Has anyone come across an adapter that will let you connect the riocar tuner to the 2001 and newer Passat antenna wire? The new Passats (and other VWs, I presume) have an unusual, elbow shaped antenna adapter that is about 5 mm wide.

Thanks in Advance

jaysee

Well, it only took about a year to find this part, but I found it today at:

http://www.globalmart.com/page/v/vw6.htm

This is what you need to hook up the rio tuner to the factory VW or Audi antenna harness. Looks like I am only a few days away from using my tuner for the first time!

in my 2001 golf the antenna would plug right onto the tuner. I am in the usa what country is this car from ? that adaptor you linked looks like one to convert from the euro style to the usa style.

The antenna cable totally changed in 2001 and a half. It is now a proprietary VW 5mm coaxial plug. An adapter is required to go from the coaxial plug to the motorola male plug required for the tuner.

Weird mine was from the end of 2001 it had manditory side curtain airbags instead of optional. did you still have the 1/2 din radio or the new one ?

Hmm. My old Jetta (1999.5), which I never bothered installing the Empeg's tuner in because I ran the Empeg through the factory radio, had one of the small proprietary VW coaxial antenna connectors. I don't know yet what my new Jetta (2002) has, because I haven't obtained all the parts I need for my Empeg install yet (I've been Empegless for over a week... the horror... the horror...), but I suspect it's the same from everything I've been reading on <http://forums.vwvortex.com/>.

(in case anybody's wondering - not that I imagine you would be - I'm going to get an old single-DIN VW radio and do the same radio/Empeg combo I had before, even though my new car has the accursed 2002 VW double-DIN radio... should be a hoot, since the new VW wiring harness lacks such amenities as switched power and headlight sense, preferring to communicate those over the car's CAN-bus)

Be warned that the antenna adapter that was referenced earlier in this thread will not powsr the antenna in some of the newer VWs - at least, not by the looks of it - and that means you'll get little to no AM reception and suboptimal FM reception.

why not just get an aftermarket head unit since the wiring in the car is different anyway

Do you also have the evil monsoon system

Weird mine was from the end of 2001 it had manditory side curtain airbags instead of optional. did you still have the 1/2 din radio or the new one ?

Only on the Passat did it change at that time. The rest of them stayed the same, not sure if they changed them with the double din radio, will check today.

The VW headunits have preset car-specific eqs in them that do a remarkably good job of flattening the response, although he will want to ensure that he gets a unit from a Jetta, or have some means of changing it (VAG-COM). They also match the interior really well - simple low-key styling, with dash-matched lighting. Plus it shouldn't be too expensive to pick one up, and it should be relatively theft-proof.

In reply to:

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The VW headunits have preset car-specific eqs in them that do a remarkably good job of flattening the response...They also match the interior really well - simple low-key styling, with dash-matched lighting. Plus it shouldn't be too expensive to pick one up, and it should be relatively theft-proof.

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Exactly. Except, change "not too expensive" to "ridiculously cheap compared to an aftermarket head unit that would look decent".

I found an amplified version of this adapter, after reading comments by DMZ. Will try this adpater with and without power to see if it makes any difference.

http://www.scosche.com/scosche/antennas/VWA2.asp

I used this in my 95 VW Golf.
It made a HUGE difference in reception range and quality.
I got mine from sounddomain.com.. uh.. I think.

Z~

Here is another adapter that works with the 2002 VW Passat and late model BMWs.

http://www.audiowarehouse.peachhost.com/ct_PR3478543.htm