Vibe radio/CD replacement questions.

[Gandalf]

To make a long story short, the &*$^*#@! IDIOTS at the local GM stealership managed to burn out/disconnect/destroy the illumination for the display on my radio/CD player, somehow. I didn't find this until the next day, as the sun was shining brightly when I picked up the car, making the display invisible, and of course the LYING piles of steaming horse manure at the stealership just did the LIE and DENY game. They even had some lot guy claim that the radio display wasn't working when I dropped off the car, which is a complete LIE. The stealership are good liars. They have had a LOT of practice, obviously.

I have the 'moon and tunes' package, with the sub woofer in the back of the car.

I also have the XM radio, though I've never used i't use it. The imbeciles at the stealership were supposed to give me a bunch of information about the XM radio, but being lazy morons, they never did. I never got a channel guide, even when I called XM to try to get one. They told me the dealership had them. Idiots. They are everywhere.

I like the stereo, aside from the display being impossible to read if the sun is out. Now it's impossible to read in the dark. I can't change radio stations, use the equalizer, or basically make any changes to the radio or CD output, except for the volume.

My first thought was that the easiest fix would be to buy an identical unit from a salvage yard, and have it installed.

But I seem to remember that there is some sort of security feature, which requires that the radio to be 'matched' somehow to the PCM, (main computer) or the radio won't work.

I think I'm going to have to pay someone to remove the old head unit, and install the 'new' head unit. I'm disabled, and I'm having a harder and harder time working on my car myself. Some dashboards come out easy, and some are a major PITB to get out, to get to the radio mounts.

Obviously, I want to be sure the 'new' radio will work properly. I'm NOT going back to the stealership to have them put the radio in. Aside from the outrageous cost, they are too farking STUPID to even disconnect the battery, when doing electrical work. Who knows how much damage they will do the next time they work on ANYTHING in the dashboard.

Is there any way for me to 'match' the 'new' radio to the main computer? Or would I be better off buying a new aftermarket radio? My car is a 2005, so putting a LOT of money into an aftermarket stereo isn't something I want to do.

Also: is the main power amplifier located within the head unit itself, or is it somewhere else in the car? I don't want to buy and pay to have an amplifier installed, if the power amplifier is wired into the car somewhere.

One thing is for sure: I'm NEVER going to take my car to a GM dealership, again.

Many thanks!

[Derf]

My first thought was that the easiest fix would be to buy an identical unit from a salvage yard, and have it installed.
>>Not a bad option, but would not know history of radio

But I seem to remember that there is some sort of security feature, which requires that the radio to be 'matched' somehow to the PCM, (main computer) or the radio won't work.
>>Only on true GM vehicles, the Vibe does not have this feature being part Toyota

I think I'm going to have to pay someone to remove the old head unit, and install the 'new' head unit. I'm disabled, and I'm having a harder and harder time working on my car myself. Some dashboards come out easy, and some are a major PITB to get out, to get to the radio mounts.
>>Not sure what your abilities are, but the Vibe was the easiest head unit I have worked on, only a few well placed screws, plenty of space, trim panels pop off without much effort. Hardest part is actually making any electrical connections.
Check out this video to see if it something you would consider:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOGgu6NbOnA" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Or would I be better off buying a new aftermarket radio? My car is a 2005, so putting a LOT of money into an aftermarket stereo isn't something I want to do.
>>Depends on what price/satisfaction ratio is. OEM radio will be plug and play, aftermarket will require wire splicing and adding convertor due to remote amp

Also: is the main power amplifier located within the head unit itself, or is it somewhere else in the car? I don't want to buy and pay to have an amplifier installed, if the power amplifier is wired into the car somewhere.
>>Wired in the car, under the front passenger seat, its on the bottom of the metal bracket when you look under the seat.

[ColonelPanic]

As much as I'd like to throw a dealership under the bus, these radios do not have a great track record for longevity in regards to their lighting. All of this is illuminated with tiny incandescent bulbs that will fail at any given moment. It could have just been their time to go. See here for a great howto on bulb replacement from joatmon: viewtopic.php?t=26889#p305136" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Most of the lights on the bottom row of buttons are burned out on our '03. As soon as the display goes - and it will - that radio is getting recycled and replaced with something that has a working display and more modern conveniences like USB and bluetooth. I'm actually quite close to just biting the bullet and doing that right now.

What work were they doing that necessitated monkeying around with the radio?

[trb]

I have to agree, the Vibe radio is one of the easiest to swap out. Pull off the trim panel - it snaps in place, disconnect a few wiring plugs from the trim panel, remove 4 screws that hold the radio in place, pull out radio, unplug the wiring harness(s) from the rear of the radio and antenna, and then the reverse to install the new one. I can change it out in about 5 minutes and did it on mine and my son's cars several times. After I put an aftermarket one in my son's car, I put his old radio in my Vibe and it works just fine, but I have to fix a couple of the bulbs too since they went out while it was out of his car. You can probably find a replacement stock radio for $50 or so on ebay or http://www.car-part.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;. The bad thing about OEM is they will likely have blow bulbs too. Aftermarket from Crutchfield would be a good deal, unless you can find a local place that would match their price. I think Best Buy will match it, and they can install it for you.

