2000 Cavy Radio Myth Debunked

Hi All:

       I hope that this coming from a newbie to the board won't upset anyone, but I've been hearing so much from different people, that I thought I would offer an end to this Myth once and for all.  I spoke to an installer today concerning the wire harness and trim kit for my 2000 Z24.  He informed me that he has NEVER had anyone come back with problems due to removing the RDS head unit, other than lost door chimes.  I was still unsure, so I figured I'd call the source - GM.  According to them, you MAY loose your door chimes on a 2000, he didn't think that the door chimes went throught the radio until 2003, but that's neither here or there.  So, according to GM, if you remove your factory head unit, the air bags WILL work, the computer will NOT go into a frenzy, your ABS WILL work.  I hope this ends this radio being the brains of the car myth.  It does for me at least.  I thought everyone may find it interesting, and reassuing for us Cavy owners.

i'll still continue to use the GMRC-01 module......

as i 've always said, there's two ways to do everything and one of them is properly.....

Everybody’s right, and everybody's wrong.  Depending on the options your car is equipped with you may or may not need the adaptor. 

I talked to a (i cant remember his exact title) lead electronics technician at our local GMC/Chevy dealership and he told me this:  While some cars need the adapter, others do not.  It depends on the options in the vehicle.  However, none of those options are available on the Cavalier/Sunfire.  Monte Carlo, grandam and others may or may not have the options installed.  He told  me that there are some identifiers for the radio that would let me know if it needed the adaptor.  However, since i had the answer i needed i did not press for this information. 

This answer did not come easy; i had to try three dealerships and talk to maybe a dozen people.  Most of them had no idea what i was talking about ("an adaptor for what?").  They all told me there was no way that removing the radio would effect the airbags or antilock brakes.  As to what these options are, I don’t know that either, when i had my answer i felt that enough time had been expended on this install.

Would I put my life on the line with this information?  No.  Do I believe it?  Yes.  I'm pretty sure that guy didn’t spend 10min. with me blowing smoke up my ass.  I know that I put that deck in 4 years ago and the owner has never had a problem, in fact i have done 2 Cavaliers like that (no adaptor).

As to why they sell it...  It is necessary on some models, installers are not educated as to which cars need it and which do not.

i hope your liability insurance is paid up in case these customers vehicles are ever in an accident and some critical SRS feature doesnt activate because of an open circuit in the class II buss........ is it really worth potentially being sued over saving some bottom basement customer 80 bucks???

it's like the lazy a** installers who dont put the safety hood pin switch in when installing remote starters.... do it properly or dont do it at all......

i am amazed daily at some of the cheap a** people on this forum who spend hours trying to find the cheapest, cheeziest way to do something without spending a penny... if you put a dollar value on the time you spend looking for the backyard mechanic solution, you could have done it properly  twice over.....

the professionals here will understand what i'm trying to say.... time is money...... and there are two ways to do every job, one of them being properly

Kgerry, look at you go!

When I told that I had to use the adaptor because the airbags and antilock breaks would not work I felt it was my job to go find the real answer.  Besides, it seemed absurd that they would tie critical features into a component often removed.  So were did I go?  To the people who work on these cars day in and day out.  It probably took an extra 35 min.  I am proud that I took the time to investigate the issue rather than taking what a shop had to say as gospel.  One of the two car audio shops I visited said it was absolutely essential.  The other said it was not, he said it disabled some non critical systems.  50% is not a number I like when it comes to saftey, so I looked into it further.

What’s wrong with that?  If I had not found the answer I needed (that it was not critical to any safety systems) I would have just used it!  It was not my money anyhow, if it had to be bought the customer was paying.  The issue of the chimes:  I told both people they would loose their chimes, neither thought it was worth an $80 dollar investment, had they i would have installed it.

No ones an ass for using it (although I think they could have looked into something so absurd), in fact you could look at it as covering your own ass.  I would say if someone told you it would interfere with safety systems and you did nothing to find out it is true but still left it out anyhow, yeah your ummm...

I read your post auex, I suppose this could be considered off topic.  I don’t want to flame this issue, I think your link really ended the discussion, but I did want to respond to what I kind of took personally.  So I’ll just let this be.  If anyone wants to respond to me on this forum (PM if you want to discuss) I’ll read it.  I will not post back; I’ve had my say.

sorry med       didnt mean to go off on a rant there.... ( i shouldn't post 2 minutes before closing time )    what i was trying to say is that we installers often spend 3 times as much time trying to save a customer 20 (or 50 or 80 ) bucks as it's worth....   it's like they feel it should be cheaper if they are not buying a part ( in this case the proper GM interface ) and they dont factor in ( and for this i blame installers who dont sell the value of their time ) the added labour ( labor for y'all down south ) involved......

there may not be any potential safety issues not using the proper interface module, but the customer opens themselves up for leaving their lights on or locking their keys in the car because the door chime  ( which has nothing to do with the door being open as much as it is a warning indicator that you have left your headlights or parking lights on, or that you still have the key in the ignition ) is missing.......

to sum it up ( and your all thinking thank god ) if installers  actually charged for the extra time it takes to run an accessory wire over to the ignition loom or fuse block in order to supply a switched power to the radio ( which wont have the RAP feature ) it would only be 20 bucks more to just put in the darn module that does all this for you, supplies a switched power with the RAP feature, maintains the door chime, and is the industries recommended way of doing this install, and be done with it......

to quote the elequent mr. Gump... " and that's all i have to say about that "

gentlemen...when i read this post i simply could not stop luaghing...you all seem to be very knowledgable...yet you are arguing opinion...no one here has actually claimed to know for a fact one way or another...

opinions = argue forEVER...facts = argue forTHEMSELVES