sound system problems

A couple of weeks ago I bought an amp and a couple of subs and a box. I bought the stuff to hook it all up to my factory radio. Everything worked just fine except the fact that my groundline to my amp kept getting vibrated loose. I went back to get a CD/MP3 player. I was going to hook it up myself at the time but I was told I needed this special wiring harness and that my factory radio had to stay in my car in order for my airbags and keyless entry to work. So I let the people install the head unit for me. A couple days after i got my car back every speaker except my subs would go off and I would have to turn the head unit off for a while then turn it back on for it to work. Well recently the same thing happened but they won't come back on. Any ideas on what the problem is? and also, my cousin who used to install radios for RadioShack said that a car should never have to have its Factory radio for anything like that, is this true??

A couple of weeks ago I bought an amp and a couple of subs and a box. I bought the stuff to hook it all up to my factory radio. Everything worked just fine except the fact that my groundline to my amp kept getting vibrated loose. I went back to get a CD/MP3 player. I was going to hook it up myself at the time but I was told I needed this special wiring harness and that my factory radio had to stay in my car in order for my airbags and keyless entry to work. So I let the people install the head unit for me. A couple days after i got my car back every speaker except my subs would go off and I would have to turn the head unit off for a while then turn it back on for it to work. Well recently the same thing happened but they won't come back on. Any ideas on what the problem is? and also, my cousin who used to install radios for RadioShack said that a car should never have to have its Factory radio for anything like that, is this true??

in my 05 the only thing that I lost when I took out the factory radio was the door chime and I also had to hook the power wire to a fuse because there is no switch power. as far as air bags and such never heard of that

did you have rds?

i know that as far as the airbags go, as long as ur air bag light flashes 7 times when you start the car, they are fine but I would like to know if they work without the factory radio being connected to the aftermarket unit and the guy also told me that my keyless entry wouldn't work if it isn't connected. As far as the door chimes go, i know that when GM came out with on star they did something to connect all the chimes through their radios and thats why they won't work unless you buy a special harness.

i don't even know what rds is...so i'm not sure if i had it or not

i have that problem. i have a 97 cavalier and if the bass is up too loud the radio will cut out. also when i took out my factory cassete player i noticed my horn didnt work. weird i know. however when i had my cd player installed in my car at circuit city my horn started working again. so all was well. however thats when my system started cutting in and out.

on a side note i noticed that my cig lighter and horn are connected on the same fuse, and my cig lighter always blows a fuse(even when not used!) i was wondering what the deal is here?

i think the cigarette lighter and horn thing is a flaw in the cavalier. I have a seperate fuse for the horn but when i changed my fuse on my cigarette lighter so i could use my radar detector, when i was lockking and unlocking my doors the horn would sound but it hasn't done that now in a couple of months so i have just given up on it

You don't have to have your factory radio. I still have mine, but I bought a harness that will let me keep my chimes and not have the factory radio. I fell for that same bullshit that you did about the airbags, but if you think about it...do you think gm would really let your airbags rely on wheather you have a factory radio or not for your airbags to work? I doubt that.

You absolutely do not need the factory head unit for the airbags to work. That is completely bogus. You will lose your chimes and that's about it. My best guess at why you are losing your speakers is either a flaw in your headunit causing it to overheat, or a loose wire that is shorting out your speakers. If I had to guess, I would say it's most likely the later of the two.

sorry...i forgot to explain that the problem was fixed, I took it to this shop and they tore my head unit out and looked at it and it turned out that something kept coming loose in the wiring harness, there are so many wires in that tiny little place the head unit barely catches when u push it in and it was causing something to come loose

I had a feeling. Hope you didn't pay too much to have them tell you that!