Good luck!

[Gandalf]

As much as I'd like to throw a dealership under the bus, these radios do not have a great track record for longevity in regards to their lighting. All of this is illuminated with tiny incandescent bulbs that will fail at any given moment. It could have just been their time to go. See here for a great howto on bulb replacement from joatmon: viewtopic.php?t=26889#p305136" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Most of the lights on the bottom row of buttons are burned out on our '03. As soon as the display goes - and it will - that radio is getting recycled and replaced with something that has a working display and more modern conveniences like USB and bluetooth. I'm actually quite close to just biting the bullet and doing that right now.

What work were they doing that necessitated monkeying around with the radio?

The lights for the main instruments have been a problem with this car. They flicker like there is a loose wire, sometimes.

I put chalk on the battery terminal post nuts and bolts, positive and negative, just to see if ANY of the idiots at the stealership have grown enough brain cells to READ the work order, where it says: REMOVE NEGATIVE BATTERY TERMINAL BEFORE PERFORMING ELECTRICAL REPAIR.

Not ONCE have those dipshidiots EVER done it. Not ONCE. They are nothing if not consistently stupid and lazy. Some day they will fry an entire electrical harness, with everything that's connected to it, on a very expensive and heavily electronics laden GM car, and they won't be able to LIE and DENY their way out of it.

I'm hoping it's the CEO's new car that is reduced to a near worthless smoking ruin, because the techs are just too lazy to remove the negative battery terminal.

ETA: I looked up how to remove the radio on the Vibe. Wow. I've never seen a radio that comes out so easily. Pop off the trim piece, and you're ready to unbolt and unplug and remove the radio. Amazing! All cars should be built like this!

[sideshowalan]

Here's a vote for replacing w/ an aftermarket unit, very easy.

Only gotcha w/ a moons/tunes car is that you need to add a 'line output converter' in order to make it play nice w/ the in-car amplifier. I used one made by scosche on a friends car and it sounds great. Order from crutchfield, they'll include installation freebies and detailed instructions.

Regarding the dealership: Vote with your wallet.
Take your money somewhere else, by continuing to go there you're telling them that you support their inflated prices and poor work. There is no magic that happens in the dealer service center, they turn wrenches just like any other independent shop*.

*except when I had to get a new key fob for my 2005 Malibu, $50 for 10 seconds of work on a dealer only programming tool!

[joatmon]

Sounds like the same issue Lefty had in viewtopic.php?f=18&t=41093" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;


The 03-08's do not have any theft deterrent systems, other than a blinking red led. No programming car/VIN specific codes, no matching to the computer, nothing. Don't know about the 09-10's Some GM radios from other models look identical but do need programming of the TheftLock code to match the car, and that programming requires the car have a GM infobus, which Vibe's do not have. So if you are looking to replace the radio with another GM similar one, be sure it came from a a Vibe (or an early matrix)

With moon&tunes, the power amplifier is under the front passenger seat. There is no difference in radio/headunits between Vibes with Moon&Tunes, and Vibes without.

Sometimes you gotta ask stupid questions, and I'm about to, so please take no offense, but are you sure that the dimmer switch isn't turned all the way down? Do other dash lights work ok?

Seems like the first time a radio is taken from a Vibe, it helps to also cut a cable tie that anchors the radio wiring to the chassis in order to be able to pull the radio out far enough to disconnect the connectors on the back. If so, not worth trying to re-tie it to the frame when putting the radio back in.

What work did you take the car to the dealership to have done?

[Gandalf]

Here's a vote for replacing w/ an aftermarket unit, very easy.

Only gotcha w/ a moons/tunes car is that you need to add a 'line output converter' in order to make it play nice w/ the in-car amplifier. I used one made by scosche on a friends car and it sounds great. Order from crutchfield, they'll include installation freebies and detailed instructions.

Regarding the dealership: Vote with your wallet.
Take your money somewhere else, by continuing to go there you're telling them that you support their inflated prices and poor work. There is no magic that happens in the dealer service center, they turn wrenches just like any other independent shop*.

*except when I had to get a new key fob for my 2005 Malibu, $50 for 10 seconds of work on a dealer only programming tool!

Fortunately, because this intermittent problem happened a couple times during the warranty period, and wasn't fixed, they work on it at no charge to me. Also, my family has bought 5 new cars from this dealership, and they are working hard to try to sell me a new car. HA! I'm not getting rid of my Vibe until the wheels fall off, or I can see daylight through the floorboards. I LOVE that car. It's the biggest, and the nicest car I've ever owned. Since there is no visible rust on the car, the rust through will be a long time coming, I think.

Next time, I'll pay the Toyota dealership to work on it. I've bought parts there, and they have printed out pages from their computer, to help me install parts myself. Whenever I drive my '88 Celica there, which has never been driven in the snow, and only has 66k miles on it, all the techs, and many of the sales guys come out to look at it. I don't know if the shop is honest, but they have always been really nice to me. The parts guy knows I have a Vibe, and he says they are getting them for service and repairs more and more, as they age, and people find out that GM couldn't find or fix an open fuel door, much less an electrical problem.

