[Joeboxer1130]

Hello, I'm trying to install a Pioneer DEHX6800BT, very nice looking stereo. I bought a GM Wiring Harness to make the instalation easier. Everything is connected properly and noticed that no sound is coming out of the speakers even though the stereo is on. Cluster is showing the security on the message center and low fuel. As soon as I connect the factory stereo it goes back to normal and sound cam be heard from the speakers. This car doesn't have an amp connected, and I believe it has OnStar. Any help will be much appreciated. Thanks in advance

 

[Revo2Maxx2016]

I think the issue is that your car does have an amp and you haven't made that connection in the wiring with the Aftermarket Harness.

If you look in your Trunk your car has a Factory amp that is mounted under the upper deck. There will be 2 wiring harnesses that would connect to it. One will have your speaker wiring and the other is for power and grounds...

Your Pioneer should have a Blue and or Blue White wire that is connected for Amp turn on and Power Ant... Use the Power turn on and connect itto your wiring harness blue wire...

Next. I am not sure about that deck but I do know that some Decks even my 08 Alpine has the ability to turn on and off the Headunits internal Amp and only use the RCA outs... SO if you bought this new. It could be that it comes from factory with the AMP turned off. Like my Alpine did. Just would have to go to the menu area where that feature would need to be turned on and turn it on...

About the lights showing on your dash? I would need more info... What Wiring harness did you use? Where did you get the ACC power from or did the harness have that built in? Most cases when you install an aftermarket headunit in the Impalas you have to provide your stereo a Acc power because the one to the OEM is a Data Power for your RP!

What did you use to make the connection from your Pioneer to the wiring harness? Crimp or just Twist and tape?

James

 

[Revo2Maxx2016]

Looking up your Headunits Manual it don't have the internal Amp turn on and off function like mine. SO I guess yours is set up to run power to the speaker wires connected or not...

Then also looking back at your posting you stated that you think you have ONSTAR? Does your car have the OnStar Button on the Mirror and the Blackbox that is mounted on the drivers side of the Trunk... IT will have some push clips that you can push and pull the 1/2 round cover from it.

Then back to the Wiring harness that you bought? What Model number was it? LIKE GM05B is one but if that was one you bought it wouldn't retain anything just a Cheap wiring harness that one could use.

However if you used one like the Metra LCGMRC01 It would have a little black box and it would only keep the Chimes, and RP without a Acc wire from the fuse box. Would work with a Car without a Amp and it would bypass your OnStar if your car had one...

Metra GMOS-01 would keep it all, besides your Steering wheel controls if your car has that.. Then you would need PAC GM11 It cost the most but keeps everything even has the ability to keep the Rear Seat controls on cars with such...

Them are the few I know not all that are around. I am not saying that you don't have the right one if it isn't listed. Seeing there are SO many different companies that offer these it is hard to tell what one a person has installed.

I would almost guess that the issue with your Dash lights being on has to do with something with the harness and the RP.. Sorry To be Clear it is RAP I forget and call it RP but Rap is Retained Acc Power... I think the harness you have has a problem with the Data part of the harness. I would try and bring power from your dash fuse panel for ACC and see if that makes your stereo work. (To be clear what i mean (Take a power source from your fuse panel that is only on when you turn your key on and run it to the ACC lead on the deck and remove the one from the harness. (That is the RED WIRE on the Deck)))

I also would say for sure look in your trunk and see if your car has the OEM AMP both my 00 and 03 LS have an Amp. I can tell you they look the same but not the same wiring changed between years. But the 01 is the same as the 00... None of my cars is a Bose system and at times people think if it isn't Bose it don't have a AMP... If your car has that box and the 2 wiring harnesses are connected and not bypassed as they do sell a bypass... You would want to make sure your AMP wire turn on is connected to the wire harness.... That would be Most likely the Blue on the harness to your Blue/White.. If you did blue white to blue white and the aftermarket harness has both Most likely the Blue wire is the one it is looking for the power. Also most power harness states what one is Main! Like some cars have 2 OEM amps one for speakers and one for OEM Sub and in this car both wires would be used...

