1999-2003 Silverado tips and tricks

[GSXR_RCR]

Im sure this is proabably the same for Yukon, Sierra and Tahoes

 

 

Ok so you got your radio now yout think i got to get all these extra wires in there, Ok wel to make you life much easier take your dash cover off, to do this pull both passenger air vents out , make sure you get the whole thing not just the blades, reach up there and you'll see a white button looking thing on each side of the O'Shit handel, push the buttons and pull the handel out. You will also have to pull both "A" pillar covers to, just pull the sides toward the center of the car and they pop right out. Now take the screws out of the cover 2 on each side, 1 in each vent and some around the instrument cluster, then just pull kinda hard, you wont brake it. Now you can get the radio in and out much easier and the dash cover take about 3 minutes to pull. Trust me this will save you headaches, and you can secure your radio while your at it.

 

Ok for the most part this radio install is a strainght install but you need to find you Reverse wire and VSS wire. Since you have your "A" pillar cover off already this makes life easy, on the driver side there is a wire b undle going up the A pillar, find the light green wire this has 12V only when in reverse. This goes to your rear view Mirror, this of course is if you have the auto dimming mirror, if not you should be able to find it directly below the steering wheel.

 

Now your VSS wire is easy to, in your factory radio radio harness

you have a dark green/white wire next to a blue wire, this is again assuming you have the factory speed sensitive radio that got louder as you went faster, you have 2 options, either just tap into the wire or for a cleaner install use the unused power antenna lead and move it into the correct spot in the harness.

 

I just installed my GPS reciever on the dash using the little metal piece but I have heard that u can use the metal shelf underneath the dash cover which is plastic and doesnt affect the gps, and actually a bigger ground is better, that way the install is almost stealth.

 

If you have some safety wire and pliers you can secure your radio to the metal brackets behind the dash, the safety wire has a tensile strength of about 500 pounds and they may get the flip up display, but they wont get your whole radio, haha a way to kinda beat thieves.

 

I just mounted the hide away unit underneath the center console its hung underneath the cd storage area, its a pain and the ass to get to so i figure thats good, and a pain in the ass to get back together, but if you do it right you can reach your hand in there to install new toys easily from the front, after you take the air conditioner cover off, or from the back, but you got to take the center console out to get there.

 

Hope this helped somebody, somewhere, sometime. Took me about 2.5 hours from beginning to end. And that includes trying to find out where things go.

 

****Update********

 

 

After getting a P10-XMT NavTraffic unit i found that the data wire was to short to go behind the rear seat where my oringinal XM tuner was. I moved the xm tunder to underneath the dash but on top so once again its stealth and not easy for someone to find. I decided that since i cant have my xm in the back i would remove the xm antenna from the roof and put it under the dash board, I thought this would be a great idea but it turned out that no matter where i put it under the dash the signal strength drops and the radio fades in and out, i guess cause the windsheild is at a pretty good angle and the roof blocks the signal. The Gps antenna under the dash works perfectly, i guess thats because they are not in a stationary orbit like the xm satellites. So back to the roof with the xm antenna. I guess almost steatlh install is better than "hey look at my radio.

 

I also got crafty with the aux inputs, my truck had a seperate cd player from the head unit and for the last 3 years i have had this big whole above my cd storage area. So i got an idea to fill it. I went to radio shack and bought a wall plate that contained the red white and yellow rca plate where its female on both sides, i got a mini jack plug and wired it up so the cd-rb20 can be readily accessed with a mini jack extention cable. That way if someone brings their ipod (and i dont want to unplug mine) or zune, or some other generic mp3 device they can plug in, in seconds. I trimmed the wall plate to fit and used some black plastic to make a face plate. I used 3M double stick tape to attach it as i wanted to be able to remove it when i sold the truck as they are not getting my system.

 

I took some pictures so i'll get them up wen i get time.

[GSXR_RCR]

heres the xm navtraffic and cd-rb20 mounted underneath the dash panel behind the passenger airbag, plenty of room. the brain could easily fit here but i had already installed it somewhere else and didnt want to move it.

 

You can also see where i safety wired the unit itself to the brackets to make it theft resistant

 

And finally heres how i made my rca and aux inputs easily accesible

[Turbocoop]

Nice, I just wish I found this before I put mine in. I have an 03 Silverado SS with a D3 so its pretty much the same thing. Im gonna move my GPS antenna to under the dash and try that safety wire trick, thats a good idea...

 

I was gonna go ahead and wire up my VSS wire and backup switch wire this week, so now I know exactly how to do it- one question though: When you hooked up the light green wire that goes to the side mirror- doesnt it only get +12v when you have the mirrors set to park assist so they fold down???

 

Did you put a backup camera in yours? I gotta do that this week too

 

I lived in Greenville too last year, I was in the Nissan program at Greenville tech. I dint have my truck then though

[bigtime1134]

GREAT GREAT ADVISE HERE!!!!! i took dash cover off it was very easy. anyone with any car experience could handle that, i am a mechanic, but it was still very easy!!!!!

just to note i installed a D3 in my 99 silverado it fits perfect!!! i only had to trim the top of the plastic moulded piece a little bit where it is riveted to the metal bracket in the back it was so easy ill put up pics later i also had to trim the dash bezel a little i did a sloppy job on that, but the trim ring inc with the d3 helped out alot!@!!!!! thanks guys and avic411

[Ranger]

Wish I could do that on my 07, but that part of the dash has a airbag in it now. I ended up having to mount my XM box just above the gas pedal on the engine tunnel.