Hi everyone, I'm very new to the world of car audio so bear with me...
I just installed a Sony head unit into my 2001 Cavalier. Instead of buying a $100 wiring harness to preserve the door chimes and possibly the data bus line I descided to just wire the harness that came with the head unit to the existing harness. Everything is working fine accept for the radio. The iPod connection and cd player as well as the aux connection are all working great. When I flip the stereo source to radio, it runs for a few moments and then I hear a solinoid click neer my dash panel and a message "Error" shows up on my odometer. Also an "ABS" light turns on along withh all of my meters going to zero (sped, tach, gas gauge, etc...) I assume this is some sort of anti-theft system having to do with the data bus that is hanging out of my harness... Is there any way to fix this? Am I going to have to fork out the money for an expensive harness?
Thanks for your help in advance... I'm pretty frustrated over this. It's a pain going in and out of a cavy so I want to prevent having to do it too many times...
as far as i have researched this topic many times mainly in pontiacs, NO!. the data bus line is some delicate crap, it controls, ecu, power feeds damn near all the vitals of the engine and u souldn't mess with it. ur pretty lucky if the converter is a 100 bucks the ones for pontiacs can be as much as 600. the best bet so u don't really screw your car up is to do it right and get the converter.
ive got a 01 cavy with that damn 100 dollar data bus adapter installed and the only difference it makes is it chimes where before it didnt. Ive got a 2000 z24 cavy that does NOT have the adapter in it. It dont chime, but everything works fine. the 01 also didn't have an adapter before I bought one and it worked fine. I just cut the plug off and directly connected the 4 speaker wires, then connected +,-, and ignition. didn't connect any other wires. id make sure all the wires you aint usin are cut so no wire is exposed and tape the ends off so they dont touch. maybe you're getting a short? seems weird that it only happens on radio and not cd. possibly check the power antenna wire (DEPENDING ON CD MANUFACTURER) (since this wire is only hot when the radio is on and not when cd is on)
I've seen quite a bit about people skipping the expensive harness and it working so I was hoping to do this too. I'll try cleaning up my wiring job. I didn't put too much effort into wrapping the extra wires because I figured they were passive but now that you mention it, the chime bus comming from the car is driven. I don't actually need the power antenna line because I don't have an upgraded or retractable antenna right?
Some aftermarket head units have power antenna, and some have a remote line. and some power antenna lines stay hot when the head unit is on, some only when the radio is on. Usually this line is used for either a power antenna or as a switch wire for amplifiers. Not sure what kind of head unit you got so I can't comment. Regardless of what CD player it is, (and this is assuming you dont have amplifiers) just make sure your 4 speakers (4 sets of wires or 8 wires: purple, white, grey, and green sets (one with a black stripe to indicate (-) )) are hooked up, and your yellow, red, and black wires are also hooked up. Any other wires make sure no wire is exposed on them. If you have amps, you will have RCAs that plug into the back of the unit, and (maybe) one remote line (depending on how an amp was installed the remote line can either come from the head unit or from any ign+ lead). Hope this helps.