Hope this was helpfull

James

 

[Joeboxer1130]

Popped the truck and found the amp right behind the ONSTAR on the left side bottom inside the trunk. I didn't connect the system remote control wire (blue wire) cause I thought I didn't need it. I ran the extra red wire that came with the GMK420 wiring harness (1990-2012) straight to the fuse that turned on only when the key was in acc. Another thing there is an extra wire from the Pioneer stereo that don't know where to connect a orange with white wire loose and the blue(remote)wire.

 

[Joeboxer1130]

Sorry, I forgot to mention that I connected them with twist and tape.

 

[Revo2Maxx2016]

Orange white is for when you turn on lights. And yes that is the low grade harness. Won't give you chimes or anything on star wise. Needs the amp turn on connected.

Sent from my VS880 using Tapatalk

 

[Joeboxer1130]

There's one many harnesses that I don't know which one to buy,any recommendations?

 

[Revo2Maxx2016]

What are you trying to Retain? For a 2001 the ones that I listed above I would say are the best bet.

However with that said there are places that just won't have anything that I listed for what ever reason they don't carry them everywhere...

Here is what is important....

Does your Oem have Steering controls? (Does your Aftermarket have the ability to connect to the controls?)
Do you have OnStar?
Do you have Rear Monitors or Rear entertainment?
What of the items above do you want to Retain when you do the install? Also do you want to keep your Chimes for your warnings and keys in?

Then once you find out what you want to Retain in the aftermarket install you will have better idea of what you should get for a Harness....


Also keep in mind that if you were to Cut out your Stereo Harness that you would be unable to put the OEM back in when it comes down to adding a New KeyFob or if your not able to reset your Oil Monitor and Tire Monitors. This can be done from your OEM Radio.... There are other ways that can work but for some reason some people just can't figure itout... Like I have an After market and when I had my new tires installed at first the light wasn't on for TPM, Once it was on I could have installed the OEM radio again and turned it off however I didn't need to because I was able to do it with the Headlight Switch action...

There is also an Amp Bypass if you choose to do so as well.

However in the end the One you have will install your head unit just fine. Just need to connect the wires to the Aftermarket harness and make sure all the wires that are needed are connected. For a Basic install without keeping any chimes and just wanting to get the info from the new radio to the speakers. there are 8 speaker wires, From your Deck to Wire harness, Purple white green and Grey and same with black traces, Then the RED YEllow Black and Blue. Those are the 12 main needed wires to install a stereo for our cars.

James

 

[Joeboxer1130]

That aside, if I want to install a Pioneer Amplifier is there a way I can connect it with the stock stereo that comes with the car? I also have a pair of subs I wanna connect to the amp. Thanks in advance.

 

[Revo2Maxx2016]

There is a way to do that for sure... The easy way would be not so easy on these old bones but have done it many of times in the past... From the rear of the car where the Amp is you have your Speaker wires. You could make the connection for a Line Out converter there. Also there is a Remote turn on for the Sub amp there as well.. Then only thing that would need to come from the front of the car is the Main battery power for the amp.

Other way, You remove the Stereo, get all the speaker connections there, Connect to the Line out Converter and then from there you can run the RCA's to the back with the Amp Remote wire, Or even pick up the remote wire from the back.... If you do it from the back of the radio I would say make sure to get a Good RCA not a Cheap one and also run the RCA on the other side of the car from the power wire. Power wire should go down the Passenger side of the car to the trunk. RCA would be best to run on driver side..

Another way. There are some amps that have the Line Level Input in them. In this case you wouldn't have to have a Line Level converter and again best to get the Speaker wires from the trunk. (Less wire to pull)

IF you were going to do a whole system. There are some Amps that have Blue Tooth built into them and could be an easy way to be able to stream music without having to buy a stereo as well... Some are only 4 channel amps however there are some that can do the 4 plus a Sub. Some of the 4 channel amps can work as a 3. SO there are loads of Options. Just depends on what you want to do...

James

 

[Joeboxer1130]

Will a GMRC-01 work on my Impala, saw it on YouTube.

