New Stereo going in...
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 236
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From: Cody Wyoming
New Stereo going in...
I just bought a SoundStream VIR-7870NRB DVD/NAVI for my vette and I can not wait to get it in.
. I have some existing issues though. I already have an aftermarket stereo already installed by the previous owner. The problems that I am having are:
1. When I turn my lights on, the head unit does not DIM. Is there a way to wire it so the HU will DIM with the lights on?
2. When I turn my key off the stereo completely turns off. It will turn off when I turn the key to the ACC. Is there a way to wire the HU so it will stay on until someone opens the door or was that before that option was offered? My Vette is 97.
I hate splicing into wire harnesses because I do not want to create any electrical problems for the rest of the car. Is there a easy way to solve these problems? Detailed instructions and Pics are good...lol
Any help would be appreciated.
. I have some existing issues though. I already have an aftermarket stereo already installed by the previous owner. The problems that I am having are:1. When I turn my lights on, the head unit does not DIM. Is there a way to wire it so the HU will DIM with the lights on?
2. When I turn my key off the stereo completely turns off. It will turn off when I turn the key to the ACC. Is there a way to wire the HU so it will stay on until someone opens the door or was that before that option was offered? My Vette is 97.
I hate splicing into wire harnesses because I do not want to create any electrical problems for the rest of the car. Is there a easy way to solve these problems? Detailed instructions and Pics are good...lol
Any help would be appreciated.
Race Director
Joined: Jul 2007
Posts: 18,681
Likes: 47
From: Reno is so close to Hell you can see Sparks , State Of Confusion
St. Jude Donor '12-'13-'14
I just bought a SoundStream VIR-7870NRB DVD/NAVI for my vette and I can not wait to get it in.. I have some existing issues though. I already have an aftermarket stereo already installed by the previous owner. The problems that I am having are:
1. When I turn my lights on, the head unit does not DIM. Is there a way to wire it so the HU will DIM with the lights on?
2. When I turn my key off the stereo completely turns off. It will turn off when I turn the key to the ACC. Is there a way to wire the HU so it will stay on until someone opens the door or was that before that option was offered? My Vette is 97.
I hate splicing into wire harnesses because I do not want to create any electrical problems for the rest of the car. Is there a easy way to solve these problems? Detailed instructions and Pics are good...lol
Any help would be appreciated.
. I have some existing issues though. I already have an aftermarket stereo already installed by the previous owner. The problems that I am having are:1. When I turn my lights on, the head unit does not DIM. Is there a way to wire it so the HU will DIM with the lights on?
2. When I turn my key off the stereo completely turns off. It will turn off when I turn the key to the ACC. Is there a way to wire the HU so it will stay on until someone opens the door or was that before that option was offered? My Vette is 97.
I hate splicing into wire harnesses because I do not want to create any electrical problems for the rest of the car. Is there a easy way to solve these problems? Detailed instructions and Pics are good...lol
Any help would be appreciated.
Sounds like you have the switched wire hooked to on only and not acc. There was an adaptor you could get to keep the RAP working. To stay on till door is open.
I would get ahold of Dennis at DDMODS, He is the stereo guy on here.
Mr.Bill
Instructor
Joined: Jun 2010
Posts: 221
Likes: 0
From: Ponchatoula LA
I just bought a SoundStream VIR-7870NRB DVD/NAVI for my vette and I can not wait to get it in.. I have some existing issues though. I already have an aftermarket stereo already installed by the previous owner. The problems that I am having are:
1. When I turn my lights on, the head unit does not DIM. Is there a way to wire it so the HU will DIM with the lights on?
2. When I turn my key off the stereo completely turns off. It will turn off when I turn the key to the ACC. Is there a way to wire the HU so it will stay on until someone opens the door or was that before that option was offered? My Vette is 97.
I hate splicing into wire harnesses because I do not want to create any electrical problems for the rest of the car. Is there a easy way to solve these problems? Detailed instructions and Pics are good...lol
Any help would be appreciated.
