Ok, so, after checking and rechecking as many times as I could stand it, I've given up. My issue is that I just installed a new stereo in my 03 Cavalier, and I've made sure everything is hooked up correctly, but for some reason when I turn the radio on, my instrument panel goes WONKY! Here's the setup. I could not locate a wiring harness adapter for my car, and was tired of waiting so I decided to rewire it myself (which I have done in many other vehicles, very successfully) following the diagram for the stereo, and using a diagram of the cavalier's wiring that I found online. Everything hooks up correctly and I ran my own 12+ volt switch wire using the wiper fuse. The problem that is occuring is that any time I turn the radio on, the instrument cluster delays and then errors out. All of my gauges drop to the "off" position including Fuel, Tach, and Temperature. Also, the odometer shows "error". I'm not sure what the issue is. I have a 30A fuse in the wiper fuse position, and the "wire tap" attached to it. Other than that I have Power to the Orange wire, Ground to Black, and all of the speaker wires attached to the correct spots. Any suggestions or anything I left out?
The orange on the factory harness or on the aftermarket harness? Because if you're talking about the aftermarket, unhook that and see what happens. The illumination wire is the only thing I can think of that would link the two pieces of equipment.
"In Oldskool we trust"
I'm actually referring to the factory wiring. According to the diagram I have the orange should be the power wire, the power on the aftermarket unit is yellow. And I checked and I'm not connected to the illumination wire, because when I I first did the install it was and I had to turn the headlights on to make the stereo come on lol
Yeah the illumination wire does that sometimes... I'm not sure if your 03 wiring is the same as my 01, but if it is I think you're correct in saying that the orange is the constant (Yellow on the aftermarkets). Maybe test light it to make sure? I mean if push comes to shove, run your own constant as well and see what happens. Also, a 9V battery to the speaker leads will let you know which speakers are which and if you're even hitting the correct wires.
"In Oldskool we trust"
Ok. Two things.
1. I have installed many stereo's in the 00+ cavaliers, and they do make a harness for them. It just does not list our cars on the labels. You kinda gotta know what your looking for. Hell, they sell them at Walmart in the stereo isle. My advise (not knowcking your skills at all mind you) would be to re connect all the wiring from the factory harness, and go to autozone, pepboys, best buy, and so on and find the harness. They do make them, I know because I have one in my 00 vert, and its the same thing, and I also installed two recently in two diffrent 02 cavaliers. They usually have a extra harness on them that is not needed for our cars, and you can litereally cut that off, again, i know bc It works fine in our cars. But you will have to locate a positive power source just like u did so the radio comes on and off with the key and doesnt stay on all the time. You seemed to have done that with the wiper circuit.
2. The wiring in our cars are pretty goofy, for lack of a better term. So again, my advice would be to go back, reconnect everything back to stock, and get the harness. It will stop these issues all together and will be a easy install once completed. Im going to go and look for you a part number on the harness that you can buy at walmart and you can pick it up, and go from there. you took the hard way around with the wiring. I just hope something else wasnt damaged by doing that.
Goodluck.
Need a harness for a Geo Tracker IIRC.
TheSundownFire (GME Chat) wrote:Need a harness for a Geo Tracker IIRC.
Wow, good memory sir! Just found it on Walmarts website
Clicky
Its from Scosche and the part number is GM05B Goodluck, and hope this helps!!
I actually talked to a buddy of mine about it and he was telling me that the stock radio has something in it that when the power wire and ground are connected, is what controls the cluster. He is going to try and find some adapter that's supposed to fix the issue, he said I can do that, or mount the old stereo in the trunk with a power and ground attached, and that would resolve the issue as well. And thanks for looking for that piece for me, that seems to be a way cheaper and easier alternative, but I live in PODUNK and our walmart is about the size of a fast food joint, and they DID NOT have hardly anything for adapters. But I will take your suggestion and reconnect the factory harness, and see if I can't get it setup that way. Thanks for the advice!
all that trouble for a simple radio install? just got to walmart and buy the harness mentioned. all you lose is your door chimes, nothing else
Max Badders wrote:I actually talked to a buddy of mine about it and he was telling me that the stock radio has something in it that when the power wire and ground are connected, is what controls the cluster. He is going to try and find some adapter that's supposed to fix the issue, he said I can do that, or mount the old stereo in the trunk with a power and ground attached, and that would resolve the issue as well. And thanks for looking for that piece for me, that seems to be a way cheaper and easier alternative, but I live in PODUNK and our walmart is about the size of a fast food joint, and they DID NOT have hardly anything for adapters. But I will take your suggestion and reconnect the factory harness, and see if I can't get it setup that way. Thanks for the advice!
