, so I got a cheapo (like, $17 cheap) radio at WalMart and it worked OK for the past 3 years. But it had a weird issue with the audio clipping out when listening to certain things, like Audible and one local radio station and this got to be annoying. It also didn't have great radio reception anyway.

So I just bought and installed the VDO TR712UB-BU stereo.

It's plugs on the back are the same as the Eurovan stock radio plugs, so it plugged right in with no adapter required!

One function I noticed and appreciate is that, like the stock radio I had in my old Golf, I can turn it on with the power button with no key needed. And if I turn on the ignition and then later turn it off, it will turn off the radio. (I don't yet know if that will time out and turn off automatically after roughly an hour like the Golf's radio did.) Not a big deal, but is a nice little feature.

Blue light matches the dash lights. Seems to have better reception at first glance.

There is also the Continental version of this radio. I think the only real difference is it is backlit orange instead of blue. I do think there is also a version of each with a CD player, but I elected to not get that.

But overall a big improvement over the cheapo WalMart special I did have!

_________________
Dave Cook

President, Wild Westerner Club

1978 Champagne Edition Westy, repowered to '97 Jetta TDI
1973 Wild Westerner
My Thing

[vwwestyman]

I got the radio because we're now on a road trip in the Van; wife took the first driving shift so I had a chance to look through the manual.

It does state that the feature that allows you to turn the radio on, turns it off automatically after an hour. And the feature can be disabled.
_________________
Dave Cook

President, Wild Westerner Club

1978 Champagne Edition Westy, repowered to '97 Jetta TDI
1973 Wild Westerner
My Thing

[paddygarcia]

I have the Continental version of that one, it's great. The only thing more I'd want is preamp outputs. But the sound and radio reception are is pretty decent, the BT works pretty well, and it looks right. The price is right, too.

[jjvincent]

I had a Blaupunkt that i put in about 10 years ago. Plugged right in and had an input in the back for using an i-phone, input for sat radio and it also had a thing that allowed me to use a thing called a thummer. Pretty much, a thing that attaches to your steering wheel and allows wireless control of the radio. Then it had bluetooth, an SD slot and played CD's. I one in my Jetta too. Plus it looked like an OEM radio with the correct lighting.

[HeyCrutch]

I also found a Blaupunkt that gave the dash a very OEM feel. The unit has adjustable lighting so I was able to match the rest of the yellow/green of 1997. My favorite thing about the unit is the great volume knob that you can actually grab a hold off rather than just touch with your fingertips.

Installed a Spiegel Magsafe phone mount that Xi charges my iPhone from a cable plugged into the back of the headhunt.

Later I added a Spotify CarThing (mounted it to the front face of the ashtray and ran the cable through the ashtray (and back out to the front usb plug - I know I could probably run this to the fuse panel ... project for another day) so the ashtray is still functional as a place to store the keys at night.

AFTER

What is looked like when I bought it in 2022 with an aftermarket Sony (the Spiegel mount had already been added)...

[white_one]

[vwwestyman]

I will say that the brightness of the display is a little much at night. It does have a hookup for the dash lights as stock, but unfortunately that doesn't dim the lights in the display. Just turns on the lights in the buttons.
_________________
Dave Cook

President, Wild Westerner Club

1978 Champagne Edition Westy, repowered to '97 Jetta TDI
1973 Wild Westerner
My Thing

[vwwestyman]

Putting this link here so I can find it later.

Once the EuroVan is back from the body shop, I think I may want to follow some of this tutorial to make the radio's display a little less glaring.

Not sure if I want to invert the LCD screen as they did, or just find a way to dim the LEDs.

Inverting it would certainly make it less bright, but the blue background more or less matches the setup of the rest of the van.