. I have some existing issues though. I already have an aftermarket stereo already installed by the previous owner. The problems that I am having are:1. When I turn my lights on, the head unit does not DIM. Is there a way to wire it so the HU will DIM with the lights on?
2. When I turn my key off the stereo completely turns off. It will turn off when I turn the key to the ACC. Is there a way to wire the HU so it will stay on until someone opens the door or was that before that option was offered? My Vette is 97.
I hate splicing into wire harnesses because I do not want to create any electrical problems for the rest of the car. Is there a easy way to solve these problems? Detailed instructions and Pics are good...lol
Any help would be appreciated.
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 236
Likes: 0
From: Cody Wyoming
CF Veteran
Joined: Aug 2005
Posts: 1,429
Likes: 19
From: Northern CA
St. Jude Donor '10-'12, '25
Have you looked at the C5 and General Audio FAQ thread? 
I wired my head unit illumination wire to the HVAC control plug shown on thread #8.
Also, verify where your head unit is getting it's power. You can find a switched (ignition on) power from the passenger floorboard harness. See thread #122. As Mr. Bill said, you'll need to get another device to shut off the power when a door is opened.
Good luck.
I wired my head unit illumination wire to the HVAC control plug shown on thread #8.
Also, verify where your head unit is getting it's power. You can find a switched (ignition on) power from the passenger floorboard harness. See thread #122. As Mr. Bill said, you'll need to get another device to shut off the power when a door is opened.
Good luck.
Melting Slicks
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 2,736
Likes: 7
From: Redding CA
Advanced
Joined: Aug 2009
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You should see 2 wires on the uNit not being used. Not sure what colors , look up the wiring diagram for that stereo. 1 will splice into an orange wire On the hvac controls connector for the dimmer. Easy. Then run a length of spare wire down to the foot panel on the passenger side floorboard. You'll find a yellow wire that is capped off, splice to that for acc power. Easy. Look up Dennis at doubled mods, he has posted images of these connections.
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Brett Foote
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 236
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From: Cody Wyoming
Well, I guess it is for some people..My thinking is that a lot of these small town shops get very intimidated to work on $40,000+ car when there is more electronic gadgets to deal with. In addition, my car is a wiring messed already and that could cause some hesitation on these small town shops as well. Any more mistakes could be extremely hazardous. That is why I am here asking questions. I want to fix the problems, not make more than I already have.
Melting Slicks
Joined: Sep 2006
Posts: 2,736
Likes: 7
From: Redding CA
Well, I guess it is for some people..My thinking is that a lot of these small town shops get very intimidated to work on $40,000+ car when there is more electronic gadgets to deal with. In addition, my car is a wiring messed already and that could cause some hesitation on these small town shops as well. Any more mistakes could be extremely hazardous. That is why I am here asking questions. I want to fix the problems, not make more than I already have.
You just connect the wires right where the diagrams says.
ANY REPUTABLE STEREO SHOP should know.
If you want to do it yourself..google and find the wiring diagram, then host, upload and post a picture of it and we'll get you going.
Melting Slicks
Joined: Jul 2004
Posts: 3,294
Likes: 482
From: Brea CA
Have you looked at the C5 and General Audio FAQ thread?
I wired my head unit illumination wire to the HVAC control plug shown on thread #8.
Also, verify where your head unit is getting it's power. You can find a switched (ignition on) power from the passenger floorboard harness. See thread #122. As Mr. Bill said, you'll need to get another device to shut off the power when a door is opened.
Good luck.
I wired my head unit illumination wire to the HVAC control plug shown on thread #8.
Also, verify where your head unit is getting it's power. You can find a switched (ignition on) power from the passenger floorboard harness. See thread #122. As Mr. Bill said, you'll need to get another device to shut off the power when a door is opened.
Good luck.
