Don't know if the person who told you that knew what they were talking about.

I've got a Pioneer HU and ALL of my chimes work fine. Only thing I lost was the tic-tic of the turn signal; still get the warning chime for leaving the signal on though. Even kept the use of my sterring wheel controls!

 

LOL, I was hoping to cure my own confusion, not spread it to others! At least I feel a little bit better seeing someone else acknowledge the contradiction I seem to be seeing. Maybe GM defines "low level" as something different? Possibly the factory amp takes speaker level inputs and gives them a small boost - I don't like the idea, but I've heard of it being done before. Of course that would give them the ability to have a "premium" (a gross misuse of the term) system without changing the head unit. I hope to have the time to dig into the wiring and do some serious debugging this weekend. I just wanted to be armed with the best information I can get first. I would like to avoid the total pain of tearing everything apart, getting stumped, putting it all back together because I need the car, and then having to do it all over again later. In any event, if I learn something useful I will definitely post it back to the forum.

 

Really The crutchfield site says you lose the chime. Huh. How did you wire yours up? Hardwire off a diagram or with a adaptor? I would like to put in a head unit eventually and still keep all the chimes and steering controls.

 

Metra harness 06/07 GM LAN INTERFACE FOR HHR #GMOSLAN3

XM MODULE FOR PIONEER # GEXP920X

STEERING WHEEL CONTROL MODULE - PAC SW1PS

Here's my set-up: https://www.chevyhhr.net/forums/show...ghlight=system

 

Thanks

 

i lost my chime, blinker tick and steering wheel controls i got the pioneer bt 9800

 

Then you didn't use these.....all I lost was the blinker tic. A couple companies make the harness now.
How did you wire the HU?

 

damn i wish the crutchfield tech woulda told me about that, i dont mind losing the annoying chime but i woulda liked to keep my wheel controls


i wired the headunit by piggybacking the constant 12v, the ground and the illuminessant (sp?) wires. I didnt cut my factory harness, ran rca's for the speakers and got my ignition hot from the fuse box

 

What the PAC does is programs your steering wheel controls to act as your remote control. This only works if the new HU has a remote. The sterring wheel controls are NOT wired to the HU, just converted to remote control buttons. They work great though.

If you'd gotten the harness, it woulda been a simple plug-in job.

 

the guy told me they didnt have one for my car since i have the pioneer option with no onstar and i explained to him i was removing all the factory stuff so he said he could sell me like a universal gm harness only to get my hot wires and grounds so i was like um ill just tap into those since its only 4 wires...

as i stated b4 im no install expert still might look into that PAC unit