Car Stereos: deck installation help, chevy tahoe, radio harness


Question
QUESTION: im trying to install a deck in a chevy tahoe 2004 and my friend told me that in the bottom of the dash theirs a brown wire that it will be my 12 volt wire because the original wires dont have the 12 volt is this true? oh and if i do what my friend tells me to do in the original wires their are 2 orange wires and i wanted to no which one goes to the yellow wire in the new deck theirs a thin wire and a thick one?please help me thanks

ANSWER: Hi Martin,
Your friend is wrong!! The factory harnesses have everything you need. My recommendation is to go to one of your local stereo shops and purchase a wiring harness adaptor for GM. The colors will match up to your aftermarket deck so you can wire it up and not worry about mixing up polarities etc. Not to mention it will allow you to retrofit the Tahoe back to the factory deck very easily should you decide to sell it.
If the factory harness is already cut, splice it back on and then use the harness adaptor. If that is not an option, let me know and I will detail the easiest way to determine what each wire's function is. (you are correct, a GM radio harness does have two yellow wires... one is a 12V accessory wire that turns on and off with the key and the other is a speaker wire...you do NOT want to hook that up wrong or you will definitely smoke your deck. If you are not 100% comfortable doing the install, drop the $50 and have a certified installer put it in for you...it's cheaper than having to buy a new deck.)

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QUESTION: i went to a shop and they told me i could do it the way my friend told me and the factory wires only has one yellow wire which is for one of the speaker wires but it has two orange ones a thin one and a thick one the 04 tahoe i have has class 2 data just to let u no
ANSWER: Check out this site; http://www.installdr.com/QuickWiring.html
It should give you what you are after.


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QUESTION: ok thanks for your help but i bought the interface already and connected my deck but i think i forgot a wire in the interface theirs a illumination wire and my deck doesnt have that and when i put a cd in it nothing shows in the screen but all the buttons light up in the back of my deck theirs a brown wire and in the instruction book it says brown to parking brake(-) and it says note: if this lead is not connected, no video image will appear on monitor do you think this is the illumination wire?
ANSWER: No, don't hook that to an illumination lead. The parking brake wire is looking for a - signal and the illumination circuit on the GM's is +..The deck manufacturer places this wire on the video screens so that driver won't be tempted to watch videos while driving. If you crawl up under the dash by your parking brake, you will see a microswitch that will engage when the pedal is engaged. Look for the wire attached to the microswitch and carefully peel the insulation back on an accessible section. Then solder and tape the brown lead from your deck to it.
Now when you want to watch video, PULL OVER, engage the park brake and enjoy!!

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QUESTION: ok ima look for it but it has another brown/white wire and that one says for +12volt for backup light i just tape this wire off or wat? ok ima little confused by connecting this brown wire to the parking brake ur gonna be able to see the stuff on the screen?because how it is write now when i put a cd in it the screen just goes black but when i put on the radio you could see everything on it the station number and everything
ANSWER: Can you give me a brand and model number for the unit you are installing please?

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QUESTION: its a cheap deck its a Boss BV6800

Answer
Okay, I looked at the manual for this. The brown/white wire is supposed to be connected to the reversing lights (you know, the bright lights that turn on when you shift into reverse). You would only need to connect this wire if you are actually using a rear facing camera. If you were using the camera, shifting into reverse would make the video screen default to rear camera input only. Because you are not using this, then just insulate the lead and leave it unconnected.
Connecting the solid brown wire to the park brake - will let the screen illuminate once the park brake is engaged. Please note, while I assume that Boss Audio would have this lead isolated from chassis ground, I've seen  some cases that hooking up a wire like this to the park brake wire may cause a ground feedback loop to the park brake light and cause the dash's brake light to come on. Let me know if you have this problem and I will tell you how to isolate the signal with a simple diode.