Philips radio (R570) repair?

[digital efi]

Over many years, I seem to have accumulated a number of Philips R570 radio/cassettes.

Problem is, not a single one is in full working order: everything from missing codes to display segments missing, no display at all and reverting to medium wave every time the ignition is switched off.

Question is, does anybody have any experience of repairing these things? For example, are the display issues generally caused by dry solder joints and therefore easily fixable?

[matthewsemple]

Apart from the codes, £5 from eBay, I don't think there is much point struggling to get these old units to work as they are often for sale on eBay for very liitle money. Even taking them apart is quite difficult (lots and lots of tiny screws) and when I attempted, I got the impression that they are supposed to be sealed and not opened up.

I have recently bought a couple of Philips 741 units from the MGF. They look original, have an MG logo on them, have a removable panel (just the buttons) which goes in a little case with an MG logo and they have RDS. Although I have not done this, they also can be used to operate a CD Autochanger.

The last one I bought cost me £10.

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk32/autostore/MGF%2003/IMG_8264.jpg

[MG MAL]

I agree with Matthew.

Unless your savy with that kind of repair it's just not worth it.

I prefer to use the Rover 800 set up in mine as you can pick up a complete set including cd changer, cable and mounting kit for under £50.

Mal.

[G51 NAV]

...are the display issues generally caused by dry solder joints...Yes...and therefore easily fixable?No!

Liking the look of the Philips R741. Might try to get one of those for MGT 396, which is currently without any ICE. What socket arrangement is on the back, Matthew?

[matthewsemple]

It is a standard Philips unit so if you have the standard Maestro leads, you can remove the ISO leads and just plug the unit straight in. Could be a 2-minute job.

Someone had cut the wires on my Maestro Turbo so I bought an ISO lead set (about 99p on eBay) and wired it into the plugs that were on short leads hanging out the back out the unit. That made it a 5-minute job.

[G51 NAV]

Yes, some butcher has done the same to #396. That one on eBay seems to already have a portion of the loom already hanging out of the back so I should be able to patch it in.

[matthewsemple]

Mine had those terrible bullet connectors all over the place which are bulky and unreliable. I removed them all and wired all the loose wires into a junction box which connected to the ISO leads which then connect into the Philips unit.

Slightly complicated option but now I can switch between a Philips type unit or any other that uses the ISO connectors in a couple of minutes.

My next job is to fit a CD autochanger. Has anyone done this? I can see them on eBay with the changer, 6-disc cartridge and a bracket but rarely with a lead. If I buy a lead does this supply the data and the power to the changer or just the data? Does the changer need to be wired in separately?

[digital efi]

The CD changer is literally 'plug and play'. Power and signals all carried in the one cable.

There are two Philips changer types out there, though, so make sure you get the correct one for your head unit. If I get the chance, I will check ours tomorrow and post both model numbers etc (I have both types fitted across our fleet!)

My original post about the R570 was just to see if it was worth spending a few hours building up a couple of good units out of a dozen or so of them(!) or just donate them all to a good (landfill lol) cause.......

[matthewsemple]

Sorry we have hijacked your thread! If you can get one working Philips unit out of several broken ones, you are a better man than me. I couldn't even get mine apart!

The CD autochanger that is compatible with the R741 is a Philips DC082. These come up on eBay frequently so it is good to know they just require the one lead.

[G51 NAV]

If you do make one good one from many and skip the remains of the rest, maybe consider liberating a few spare parts likely to wear and eventually become completely unavailable, such as the displays, the four-track heads, the motor drive belts and the pinch-rollers. Depends I guess if you intend keeping it long term.

[Simon]

On the 570/670/681 the front knobs just pull off. the top and bottom lids just prise off and then the innards can be dismantled. This is done using a small torx screwdriver. The spring brackets at the side can be removed, the front facia can then be removed and the display can be literally pulled up out of its socket to reveal the illumination bulb and orange filter behind. The main cassette mechanism than then be unscrewed and removed as a unit, the major problems with these are usually the drive belts breaking or the plastic flywheels breaking up. As far as I can remember, the main PCB can also be unscrewed and swapped over, although the heat sinks for the power amp IC's might need to be unscrewed first. As such these units, being modular in construction are designed for maintenance and repair and dare I say it, if you have a few to choose from then you could definitely make a good one out of several duffers. Have a go one day when you are feeling bored, it's more exciting than doing a jigsaw puzzle!

[Batty Boy]

When work on the rebuild of my MG Maestro 2.0i gets underway (hopefully next year) I will definitely keep the original R670 radio/cassette player in it. It is just personal thing, but I hate seeing older cars with newer stereos in them, as I like cars to retain their period radio - last year I nearly paased out cold with horror when I saw a beautiful Rover P5B Coupe with modern aluminium finish radio with CD unit fitted inside it.

Admittedly I rarely listen to a radio when driving, let alone music, but at shows it is still nice to see original ICE in cars. I also find it easier to operate the older style radio/casette players with their chunky knobs and buttons than the more recent stuff MG Rover Group used to buy in off-the-shelf and fit as standard in their cars - tweezers, anyone, for changing radio station? As already said, it is a personal thing.

There is a trader at the NEC Classic Motor Show who specialises in repairing and refurbishing older stereos. I did take a business card should I ever be in this unfortunate position.

[G51 NAV]

I hate seeing older cars with newer stereos in them, as I like cars to retain their period radio - last year I nearly paased out cold with horror when I saw a beautiful Rover P5B Coupe with modern aluminium finish radio with CD unit fitted inside it.

Admittedly I rarely listen to a radio when driving, let alone music If you used it you'd probably think differently (or should I say, you'd be prepared to tolerate a compromise). You'd want something actually useful, like the P5B owner.

