2008 silverado, retaining warning chimes

I have a customer who wants to replace the factory radio in his 2008 Chevy silverado. Problem is, the harness alone is over a hundred bucks, and he's kinda leery about spending that much. I informed him that I could do it without the harness, but he will lose his Onstar and all his warning chimes. I've done it like this before on an 07. But he says he doesnt mind losing onstar, but he'd like to keep his warning chimes if possible. Has anyone done this? Rig up a speaker some kind of way to duplicate the warning chimes. I know they make a harness for 03-06 trucks that will retain the warning chimes only, and not Onstar. But as I've seen so far, every harness for 07 and up is to retain BOTH the chimes and Onstar. Is there any way I can splice in an 03-06 harness to keep the chimes? Has anyone ever done this?????

Wow, he spent 40 Grand on a truck, and the 150 dollar harness to do the job correctly is causing a problem.   All I can say is Wow.

No, he didnt spend 40 grand on a truck. He spent 13 grand (YES 13K) on a single cab base model 2wd truck with no power locks or windows.

yeah i got people like that ALL the time. i dont think they make a module that just keeps the chime. that chime is controlled completely through the factory radio so the only way to do it without the plug is to destroy the factory radio and save the circuit board inside. then you need to extend the factory wire harness ( i think they make this extension harness) so that you can hide that circuit board and keep it powered up like normal and then you just rewire the whole system with new speaker wires to each speaker and install the new deck. when you get to the front left door speaker, you need to remove the factory speaker wires and send them back into the cab of the truck. then find a small cheap speaker to hook up to it and strap it somewhere under the dash. this makes it like there are two separate systems in the truck, one for chime and onstar, and one just for audio. of course the catch to doing this the labor to do all of this will be much more than $100 and it's not reversible but the plus side is you dont have to go through some garbage module that might cause worse sound quality just to have a door chime AND you can still have onstar with no problem.

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I'll just tell him either he has to pay for the harness or lose ALL the chimes and Onstar, no way around it.

You should be able to get the harness for under $100.  PAC and Metra both make non-onstar, non-amplified harnesses that retain the chimes, turn signal sounds, and RAP.  They both run about $80, but that's pretty much the only option to keep those functions working normally.

PAC model number is C2R-GM29, Metra's is GMRC-LAN-01

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Life moves pretty fast; if you don't stop and look around once in a while; you could miss it.

Hornshockey wrote:

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You should be able to get the harness for under $100.  PAC and Metra both make non-onstar, non-amplified harnesses that retain the chimes, turn signal sounds, and RAP.  They both run about $80, but that's pretty much the only option to keep those functions working normally.

PAC model number is C2R-GM29, Metra's is GMRC-LAN-01

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yeah HE can get it for under $100. but that's not what the customer will be paying. when a customer wants a deck that only costs $200 and them you tell them that the harness is another $100 not including the actual install, dash kit($20-30), antenna adapter($15-20)plus you got to give uncle sam his cut even though he never gives you anything for christmas. after all of the extra stuff you're almost paying $400 for something that started at $199. customers just dont expect it and walk away, or worse they think your are trying to rob them because they don't know. sometimes for me it gets to the point to where i have to physically show the customer that i used everything they bought and why they had to buy it. looking at the prices of things these days makes me very happy that i know how to do all of this junk myself

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I don't understand why people don't do things properly and then come to a forum with their cheese and whine show when it does not work right later on.....

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Top Secret, I can tell you but then my wife will kill me.

Thanks, Hornshockey for telling me about those harnesses. One of those would be cheaper than the harness with Onstar. But it still depends if he's willing to pay to have it done correctly. I've looked all over and I've even been told that the GMOS-LAN-01 was the only harness made that will retain the factory functions.
And paidinfull, on the new body style chevys, Everything plays thru the speakers. Its a lot more than just leaving your lights on chime. The headlight chime, low fuel chime, keys left in ign, and even the turn signal clicking is heard thru the speakers. So I can understand why he'd rather keep the chimes. He's also considering purchasing an alarm/remote start combo from me. Maybe I'll work a deal with him if he pays full price for the alarm and the kit and harness for his head unit, I'll actually install the headunit for free. I mean, c'mon how much extra labor would it be for me to swap out a radio if I'm already installing an alarm and have to take the dash all apart anyways. I guess what it all comes down to,is if he's willing to part with the green, which many people arent these days.

that sounds like an OK deal

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I thought so too, but he deciced not to do it. Oh well... But he already bought the head unit, so I don't know how he thinks he's gonna get it installed without buying the harness. He thought best buy was tryin to get over on him for wanting to charge $150 for the harness and then I ended up bursting his bubble when I told him a similar price. Unless he does away the chimes, he'll probably be back. You're just always gonna come across people like that, who think you are trying to rape them with the mark up all the supplies needed. I'm guessing he'll go other places and they'll all tell him the same thing.