GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

ok im thinking about buying a deck for my vibe..and installing it myself...is there anything inparticular that i would need to buy? and for the fitting around the deck...where did u guys get that little storage thingy so i wont have a empty hole?

The Metra mounting kit comes with the storage. There was some talk about wiring in the old radio to keep things working but I think it was all a load of crap. It is a very easy installation though.

Ok. Two things you need to buy.Wiring Harness -- I got mine at Best Buy, number 70-2003. Go to the installation shop directly, tell them you need a harness for a 2003 pontiac. The package they will give you says Tracker on it, and it has a separate red wire. Throw the red wire out, you don't need it. The harness should have a blue/white remote turn on wire on it. This will allow you to interface with a M&T amp without having to splice any wires.Dash Mount Kit -- I got mine at Circuit City, made by metra, it comes with all the necessary stuff for a DIN, 1.5 DIN, and DOUBLE DIN installation, depending on your head unit. It will have that pocket that goes underneath automatically. Just tell them you have an 03 vibe, they'll hook you up with the right kit.

what if i dnt have the m&t package? do i still need the tracker package?

You can get the install kit at any retail store or eBay. I heard that you should stay away from the wal-mart harness because the wires can't handle the current. So you should get that somewhere else. Don't know about moons and tunes. perhaps someone at the install bay at best buy or circuit city can help you there.

Depending on where you go, they may only have that 70-2003 harness.If you don't have the M&T, then just tape off the end of the blue/white wire, that's all.Circuit City may have the harness without the blue/white wire...But as said, it doesn't matter. I personally would recommend getting the harness from Circuit City, Best Buy, or another auto electronics retailer. The scosche ones at Pep Boys and Wal-Mart look cheezy and unreliable, as was previously stated.Oh, and words of wisdom from Jahntassa -- solder if you can, it makes for a fantastic connection that's very reliable.

FYI: Dash kit is Metra part 99-8205

As said, Scocshe parts generally suck. Get the metra parts if you can. If getting it from circuit city, the wiring harness is 80-2003 (because it's a CC only part..go figure)Doing it yourself is really easy...And btw, I believe you'll also need the Antenna adaptor. Which is metra part 40-GM10

Quote, originally posted by Jahntassa »And btw, I believe you'll also need the Antenna adaptor. Which is metra part 40-GM10Good call!I forgot all about that...

Quote, originally posted by Jahntassa »As said, Scocshe parts generally suck. Get the metra parts if you can. If getting it from circuit city, the wiring harness is 80-2003 (because it's a CC only part..go figure)Doing it yourself is really easy...And btw, I believe you'll also need the Antenna adaptor. Which is metra part 40-GM10lets me fair now for some vehicles, I agree the Scosche kits are substandard. But the same can be said for Metra...whens the last time you installed a deck on a later 90's dodge neon for example? the Metra kit is the absolute sucks. The Scosche kit is MUCHOS better in this case.not that i"m affiliated with either...I'm a metra guy...but we need to be fair cause Scosche makes some nice stuff too (I'm not good painting it all with the same brush, sorry bmoney

I am using a Scosche FAI-3A or something to suppress my line output to my M&T amp...and it's worked flawlessly since the day I put it in...But my original dash mount kit was a Scosche, and it was a POS...

Also why I said "generally." I can't remember which harness the neon uses, i'm guessing the 70-1817, which is the most POS harness i've seen. Tho that's mostly because the design is kinda dumb.. I mostly refer to the fit-kits as sucking.. the scosche wiring harnesses you can get in walmart tend to be the "multiharnesses" and have more than you generally need.Scosche as a whole isn't bad though..

Quote, originally posted by ragingfish »Ok. Two things you need to buy.Wiring Harness -- I got mine at Best Buy, number 70-2003. Go to the installation shop directly, tell them you need a harness for a 2003 pontiac. The package they will give you says Tracker on it, and it has a separate red wire. Throw the red wire out, you don't need it. The harness should have a blue/white remote turn on wire on it. This will allow you to interface with a M&T amp without having to splice any wires.What if you are going to replace the amp and connect the head unit using the pre amp out connections and RCA patch cords. Do you still need the Wiring Harness, or do you just tap into the positive and ground wires to power the head unit?

Depends.Some people still use the stock wiring, but just splice into it down by the amp. If you're going to do that, then yes, get the harness, and patch your RCAs in on the harness. Then just do all your rewiring down by the amp. If you're going to bypass the amp alltogether, my advice would be to just run a new power line from the under-dash fuse block, and just neglect the stock harness all togehter. UNLESS, you want, you can buy a mating harness, and cut off all the leads except power and ground, it would make for a cleaner, more sound (no pun intended) install.

do u need to add/purchase anything different if u are going to add a new deck and u already have subs and an amp hooked up to ur stock system?!?

Regardless, you're still going to need a dash mount kit and a wiring harness...Beyond that, I'm not sure.You say you have an amp, do you mean the factory M&T amp?

He's got a sony amp tucked under the seat, from what I can see on his cardomain page.Depending on how you have that amp hooekd up to the stock headunit, you might need a set of RCA cables, unless you already ran those behind the radio, and used a line-output adapter.

i have no idea what they did... i had them installed. i dnt have the m&t pack. i had to buy a equilizer to add to my stick radio so i would ruin anything

Dash kit, wiring harness, antenna adapter. You can probably ditch the EQ and go directly from the radio to the amps.That should be all you need.