Greetings to all,,brand new here and already looking for some help. I have a 2006 HHR that we just love it and all the great years of service we have had with it. It has over 250,000 miles but still does not burn any oil except for a very small leak around the oil pan. About 6 months ago the CD player started to "skip" and just got worse til the CD player finally stopped working, Since My Wife is an Oldies music lover, I have to do something! I bought a radio from wrecking yard, same year, model and installed it, and found out that the anti-theft will not allow the car to run and even refuse to start,,,it left us stranded at a resturant about 40 miles from home, and became a BIG issue as wife is wheel chair bound. Thanks to a young lady that happened by, she helped me get the dang key to turn in ignition and start the engine. She had worked at a dealer and knew about the anti-theft locking up the key. We limped home and then car would not start next day til I removed the junk yard radio and re-installed the original radio,,,,,car started right up! Took the car to a dealer as Service manager told me they could "Re-Program" the other radio, but after 2 hours, the tech gave up and dealer charged me half of the $85 for programing. Fast forward, I buy the best Radio/CD player at walmart, only to find out, it was NOT intended to be "plug and play" and requires you to cut and splice all the speaker and power wires!
My main question to the Guru's here, IF I decide to do all the wire splicing,,,is the "Theft Protection" going to allow the store bought Radio/Cd player to work in my car? Any and all help will be most apprecitated,!!

 

DON'T splice anything. Take that piece of junk back to Walmart. Call Crutchfield and tell them what you need and what you are willing to spend. They take all the guess work out it. They will make recommendations and set you up with the right head unit for your needs, and sell you the mounting kit and harnesses to preserve the functions that tie to the car. After market head units do not tie into the anti-theft system so you don't have to worry about that, but Crutchfield can explain all that. And they offer lifetime tech support. They are excellent to work with.

 

Welcome to the site, you’re gonna have to either
A get an adapter kit from Crutchfield
B have a pro radio shop install it or
C send your OEM original CD player out to get refurbished.

 

You can get the adapters and instructions from Crutchfield.com. A money saving hint: get the part numbers from crutchfield then shop on ebay or amazon. They have instruction free online

 

Hey Doc Brown, Oldblue and donbrew,,many thanks for all the help and suggestions,,much appreciated,!! First off, I cannot return the radio to walmart as due to an extended hospital stay of my wife, I was not able to return the radio/Cd with walmart's NEW 30 day policy of NO RETURNS on car stereos!! Per ya'lls suggestions,,I did talk to the sales person at Crutchfield and their adapters will NOT work with other brands, (have to be Crutchfield), even the installation kits are brand specific. I did talk to a couple of places that repair OEM's but their prices start at $200 and "could be" as high as $700,!! I'm not too sure I want to bet $700 on a 16 year old radio.
As an update, I did locate and downloaded a wiring diagram for the power and speaker wires for my 2006 HHR on Modifiedlife.com, SOoooo, to stop the bleeding, I am going to pull the HHR radio (again) and verify the OEM wires match those from the web site and if so,,I will wire up the walmart radio as per both dwgs. The Sales person at Crutchfield assured me that the HHR anti-theft would not be triggered by an aftermarket stereo as the antitheft signal comes FROM the OEM stereo. My fingers are crossed,!!

 

Just keep in mind if you purchase the head unit from Crutchfield they will discount the install kit.

 

Another money saving hint. Check Crutchfield for scratch and dent/open box discounts. I got my surround sound speakers at scratch and dent price for about 40% less than retail price.

 

Crutchfield is NOT a brand they are a vendor. The adapters I am talking about are the ones that keep your turn signal tones. Plug and play harness adapters are brand specific, Walmart is NOT a brand it is a vendor. Even if there is no direct harness there are "generic harnesses. Nobody ever mentioned "talking to a sales rep at Crutchfield", there is plenty of information on their website a sales rep is not going to admit anything about somebody elses product, even if they sell the same product.

There are ways to install a radio without cutting ANY wires that you should be familiar with if you intended to DIY.

If the replacement GM radio is the same part number the ONLY excuse the dealership has is incompetence. Even if not it can be done by a good technician.

If you are competent at soldering you can make the replacement radio work. Here is a how to: https://www.chevyhhr.net/forums/how-...w-radio-49106/

The way it works is : a NEW radio has a blank chip when it is installed in a car the cars computer interacts with the blank chip and installs the VIN in it. To defeat this you can A. replace the chip with a new blank one from ebay B. use a Tech2 or similar to replace the VIN in the chip C. remove the chip completely. Depending on the particular radio there may not be a separate chip to physically remove.

 

OK,,Many THANKS for all the great comments and suggestions. I did talk to a great sounding young lady at Crutchfield and she tells me that the "Ready Harness" they sell is for only the radios that they sell,,same for the installation kits for Crutchfield radios only. RATZ!! So, I have this $80 walmart expenditure that they will NOT take back as a return and I need to at least TRY to get it to work in the HHR. I also contacted DUAL INC and they tell me that DUAL INC does not make adapter pigtails for their radio/CD players,,Double RATZ,!! They supply a pigtail that snaps into their radio and then you wire into your car radio speaker wires. I was able to download a wiring diagram from internet for the 2006 HHR then cross to the one supplied by DUAL INC tp pair all the required speaker wires. What was strange, is that the HHR diagram did not list a wire for the "Ignition wire" or "switched 12 VDC,, After verifying all the speaker wires from the HHR to the DUAL INC wiring diagrams, I did check the leftover wires to see if any could be used as an "Ignition wire" but none had 12 VDC with key on,,,,? I had to run a new wire from fusebox to the DUAL INC pigtail,,,,THE CD PLAYER WORKS,,,IT WORKS,,!! BUT,,,,,,,
The radio does NOT work,,WTH,?? I pull radio back out and I find that the antenna port on the radio does NOT have the center pin that should connect to the antenna plug,The round port is there but no way it can pick up radio signals without the center pin,,,AM I missing something here??

 

Sell the Walmart radio online, or in our Classified ads