2002 chevy tahoe radio

I have a 2002 Chevy Tahaoe with On star and no bose system. My question is do i need to puchase an integration harness because of my onstar or can i use a regular harness to connect an aftermarket headunit. Some people are telling me i must because if not the engine light will appear others say if you dont care about onstar then go with a standard harness.

Thank you in advance.

If you dont care about retaining onstar you can use the standard harness without a problem, although you may need to run a new acc/switch (red wire on radio) to the ignition harness or fuse panel, newer gm models usually only have a 5 volt factory switch wire, hope this helps

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Chadillac

I second roadshops post

I disagree with this. The 02 tahoe will not need an accy wire ran. You also won't be able to retain onstar, because of the digital conversion that happened a year or so ago. You can just wire up a normal wiring harness and the radio will work fine. Now if this Tahoe is an '03, that changes everything.

Roadshop - The newer gm's don't use a 5 volt switch wire. They use a data bus system to turn the radio on. The wire will test at 5 volts dc, but in reality its is a data communication line.

Wasnt exactly sure which year needed to run acc, didnt think about data bus, good info to have, thx mobile1

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Chadillac

Thank you very much for the info everyone.

The accessory wire is extinct. Good bye precious accessory wire we'll miss you.

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THE DUCE

mobile1 wrote:

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I disagree with this. The 02 tahoe will not need an accy wire ran. You also won't be able to retain onstar, because of the digital conversion that happened a year or so ago. You can just wire up a normal wiring harness and the radio will work fine. Now if this Tahoe is an '03, that changes everything.

Roadshop - The newer gm's don't use a 5 volt switch wire. They use a data bus system to turn the radio on. The wire will test at 5 volts dc, but in reality its is a data communication line.

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ditto to what mobile 1 said. there will be a switched wire behind the deck and you don't need to worry about the retaining the onstar cause it doesn't work anyway unless they were able to upgrade your unit for the digi conversion. usually you have to tie the new radio's amp turn on to the pink wire in the small secondary (onstar) harness