nitroheadz28

I purchased an 03 Express conversion van a couple days ago, and am getting it ready for a cross country trip. I'm trying to figure out what **** I'm missing, it isn't described in the owner's manual. Here is a pic:




I'm also attempting to add auxiliary capability to the OEM radio so I can run music off my ipod and phone on it. Has anyone done it with this radio? I read some conflicting information on whether the 6 disc units are possible to convert, I took the radio apart and need to get a set of cheap headphones to cut up and test the wiring on, but hopefully someone here has done it and can confirm. Its got a 15 pin connector from the CD player to radio circuit board which seems like it should be doable, I just have to confirm which wires go to the left and right speakers. Thank you.

canucklehead

you could use an fm modulator one....but seriously, why keep the oem deck? If you using an ipod then how badly do you need the 6 disc? Pick up an aftermarket deck, and some new speakers and your system will sound 10x better.
I kept my xm factory radio and added a ton of aftermarket gear. Line convertor amps speakers sub etc.....it sounds great, but still not as good as an aftermarket one. I plan to upgrade next black friday.

As for the button missing I am not sure, I have a 13 and the dash is different.

nitroheadz28

I want to give this a shot because it looks like the quickest solution as long as they have the jack at my local radioshack. If I cant make this work, I'll have to swap out the head unit. I wanted to avoid cutting into the stock harness to wire up an aftermarket HU, and saving $100-200 always helps.

I read too many stories of fm modulators being crappy to try one, seems like they all put out a weak signal.

Artie1

Throw away the stock radio. By the time you figure out all the engineering and it finally works and all back together, you'll realize you wasted 3 days of your life fighting the damn thing. Who's using AUX in 2017 anyway. Bluetooth is the way to go. Also, no need to cut stock harness, as they sell adapters, one end of which goes into your harness, the other is spliced into the new radio.
The **** you're missing is for dimming and the clockwise-most position turns on interior lights.

drober05

I concur with the other recommendations. Don't bother with the factory radio. I was able to convert mine from a 2002 but it required a special harness and part which is available from ebay and it works. However, there was frequently interference and it was sub-optimal at best. Also, the part was quite expensive, close to $50 as I recall. For under $100 you can get a good quality after market unit with Bluetooth. Using that you can stream from your phone with no wires. I wound up getting a Pioneer Digital Media Receiver for about $80 off amazon. It has no CD, designed for use with phone (does have radio). It works great and looks good. Also, I can use it for hands free phone calls. Really, that is the way to go. Installation was easy with the mount kit, harness, and OEM antenna connector all available on Amazon. I spent right around $100 for all. If you have basic wiring ability and comfortable working in vehicle dash you can easily do it. In fact, it was less difficult than adding the Aux to existing radio.

nitroheadz28

Thank you so much for the helping with the ****.

As for "Who uses aux", I do. I'm leaving for the west coast in less than a week, if I can't figure out how to tap into the stock radio with this today I'll pick up a new head unit and go from there. I have no intention of changing out the whole sound system at the moment, and generally think aftermarket HUs look really cheesy and out of place.

SnlpeR

does your van have a plate with some RCA inputs and volume *****?
check towards the rear of the van

my LT uses that same head unit and has an RCA AUX input in the rear.
all i need is a 3.5mm to RCA cable

nitroheadz28

Yes it does, that controls only the rear speakers right? Does anyone have recommendations for a decent HU and harness that will be plug and play?

I just got done checking the wiring with some headphones and couldn't get any sound to come through. I see LHC and RHC on the circuit board for pins 1-3, but its not working.. Also now that I plugged the radio back into the van, I have crappy reception on some stations, and the rear speakers aren't playing. Everything is fully plugged in, I opened up a can of worms with this thing didn't I haha.

Edit- Nevermind, something reset itself the next time I fired up the engine, everything works again. Now I need to deal with the radio, and I have another issue with it running rough/ surging/ bucking/ stalling when its out of park and cold. Idles fine in park and runs perfect once it passes the first 1/3rd of the temp gauge.

nitroheadz28

I'm trying to find what harness I'll need to run an aftermarket double din HU and retain RAP/ warning chimes. Any suggestions?

I found this which is obviously not for an 03, but am trying to sift through this:

Metra Online

**Edit: Found this on crutchfield, now to pick a radio:

https://www.crutchfield.com/g_751/Fa...-Adapters.html

lowrider12

You can also pick up a non-RDS cd radio at the junkyard (only if less than $25) and just modify that. That's what I'm in the middle of doing. Then there's an 800 number you call to get the Theftlock security code (you enter a code as if you were a GM dealer').
Best instructions I found: How you can add an aux input/mp3 player without an adapter - LS1TECH