boertje
Veteran Member
Question is whether a monsoon radio will work in a non monsoon NB of the same year. Why or why not? Is it wiring, or a vagcom setting? Amplifier or ohms?
They are both 2001. My Son has a radio in his 2001 non monsoon going bad. He is a purist and doesn’t want an aftermarket radio. I have two monsoon radios in my box with codes. One is a 2001 and the other a 2002 both have same part numbers, hence my questions.What model year are the non-Monsoon New Beetle and the Monsoon radio? This might change the answer.
Wonder if there is a way to fool the soft coding?The wiring behind the headunit is likely the same. The radio's soft coding tells it if it has an external amplifier (Monsoon) or not.
In my cars I installed a nice alpine unit and most happy with them. My son wants to keep the original VW radio look and I haven’t been able to talk him out of it…yet.I believe the radios will work swapped but if Monsoon unit is installed into non-Monsoon vehicle you won't get the "better" (and I use that term very loosely) premium upcharge Monsoon sound. The "amp" really isn't much of/if any amp, more of an elaborate crossover system. There are no large gauge power wires feeding the "amp" but rather a multitude of small speaker wires and the Monsoon speakers have lots of wires from my recollection.
Do yourself a favor and install most any modest priced headunit and enjoy more features and the "upgrade" will really wake the speakers up.