Hey all,
So I am to a point where I am almost done but I have a few issues

1) It appears the stereo will not turn off after the key is out of the ignition when the door is open....
We tested it out when the doors were all open... Everything worked.... Turned the car off with the doors open... And the radio stayed on.... Then we closed the driver's door and opened it again.... Radio still stayed on.... Then it turned off after a little bit on it's own.... So is this normal or is something wrong and we need to address it? Because normally it would stay on after the ignition is off like this, but once you open the driver's door, it would turn off....

2) trying to install a back up camera. The issue is installing the wires.... Does anyone know a trick to running the wires from the ceiling in the truck through the rubber grommet tubing and into the rear hatch? Also does anyone know a trick to getting the harness out that connects the rear hatch and the truck. I have the one on the hatch side out, but the one on the truck side is difficult. Any help? Short of having to take the whole rear hatch off?

3) anyone put in a rear video camera? There is a red wire on the yellow video rca cable. I am wondering if that connects to the power on the back up camera.... And if so, that red wire is coupled with a black wire.... Does the black wire go to the back up light? Any help really would be great. It doesn't look like there is much to hooking these up but damn if the instructions are not clear.

4) the pioneer double din head unit doesn't want to go all the way in.... So I am curious if anyone had to cut or modify the slot that the head unit sits in.
Looks like the following piece is keeping it from sitting all the way in... Is there any tips? And if I remove that plastic piece and the metal bracket behind it, would something happen? See picture below. There is a center piece that is rectangle piece that has a 90 in it and has a piece of metal behind it. Did anyone have to cut this out or do you know a trick to getting it in. If I do have to cut, will cutting that 90 degree piece and the metal piece behind it mess anything up?



Center piece with square hole

Angled piece with square hole in it

 

Couple of things.

Look up on those wiring diagrams I linked in another post. There is a RAP (Retained Accessory Power) wire for the stock radio but there is a catch. From the factory there is no 12V+ RAP that cuts off after a set amount of time or on door open, from the factory that is controlled via a Class2 serial data wire. I'm not sure how to set that up to work with an aftermarket stereo with direct wiring. The factory also has an illumination wire, again though, Class2 serial data. If you use an actual stereo interface adapter like a Metra GMOS-04, that will just plug into the factory stereo plug and that has electronics that provides all you need. The adapter will convert the Class2 serial data for the illumination function to connect to the Pioneers Illumination wire so at night the stereo dims and is not blindingly bright at night. It also provides a +12 switched for the red power wire that works with the Class2 retained accessory power function so that on key off it will stay on for 10 minutes or until a door is opened. As much as you might want to totally gut the factory stereo wiring you might need to get (maybe not that exact one from Metra) but one of the adapters for just those couple of functions. They also monitor the vehicle speed and some aftermarket stereos also will use that output to have auto-increasing volume like the factory stereo. On one of the adapters you just would not be using any of the speaker wiring/amp interface abilities since you are totally bypassing the factory amp. I think they do also even make an adapter specifically for that scenario but I'm not sure. You would also need one of the adapters for the steering wheel controls as well if you want to be able to use those.

I can see why some would like to bypass all of the factory amp wiring stuff and for just the speakers that works fine but some of the other desirable factory functionality like dimming, RAP, speed data, even full Class2 data, are not directly compatible with an aftermarket stereo without other adapters or modifications. If not using Onstar you can also tie into the factory microphone wires for the aftermarket stereo to use the bluetooth handsfree calling. On 08/09 models you can get an iDatalink Maestro adapter which provides all of the wiring interfaces plus full Class2 data which some aftermarket stereos can use to display tire pressure sensors, read and clear check engine codes, display engine parameters and more much like a code reader/tuner type ODBII device (actually that is what is it) does. Depending on the model you can even remove the factory climate control and control the air right on the stereo screen, display a full set of vehicle gauges, and more.

1 - see above.
2 - I will be doing that sometime this summer on mine.
3 - Most are designed to get the power (red and black wires) from your reverse lights so the camera is not on all the time. Usually this is wired behind the dash because that same reverse light wire is also tied to the reverse input trigger on the stereo to activate the backup camera input whenever you put it in reverse.
4 - Yes - on mine at least I did have to cut away some of the lower bits of the internal dash bucket for my Kenwood to go all the way in. You can also cut a bit of that metal out as well without hurting anything. I used an oscillating saw to do that.

Another tip - get on Amazon or eBay and get yourself a roll of fabric tape. The reason all of the factory wiring is covered is to prevent rattles... You can also use a bit of that tape along any hard edges that you have cut and that the back of the stereo or wiring might contact as well to help prevent any squeaks or rattles. The same tape is also good to put along the inner edges of plastic interior bits that touch each other or anything else to help eliminate other squeaks.

 

MixManSC, do you happen to know which wire is the one you were discussing that will keep the radio on and off?
I went with a Scosche harness, just because it was more readily available for me at the time I decided to do it.
Everything works, but right now I am trying to figure the issue of the radio staying on after the door is open.... it appears that it will eventually turn off but stays on even with the door open.
any idea?
No harness was cut. just removed the components. The speakers are running off amps so the only thing the Scosche harness is controlling I would think is the radio itself

 

No idea without finding it in the electrical diagrams and even then it might not be a specific wire. It might just be a class2 serial data wire that instructs it to do that as well as other functions like speed reporting for the speed based volume, backlight dimming, etc.

 

Here is a video I did for the camera install.
Running the wires on the floor is much easier

 

H2Miami, Thats awesome. I dont have a spare tire carrier, so I ran mine through the headliner. It is already run... my question for you is
"Do you know what wires go where?"
I have a couple of wires that I am not sure where they go since the instructions that came with the camera is kind of basic and doesnt address everything
Any wiring help would be great

 

You will have a wire running from the reverse . A positive , a ground and the cable for the camera
Depending on the Hu you may only need to run the +/- and the cam cable
I cant remember exactly but any camera wiring should help . Could you post which camera system you got and which wires are needed to connect