[CoBIZZLE]

A lot of newer GM radios are goin to a new harness where there is no accesory power wire behind the radio and the door chime will not work if you disconnect the radio because the chime works through the speaker. This is easily taken care of with an aftermarket harness (expect to pay in multiples of regular harnesses - sometimes $50 and up just for the harness), there is of course other ways to do it and make the radiop work BUT you will still lose your dooe chime if that matters to you. The harness is expensive because it has a built in relay to add an accessory wire (acc. is needed to power up a radio, constant 12V - or as many people refer to it as a "hot wire" - power holds your settings memory,etc.) and also comes with a small speaker that will replace your door chime. Now I haven't seen one of these cars yet and Im not even sure if they have these harnesses, BUT it is a possibility. Another drawback is the fact that you will either have to MAKE your own custom dash kit right now (which is easily do-able but can be difficult to make look good if you dont know what you are doin) or wait for a major manufacturer to come out with one, I work at Best Buy in the install bay and we have NOTHING for Cobalts yet, we have the Ions & RL's covered but not the Cobalts. Also prob no. 3 which actually I should have listed first. Chances of NOT HAVING an Aux input behind the factory radio are about 157/28. (<<<=== Sarcastic number, but odds are there will be no aux input) Factory radios no matter the make or model of car are BAD BAD about that. No outs either. I pulled a factory radio out of a Scion xA the other day that was "SAT ready" (which means it can easily accept Sirius OR XM) just to check. Well there was no plug for an aftermarket direct link at all! You HAVE to go to dealers for stuff like that. And the dealer wont be able to even help you w/ an aftermarket MP3 player. So you'll end up havin to replace it, what the heck, it'll sound better! Good luck, not sure if any of this info is what you were lookin for but I hope I helped, If you need me to narrow anything down then just let me know the specifics of what you wanna know!
Again, hope this helps,
Chris

P.S. Sorry so long

 

[CoBIZZLE]

Generally there are no RCA's on factory amplified systems, I've never seen em anyways. Im guessin if its like all the other GM's (or any other make for that matter) I've seen then it wont have RCA's, there will probably be speaker wire ran to the back and into an amp, that little silver box you can see in pics bolted to the bottom of the back deck in the trunk, those are lame excuses for factory amplifiers, they are usually all that small, and then another pair of speaker wire to the sub. I hope (but wouldnt be surprised ) that that little thing doesnt push ALL 7 speakers I hope the sub has its own but I doubt it, if it does then it will be built into the sub box. Back to the point, Ive been installin professionally now for goin on two years and I have NEVER seen factory RCA's. I wish they did have them like you said it would be a LOT easier to do things that way but generally automakers try to make it too hard to replace things so that if it goes bad then you have to come to them to get it and pay and arm and a leg and three of your nearest relatives to do so!!!

As far as piggybacking a radio goes, Ive never seen that done either, Im sure it could be done with the use of a LOT of relays and whatnot (or maybe an FM modulator like you would a mobile video system but sound quality fades BIG TIME if you do it that way) but honestly think it would be more trouble than its worth. But then you'd only be able to use one at a time. Neither factory nor aftermarket were designed to do such a thing. Closest thing I can think of to doin that is line out converters that converts speaker wires into RCA preouts.

 

[CoBIZZLE]

Sweet! So they do have a dash kit out! Where can you get it? Possibly Circuit City? I know a lot of local shops will be able to order it, but I know Best Buy doesn't have them yet. Also, try orderin them from Metra directly. Thanks Keith, guess I coulda looked into that but guess I was too lazy, lol I just didnt think about it. If Metra has a dash kit then they should also have the harness ready for sale too.

 

[CoBIZZLE]

I guess you could do that but why, I dont see a useful purpose, why not just swap it completely. Only vehicle I see it makin sense in is a select few Hondas where the keyless module is ran through the factory radio and the factory radio HAS to be INSIDE the car for the keyless entry to work. If you dont drive one of those cars then just swap it out all together.

 

[CoBIZZLE]

I've read elsewhere that a few people have disconnected the stock radio and still had chimes, etc., so GM might have gotten a clue and discontinued that practice.

Also, were you thinking about just throwing a Kicker sub into the stock pioneer box in the trunk? I don't know how that would sound, different speakers require different enclosures. I haven't dealt with stereo systems in a long time, but I know that the Pioneer sub box appears to be sealed, and the Solobaric might need to be at least ported to sound good in that small enclosure. There should have been something on or in the box with your Kicker subs that will tell you how much cubic feet the box should be depending on the type of enclosure used (sealed, bandpass, etc.)

Yeah different enclosures AND different power! It is HIGHLY unlikely that you'll find an aftermarket sub that wont FRY that factory amp. If you plan on changin the sub, then plan on changin the amp, enclosure and all!

does any one know where i can get a wiring harness for the door chimes i went to the local audio store and they wanted $100 for it and i know there is a better deal out there some where


thanks

Best Buy and Circuit City both have them for around $60

 

[CoBIZZLE]

Good deal!!! Things will be cheaper for everybody that way!!!