As some of you with Vauxhall products will know, holding in the RDS button on a CCR600 head unit for a few seconds, whilst tuned to FM, will cause the radio to scan and memorize available stations for fast access.
Out of interest(!) I tried the same thing whilst tuned to MW. When I released the RDS button a few seconds after depressing it, I saw a previously hidden code (a jumble of letters between A and D, plus numbers), with an adjacent one-digit-per-second countdown starting from 52! I hurriedly switched the unit off when the countdown had reached 40, and then after plucking up courage, but with other hand hovering over the power switch, tried it again. The countdown duly resumed where it had left off before (ie 40), and when it reached 38, I bottled out.
The security code is normally accessed via a quite different process, and in any case, bears no resemblance to what I report above, so I'm baffled. I know that the head unit also controls the CD autochanger (because I have once had to reprogramme the autochanger security code, which is done via the head unit), but given that the CD still works perfectly after my shennanigans above, I'm at a loss.
Any ideas, please?
TIA.
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SJB,
I have the same stereo in the Vectra. I tried what you mentioned last night, with the same results. However, instead of the numbers counting down though, mine were random. They were almost in unison with the instantaneous fuel consumption computer display. I accelerated and the numbers went down, de-accelerated and they were back up again. If you press the RDS button again, you then get a different set of numbers on the radio display. Unlike your stereo though, upon switching off/on resumed things back to normal.
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Thanks for your observations DD.
Very interesting they are too: I noticed when I got home last night that my average fuel consumption was displayed as 4MPG worse than normal (on a run I have done hundreds or times). I thought 'Hmmm, maybe...' and then 'Nah, no way' and discounted the mental connection with my previous day's radio meddling.
After what you write though, I wonder if there is a connection, and I have somehow adjusted the calibration?
Time for some more meddling (I'm feeling brave, yikes)
Stay tuned...
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Okay, just been for a meddle, with the car in the peace and quiet of the garage (and the engine off!).
What I seem to have found is that there are a series of different codes, and on my unit at least, whichever one you last accessed is the one that displays by default the next time you 'meddle'.
I have now found one code that behaves by gently scrolling through a range of numbers from 50 to 42, but in a 'random' manner, which I guess is the one you found.
I am convinced that this is signal strength, because when I grab hold of the antenna on the roof (my GSi is an Estate), with my body now affecting the signal, and look through the back window at the radio display, the range of numbers scrolled through drops to between 39 and 37. As soon as I let go of the aerial, the range returns to between 50 and 42. Every time.
Now to try and check the fuel consumption display theory over the next few days.
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So we are all relieved to know it was not a bomb in the process of a 60 second countdown!.
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SJB,
Your theory about these number codes being a signal strength indicator could very well be true. The random numbers on my display were observed whilst I was driving home, thus the signal strength would vary as the car was in motion.
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