K-wire & indash stereo not a problem on *all* 98s - evidently

["Matt Cleland" <cleland@stlnet.com>]

This weekend I went out and pulled my indash CD receiver to check for the
infamous K-wire problem on 98's.  It turns out that my car (built 10/97)
has the same radio connections as documented in the Bentley, section 91-4.
This is different than the connections posted by Uwe for "late" 98s.  Mine
has 3 connectors, black,brown & pink, with similar pin counts.  The picture
Uwe posted has the same black & brown, and then a higher density connector
with many more pins.

Anyway, I did have the infamous Metra harness with pins 3 & 5 looped
together,
with a blue wire attached to pin 3 ( on the black connector).  The Bentley
showed that pin 3 was open, however there was a connection on my factory
harness.  It was a black wire which actually came from the speaker harness
and crossed over to the black connector, pin 3.

I now believe that pin 3 on *my* car is the turn-on lead for the Bose
amplifier.  When I disconnected it from +12V, I got no sound.  The
key to this discovery was a decal on the factory Bose head unit, which
showed pin 3 to have a little speaker symbol and a "+" sign.

I was kind of aggrivated after all this, so I just slapped the factory
head unit back in.  Back to the sub-par, no-CD, muddy tone I once knew.
I do have to say that I like the fit/finish of the factory unit much
better than the one I had in there. I may go with Zeek's suggestion of
a Blaupunkt unit, next time I get a few spare $$.

BTW, I re-measured voltage at the data-link connector after I replaced the
factory headunit.  Again, no +12V on the K-wire with ignition off, and +12V
on the K-wire with ignition on.  Somebody on the list this weekend suggested
that there should be +5V on the K-wire, but I get +12V.  As far as I know,
no scanning of my car has taken place.  Maybe one of you adventurous types
could go measure your K-wire voltage and report back.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Matt Cleland					cleland@stlnet.com
98 Jetta GLX
Black/Biber

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Matt Cleland [mailto:cleland@stlnet.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, August 26, 1998 10:54 PM
> To: Uwe.Ross@pobox.com
> Cc: gti-vr6@dev.tivoli.com
> Subject: RE: [gti-vr6] WARNING: Carcomp Users and 1998 owners
>
>
> According to the sticker in the driver's door jamb, my car was
> "Hecho'ed in
> Mexico" in 10/97.  I had the Bose system, evidently by Panasonic.
>
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Matt Cleland					cleland@stlnet.com
> 98 Jetta GLX
> Black/Biber
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Uwe Ross [mailto:Uwe.Ross@pobox.com]
> > Sent: Wednesday, August 26, 1998 10:03 PM
>
> >
> > What's the build date on your car?  Did it have the new "late 98"
> > radio?  If not, you may not even have a k=wire in the radio harness and
> > have nothing to worry about.
> >
> > -Uwe-
> >