Morning All

The stereo in the second hand Peugeot I’ve just brought is locked and the code supplied by the previous owner doesnt work.

My local Peugeot dealer who have said they can search for the code which will cost me £25 however cant guarantee it will work 😕 Looking online for unlocking codes I’ve found a couple of places that offer a code for X amount or suggest using the “1234” method using a number from the stereo which mine doesn’t have 🙁

I was going to take it to a local garage to see if they can do anything but as its only a basic CD player thought that maybe getting new one with either a memory card slot or USB plug for my mp3 maybe the way to go. Trouble is I know sweet F’all about them so have come here for some advice from those who do.

What say the masses?

Go on halfords, type clearance in the search box, look for stereos. Cheap as chips nowadays and you’ll easily get something that’ll take an aux lead for 50 quid…

If it’s not an ancient Peugeot you should should be able to do an easy swap with the aid of an ISO wiring harness. Just look on eBay for the harness relevant to your car (should be less than a fiver) and away you go. The most technical it gets is removing the old stereo, connecting the car-side plugs to your wiring harness, connecting the stereo plugs to the other end of the harness and then hiding all the wiring as you push the new stereo into position.

You might also need a replacement plastic dashboard bit with a normal sized hole for a stereo if you currently have an integrated stereo, but again they’re not exactly expensive.

In fact
This one.

I had this in a Vauxhall, went to the front desk of a dealer and was told that if it was on the system they’d just tell me. They looked it up, it wasn’t, said that they’d have to charge me £30 to have it recovered. Then suggested *wink* that I go talk to the mechanic and see if they’d any other ideas.

Went round to service and spoke to a chap in overalls, he decoded it in about 30 seconds for ten quid cash in hand.

Also,

Have you looked through the handbook etc? There’s sometimes a card in there with it on, or a sticker.

What the Pug dealer means is that they don’t know if the stereo could be broken. If they supply an unlock code then it should work – or they are obliged to give you your money back. If it’s an old stereo then it could have a power supply unit fault which is causing the code to be required (i.e. same as disconnecting the battery).

Personally I would bin the stereo and get a cheap aftermarket one from Halfords etc. Factory fitted Pug stereos are all pretty awful compared to a reasonable branded unit – that Halfords link above looked good.

OEM car stereos are, or were, inevitably bottom of the food chain crap, even from big manufacturers. Blaupunct units fitted in Fords, etc, were total rubbish, always better to get a good name aftermarket unit, from Kenwood, Sony, Clarion, or Pioneer.
[edit] if you can up your budget a bit, there’s this JVC DAB unit, for £80, which is a bargain:
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_818187_langId_-1_categoryId_237503

Aldi stero’s 50quid fit straight in single din, usb, aux cd radio and bluethooth.

what more could you ask for.

Most of them are pretty decent now. If you want some good sounds though, a set of half-decent speakers will help. I picked up some Alpines (I think they were) for £60 and they were great. Sadly sold them with the last car and been missing them since.

If you do buy something, make sure it’s easy to use. I have a cheap JVC and you need to go into the menu every time you want to do something. Which is all well and good if you’re, you know, not driving…

Thanks for the replies guys, I’d thought that new would be the way to go and getting DAB makes sense.

I’ve had a look at the ones linked and a couple of others, which of these three would you say is best as they all seem fairly similar to my untrained eye.

Sony

Kenwood

JVC

The previous owner had fitted some Alpine 6×9’s in the rear which he left in but took the nice Kenwood stereo 🙁