Unlocking car radio in 2000 Beetle after battery change

[poppies1962]

Hi all!!

I know that there a a million and one posts on this issue but none of them seem to be giving us the answer for our specific problem / car. My daughters car - 2000 VW Beetle - had the battery replaced three weeks ago and we have been trying all of this time to reset the radio. In the first instance, "safe" was dispayed on the radio screen and my young daughter had no clue what this meant and punched most of the buttons trying to get it to work. Three weeks later, and after scanning and trying EVERY suggestion in the posts we still have no radio. The radio displays "Code 1"at the moment... if we try to enter our correct four digit code by using each of the buttons i.e. if the first number is "1", we hit the 1 button once, if the second is "0" we hit the 2 button trying to get the zero to appear, and the screen then goes to "Code 2". Then at the beginning of trying to enter the third number the screen goes to "--- --- ---". We leave the radio turned on, with the key in the ignition but car not turned onto accessories or motor running for at least an hour.... come back and it is back to "Code 1".
Desperately trying for three weeks now to reset our daughters radio on her 2000 VW Beetle after a new battery was installed. The screen does not display "Safe"... it displays "Code 1" and then "Code 2" (after doing it wrong again) then it goes back to "--- --- ---". We leave it for at least an hour with the radio on, key in the ignition (but not switched to accessories or motor running) and we come back to see "Code 1". We would so greatly appreciate someone giving us step by step instructions on how to get it back to "Safe" so that we can input our code.

Posts we have looked at say to press simultaneously the 'scan' and 'rds' buttons..... we do not have a 'rds' button... is 'rdm' button the same thing??
Can someone PLEASE tells us step by step EXACTLY what we have to do to get the screen back to the point of "Safe" and then go to "1000".

Hoping someone can help as this is driving us carazy!!!!

[SXY28L]

Hey welcome to this forum

you usually have a special code u must put in, it is normally found in the owners book,
Ask the dealer for your special code.

Enjoy your stay

SXY28L

[poppies1962]

Thank you!

Yes we have the four digit code thanks. What our problem is that we can not get the screen on the radio to display "safe" which should then go to "1000" so that we can input our code..... it displays "Code 1".... We need to know the exact proceedure to get it back to displaying 'safe' so that we can input our code. Any help would be fantastic.

Some posts we have looked at say to press simultaneously the 'scan' and 'rds' buttons..... we do not have a 'rds' button... is 'rdm' button the same thing?? Pressing and holding our 'scan' and 'rdm' button does not work.

Many thanks and desperately hoping for some help here.

[AdamD]

Have you tried disconnecting the battery from the car for a minute or two, to reset the radio back to its factory default (again)? You should then see the "Safe" message and should be able to follow the prescribed steps to unlock it using your security code.

[h100vw]

Try disconnecting the battery again or pulling the radio fuse. The other thing I was wondering if it's maybe not the original radio? Often some kind person writes the code on the case, so you could also take it out to check.

Gavin

[poppies1962]

Hi AdamD

Yes we have disconnected the battery a few times now. Once for a few minutes, another time for half an hour. Radio screen still displayed "Code 1".

[h100vw]

whats the model number of the radio?

[poppies1962]

Hi h100vw

Thanks for your reply. We have not yet tried to pull the radio fuse. Is this done by removing the radio? It definitely looks like the original radio as vw stamped on the unit. The code was not written on radio card within the manual but we found it on the sticker in the spare tyre well. Sounds like the only alternative here is to remove the radio??

[h100vw]

The radio fuse will be in the end of the dash but disconnecting the battery would do the same job. Even if it's a VW radio, it doesn't mean that the code you have is the one for that particular radio.

The sticker in the boot, has build information on it, was the code hand written?

Gavin

Hi h100vw

Thanks for your reply. We have not yet tried to pull the radio fuse. Is this done by removing the radio? It definitely looks like the original radio as vw stamped on the unit. The code was not written on radio card within the manual but we found it on the sticker in the spare tyre well. Sounds like the only alternative here is to remove the radio??

[poppies1962]

I have no idea sorry. The manual states that it is either a BR-466M or a BR-477M but the pictures of those two radio's do not look like the actual radio in the vehicle. Once again, looks like we may have to try and take the radio out as I have tried to google search the different radio models to no avail.