Left a friend's house today, turned on stereo and linked to bluetooth. It made it about a song and a half and then there was a pop. The display died and for the next hour my wife and I were listening to a very loud metronome on the way home. I did stop and try to find the radio fuse, but VW doesn't list what the fuses are inside the covers. Once I got home, I just started pulling fuses and finally got it to stop. I put the fuse back in and the noise stopped, but the radio is dead.
I don't want to put a new stereo in it since it may get bought back. I have a 45 min commute each way and I can't live without a radio. 2012 VW Golf TDI, btw. Any suggestions?
Thanks!
EDIT: I also can't get my CD's out of it. It just won't power on. How do I retrieve them?
Which one did you have? I love the factory RNS-315 in my GTI.
Hmm... I guess this isn't a unique problem. I've got a friend with a 2010 Jetta wagon that had the stereo go totally dead on him a few months ago.
PMRacing wrote:
I have a 45 min commute each way and I can't live without a radio.
L.L. Cool J. agrees with you. 
https://www.youtube.com/embed/qqw2uby0dzc
I don't know about how to remove the CDs but I think a good temporary solution would be a nice but inexpensive Bluetooth speaker plugged into your cigarette lighter to keep it charged. It's not gonna sound great but it'll get you tunes until your car gets bought back. Then after that happens use the Bluetooth speaker for tunes on the deck or random rooms in the house.
The only stereo system in my Civic (which arrived with a head unit so dead the soldered-in fuse had exploded) is a $25 SoundBot SB571 Bluetooth speaker shoved into the single-DIN opening where the 90s tape deck used to live. It lasts about two weeks of commuting to a charge, and then I just take it in with me to work and put it into my computer's USB port to charge it.
To eject the CDs you can take the head unit apart. It's easier than you think, especially now that it's broken and you're angry at it.
In reply to red_stapler:
I have the base one w/ bluetooth, so I think the 310?
I have found a few more incidents similar to mine online. One said that the SD card reader was bad and once disconnected, it worked again. I've never used it. Going to try to take it apart tomorrow.
In reply to PMRacing:
My boss told me the exact same thing happened to his wife the other day. He didn't tell me what the fix was, only that when it popped his wife panicked and shut the car down in the middle of an intersection and called him because she was afraid to drive it anymore. She wouldn't even pull it through the intersection and out of traffic.
Some units have a button combination that pressed together and held will force the CD to eject. Being a VAG product it will probably require an arm gesture. You can also look for a reset button.
I broke down and bought a refurbished unit from Eurozone Tuning. After looking at my options, and amount of time I spend in the car, this was the most economical option keeping all of the factory functionality. Ugh...now I hope the buy back includes cash. When I do go buyback though, I'll put the dead stereo back in and resell this one. Only took a couple minutes to get the stereo out.
