03 stereo removal

Hey everybody,

I'm new here and I could use a little help.

I just got a new 03 Cav, and I'm trying to install my stereo. I followed the old threads on how to remove the dash so I've gotten that far, but when I pulled the factory system out, I found a thick, black wire that I can't disconnect.

Any help on what it's for and how I should get rid of it would be appreciated. And sorry if this is an ignorant question, but like I said, I'm a beginner. Thanks again.

sorry guys, antennae cable, I told you I was a beginner

I figured I wouldn't start a new thread for my problems installing this thing...I have everything in, except I need to connect a cable to the power (acc). What do I do?

Hey.....

If you are trying to individually wire to the acc switch, or power line, or any other wire for that matter....then you may be in over your head. I would suggest, if you are not doing so already, that you purchase the aftermarket wiring harness for your particular car. I installed a new CD reciever in my 97 cavalier, and I think maybe you are making the job more difficult than it has to be. With the wiring harness, all you do is connect each wire from the radio (which most likely has its own plug with wires attached) to the matching color wire on the custom harness. This includes ALL wires.....power, ground, acc, speakers, and even a power antenna or amplifier activation wire. If you are already using the wiring harness......there is no reason to be looking for any wires.....if you connect them to their counterparts as I just said, you are done.
Sorry if this makes no sense. Let us know how it comes out, or if you have another question, I have done a few of these so maybe I can help ya some more. Good luck!!

Forgot to mention.....even if you use the custom harness, I have found that sometimes the factory speaker wiring is not quite up to par, meaning it may not handle your 40-50 watt x4 stereo very well. Most likely the wiring will not fail, but there will be some noticable power loss before the signals reach the speakers (trust me). In my '97 cav, I connected the wiring harness, except for the speaker leads. Then I ran a new lenghth of speaker wire to each location,wired it to each new speaker, and then to the speaker leads of the new stereo....essentially bypassing the factory speaker wiring. If you aren't comfotable going to that extent, don't bother....it will work fine with the factory speaker wiring......but the stereo will be better able to drive the speakers.

Also, are you replacing speakers, or just the Radio???

Thanks for the ideas...I got everything finally finished yesterday after several problems. All of the wiring was in a harness from my last car that I had the stereo installed in (I paid someone to do it that time). There was just one seperate cable, the acc cable, that didn't go into the harness.

A friend of mine told me he had to wire it into the fusebox, so I tried that and it worked. Actually, I first wired it to the radio fuse, but in the 03 cav model, the radio stays powered until the door is open, and I guess that taking out the factory system also removed the door sensor, because once the unit was powered up, it wouldn't automatically power down.

I then wired it to the ignition fuse and it seems to work fine. I was really nervous messing with the fuses and the electrical system as much as I did, like I said, I've never done anything with cars, but I'm pretty electronically knowledgable elsewhere, so I don't think anything is messed up.

Anyway, if any of this sounds like I have done something horribly wrong, please let me know. Its been over 24 hours, and as far as I can tell everything is still functioning. Thanks for answering me.

Nope....sounds good. If its working, I'd say you are done. Just FYI....the acc wire is supposed to be connected to the ignition switch, so I think you are fine there. Its the accessory wire.....so the radio will have power when you turn the key to ACC. That is the whole point. I am curious....did you actually end up using a custom harness, or did you just splice into the factory wiring?? The only reason I ask is because the harness SHOULD HAVE provided a lead for the orance ACC wire from the new radio. I would be really surprised if it did not. I haven't seen that before. I would also assume that if you did indeed have that wire available, it would then in turn be connected to all the other necessary electronics, including the door sensor. Forgive me, its just my engineering background trying to make sense of the whole thing. :)

Now you have me curious. My 2000 Cav is set up similarly, as far as door sensor and such. Maybe I'll have to experiment.

Yea, I had a harness already, it came with the installation in my 2000 cav, but I took out the cd player when I traded it in, and just used the same harness.

Like I said, all the wiring was into the harness except for the acc wire, but in the 03 factory unit, everything went throught the connector, so I'm guessing that either the 2000 and the 03 are a little different, or that the shop I took for the cd installation didn't know what they were doing exactly.

By installing the new cd player, it did disable my door sensor. No chimes sound when the lights are on and my door is open. Also, in my 2000 I was told that it would disable my airbags by disconnecting my factory system, but I never had to find out. It did turn on a light on my panel for my 2000, but not my 03, so hopefully I'm still good.

Hmmm....thats strange. I am not going to claim to be an expert at auto-audio, but I know that sometimes the "pros" aren't either :)
Its hard to say whats going on or what maybe needs to be done without seeing it, but if its all working, I'd say you are okay.

So they warned you about the airbags huh?? It might be worth your time to find out if they still work, but I couldn't tell ya what that would cost. All I know is I found out first hand how valuable airbags are and would want them working properly. I don't see how the stereo is at all related to airbags, but who knows.....some Chevy engineer probaby thought there was a good reason.

I think I'll just stick to my Dodge though ;)