Go to the Audio/Electronics section. The guru's of car audio hang out there. Also read the sticky, linked to above, on the C5.
Gary
Tech Contributor
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 19,384
Likes: 87
From: Horncastle Lincolnshire, England
2023 C5 of the Year Finalist - Unmodified
It sounds to me like the old HU wasn't hooked up to the lighting circuit.
If your new unit is the same as my Pioneer AVIC there is a dimming wire in the bundle. On mine its an orange/white lead and connects to a lighting switch. Once it senses current on the lighting circuit it should dim the display.
In terms of power mine has two connections:
A yellow battery lead which retains power even when the unit is dormant
A red ignition lead which connects to the ACC supply and provideds switched power.
You have a couple of options to get an additional switched acc power source
The easiest is to use fuse #22 which is live but not used for any other function. I used an “add a circuit” connector to hook in. This gives you the switched hot.
These are not my pics but show you the hook ups
You can see how the connectors slot into the fuse box/
The other option is to hook up into the spare connector which is available for ancillary devices. I believe this is used for the CD changer so it may not be an option for you if you have one of those fitted.
In the passenger footwell (unless you have a 2004) behind the kick board you’ll see a fuse block and to its left a silver box which is the BCM. There are three wires taped together feeding into a connector.
The Black wire is ground; the Orange wire is powered through fuse #7 but is permanent hot. The Yellow wire is powered through fuse #11 and is switched hot when the key is in the ACC or ON positions. Hook up to the Yellow for switched ACC.
HTH
If your new unit is the same as my Pioneer AVIC there is a dimming wire in the bundle. On mine its an orange/white lead and connects to a lighting switch. Once it senses current on the lighting circuit it should dim the display.
In terms of power mine has two connections:
A yellow battery lead which retains power even when the unit is dormant
A red ignition lead which connects to the ACC supply and provideds switched power.
You have a couple of options to get an additional switched acc power source
The easiest is to use fuse #22 which is live but not used for any other function. I used an “add a circuit” connector to hook in. This gives you the switched hot.
These are not my pics but show you the hook ups
You can see how the connectors slot into the fuse box/
The other option is to hook up into the spare connector which is available for ancillary devices. I believe this is used for the CD changer so it may not be an option for you if you have one of those fitted.
In the passenger footwell (unless you have a 2004) behind the kick board you’ll see a fuse block and to its left a silver box which is the BCM. There are three wires taped together feeding into a connector.
The Black wire is ground; the Orange wire is powered through fuse #7 but is permanent hot. The Yellow wire is powered through fuse #11 and is switched hot when the key is in the ACC or ON positions. Hook up to the Yellow for switched ACC.
HTH
Last edited by DeeGee; Mar 19, 2011 at 03:05 AM.
Former Vendor
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 18,293
Likes: 137
From: Hazel Green, Wi www.doubledmods.com
St. Jude Donor '12-'13
This should answer all your questions
You didnt mention what harness you were using and if you were keeping the stock speakers or not but the dimming wire conenction and your red acc. wire pics are shown in this write up.
Just an FYI
Make sure you keep paperwork for the Soundstream unit as your more than likely going to need it for warranty work(hopefully you got it from an authorized source). Those Soundstream units have been known to not hold up very long and the motorized screen will stop working.
Sorry for the bad news
Dennis
You didnt mention what harness you were using and if you were keeping the stock speakers or not but the dimming wire conenction and your red acc. wire pics are shown in this write up.
Just an FYI
Make sure you keep paperwork for the Soundstream unit as your more than likely going to need it for warranty work(hopefully you got it from an authorized source). Those Soundstream units have been known to not hold up very long and the motorized screen will stop working.
Sorry for the bad news
Dennis
I had to take a few minutes this morning to wire up a X920bt for a customer install.
So I figured now was the time to take some pics and makes some notes for everyone who has questions when it comes to doing this while installing you aftermarket radio in your C5
OK
First
we start with the roem-vet1 harness
next we take the section of the harness we are going to wire and unplug it from the roem-vet1. This is just an easier way of working on the wiring.
