RNS-510 - blown hard disk after 400 miles / 1 week

[monstersinc1]

Just learned today my RNS-510 unit has to be replaced. About a week after I got the car (approx 400 miles), I turned on the car one day and it was asking me to insert a NAV cd/dvd. In addition the MDI (ipod) input stopped working as well as SD card input. Radio (AM/FM/SAT) continued to work fine. Dealer finally got me in today and they have diagnosed it as a bad RNS-510 (hard disk?). They have to order one in (from Europe) with a two week lead time.

 

[740GLE]

ask them how much that'd cost if it wasn't under warranty, you'll be amazed!

Good luck with the dealer.

 

[MyAvocation]

Once outside of warrany, my recommendation is temporarily move the drive to a computer and run SpinRite on it. If it fixes the problem, save an image of the drive, buy replacement, restore image and you're good to go (also run SpinRite on the new drive -- should do so on EVERY one you own).

 

[MyAvocation]

So poking around a bit, seems our friends in Oz have tackled upgrading the RNS510 to larger drive capacities, partitioning and SSD! The main benefit of SSD is faster load times & scrolling, but overall not a fix to all lag issues. It should be noted the drive interface is IDE/PATA, so either that or the CPU are the bottleneck.
VWNAVI.COM
VWwatercooled.org.au

If this type of DIY interests you, I wouldn't wait too long to buy the drive. Computers are no longer built with this interface, so finding direct fit replacements are sure to dry up. And it doesn't appear there's room to install a SATA-PATA adapter.