Ideal would be if I could figure out how to tie the LCD screen LEDs into the headlight switch/dimmer just like the button LEDs are. Don't know if I'm that technical.

https://imgur.com/a/TCCy32R

Edit: I may also reference this video whenever I have time to do that little project... Didn't fully watch it but it looked like it might have some tips.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3lrdih-6V8

I was searching all this up the night before the van was crashed into!
_________________
Dave Cook

President, Wild Westerner Club

1978 Champagne Edition Westy, repowered to '97 Jetta TDI
1973 Wild Westerner
My Thing

[HeyCrutch]

Well for Eurovan #2 (Forest, the 2003 Weekender) I decided to take a slightly different approach. This van only had 39K miles on it when I bought it February 2024 however the seller had unfortunately taken the misstep to have a Pioneer blutooth aftermarket head unit installed. We drove home from California to North Carolina and it was obvious that even with the improved speakers that were installed, the head unit was just simply underpowered. It sound so tinny that we kept turning the treble lower and lower.

So I reinstalled the factory head unit and voila the power came back - only issue was I no long had bluetooth. Tried a Crux bluetooth emulator that plugged into the back of the factory headhunt (in the CD changer slot) - it worked except that you'd get a beep every once in a while and the sound would drop out about every 1-2 minutes (for a half second) and the display would read "CD Error). So I knew that the Crux BT emulator /CD changer option wasn't going to be the long term solution.

I had purchased a Blaupunkt Bremen to install, because I have that same unit in my 1997 EVC, but I realized that because the constant 12v power is backwards compared to the Blaupunkt, I would have issues. A pigtail will solve this, and I did purchase one to use, but in the meantime I came across the RCN 210

The RCN210 is VW factory radio that, best I can tell, was really only sold in the Chinese market. I found this radio on VWVortex where a lot of people have installed them in their various early 2000s VW sedans. It's possible it's a Chines "knock-off" but I figured I'd give it a shot as the reviews said that the unit was a huge improvement over the unit that came in the Weekender (which was the same as the one in the Passat and Jetta and Golf from back then). It has built-in bloototh, a built-in microphone for phone connection, a USB port, an AUX port, a mini SD card slot (not sure where I'll source any of those), and a single slot CD player, along with AM/FM. it will display track information from Bluetooth and CDs. And it has the same Red color that the 2001-2003 Eurovans have.

There was a metal cage around the lower DIN that I had to use a Dremel to modify, so that it would fit into the space where the old pocket used to be (which is backed by a metal dash framing member). Obviously I had to cut the pocket off same as people who have installed Double Din CarPlay units.

This thing sounds fantastic - the bluetooth works flawlessly, and the reception on the radio is great too. It looks super stock!

I bought it from eBay but people on VWVortex say you may as well order it from AliExpress since that's where it's coming from anyway. Not very expensive (way cheaper than the Blaupunkt). Build quality seems pretty solid.

The Album title showing is a CD (or maybe bluetooth track) of a live Phish album, hence the city and date.


Here are the photos of the install - I didn't take photos of the drmel cuts but you can figure it out. It came with a dongle that one of the factory radio harnesses plugged into (and then the pigtail dongle fit into the sterile back. The other harness plug fits as expected, as does the stock antenna lead.

It was TOO deep to fit originally!

Unscrewed the back metal plate off of the lower DIN

ONE last thing I forgot to mention - the little divider plastic piece that sits below the factory stereo - above the pocket - that needed to be moved down to the lowest slot (just above the AC/Heat controls) - you flip it upside down (and will need to relocate the screw fast clips). This ensures that the new radio sits up high enough and is flush to the underside of the air vents.

[vwwestyman]

That is pretty cool! My wife's Passat has a Bluetooth CD Emulator dongle, and it actually works pretty well (haven't had the issues described; I think it is a different brand) but any controls from the head unit (vs using your phone) are minimal at best so something integrated is nicer. I did consider this for the "new" Eurovan since it came with the factory stereo.

But I liked the more integrated Bluetooth of the VDO stereo.

I do like the Chinese unit, though that lower pocket is where my phone usually goes, so I'd kind of miss that!

I'm considering trying to change the LEDs in my VDO unit to make it match the Eurovan's lighting a little better.
_________________
Dave Cook

President, Wild Westerner Club

1978 Champagne Edition Westy, repowered to '97 Jetta TDI
1973 Wild Westerner
My Thing

[HeyCrutch]