Car Stereos: insteallation, pioneer radio, gm vehicles

Question
i remove my pioneer supertuner 3 from my nissan and im trying to put it in to a 95 lumina. the lumina does not have it's orignal radio it has an old german made radio and it does not have the right wiring what should i do i have adapter kits but i still can't get it to work!

Answer
Hi Steven,

Is the original stock radio plug still present in the Lumina?  If so, an adapter harness is your best bet: the harness used in the Nissan won't match the Chevy plug.  If the German radio used an adapter harness, you can cut it off and wire it to your Pioneer radio.

If you're using an adapter harness, and not getting power, then the first thing to check is the vehicle fuses.  There are always at least two fuses in a vehicle fuse box which supply power to the radio: one's for the constant power feed, and the other for the key-switched power.  In many cases, one or the other isn't labeled as a radio fuse; and in GM vehicles, the constant feed is often shared with other circuits, like the dome light or cigarette lighter.

If the original radio plug has been cut off, then you'll have to match the after-market deck wiring with the factory radio wiring.  This can be tricky in a GM because some wire colors are used more than once, for different functions.  Because of this, you'll want to have a multimeter handy to verify wire functions.  Again, you may need to check your fuses before you start your testing.

Here's a list of the wires you'll need to match, with the Pioneer color first and the GM color second:

Constant power:  Yellow (Pioneer) connects to orange (GM).
Accessory power:  Red connects to yellow.
Ground:  Black connects to black (or black/white).
Illumination (if present): orange/white connects to dark brown (or brown/white).
Left front (+): white connects to tan.
Left front (-): white/black connects to gray.
Right front (+): gray connects to light green.
Right front (-): gray/black connects to dark green.
Left rear (+): green connects to dark brown.
Left rear (-): green/black connects to yellow.
Right rear (+): violet connects to dark blue.
Right rear (-): violet/black connects to light blue.

Pioneer wires not used:  blue/white, yellow/black.  Lumina colors not used: gray or gray/white; possible dark green.  These wires should be insulated and left disconnected.

If you need help using a multimeter to verify wire functions, let me know, and I'll give you some tips.

Hope this helps!

Brian