Is it possible to try to hook up a aftermarket radio without using a harness even though it has a bose sound system? Im asking because on a 96 cadillac seville I tried to hook up a radio that had the bose sound system but it didnt work. And i also tried to hook up a aftermarket radio on a 97 expedition and you needed a special harness to get it to work. If i find out the colors of the factory wires and would of known what they are could i have done it without the special harness?
Most likely yes. However it is highly recommeneded that you use the aftermarket wiring harnesses. Mainly for the fact that you dont have to worry about cutting or splicing into the factory wires. The aftermarket wiring harnesses are relatively inexpensive for the amount of help they give
Why on earth would you want to hook up a radio without a harness? Especially on a nice car like a Cadillac, or an expensive Expedition.
The Seville will require a good deal of work. You have to run wires to the rear of the car.
In the right rear of the trunk is the tuner/amplifier pack. Unplug it, and a standard GM radio harness will plug right into the wiring back there. You have to extend all of the wires on the harness, and bring those up to the dash. You'll also need to attach a GM antenna adapter back there, and use a long antenna extension to bring it to the front.
At this point, the four Bose speakers will play, but they will sound terrible. The Bose amplifier contains an equalizer, permanently set up to match the speakers to the interior of the car. And the speakers won't sound very good without it.
If your Seville doesn't have the optional CD player, just look around on eBay for a cassette/CD combo to replace it. That would be much better than downgrading to aftermarket just to play CDs.
You might also need an OEM adapter like
this OEM adapter. It is strictly a Factory Amplifier Integration adapter that allows you to adjust the output gains of the aftermarket headunit to match the input gain requirements of the factory amp(s). You'll know if you need one when you turn on the stereo and can barely hear anything, even at normal volume (or the sound is extremely distorted).
And using a harness is deffinately the way to go. They're more secure (don't have to worry about crimps comming apart) and there is minimal connection problems. All you have to do connect the METRA harness to the OEM plug that the factory headunit connected to, then splice the aftermarket headunit harness (supplied with the aftermarket headunit) into the METRA harness.
-------------
Squirrel
"No more Cpt. Kirk chit chat"
If its too loud, then you're too old
Donate to the12volt.comIf you bypass the factory bose amps then yes it will sound like poo, actually you can very easily fry the aftermarket head unit cuz many bose speakers are 2 and 1 ohm, while aftermarket decks can usually only handle 4 ohm speakers. But if you get the correct integration harness(es) you don't even have to bypass the amps--they will integrate just fine with the low-level outputs of the aftermarket deck.
Metra makes many special harnesses for bypassing factory amplifiers in the GM vehicles. You'll need one with RCA plugs on it cuz the bose amps use low-level (RCA-type) signal inputs, not high level speaker wire outputs as many typical factory amps do. My guess would be the 70-2017, but if the connector doesn't look like the one in that photo, or if the factory amp/tuner is back in the trunk, then you might need a different integration harness, or you might have to use a combination of harnesses. In such a situation the concept of the 70-1857 looks like it would definitely work, but I don't think the main plug will match up, so you might have to use the wires from the 70-1857 but replace the main plug with one like the 70-2017.
Be sure to look at all the cadillac harnesses on that web page--they're kinda mixed up in the list so make sure you go to the end of the page so that you see all of them.
