VT Eurovox TEL message.

[THE_DUDE_]

Hi, I Have a 1997 VT Executive with a factory Eurovox single CD double din unit the previous owner replaced the original cassette deck with. A couple days ago i started the car and the display reads 'TEL' and won't play any music, CD or radio. Turning it off shows the clock, turning it back on shows 'TEL' again. I've tried pressing all the buttons and holding the ON/OFF button to see if that does anything so far nothing works. I've already done a search and didn't find anything on this, if anyone has any idea what's wrong, please tell me. Thanks.

[holdenboy]

Did the car have a mobile phone handsfree kit installed previously? If youre not sure then one thing to try is disconnecting the negative terminal of the battery for a couple of minutes, re-connect it and see if that fixes it.

If not then maybe the wiring for the handsfree kit it touching metal / each other. You'll need to remove the glovebox (theres a pin in the right hand side, lever it out with a screwdriver) and then undo the 2-3 screws you see holding up the side plate of the centre console. Just lower this panel down and you should see either plug or some chopped off wiring there, make sure every one of those is taped up individually and test the stereo again.
Could also possibly remove the unit and cut the TEL MUTE wire (yellow/black), see if that fixes it too.

Basically whats happening is the stereo is receiving a signal telling ti to mute the sound because you are on the phone

[THE_DUDE_]

Thanks for the quick response, I believe it may have had a hands free kit, there is an aerial for a mobile phone hands free kit installed on the boot, i have no idea if it's connected to anything though, the interior doesn't show any signs of having held a mobile phone dock, or however those things work. That's about all the information the guy i bought it from was able to give me on the CD player, if i disconnect the negative terminal will i have to re-enter the pin code?

[Dayvo]

When i wired up my amp i ran the trigger wire from the connection from my old hands free kit . When i was checking for the power wire i noticed that when i put the test light on one of the connections the hu would go into mute mode and TEL was displayed ,so maybe one of the wires could be loose

[holdenboy]

You will need to enter the code, if you dont have it then i suggest my second method....you wont see any signs of the hands free kit being installed because they use the stereo mount to secure the phone cradle.

Pull off that side piece and have a look at the wiring. Make sure they arent touching each other, you could even touch the black/yellow (or whatever colour they used to join to this wire). The TEL should be gone, when most people remove these kits they just chop all the wiring in one snip, so not only does this leave the wiring very close to touching each other, it actually joins the wires when the cutters go through the insulation and the copper simultaneously.

Dayvo, this happens because the mute wire uses earth sensing, it dosent take much of a connection to trigger it......so the test light you were using would have had a TINY connection to earth through the wiring and the bulb itself. Airbags also use the same type of trigger, so you could be prodding away with your test light and accidently hit an airbag sensor wire...boom, airbags go off

[THE_DUDE_]

I talked to the previous owner and he tells me a little smack to the front of the head unit is enough to dislodge whatever's touching in the wiring. that proves at least it is dodgy wiring. the front smack technique may do as a quick fix until i put a different head unit in and properly separate the wires causing the problem, if it doesn't last, ill get in there from the side as instructed. thanks for the advice.

[holdenboy]

Thats cool, so this has happened before? Dosent sound healthy for the head-unit to be "smacking" it though, but i suppose it dosent matter if youre going to replace the unit.
Also try giving the passenger side of the centre console a whack instead, as i think the wiring connection in question is there, and not behind / attached to the unit.

[THE_DUDE_]

Thanks, the passenger side smack is a good idea. I assume its happened to the previous owner, i wasn't told about it though, only had the car since last Thursday and the radio worked fine during the test drive and two days that followed.

[ispeed]

Its a Eurovox - it deserves a good smack anyway - even if nothing is wrong with it.

[holdenboy]

^^^^ lol ^^^^

[THE_DUDE_]

The smack technique stopped working a couple days ago, so I got in there today and took a look around, couldn't find any open wires, so just found the yellow/ black mute wire and cut it, taped up the ends and that seems to work for now, found some weird stuff back there while looking around, there's a speaker hidden in the wiring that looks like it belongs to a 2-way radio, a giant power-board shaped thing with a LAN port coming out of it attached to about 3 meters of cable compressed to fit, I'm guessing they're both part of the hands free kit but made the job of finding anything to work with much harder. thanks again to everyone who posted in this thread, wouldn't have been able to figure it out on my own.

[holdenboy]

Yep cutting that mute wire will work fine. You might as well remove the hands free kit (the black box and all cables coming out of it, including that little speaker).