First thing I did and this is the most important part of the process.
The BLUE/WHITE from the radio will connect to the BLUE on the roem-vet1. If you connect blue/white to blue/white then your front door speakers will not work and you will be calling me saying this system sounds like crap! So do this step first!
Next step i did was to connect the yellow from the radio to the yellow in the roem-vet1
since everyone wants the bypass performed and your not hooking up the green parking wire. I like to cut off the extra wire and use this as an extension for the red ignition wire on the radio harness. As you can see i connected these two together as this will allow you to run to the ignition source which in most cases(97-03) you can run to passenger footwell to the yellow wire that is taped off. (there is also a black and orange wire there as well)
pic of harness
pic of wire instsalled in footwell
note this pic is from a prior install so the wire used to extend is purple just note that above for current install i used a green extension
next step is to connect the speaker wires.
This is a matter of matching color to color. NOTE the roem-vet1 has three wires for each speaker. YOU WILL NOT BE USING THE LOW LEVEL SPEAKER WIRE, ONLY THE HIGH LEVEL.
for the most part after this your pretty much done.
Your wondering about the ground wire. In this install we did the bypass on the x920bt which was moving the one yellow/black wire over one notch in the connector. We then took the yellow/black wire we moved, the parking wire and the black ground all form the radio and conencted them to the black ground in the roem-vet1
only other wire you will need to worry about is the dimmer wire
to connect the dimmer wire we spliced inth the hvac control harness.
The orange white wire from the radio harness was extended using a left over piece of green and then connected to the cream/yellow colored wire on the far right of the blue side on the hvac connector
I hope this helps everyone out.
If not you know I am always a phone call or email away form helping out as well.
So I figured now was the time to take some pics and makes some notes for everyone who has questions when it comes to doing this while installing you aftermarket radio in your C5
OK
First
we start with the roem-vet1 harness
next we take the section of the harness we are going to wire and unplug it from the roem-vet1. This is just an easier way of working on the wiring.
First thing I did and this is the most important part of the process.
The BLUE/WHITE from the radio will connect to the BLUE on the roem-vet1. If you connect blue/white to blue/white then your front door speakers will not work and you will be calling me saying this system sounds like crap! So do this step first!
Next step i did was to connect the yellow from the radio to the yellow in the roem-vet1
since everyone wants the bypass performed and your not hooking up the green parking wire. I like to cut off the extra wire and use this as an extension for the red ignition wire on the radio harness. As you can see i connected these two together as this will allow you to run to the ignition source which in most cases(97-03) you can run to passenger footwell to the yellow wire that is taped off. (there is also a black and orange wire there as well)
pic of harness
pic of wire instsalled in footwell
note this pic is from a prior install so the wire used to extend is purple just note that above for current install i used a green extension
next step is to connect the speaker wires.
This is a matter of matching color to color. NOTE the roem-vet1 has three wires for each speaker. YOU WILL NOT BE USING THE LOW LEVEL SPEAKER WIRE, ONLY THE HIGH LEVEL.
for the most part after this your pretty much done.
Your wondering about the ground wire. In this install we did the bypass on the x920bt which was moving the one yellow/black wire over one notch in the connector. We then took the yellow/black wire we moved, the parking wire and the black ground all form the radio and conencted them to the black ground in the roem-vet1
only other wire you will need to worry about is the dimmer wire
to connect the dimmer wire we spliced inth the hvac control harness.
The orange white wire from the radio harness was extended using a left over piece of green and then connected to the cream/yellow colored wire on the far right of the blue side on the hvac connector
I hope this helps everyone out.
If not you know I am always a phone call or email away form helping out as well.
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 236
Likes: 0
From: Cody Wyoming
This should answer all your questions
You didnt mention what harness you were using and if you were keeping the stock speakers or not but the dimming wire conenction and your red acc. wire pics are shown in this write up.
