I called to some shops today about installing my pioneer dvd deck in my cobalt ss/sc. I have the dash kit but I just need to find the right wire harness.

I had a friend try to install the same deck in my cobalt LS and he had a hard time and it never got done. He blew a fuse out, at first it wouldnt start then it started but no sound came out.. He was frustrated it could have been that the audio shop gave the wrong harness? I dont know because no one here really had any cobalt harnesses.

Well anyways I dont want to mess up my stuff so I called the audio shops that do the installations. I dont trust people who dont know what they are doing. I asked if he had done work on a chevy cobalt he said yes I said ok how much he was like $300 bucks im like why he was like well you want the work done right? you need a special adapeter which cost $150 to make it work, labor is $150 I was like ok thank you. Best buy and circut city has said the same thing to but they add in that if you dont buy it it will void the warrenty which I know is crap.

I just want to know if there is a step by step way to do it because I know people on here say different things about different ways to go about doing it. First I want to know what I need which harness model, type ,make, #etc, which Dash kit is the best and What I need to keep my steering controls and also if there is a step by step diagram with pictures that would help a lot Please help!!

I know people are gonna get mad but about this thread but some thing I dont understand im a girl and I am new at this stuff and just dont want my &#^ messed up I want to get it done right but dont want to get thanking advantage of. You guys understand. thanks

 

go to crutchfield.com and they have a wiring harness for the cobalt. thats where i purchased mine from. Then just match up the right wires and run the acc wire to the fuse box and your all ready to go. They send instructions also with the harness. Really simple install. I dont trust anyone that i dont know working on my car either.

 

yeah I went to that web site and they said they can sell me the harness but I have to split the wires since I have the pioneer sound system in my SS/SC car

 

when i was at Best Buy on Monday buying my alarm, the guy said that the wiring harness for our cars cost $150 due to the fact that almost EVERYTHING in our car is wired into it.

 

Yeah thats what they told me but they didnt tell me all what was wired all they said was the harness needed to be bought from them so it wouldnt void the warrenty. I would get it if I wouldnt need to add anymore harness for the steering wheel radio controls. And if its a plug in and out with no cutting, or splicing or other connections.

 

you need a GM-RC01 wire harness. the door chimes, among other things are wired through the head unit

 

That's not true. It is on a Cavalier but not on a Cobalt. If you installed an aftermarket receiver and lost your door chimes, you did something wrong.

 

i must have a magical car then cause my chimes still work and my wire harness was like 15-20 bucks.

 

You do have to change the pinouts in the aftermarket harness SS/SC for everything to work properly with the harness available for our cars its not all that hard.

 

how would I go about changing the pinouts? Also if anyone has purchased the 150$ harness does it wire everything to it even the steering wheel controls? or is it not worth it. Because I know that there is a seperate device for the steering wheel controls.

 

The pinouts are in this thread. https://www.cobaltss.net/forums/electronics-audio-video-49/cobalt-audio-pinouts-2823/
Make sure the harness matches those pinouts. The one I got didnt and I had to remove the wires from the harness and put them in the right location (took about 5mins or less)

 

why would the ss s/c harness be any diffrent then mine?

 

i got everything from crutchfield, all i did was run the acc wire to the sunroof fuse so it'll run for the extra 20 minutes after the ignition is turned off. My deck was a little big but other than that i had no issues at all, all the chimes work, everything.

 

I didnt say it was different than yours. I'm just saying some of the harnesses have the wires in the wrong place and you may need to check them and if they are wrong change them. Some people have had to do that others havent.

 

hey PursuitGT whats the model # and make of your Harness and where did you purchase it? Do you l have steering wheel radio controls if so do they work ?

 

your still going to need one of the PAC adapters to have steering wheel controls.http://www.pac-audio.com/products/pr...el%20Interface
I would order from crutchfield everyone who has ordered that one hasnt had to do anything special.The harness I got in 05 was different than the one on crutchfield but matches the way my harness is now. So go with that one http://www.crutchfield.com/S-yXAjEix...sp?i=120702103

 

I called crutchfield and they said they only sell partial harness which means I have to bypass the factory amp and if I use their wire harness for $14.99 I will lose the ability to use my factory Sub. Anybody still able to use there factory sub after installing an aftermarket receiver?

 

Interesting...I was using the factory amp but not to power the sub only the speakers. I'm curious to hear what others say.

 

My sub works

 

Then I would say its another case of them not knowing what they are talking about. I would just get the harness.

 

my sub definitely works, and sounds great. just make sure you attach the antenna wire, or else the amp won't turn on (or at least thats the assumption i'm on).