Replacing stock HU with HD Radio...

[omega2551]

Ok so apparently i don't know as much about this stuff as i thought. I have many questions. After reading over some other stuff in these forums i feel like a complete noob. I got my Vibe used a few years ago and i didn't even realize it has the so called "moon n tunes" package. I thought i would just be able to pull out the old deck, plug in the new one, use stock everything else and bam that's it. But it doesn't sound like that will be possible after reading some stuff here?

Also, my new HU (Pioneer DEH 4400HD) says to only use it with 3-4 ohm speakers but i read that the stock speakers are 2 ohm? What effect will this have? Will it not work at all? Will it blow my equip out? Sound like crap?

And what's all this about a line converter? I guess what i am looking for is the minimum stuff i need to hook this new HU up and keep as much stock as possible. I know i need the trim kit and antenna wire thingy which i already have, but what about a harness? The new deck came with a harness already, can i just use that one?

[omega2551]

I saw someone else mention this in another thread but not much was said about it. My new HU has FR, FL, RR, RL pre outs on it. Can i use the pre outs on my new HU to connect directly to the speaker wires on the factory harness? Will a stripped down RCA wire even work like that? Is there some kind of converter for that? And would the tweeters in my doors still work in that setup?

If this is possible, wouldn't that send an unamplified signal from the HU to the factory amp, therefore fixing the issue of 2 ohm speakers with 4 ohm HU? Or is that not how it works?

Any help is appreciated.

[omega2551]

Well i got the new radio in. I ended up using a PAC SOEM4, pretty similar to the Scosche SLC-4 but the local car audio place didn't carry those. It had a yellow 12V wire, amp turn on wire and blue/black ground wire in addition to black ground wires coming out of both sides....i just taped all those off and ran the speaker wires through and it works fine. I did what other ppl said with turning the HU up to 3/4 max volume and then adjusting the speaker converter, which i only had to turn up to about 1/4-1/3 of max on each speaker. Keep in mind i don't blast my music. I don't hear any white noise at all. Good bass from the sub, and no blown speakers or amp yet. *crosses fingers*

I mounted the PAC with some zip ties on top of the big pack of wires and metal bar thing that runs behind the stereo, seems secure enough. The only thing that puzzled me was a second, smaller wire harness connected to the back of the stock stereo. It had like 2 white, 2 red and one black wire running out of it. I figure this was connected to the beep thing in the dash like for when your seat belt is unhooked, etc....because the stock radio would do a beep like that when you set stations to the buttons and set the clock, etc. But idk, regardless the new radio works fine without that smaller harness connected to anything.

Worst part was soldering all the damn wires.

The mystery plug:


PAC mounting location:


Vibe's entrails:


Finished: