My RCD-510 is a bit over six years old now so might have to find out some day. Lifetime Sirius license.
Good luck, I hope your RCD-510 lasts. It does seem the 2010 RCD-510's
were most prone to sudden death.
Should have cancelled on the spot. They would have begged me to come
back and saved the $15. However I was hot to trot to get my new radio
going. It is only $15. I am on a trial 5 month plan I just renewed. If you
have lifetime plan, they may not charge you. Also the radio I bought was
previously registered. So I had to call them.
I took the old radio apart and clearly see the Sirius section, the antenna
goes straight to it; it's in a metal shield mounted direct to the board. I
would not attempt to remove it and install in the new radio to save $15.
Most likely I could destroy both radios. I am into electronics and I am
going to try and trace the power and see if it's the power supply. I think
it has a switching power supply. It might be an easy fix? If I can fix it, I
will offer the repair or info on how to repair to TDI Forum members. I
have not read anyone has successfully repaired a radio. Although the
dealers offer Refurb units in exchange for $600 or something (new I
think the radio listed for almost $2000). I am sure VW is sending it back
to Delphi or Blaupunkt and having it repaired. What they do is might put
in all new boards or replace individual components? There was someone
who sent a radio out to someone who repaired it for $200 and that lasted
a week. As well another individual "repaired" it a played around with it,
and got it working. It seemed pretty vague. His repair also did not last.
There are chips on the board that might be "proprietary", which are likely
not available. However I would not replace a chip even if I had one to
install. They are all surface mounted and need a machine to solder properly.
At some point not even Delphi or Blaupunkt might will not be able to repair
them. Typically life cycle of a design support is 5-7 yrs after last produced.
Special chips go out of production and they will not have parts. That's the nice
thing about old discreet electronics made of generic components, you can fix
them 80 yrs later. I think 2014 is last year for the RCD-510. The 2015 VW's
have new radios. Based on my 7 year support rule, after 2021 they will not
be supported by VW. You are looking at used surplus radios, parted out of
retired cars. This is all conjecture. There is always aftermarket... no worries.
With that said I see MK 7 Golf and Golf Wagen post by owners about
their new radios going blank. These are new radio designs.
Per link below, almost half way down, they describe the MK7 2015
model year radios.
http://www.myturbodiesel.com/1000q/a7/2015-vw-golf-tdi-forum-faq.htm
The base-line is stripped down. The RCD-510 is equal to or better
than the top-O-line radio in the SEL. You can add Nav to that one,
like RNS-510. I suspect the new radios will not be trouble free.
If you love CD's the RCD-510 is pretty cool, with 6 disks. I remember my
old Acura Legend had a 5 disk changer in the trunk. I thought that was
cool. I think you can still buy aftermarket w/ a cassette player. Remember
8-Track.