I have never heard of those adapters for our cars. Im not saying ur buddy is wrong, but I think he is thinking of that for a diffrent car. I know some GM's use the ONSTAR and if you change the radio you have to do a ton of other @!#$ to get them to work, but I never heard of it actualy controlling the cluster. Well, either way IDK about that one. I have done a few installs in my life, from cavaliers to Escalades, and never had issues with the cluster. But I also wont install one without the wiring harness. But either way, do the right thing, like u said reconnect the stock harness, order the one from walmart have them ship it to ur house, and be done. Like AZNCAVI said, it will only loose ur door chimes nothing more. So, no worries. Goodluck!
Ok, I'll say it: Your buddy is wrong. The cluster is on a totally different circuit from the radio. I can provide proof from GM's own schematics if you really need proof.
It's guys like your buddy spreading misinformation that makes this kind of stuff more difficult... now you're trying to understand him, and he doesn't know your car to begin with.
Hey John, your right actually, and he admitted that to me. He said he did some more research into it and the adapter that he was talking about was only to retain the door chimes and something else I can't remember. But he thinks he may know the problem. He says it uses some pulse to control the cluster and that when I turn the radio on I'm closing a circuit and preventing the pulse from making its full trip on that circuit. Dunno if that even sounds right, but that's about how I understood it.
Sounds more reasonable.. I would check the purple wire isn't connected to anything, or touching the metal anywhere behind the dash.
I had the same problem with a dvd player. Still havent fixed it but my gauges keep saying error on them. I was also told by best buy that they mount the stock sterio in the trunk.
1. Metra, Scosche and other bigger brands make harnesses for 00+ J's.
2. I've hardwired at least 4 00+ stereos with none of these issues. I do believe there is 2 orange wires(or another color), one big and one small, the smaller of the wires are data wires, DO NOT use those.
There is nothing special needed to hardwire a deck in these cars besides an acc. wire to the wiper fuse.
*2000 Cavalier sedan*
This post answered many questions I didnt know I wanted to know the answers to, if that even makes any sense.
My 04 has OnStar and I just ran the power line constant to the radio and switched off of the wiper fuse. No issues except that my door and headlights chimes don't work, nor does my OnStar.
Dan Trump
2004 Cavalier LS Sport - Victory Red
i have the same problem with my 01 cavy. only difference is that my car won't even stay running i am new to the cavi. world so if someone can help me that wold be great
I have had a problem with my radio and the anti-theft light coming on.My big problem is that I have everything hook up correctly(stupid me straight wired the radio without a harness)but when I hit my break or go into drive it shuts off example when I sit at a redlight the radion comes on then goes right back off.I have seperated alll my grounds but still seems like it is drawing power when I hit the brakes.I have wired ALOT of cars but this one has me stumped.
Pretty sure I do.Can you get a diagram for them I can double check.It's kinda pissing me off.I hit the brake my radio shuts off.I am gonna try replacing the battery next weekend I think it is bad.
I don't get where/why a problem is being caused... the radio is supposed to run off the car, not the radio runs the car.. I have hard wired a few myself as well and never had problems like this. I did have a problem with my beretta that when my headlights were turned on the ground for the radio was gone.. made a new ground wire to frame and that problem was solved.. but never seen anything like this where the dash loses power. I say if it comes to it just wire in a positive and ground straight from the source and hook up the speaker wires.. then there would be nothing to connect the radio to any of the factory harness, this should eliminate any problems if they aren't solved with the proper wiring harness adapter once its installed.
My 2 cents..
The way I see it, aftermarket radios of all kinds have been successfully set up on our cars with no problem the first time. We KNOW for a fact that replacing our stock unit rids us of our door chimes to alert us our key is still in the ignition, or that our headlights are still on. As long as the radio's power and grounds are set up correctly, you'll be just fine.
For those of you having cluster and other crazy side effects, your missing one of these links. There's no reason that our radio circuit's cant tie into or run past vital cluster wires and have short to power issues. Also, a bad circuit ground will force the current to find another path to ground, which is what i think most of your issues are.
Those on this thread suggesting the stock to aftermarket harness are simply trying to take your wiring out of the picture, as we know that aftermarket installation is easy as pie on J cars!
Most of this was already stated, but with all of the help searched on this topic, it will be less painful this way =P
Good luck!
Kris Brickman wrote:My 2 cents..
The way I see it, aftermarket radios of all kinds have been successfully set up on our cars with no problem the first time. We KNOW for a fact that replacing our stock unit rids us of our door chimes to alert us our key is still in the ignition, or that our headlights are still on. As long as the radio's power and grounds are set up correctly, you'll be just fine.
For those of you having cluster and other crazy side effects, your missing one of these links. There's no reason that our radio circuit's cant tie into or run past vital cluster wires and have short to power issues. Also, a bad circuit ground will force the current to find another path to ground, which is what i think most of your issues are.
Those on this thread suggesting the stock to aftermarket harness are simply trying to take your wiring out of the picture, as we know that aftermarket installation is easy as pie on J cars!
Most of this was already stated, but with all of the help searched on this topic, it will be less painful this way =P
Good luck!
pretty much sums it up right there.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sndsgood/ https://www.facebook.com/#!/Square1Photography