[KevinV]

The lights on our Vibe's radio display have been down for a couple years. The radio wouldn't receive AM stations either. I did the bulb swap which helped, but it still wasn't illuminating the complete display. So after the bulb swap with mediocre results and the lack of AM I decided to swap radios. Prices fluctuate, but when I was looking for a replacement radio on Ebay last week, OEM models were all in the $100 range. I decided to go with something aftermarket and had no trouble with the install. I'll post links to the Amazon pages where I got the parts from. I actually got the connectors from the local Advance Auto store, but the Amazon price is better. The price for everything came out to be less than the cost of a questionable OEM radio would have been, and the audio is much better than with the stock radio. Definitely a noticeable difference with the OEM speakers still installed.

Stereo

Dash Kit

Wiring Harness

Antenna Adapter

Wire Connectors

The wiring harness is a perfect match for my 2005 Vibe (I don't have the Moon and Tune variant), it just plugs into the OEM harness, and then I used the connectors to connect like wires from that harness to the harness that came with the Kenwood. There were a couple of wires that had no mate, so I just taped them back out of the way.

Original harness that is in the Vibe > harness adapter > Kenwood harness

Here's a shot of the harness after connecting wires. The large connector on the left connects to the Vibe harness and the small one on the right to the back of the Kenwood. After connecting wires I zip-tied it up and had plenty of room behind the radio for all of it as well as the antenna adapter.



I still don't have AM, so that's somewhere between the radio antenna connection and the tip of the antenna. I ordered an antenna from Ebay yesterday and hope that's the issue. If not I'll be messing with it some more.

And yes, I disconnected the negative battery terminal before changing out the radio.

[Gandalf]

The lights on our Vibe's radio display have been down for a couple years. The radio wouldn't receive AM stations either. I did the bulb swap which helped, but it still wasn't illuminating the complete display. So after the bulb swap with mediocre results and the lack of AM I decided to swap radios. Prices fluctuate, but when I was looking for a replacement radio on Ebay last week, OEM models were all in the $100 range. I decided to go with something aftermarket and had no trouble with the install. I'll post links to the Amazon pages where I got the parts from. I actually got the connectors from the local Advance Auto store, but the Amazon price is better. The price for everything came out to be less than the cost of a questionable OEM radio would have been, and the audio is much better than with the stock radio. Definitely a noticeable difference with the OEM speakers still installed.

Stereo

Dash Kit

Wiring Harness

Antenna Adapter

Wire Connectors

The wiring harness is a perfect match for my 2005 Vibe (I don't have the Moon and Tune variant), it just plugs into the OEM harness, and then I used the connectors to connect like wires from that harness to the harness that came with the Kenwood. There were a couple of wires that had no mate, so I just taped them back out of the way.

Original harness that is in the Vibe > harness adapter > Kenwood harness

Here's a shot of the harness after connecting wires. The large connector on the left connects to the Vibe harness and the small one on the right to the back of the Kenwood. After connecting wires I zip-tied it up and had plenty of room behind the radio for all of it as well as the antenna adapter.



I still don't have AM, so that's somewhere between the radio antenna connection and the tip of the antenna. I ordered an antenna from Ebay yesterday and hope that's the issue. If not I'll be messing with it some more.

And yes, I disconnected the negative battery terminal before changing out the radio.

Thanks for all the links to Amazon; I REALLY appreciate it! That head unit and the other parts are within my rather small budget. I like the OEM radio/CD player, but I'll take your word that it sounds better. And, I see it has a port for an MP3 player, too, which my 2005 OEM radio lacks. It's probably less work to install that stereo, than replacing the bulbs in the OEM radio. Later, when i have more free time during the winter, I could get the bulbs, and fix the radio, and perhaps sell it right here. Or keep it as a spare. My car is a 2005, but only has about 42 or 43k miles on it.

[KevinV]

Thanks for all the links to Amazon; I REALLY appreciate it! That head unit and the other parts are within my rather small budget. I like the OEM radio/CD player, but I'll take your word that it sounds better. And, I see it has a port for an MP3 player, too, which my 2005 OEM radio lacks. It's probably less work to install that stereo, than replacing the bulbs in the OEM radio. Later, when i have more free time during the winter, I could get the bulbs, and fix the radio, and perhaps sell it right here. Or keep it as a spare. My car is a 2005, but only has about 42 or 43k miles on it.

No problem. I was looking for something similar when I decided to go aftermarket but couldn't find it. After the amount of time I put into research and cross referencing, I'm glad someone else will get some use out of it too.

A few things I didn't mention.

1) The dash kit has extra tabs that you won't need, they just bend off toward the back. Otherwise, they'll be in the way of getting the lower mounting screws in.

2) I didn't find it necessary to unplug everything from the trim to remove/install. It slides off to the side just fine with everything connected.

3) The small mounting frame that comes with the dash kit does a much better job of filling up the space around the radio than the one that comes from Kenwood.

4) The metal mounting bracket that came on the radio was backwards. I had to reverse it to get it to lock the radio in flush with the front of the dash kit.