Aftermarket radio in 2000 chevrolet cavalier? harness q.

**0okami** · 09-21-2007, 04:07 PM

So I stopped by a shop to ask for a harness for a 2001 cavalier. the guy quoted me at about 150.00 in parts needed to replace the aftermarket radio.

- Dash kit
- Harnes
- "Special wiring modules. which keep the airbags functioning."

I'm rather shocked. ...and indeed in doubt if i actually need all those parts to replace a simple radio. The car is down right basic, no power windows or anything fancy.

Could someone tell me / clarify what is needed to add an aftermarket radio for a 2001 chevrolet cavalier?

**codester3388** · 09-21-2007, 04:13 PM

The air bags are not connected to the radio. That guy at the shop has no clue what he is talking about. I have the official GM service DVD so whats in this is the real thing. Even the haynes manual is wrong about the airbags connect to the radio. The only thing that the radio controls is the door chimes with the drivers front speaker. So you can just buy a regular harness but you will lose your chimes that only tell you if your headlights are on, doors are open, etc. I have lost the chimes in mine only because they don't make a harness for a car computer. lol

**0okami** · 09-21-2007, 05:22 PM

thanks for the quick reply. thats good to hear.
Anyone else agree?

im going to research what harness model I need.

I saw that walmart has a few for about 6.00 but none list a 2000 cavalier.

**ccjustin** · 09-24-2007, 08:01 AM

that is correct, i work at a bigbox car stereo place, you can buy the $100 harness, and it recreates a door chime and creates a switch power for the radio, its an easier install, but a regular 70-2003 metra harness will work just fine, you'll just loose your door chime and need to run your own switch power from the ign harness or wherever

**OldOneEye** · 09-24-2007, 12:26 PM

I believe the guy is getting things mixed up.

To take the radio out, I believe you have to take quite a bit of the dash out (including the area around the passenger airbag). Its not a simple operation, some guys get spooked with the airbag. So that is a valid issue I think. Look at page 14-16 on the PDF below:

[media]http://documents.victorytechnologies.com//documents/product/99-2003.pdf[/media]

As already mentioned, the radio is more integrated into the car. In older cars, the radio is a separate part of the car, not really integrated at all. So you might have a car with a separate display module for check engine or other things built in separately on higher end cars.

Then they figured out a stock radio is a good place to put other functions since it has a display (one less thing to buy), speakers (instead of having to build a module with a chime, just send a signal to the doors speakers), etc.

Some guys have modules that mimic all this stuff (so they have a module with a built in chime), others just move the radio to the trunk (keeping the stock radio).

Either way, the installer is mixed up and ignorant (but 3 wrongs make a right in this case) instead of being informed and trying to rip you off.

Juan