Just an FYI
Make sure you keep paperwork for the Soundstream unit as your more than likely going to need it for warranty work(hopefully you got it from an authorized source). Those Soundstream units have been known to not hold up very long and the motorized screen will stop working.
Sorry for the bad news
Dennis
You didnt mention what harness you were using and if you were keeping the stock speakers or not but the dimming wire conenction and your red acc. wire pics are shown in this write up.
Just an FYI
Make sure you keep paperwork for the Soundstream unit as your more than likely going to need it for warranty work(hopefully you got it from an authorized source). Those Soundstream units have been known to not hold up very long and the motorized screen will stop working.
Sorry for the bad news
Dennis
Thanks for the reply, hope your wrong with Soundstream Units. As far as the wiring harness, would I need that particular harness if I am planning using external aftermarket amps? All I need is for my dimmer to work and for my stereo to stay on when the key is off and turns off when the door opens.
Former Vendor
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 18,293
Likes: 137
From: Hazel Green, Wi www.doubledmods.com
St. Jude Donor '12-'13
Dennis,
Thanks for the reply, hope your wrong with Soundstream Units. As far as the wiring harness, would I need that particular harness if I am planning using external aftermarket amps? All I need is for my dimmer to work and for my stereo to stay on when the key is off and turns off when the door opens.
Thanks for the reply, hope your wrong with Soundstream Units. As far as the wiring harness, would I need that particular harness if I am planning using external aftermarket amps? All I need is for my dimmer to work and for my stereo to stay on when the key is off and turns off when the door opens.
Me too on the Sound stream for you
Just follow the steps I show above for the dimmer wire and the extension to the passenger footwell for the accsy wire
your RAP feature will only stay on if you have the xsvi-2004 harness
if you have this it will work but your better off without it.
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 236
Likes: 0
From: Cody Wyoming
Thanks Dennis, I owe you one...
For everyone else, thanks for all the replies. I will post pics on this thread when I have it all installed. I am planning on making a custom faceplate, sub box and amp rack and the trunk area will be completely functional for the targa top. It will take some time, so please be patient.
For everyone else, thanks for all the replies. I will post pics on this thread when I have it all installed. I am planning on making a custom faceplate, sub box and amp rack and the trunk area will be completely functional for the targa top. It will take some time, so please be patient.
Thread Starter
Instructor
Joined: Sep 2010
Posts: 236
Likes: 0
From: Cody Wyoming
Ok guys I am extremely frustrated...
I haved tried everything. I went to the passenger side footwell and found the black, orange, and yellow wire. I attached the yellow wire to the red accessory and the deck will not even turn on. All the rest of wiring harness is still wired as before. The only wire I changed at this point is the red accessory. I tried the Add-a-fuse to Fuse 22 and that did not work. I tried switching the yellow and the red from the deck to the wires that were all ready being used. Nothing. The only way the HU will turn on is when the red and yellow from the deck is hooked up exactly the way I had it wired, but the HU will not stay on in ACC. I was using the my old HU to test all this by the way.
I have been installing stereos for years, and I have never had this much problem with wiring a HU. Please Help....
I haved tried everything. I went to the passenger side footwell and found the black, orange, and yellow wire. I attached the yellow wire to the red accessory and the deck will not even turn on. All the rest of wiring harness is still wired as before. The only wire I changed at this point is the red accessory. I tried the Add-a-fuse to Fuse 22 and that did not work. I tried switching the yellow and the red from the deck to the wires that were all ready being used. Nothing. The only way the HU will turn on is when the red and yellow from the deck is hooked up exactly the way I had it wired, but the HU will not stay on in ACC. I was using the my old HU to test all this by the way.I have been installing stereos for years, and I have never had this much problem with wiring a HU. Please Help....
Last edited by physman; Mar 20, 2011 at 12:43 AM.