2003-2007 GM Vehicle Stereo Replacement Tips.

Are you looking to upgrade your factory car stereo with a advanced aftermarket car stereo? Or maybe you are installing one for someone. Is it going to be installed into a 2003-2007 GM vehicle? Silverado-Tahoe-Trailblazer-Suburban-Yukon-Jimmy-S10-Sierra Ect...Chances are these vehicles will be missing a very important wire behind the factory stereo, that wire is the "Switched 12Volt Accessory Power Wire". This is the wire that will be responsible for telling your new aftermarket car stereo, when to turn on/off depending if the key is in the on/off position. So where can you get a "Switched 12Volt Accessory Power Wire"? The easiest place to find this wire is right at the ignition switch.  

Chevy Trailblazer 

As you can see you will have to remove some panels, in order to get to the wires coming off the ignition switch

Once you remove the panels below the steering column you should be able to identify the main ignition wires by the colors and sizes  

A lot of the GM vehicles use the same wire colors at the ignition switch. For vehicle wiring info check out the link below.

Vehicle Wiring Info

You should be able to find a run of wires consisting of a red-yellow-pink-white-orange-brown- there will be more than just those wires, but those are your main ignition wires and in most cases will be the thicker gauge wires. In this Chevy Trailblazer I will use the "Brown Accessory Wire" before connecting. I always test the wire with a digital multi meter, just to make sure I have the correct wire. Once the wire is connected and insulated with electrical tape, I recommend adding a fuse within several inches of the new wire to avoid damage to the wiring and or vehicle if it were to become shorted (10amp fuse). Then you must run the wire up to the new car stereo. Avoid any sharp metal and or moving parts that may damage the wire. This wire should then be connected to the "Red" wire coming off the new car stereo harness. There are a couple things you should be aware of when replacing your factory stereo with an aftermarket stereo, in these vehicles when using the wiring method mentioned above. You should know your door chime and if equipped factory installed OnStar, operates through your factory car stereo. So when you remove your factory stereo you will lose these features along with the RAP feature, unless the proper integration module is used. The RAP feature? RAP stands for "Retained Accessory Power", so when you start your vehicle and drive around, turn the car off and take the key out. Your car stereo will stay on until your door is opened. This is an example of "Retained Accessory Power". If you would like to keep all these features, you will want to use a "Integration Harness/Module" instead of a basic wire harness. There will be a big difference in price between the two, the Integration Modules go for around $75-$150 opposed to the basic wire harnesses that go for around $10-$20. All and all the Integration Module will make the installation easier, because you will not have to run the additional "12Volt Accessory Wire". It will also allow you to easily integrate with the premium Bose systems as well as keep your Door Chime, OnStar and RAP system operating properly. It's kind of complicated, but if you have any questions let me know. I hope this helped... :-)

-Jeremy's Car Audio Tips
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