UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

Hello Folks, After some help!
My daughter purchased her Polo 6 weeks ago as a private sale. The car was a one owner with full history. After 4 weeks the infotainment system came up with the "Emergency Download Message" and will only scroll between the 2 screens. It will not download and stays stuck on the screen. Spoke to our local dealer (JCT600) York who said it would need a software update. Took it in and paid £160.00 for the download. It didnt work...... They then said it needed a new display and the infotainment unit itself. They priced it at £3000.00!!! I priced the parts myself with TPS (I am in the motor trade) and they came in at £2800.00 and were on back order.
My daughter then complained directly to VW who have been dealing with it for 2 weeks and at first they seemed keen to repair it and agreed it was not right that a car that wasnt even 4 years old needed £3000.00 spending on it..... Well today they decided they wouldnt do anything to help.
I have code read it with Solus and it does come up with an open circuit. I have checked eveything obvious such as fuses etc and all is ok so it must be a problem with the unit itself. I have just been back into JCT600 to ask them if they could recode another unit if I sourced one from another vehicle. Their answer was that they wouldnt get involved in anything that had been fitted second hand
My questions are:
1 - Does anyone know if a second hand one can be recoded?
2 - Are there any firms out there that can repair our unit?
3 - Is there anything else I can look at myself?
4 - Whats the best aftermarket system to fit and vcan I get one that will work with fuel computer / TPS etc?

Any help greatly appreciated

Well I think that that VW dealer is being a bit of a fanny, why would they not recode a used system that you had sourced, complete idiots.

If you do source a used system, do not switch on the ignition at all initially, just swop over units and you should be able to switch it on and quickly check that it works okay, then and only then take it into a good VW Group Indie who has the correct VW Group equipment to connect that car to VW Mothership and remove Component Protection for roughly £60, it takes only 20 minutes as I have had that done for me on my Audi S4 which I fitted a used DAB radio to.

As soon as you either run out of time checking the new unit, or switch the ignition on, that new system will get locked out, which means that the volume will be muted in all modes.

I would have thought that there will soon be or is already an aftermarket support for these systems, plenty places around repair Audi etc B&O crappy systems, or good systems that end up getting filled with water!

Edit:- by the way, I made sure that I had tried as well as I could to find an alternative to my local Audi dealer to remove Component Protection from that used radio I bought as I think that I would have been handed out some similar crap - when done correctly, this system change will get officially recorded with VW, the only problem is when you fit a system that has been listed as stolen, they will not help you there, I took that risk as there must be many systems being removed from scrapped cars legitimately and sold for fitting to other cars, nothing illegal in doing that.

I changed the head unit in the glove box on my 2015 gti

Cost me a total of £180 all in
40 for the unit off ebay
60 to get component protection removed (indy)
Then 80 to get it re enabled to have the options from factory (vw).

I probably could of got the component protection and re enabling done at vw at the same time (the indy couldn't do it )

The screen is just a dumb screen so doesn't really need changing (sounds like it is working fine)

As far as I’m aware it’s the 5F unit in the glove box that does the work and like others have said the central screen is just that a screen,if it’s working why change it?

Did you get a solution to this?
The same thing just happened to me on my 2015 model and the car is probably worth the amount of the system.
I can't afford the fix, so I'm hopeful there's a way around this.

Have a chat with DJAlix at VAG Car Coding. https://www.vagcarcoding.com/services/ . He is a site sponsor on the AudiSport forum, and the expert on all things to do with VAG software/coding and retrofits. Very helpful chap, good advice, and very reasonable costs.