Wife's Cabrio radio on "safe"

jlfrogy · 02-02-04, 02:29

Hi all, Never really ventured to this part of the forum. I need some help with my wife's 2002 Cabrio. The radio like 3x's has gone on safe mode. The dealer of course says there is nothing they can do except reset it. I know that when that happens in my car it is an indication of bigger and better things wrong, usually mucho $$$$. Also, and of course the dealer can do nothing. The bees wax that they put in the doors is continually leaking out onto the rocker panels after washing or rain. This looks particularly ugly due to the fact that the car is black. Hope somebody has had some experience they can share that might help with these situations. TIA , joel

vwjettak2gti16v · 02-02-04, 02:53

have you thought of an aftermarket deck? as for the bees wax, that stuff is called cosmolene its an ainticorrosive goo type stuff over time it will continue to seep out especially in the summer just deal with it use a lil simple green to clean it off. it all will eventually come out

tom p. · 02-02-04, 03:32

Does the radio in this Cab exhibit any other odd behaviour?

The VW radios go into SAFE mode when power is lost for more than a couple of seconds.

LouisanaJeeper · 02-02-04, 04:07

Possibly there is a problem with the fuse that trickles power to the radio while the engine is off. Possibly a bad or very low battery too.

Take it to autozone, and they will pull up the OBDII codes the car has stored, which may point to a problem.

bet993 · 02-03-04, 01:19

I disagree that 'bees wax" material is cosmoline. My experience with cosmoline is it is impossible to remove without some serious cleaning and lots of elbow grease. It doesn't just seep out. The engine and transmission casing of my air cooled 911 is covered in the stuff. If the temperatures of an air cooled engine don't cause the stuff to melt off then I doubt it is going to slowly seep out of the door.

The Germans are notorious for using lots and lots of grease that is a yellow/white type of substance and it definitely keeps appearing. Many times the door jams, hinges, and door closing mechanisms are covered in this stuff. It has a tendency to be found inside the door where it will continue to appear at the bottom coming out drain holes and such and getting on your rocker panels in lines where water drips. Very annoying and a pain to keep clean.

Jake11375 · 02-03-04, 03:26

I had a similar problem with my Honda just last week. Everytime I turned off my car for more than 10 seconds the radio and clock would reset. Come to find out the back up fuse had gone out under the hood. So, it could be a problem in the wiring going to your back up fuse. Check your fuses maybe the incorrect voltage is being used somewhere. Electrical problems are sometimes a pain to find. Good luck.

EricZ · 02-18-04, 06:54

I'm going to weigh in here in regard to the "bees wax." I tend to think that it is cosmoline. BMW/Audi/VW are all known for using this stuff, and I've seen 2 year old TT's with it seeping from the wheel wells in summer. Where I work we use a product called Pro-Sol to remove it, and it wipes off very easily.

Mindflux · 02-18-04, 07:30

It *IS* cosmolene (coming from 2 vws myself)

When your radio displays SAFE, the power to the battery was interupted. There should be a procedure in your manual, along with a "Pin" code to re-activate the radio. It's an anti-theft measure.

jlfrogy · 02-19-04, 06:05

I understand it is a power interuption. It keeps happening and VW is stumped, so they replaced the radio. Not sure if that will fix it. Time will tell.