 

[Revo2Maxx2016]

The GMRC-01 will work for an 01 Impala. It will keep everything in the car besides Onstar, Other then that it will keep, RAP, Chimes, and is USB update-able as well... 40 and free shipping is good deal. Most times I see for over 50 from online stores...

James

 

[Joeboxer1130]

Assuming the GMRC01 works, if I want to install an amplifier must I connect the blue wire straight from the harness to the amp?

 

[Revo2Maxx2016]

To better understand what you're asking? The blue wire on your aftermarket wire harness? Where does it go?

That wire harness like GMRC01 would get connected to your aftermarket headunits wiring. Then that plugs into your factory wiring. If you will use an aftermarket amp then you wouldn't connect the blue wiring to car side of harness, rather it would connect to the amp. So then there wouldn't be any connection on the factory wiring side of the harness.

If no factory amp being used. No connection to blue wire on harness. Hope this helped.

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[Joeboxer1130]

GMRC-01 worked perfectly, I should've explained my question better. Her it goes again, I want to install a Pioneer Amplifier should i connect the blue wire from the aftermarket stereo harness straight to the Pioneer amp? And what happens to the factory amp that's in my car, is it mandatory for it to be connected? Thanks in advance.

 

[Revo2Maxx2016]

Glad the GMRC-01 worked for you. IF you are gonig to use the Pioneer Amp to power your door speakers there is a couple of things that you could do. Or if you are talking about using the Pioneer Amp to power some Subs or other speakers not already in the car...

One if you are going to use say a 4 Ch Amp and want to power your speakers in the car. You could make that connection at the trunk and disconnect the wires from the Factory Amp to send the power to the speakers from the new amp... Blue wire could stay at the Harness side would just need to get the wire from the trunk area for new amp.

Two if you want to power the speakers with a new amp and want to add new wire to the speaker locations and have all new wiring for your Auto System (What I do) Then you would disconnect the blue wire from the OEM Amp and also wouldn't need the Grey, white, green and purple wires on your wire harness connected either.. Run the RCA's from the Radio to the new amp and run blue wire from radio to amp.

Powering a Sub or Subs, Then you would want to use the Blue wire to Remote both your OEM amp and the new Pioneer amp, So would make a Y connection from the blue wire on the deck, one going to the wiring harness and one going to the new amp.. If your New head unit has 3 sets then use the Sub set for your subs, If only 2 sets then I would use the Rear set for your subs. If only 1 then you only have one choice without using a LOC...

What people don't understand when they buy a head unit if going to do a Multi Amp setup or even why 3 sets of RCA are smart. One and the main reason is unless you are going to have a Processor. The Sub RCA is good because if you want to fade from front to back or back to front the control to the Subs don't change. However if you have it say going to the rear set of RCA's, If you fade your radio to the front you would loose the subs as well. With 3 Sets you would be able to have control on all 3 sets. Also in some cases you could even control how much is going to the sub output from the head unit kind of like a fader but is a Sub Volume control.

James

 

[Joeboxer1130]

Thanks so much, you were a great help. Final question: What is the amp bypass for?

 

[Revo2Maxx2016]

AMP Bypass has a few reasons to be done... In 00 and 01 they make a Bypass. (Metra 70-2021) iN the 02-05 a person has to make their own... Most times I buy a bypass from a different car, Cut Harness off the pins and wires and use them to make one. It makes it for a good connection where one that someone makes with speaker wires could have shorts if not careful..

Main reason for this? In some cases GM and others have speed controls in place that turns the amp up or down. Also there is something built in some of the amps that makes it hard to get a good sound from the speakers as it limits the power it drives to the speakers... Main reason for this is to lower the ability to destroy factory speakers.

In some cases an Aftermarket Headunit has more power then the Factory AMP. So a Bypass will allow full power to the speakers without the safety provisions in place. Also a Bypass could be bought and used so a person that wants to sell the car later can install factory things when they are ready to. Being able to keep the hardware they bought for the car. Bypass for 00 and 01 can make it easier for install of a LOC if a person wanted to use factory head unit but aftermarket amp... Keeping the look of factory but ability to have MUCH BETTER higher power speakers in the car and a amp that can power them well enough.

James

 

[Joeboxer1130]

Thanks much, you've been a great help.