Questionalright so i just bought a 2005 gmc canyon and i tryed to install a pioneer deck in and i cut all the wires and went to splice them together and wire colors dont match up can u help me so i can try avoiding takening it in to have done
AnswerHi Nick,
I would never recommend cutting off the factory plug for any new head unit installation, for a variety of reasons. In fact, if you still have the factory plug, and there's enough wire left on it, I'd recommend re-attaching it. Then you can use an adapter harness to install the new deck. A wire harness takes the guess-work out of the wiring, and makes the installation much quicker and easier.
If re-attaching the factory plug isn't an option, then you'll just have to connect the Pioneer wires directly to the stock wires. As you've found, GM doesn't follow the same color code as most after-market deck manufacturers. Also, there are some special features about your factory radio that won't make the job any easier.
Here's a list of the Pioneer wire colors, and the color of the wire each should connect to in the factory radio harness. For each wire, the Pioneer color will be first, and the GM wire color second.
Constant power: yellow.............orange
Ground: black..............black/white or black
Speakers:
-Left front (+) white..............tan
-Left front (-) white/black........gray
-Right front (+) gray...............light green
-Right front (-) gray/black.........dark green
-Left rear (+) green..............dark brown
-Left rear (-) green/black........yellow
-Right rear (+) violet.............dark blue
-Right rear (-) violet/black.......light blue
There will be other wires in the factory radio harness, and some colors may be repeated. If you find more than one of the same color wire, your only option is to use a digital multimeter to verify the wire function.
You should be left with a red wire, a blue/white wire, and possibly an orange/white wire on the Pioneer deck. The blue/white doesn't have to be connected to anything. The orange/white, if equipped, is an illumination wire; it doesn't need to be connected, but if you connect it to a factory illumination wire, the display will dim when you turn the vehicle lights on. The factory illumination wire should be dark brown, or dark brown with a white stripe.
That just leaves the red wire, and this is where it gets tricky. The red wire needs to be connected to a power source that turns on and off with the key. The trouble is, it will be very difficult to find such a power source in your vehicle. If you want, you can combine the red wire with the yellow wire, and connect both to the orange wire in the factory radio harness. If you do this, the new deck will stay on all the time, and won't turn off with the key. You'll have to remember to switch it off or remove the face plate, or you'll drain the truck's battery.
If you want the new deck to turn on and off with the key, there's one place you can find a key-switched power wire: in the harness that comes from the key switch itself. The accessory wire is dark brown in this harness. I wouldn't suggest connecting the head unit's red wire here, though; the key switch wire doesn't have much current capacity. Instead, I'd use the brown wire to control a relay, and use the relay to supply power to the head unit's red accessory power wire.
Another issue is that your factory radio controlled all the vehicle's audible warning chimes. The "lights left on", key chime, door chime, etc. are all generated by the factory radio and play through the driver's door speaker. If you want to keep your warning chimes, you'll need to purchase a special adapter module like the Metra GMRC-01. Of course, it's designed to connect to the factory radio plug.
One more thing: it's very possible that you blew one or more fuses in the vehicle fuse box when you cut off the factory plug. If you get everything wired, and the new head unit doesn't work, check your fuses.
Hope this helps!
Brian
