Aftermarket stereo and my cry for help!!!!

[daboy3000]

I am new to my mk5, not new to VAG or ICE.

I have an Alpine stereo that in truth I can not live without and when I first removed the OEM monster I saw connections that I've never seen before.  I bought a double din faceplate adaptor, the rather larger cable adaptor, an aerial booster with the strange round plug on the end and a iso to din adapter.  My golf does not have a visable external aerial.

Apart from the ignition live problem which I should be able to work out (any help would be grand though) I have a major problem with radio reception.  There were two strange cables plugged into round connectors so I'm guessing one of these is the aerial, but it doesn't matter whether I plug the aerial cable from the stereo into either of these it doesn't inprove the signal.  I have the blue cable from the aerial booster plugged into the power aerial socket on the stereo.  Either I'm doing something wrong or the booster is faulty or something else.

Please help  

Just to add, I would upgrade to an RNS510 and save all this hassle but with the 510's amp pushing out a poor 4x20 watts thats less than half my Alpine!

[SeanyK]

Hi mate, I put my Alpine head unit in the MK5 Golf in July.

Im trying to think back, it wasn't too difficult and I don't recall having that many parts as you've listed.

All I needed was;

Double Din adaptor (bought from VW)
Aerial adaptor (I didn't buy any kind of booster)
I bought a Connects2 CAN adaptor (Steering wheel interface) this was like a all in one ISO wiring solution (no need to worry about live etc)
http://www.dynamicsounds.co.uk/connects-ctsvw002-passat-golf-touran-polo-jetta-stalk-p-9117.html

It also meant the Alpine worked fine with the steering wheel controls (even if you don't have them, you can still use the above adaptor).

As for the radio, I think I just picked one of the 2 connectors, and used it! Not really any problems, and same as you, my car has no visible aerial.