Can anyone confirm what I am about to do will work with my sunfire?
I need to install a new radio in my Pontiac Sunfire 2005. I have looked around enough to understand that my factory deck is somehow tied into the whole working of the vehicle. I also understand that there is a special harness that takes the place of the radio for a whopping 100$!! Now, I have electronics experience and figure that I can take my factory radio instead and relocate it to the trunk and save that money. Given this is a little silly, the savings is worth it to me. My question is, If I route all the wires w/ exception of the speaker wires to the trunk and hook the speaker wires to my new stereo in the dash and splice power and ground from the original harness,,, Will the work??? I am asking because I realize there could be problems w/ data at that length cable to the factory radio in the trunk. I have heard of others doing this but cannot find a relocation harness. Also, Do I need to hook up my XM connections to the radio in the trunk (Factory) If I am not going to use it. I mean the XM has no link to the Car CPU, Right. Anyone who knows some info I would really appreciate it. I am not willing at this point to spend 100$ for a special emulator for the car. TIA!
hey, for the economy cars of gm, the only data the factory deck controls is the chime you get when you leave your lights on when you , or when you leave the keys in the ignition and you open the door, and is also your put on the seatbelt warning. if you pull the fac. deck completely and put in your new deck this chime will not sound anymore. only issue is this is a HUGE SAFETY ISSUE. but hey that's up to you. you will need to run your own constant power from the fuse box to power the deck as the main harness only has switched in it. and if you go this route you will be done. what yoou are saying you want to do is the same as buying the data relocation harness. that harness comes with enough wire to run your fac. deck to the trunk, maintian the chimes and keep the car working like original. issue is you will need a reverse harness to fit into the fac. deck in the trunk and a regular harness to mate up to the harness at the front which you get these with the relocation harness, but if you can go and get em from the scrap yard sure you could make your own. I hope this helps you understand better. In my opinion everyone knows by now how important wearing your seatbelt is and it is only common sense that you put it on automatically so chime or no chime the car is still safe!!! but watch you dont leave those lights on!! LOL!
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WesMan
Hey THANK YOU, for the info. I really appreciate it. I may just say the hell w/ the relocation harness if that is the only functionallity lost w/o the deck. On the other hand I may not. Not sure yet. Depends how much money I have that day, I did manage to find the relocation harness. It is made by Metra (Metra-70-2003T). Surprisingly it is dirt cheap IF you shop around. Average w/o shipping 25$. SO really it is not that much extra cost. Only thing is doing a pro mount job of that factory radio in the trunk where it will NEVER move and is hide completely out of the way of normal trunk use. You really helped out alot :)
the 2 sunfire's i have done i actually put the fac. deck right into the glove box!!! it fits in there no problem and saves having to route the harness to the trunk!!! if of course you can spare that glove box space.
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WesMan