Replacing my radio

[Ninjaruski]

Good evening everyone!

I am preparing to replace the radio on my 2003 Pontiac Vibe, and I've taken a bit to look through the forums. First I have to figure out if my car has moon and tunes. Now, its a standard 2003 Vibe, no power accessories, so I'm going to assume it doesn't. So what do I need to do to install the radio? A lot of people have used aftermarket brackets and the like, is there a preferred dealer or brand for these? What radios do you recommend?

Second, are there any good instructions for how to remove the old radio and install the new one?

[sideshowalan]

It's easy to tell if you have the M & T or not. Do you have tweeters on the doors? If not then you have the regular stereo.

I am a big fan of crutchfield.com. On most car stereos they'll give you the installation gear for free (dash kit, wiring harness, antenna adapter, even detailed install instructions).

[Ninjaruski]

Cool, I'm looking at crutchfield and that looks like the way to go. Saves me the cash on having Best Buy do it.

Here's a noob question: what's a tweeter?

[ColonelPanic]

Tweeters are the small speakers for only higher frequencies, they can be found on both front doors by the windows...

Also can check under the passenger's seat for presence of the amp. Look for a metal box attached to a black bracket.

[wes517]

wanted to drop a note, have had my 2003 vibe with the moons and tunes package for a number of years now (147k miles and strong), well the radio went just the other day so we purchased an Alpine from Crutchfield.

Trying to learn from others and avoid mistakes caused me a little grief.

Following everything as they said it worked. following advice here led me slightly in the wrong direction trying to account for the antenna amp and the AM radio reception issue many people have.

The antenna amp is in the B3 slot of the harness, the same as the amp under the seat if you have it. plugging the blue striped wire from the radio to that as they said made everything work, trying to go around it led to no AM reception for me.

There is also a mysterious white wire in a separate harness on the back of the radio, noone apparently knows what it is for... my radio is working like i expect with that wire not connected, and the crutchfield guy said it's not part of any aftermarket setup, so he can't say what it is for.

[Caretaker]

All: I bought lifetime XM over 4 years ago. Knowing that XM will not transfer the service to another car, I was wondering if the XM service is specific to the radio rather than the transponder on the roof? If so, should something evil happen to my Vibe down the road, would I be able to remove the operating radio and install it in another XM capable car and continue my service? I have been thinking about this as the Matrix continued to live on until 2013, giving me a few more years to switch from the Vibe to a used 2013 Matrix some day and exchange radios. Does this seem doable or is there some other code preventing an XM radio transplant?

[kumquat]

It's specific to the receiver itself, which is mounted inside the car behind a quarter panel in the rear compartment. You could in theory move the receiver to another vehicle, but I don't know if there would be any way of replicating the wiring and hooking it up.

[Caretaker]

dag nabbit. So you are saying that I have to keep my Vibe forever? I think I can do that.
Thanks for the response. I'll just have to live with lifetime XM wherever I have a computer to log into it.

[ttkammer]

I just installed a new stereo in my 2007 Vibe yesterday, and would also recommend Crutchfield. I purchased a double-din Sony head unit (WX-GT80UI) for $149 and received all of the installation gear at no charge (dash kit, wiring harness, antenna adapter, instructions, etc...). It took me all of about an hour to install, and it looks and sounds great. I can actually run the amp and subwoofer in the hatch now, and I can also run/control my iPod directly through the stereo. I can even change the display colors to match the red inside the Vibe (even though it looks orange in the photo, it is actually red). Here's a photo...