These days, a lot of people even find cassette radios intolerably outdated because they no longer own any cassettes.

I even know of (young) people who don't know what cassettes are.

[matthewsemple]

I used to like the ICE to be original but as I make lots of long journeys and I like to have a good quality unit. Unfortunately some of the original units were not really very good even in their day and now they are verging on the unusable. The speakers fitted to our cars by Austin Rover were appalling - they are only 4 watts!

I have bought several R681s which when I have put them in the car have been broken. Getting them repaired doesn't make economic sense when a CD Tuner could be purchased for a fraction of a cost of all the labour.

So the compromise is the R741 pictured above which was standard on the MGF. For some people this would not be any good because very few people use tapes anymore. I have just bought a CD Autochanger (the DC082 unit) but by the time I have bought a cartridge and a lead, I may as well have bought a new CD Tuner that plays MP3s or has a USB input - for less money!

[G51 NAV]

they are only 4 watts!IIRC they were four Ohm, which was their impedance. They were certainly no disco bass-bins, but I think they could take more than 4 Watts.

[matthewsemple]

IIRC they were four Ohm, which was their impedance. They were certainly no disco bass-bins, but I think they could take more than 4 Watts.
You may be right - I know they don't even handle the output from the original units let alone anything more powerful.

[G51 NAV]

Their main weakness is that dampness causes the cones to rot quickly. On the four I removed from #396, three of them had completely rotted away from the surround. It was surprising they gave any sound at all.

[Simon]

I have a VDO Dayton head unit in my Maestro which looks factory fitted. A variant of it was even fitted in some Rover 75's and badged up as Philips! The unit plays radio, CD and MP3 CD and is very good indeed, especially as the illumination can be switched either orange or green.

I wonder if a 570/670/681/682 could be converted to take a USB input? Now that would be progress indeed.

On my Golf, I have a horrible looking Blaupunkt, but it does have USB and bluetooth so can handle streaming and also hands free calls.

[G51 NAV]

I wonder if a 570/670/681/682 could be converted to take a USB input? Now that would be progress indeed.Not easily without additional hardware, but they can be fairly easily adapted to take an audio input. Units which accept external CD multiplayers already have an audio input.

[Jez]

I have seen MP3 players that plug into the CD changer cable. Thereby replacing your 6 CDs with 10,000 tracks of 1980's music!!

Don't know if any are available for the Phillips units. I have a top of the range Rover 800 Radio cassette with CD changer in my Austin Maestro. it's looks original to most people.

[Chris Y]

I have seen MP3 players that plug into the CD changer cable. Thereby replacing your 6 CDs with 10,000 tracks of 1980's music!!

Quite right - I have one of those for my F*rd.

Don't forget you can always have an MP3 player in the glovebox with one of those FM transmitter things, or a casette adapter.

[Austin-Rover]

A friend with an Allegro sent his Unipart radio away for an overhaul and at the same time had a lead for his iPod hard wired into the 1970s stereo. The wire lives in the glove box so the iPod is hidden away.

[G51 NAV]

yep it's fairly easy to patch an audio-input into any old radio/cassette, even an old MW/LW radio. But a USB socket (as asked on the previous page) is not so simple, because a Universal Serial Bus carries digital data not analogue audio.

[chrisl]

Im one for originality... so -

The only point i would make is that only recently made head units can take ipods with a relevant 'in' socket.

If you buy a good quality 'tape to ipod' converter you can use your ipod in any tape player head unit, something you cannot do in a lot of CD player head units!

My step son has a old VW polo with a tape player in, i told him not to get a modern head unit as it would disapear very quickly, he was not happy at the time but now he has a converter he is very happy to leave the old unit in the car and be able to use his pod in the car every time!

C

[G51 NAV]

[slightly off topic] Do people these days really prefer to use ipods and other music players in cars, in preference to CDs? Seems to be a hell of a faff? In MP3 format you can fit about 5 CDs on one CD-RW which most modern in-car CD players will play. You can just leave it in the unit on random/repeat til you're bored, then blank it and put more stuff on. Yet I've seen some in-car CD players get poor online reviews just because they don't have dedicated ipod sockets, and frankly I can't see the attraction. Why do you want more crap flying about the dash? [/slightly off topic]

[matthewsemple]

I agree John. I don't have an ipod because they seem an expensive fad and more about looking cool when you're jogging rather than the quality of the music.

I do have an mp3 player but I wouldn't want to be running leads from it into a tape deck of the car. It seems to defeat the object of having digital music because by the time the track is compressed (to get it into mp3 format) and then sent down a cable to be picked up by a cassette player head, I cannot see how that can be digital? The same with an inline feed that uses the headphone socket.

I am also not keen on all the leads trailing around the car - it is bad enough when the satnav is plugged into the cigar lighter with a lead going across the front of the head unit.

I did consider a FM transmitter but I have been put off these after reports that they are unreliable. If they work though, that would seem a better solution because you can keep the mp3 player in the glovebox or your pocket and tune the radio frequency to the chosen output.

[G51 NAV]

FM transmitters can be good, but they're temperamental. They mostly seem to be made on the cheap by little-known far-eastern manufacturers with no quality control. I bought one of these from this seller (http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/LCD-Wireless-FM-Transmitter-Radio-Car-Kit-IPOD-PSP-/260677902945?pt=UK_AudioVideoElectronics_PortableA udio_MP3PlayerCarKits&hash=item3cb19d2261). It's USB powered and it allows me to stream internet radio from my laptop to my domestic HiFi, but it took two attempts to get one which worked properly (seller sent me the second one free with no quibbles).