Stereo Upgrade and maintain reset funtionality
 

Hello all,

I managed a San Diego/LA trip last friday in the new MC. Everything went smoothly, however, the 'low tire pressure' light came on (it turned out just to be low pressure). My concern is that the reset is through the stereo which I was planning on upgrading. My 11 yo is ashamed of cassete player. Will I be able to keep the reset features with a stereo upgrade?

Any advise is appreciated.

Thanks,

Mike

Yes you can keep all the reset features without a stock radio. To turn off the low tire pressure light, all you have to do is pull the light switch out I believe three or four times. This will reset the light. The switch is the one on the left of the steering wheel.

Thank you very much for the reply. It's good to know there is redundancy for resets. Lots of people do the stereo upgrade and with no regrets or problems. I'm just going to pull the trigger and hope for the best.

Like Zach says, you will need to use your manual light switch.

The trick is to have the ignition switch in the on position, do not start car. Then using the light switch knob pull it out only far enough to turn on your PARKING lights. You need to do this 3 times in 5 seconds. Then turn off the ignition switch.

Your change oil light, ignition to on position, press down gas pedal 3 times in 5 seconds, turn off ignition switch.

This works for the 6th gens, don't know about other years.

Some people also use a radio wiring harness that allows them to re-locate the factory radio to the trunk or center console.
In my case, I had no issues with the factory radio in my '04, it had a CD player, but I wanted to have the ability to play MP3's off CD. I could use the MP3 radio from a Cavvy or Venture Van, had it re-programmed with a GM Tech II scan tool and I was all good.

Interesting concept. So I move the the stock radio to the trunk with the correct harness to maintain the chimes and resets, then install a new radio in the dash. Somehow, the two share the speakers (chimes) and power source. If anything needs to be reset, I go to the trunk. The chimes are maintenance free. The steering wheels controls are harnessed to the new radio. The old radio was going to go into the garage rafters anyway. May as well keep it in use in the trunk. Hmmm...

Double check the chimes part, that one I am not sure about. But all the resets and programming that can be done via the radio is maintained doing that.

I never wanted to go down that road. If I replaced the radio, I wanted it 100% gone. Since I just wanted the MP3 ability, I found a factory radio I could upgrade to and I'm good to go.

Got the Stereo
 

I bit the bullet this weekend and upgraded the head unit. Out with the stock radio and in with a Pioneer AVH-270BT! I justified the cost by convincing myself the bluetooth and backup camera were needed safety features. It was good to get rid of the tape deck. I don't know when I'm going to watch a DVD in my car but I can if I want too. Need to dial in the bluetooth and a few other things then on the the next project.