[VW BEATL]

Ok I've been hearing that when you put an after market radio into the New Beetle it doesn't pass smog. Well I just had my NB smogged and it passed with flying colors. I think if the guy who installs your after market radio knows what he is doing and stands behind his work like my guy at New Age Audio in Fullerton (ask for Milo), the NB will pass smog. If your guy writes "may not pass smog" on your radio installation receipt, obviously he doesn't stand behind his work and you need to take your NB elsewhere for an after market radio installation. I passed smog, I'm listening to my tunes on my Alpine driving my NB and life couldn't be sweeter! Just wanted to share the 411 on that dilemma. Take care of your New Beetle by taking it to a guy that knows what he is doing and stands behind his work. Good luck!

Let The Good Times Roll,
Rachel
VW BEATL

[Rubee2006Tdi]

Interesting, Rachel! Never heard that one, I guess they must foul up the ECU somehow so it reports erroneous numbers when smogged? Not sure how a new radio could mechanically cause a vehicle to fail emissions.

[Luke]

I have to remove after market radios in both my Passat and NB before smogging in Calif. I had a 'K-wire fix' in both cars (by VW dealer) to bypass this problem, but still the power has to be cut to the radio for smog tests to work. I have to do the same when the dealer does an OBD scan.

VW's OBD systems uses the factory radio (I guess few manufactures do) as part of the diagnosis when you take your car to the dealer. And for the smog test in SoCal, they not only do a visual inspection of the motor and use the exhaust sensor, but they also hook up the computer to the cars OBD connection which in turn goes directly to the central State smog computer in Sacramento.

I had to call the California smog people in Sacramento to find out why the Passat did not smog some years ago. Now I just pull the after market systems and unplug the power. I'm not sure why all this happens in detail, I just want to get the damn smog tests done every few years so I can continue to drive my cars.

- Luke

[BEARJAM]

Interesting. BearJam has a MAJOR after-market audio/video system and it has never caused any problems when it came to smogging it.

[BDAW]

The smog laws are changing. What's kind of misleading is that if there are a certain number of electrical faults in the system, even something simple as brake light failure are included, it will fail the smog test by default. When I had my vehicle smogged in the last couple of months, the tech said they were cutting down on the number of electrical faults that are tolerable to allow for a passing test. I would assume that depending on how the car is modified and if it alters the voltage on any of the wires going through the radio, it could trip an electrical fault.

There could be more in the radio than just a radio though....but you'd think something would show as failed if it was of major importance. I remember back in the day, one manufacturer actually sent controls for the airbag through the radio. Can you believe it?