funny dealership b.s.

Ok so this starts off as a question.

Got a call from a customer wanting to have us temporarily remove her reciever. When i asked why she replied " I'm at the dealership trying to get a smog check". She went on to tell me that the dealership told her that before they could do the smog check on her 95 jetta the had to either charge her 50 to replace her " k wire" or have her radio removed. This instantly sounded like your average everyday dealer B.S. but i wasnt sure. Only thing i could think is that the dealer probably reads info off the data bus during the smog check but a 95 volks radio linked to the data bus? even if, the aftermarket radio wouldn't even be touching the data bus at all. She said that if they didn't fix the k wire or have the radio pulled it would fry their test equipment. any ideas or comments?

ok so second part , what kind of stupid stuff have you all heard from your local dealerships?

I've had muliple occasions where dealerships have told customers that their new radio fried their  map,maf,02 sensors. I even had a dealership call me and tell me that the amp bypass we did in the customers bimmer fried their transmission. I'm sorry but uh NO.  

I'm not an expert on Volkswagons, but when I went to do a radio in a friends 02 jetta, I heard the same thing.  So, before I did his Radio I did some research and found this web site.  It says that Volkswagon didn't start having the K-line data wire at the radio until 97-98. Intresting read if you wanna learn here's the site:

https://www.ross-tech.com/vag-com/aftermarket-radio.html

Frank

back a while ago Metra had the VW harness 70-1784 with the blue wire jumpered for amp turn on and antenna turn on. on some VW models that jumpered blue wire was on the K-Line of the VW. for a while now Metra has not put the blue or blue/white wires in the 70-1784, leaving it up to the installer if they are needed.

so if you have an old 70-1784 from Metra make sure you cut the blue jumper and you shouldn't have any problems with the dealership. (at least on that matter).

I had a customer come to my shop asking me to fix his parking lights.  i thought "ok, this should be easy."  the guy shows up to the shop wearing a white tee shirt and his tighty whitees. no joke!  he had no pants on. only 1 of the 4 lights were working, and he needed the lights to work to pass inspection.   so i started to check in the car, and he starts telling me things about his "beast" like, "the dash lights have to charge 4-12 seconds every time you turn them on" and " i used high output crimp connectors to install the radio".  by the end of the conversation, he was telling me what was wrong with the electrical system... and i started to combat his completely wrong answers, but i just shut my mouth and asked him "if you know whats wrong with your car, why do you want to pay me to fix it?"  and he said he didnt want to mess with it.... i sent him packing.  i didnt want to start anything on his car and then have him try to sue me becase his "high output crimp caps" burned his car down.

BTW, his bad ass crimp caps were those yellow twist caps used in home electrical systems. i still cant explain the "charging" dash lights tho...

i also had a guy come to me accusing the stereo of breaking his transmission.  he said "whenever i start driving this tapping sound gets faster and faster" he wanted me to cut him a check for a new transmission, which the dealership told him to do.  out of pure curiosity, i went and listened to his truck to hear the sound...  there was a zip tie wraped around the driveshaft, that was slapping the body of the truck.  obviously a prank by someone... but worse than that, the dealership didnt catch that, after 3 days of "searching" !!!!!

last,  when i was at stereo school, my instructor had to take time out of his day to install an alarm on his bosses wifes new escalade.  his boss was a serious dick to everyone.   when he installed the alarm, he tapped the break light wire to the horn honk wire... so everytime the brakes were applied, the horn was honking... and when you go to honk the horn on the steering wheel, the remote start would activate. 

needless to say, dont wiz off the guy installing your alarm.