Oem radio question
 

I have search the forum for an answer, but can't find an answer specific to my question. I have a 2006 lt1 . My radio bit the dust. I want to stay with a factory radio. My current Oem radio is a single CD player. Has aux. built in sattalite radio' and on star with steering wheel controls. Can I replace with any HHR radio from 06 to 2011? Or does it have to be a 2006? Because I already have onstar, and serious Xm on my car will any of the HHR radios work and keep both on star and xm

I'm not positive but you should be able to swap the radio with any year as long as the radio is xm compatible. ( has the cat button on it).

Swapping the radio will require a visit to the dealer to have the radio programed to your cars vin. Number for it to work.

Before installing the radio write down the numbers on the radio tag before you install it. The dealer will need those numbers to reprogram the replacement radio to your vin.

Dealers around here charge about 35.00 bucks for the programing.

Previous posts have suggested that you need a radio with a serial number from the year or older of the car in order to have it programmed to the BCM ant-theft system.

In other words : a radio from a 2007 would work in a 2008, but not the reverse.

The car needs to be able to recognize the serial number of the radio, if the radio comes from a newer car the serial number cannot exist in it's database.

So how could the 2008 radio work in a 2007 or just a typo?

DonBrew, so I get this right your saying I can put say a 2011 Oem radio into my 2006. But not the other way around ? I just need to make sure the radio I purchase has the cat button in order for me to have my serious Xmas radio

My radio quit working. No power on the head unit.i checked both fuse one in the car fuse panel and the second fuse under hood fuse panel. Both fuse are ok.i read on here that on a 2006 HHR there is also a fuse located on the back of the radio itself. Can anyone confirm there is in fact a fuse at the back of the radio

I think DonBrew meant to say that a 2007 would work in a 2008 but not the other way around. I have no info on that myself though.

One thing I did not see mentioned in this thread is that if you have a Pioneer system or not. The Pioneer HU does not have a built in amplifier while the standard radios do. Both are capable of XM I believe. They easiest way to tell if you have the Pioneer system or not is if you have the sub in the let rear hatch area or not.

There are two different manufacturers that made the stock stereos for our HHR's

Panasonic and Pioneer.

Your dealership really should be able to program pretty much any of the stereos from pretty much any compatible GM vehicle to work in your HHR. Cobalt's and Saturn VUE use the same radios in them so they should also work. There may be other GM vehicles that use the same stereo as well.

You will need to have the VIN number from the donor vehicle for your dealer to be able to program the computer in your car so the radio will work.

Hopefully your dealership will have someone that knows how to do this small task. My dealership does not. I bought two replacement stereos from vendors on eBay and they were unable to get either of them to work in my car. Fortunately the real problem for me was my speakers were toast so replacing those and just keeping the original stereo worked out for me.

Just a follow up on my radio. While it appeared dead because there was nothing showing on the led. All the fuses were good. Today while driving the radio started working again. When I shut the car off and restarted the car the radio would not come back on. After maybe five minutes it would start working again. After a while the radio would stay on after restarting the car. Seems to be working fine now. I tried wiggling wires for a short, but nothing happened. Crazy. The car sits in storage every year in Florida for 8 months at our winter home. Maybe the heat and high humidity during the summer months in Florida is causing some corrosion on the contacts. I pull the power fuse at the battery when I store the car

typo, corrected now.