Purchasing a Bosch RCD510 check when made

[Bambazonke]

Hi all
In anticipation of another Tiguan diesel purchase I bought another Bosch RCD 510 off flea bay.

The current Bosch units are all identical in appearance to those being sold in new cars today as to those sold in 2010. The one in my current Tiguan has an FD value of 2011 (assembled in week 20 of 2011) HW value of 050 and SW value of 0207

Apart from the boot up screen and a label that displays the FD HW and SW values which are the assembly date, hardware and software versions respectively within the unit, there appears to be no difference between the two units.

However when I installed this 2010 unit which even has a RVC mustard plug, and has a FD value of 0810 (assembled in the 8th week of 2010) I noticed how incredibly slow it was in accessing mp3 files off the SD card when compared to my 2011 model. I can now relate to those forum members who raised a number of posts on this subject. So my question is there a way to upgrade the software in the unit to speed up the access? If not, I know which unit I will be keeping to go into the new Tiguan.

Secondly anybody intending to purchase one of these units I urge you to check with the seller when it was assembled (no later than mid 2011 to be safe) otherwise you may be better off with the original RCD 310 unit and the MDI module or go the whole hog and upgrade to the RNS 510 navi unit.

Update............
Subsequent to the above i have also discovered that the earlier 2010 model does not display the phonebook list generated by the 9W7 Bluetooth units that VW are now fitting as standard in the MY 12.5 and 13 models. These older models also do not display song names or allow tracks to be controlled from the head unit with audio streaming from an iphone 4 via bluetooth. All the more reason to make sure the unit is no more than a year old when upgrading!

[Transporter]

I have the RCD510 with RVC plug at the back you mentioned in our Tig (mainly my wife's ride), but she doesn't complain about SD card being slow to access the files. I will check production date and the fw version. I'm not sure if the unit's fw can be easily upgraded though.

[tigger73]

I bought a "brand new" RCD510 recently. Haven't tested out the SD card reading functionality yet.

As always it sounds like it's best to get the latest version unless you need to have compatibility with hardware in an older vehicle.

[Pawnii]

What Class is the SD card you're using?
The speed of the SD card might be the issue.
just a thought

[Bambazonke]

Hi Pawnii it is the same card that I had in my first unit which was assembled in 2011 so it's not the card. I am of the opinion it has something to do with the SD card hardware and software in the 2010 unit as even VCDS has picked up the HW & SW values are different. The long coding on the 2011 unit has an extra 2 bits of data or options as well.

Would really be interested if VW are able to do software upgrades via a "boot up" SD card at power on or using their VAS system on the RCD510 similar to what is done on the RNS510 navi units.

[99_FGT]

Hi Pawnii it is the same card that I had in my first unit which was assembled in 2011 so it's not the card. I am of the opinion it has something to do with the SD card hardware and software in the unit as even VCDS has picked up the HW & SW values are different. The long coding on the 2011 unit has an extra 2 bits of data or options as well.

Would really be interested if VW are able to do software upgrades via a SD card at power on or using their VAS system on the RCD510 similar to what is done on the RNS510 navi units.

I have looked into firmware upgrades for the RCD510, and no dice - happy to be corrected on that though!
I used the same SD card in my old man's Skoda - <10 seconds first load, 2-3 seconds (same as the MDI) after that. In my car - 60+ seconds and 20-30 seconds on startup. I hadn't thought (and he won;t let me pull it out to check) his firmware.

Al..

[Bambazonke]

Al..
VCDS will read the SW & HW values of the radio when you do an Autoscan. If your values are 040 for HW and 0167 for SW or less then you have the slow 2010 or earlier unit, the other 2011 unit i have has a HW value of 050 and SW value of 0207. The unit in your fathers Skoda should have similar values to this or higher. Unfortunately VCDS does not read the FD (assembly date).

Just seen someone on eBay buy one of these old Bosch units for $260 when they could have bought a late Bosch 2011 unit for an extra $40 wonder if they will ever notice the difference.