Elboh

I ripped my factory head unit out the other day because the CD portion of it took a dump and I figured I would put my aftermarket in my malibu.

The problem began when I took the unit out, and was looking over the wires. I noticed that on the factory wiring harness plug the orange wire and a purple wire were on the other side of the plug separate from the rest. I ended up cutting the plug and trying to wire it directly.

When I connect my power wire and constant wire from my radio, it powers up, even with the key off and wont turn off when I open the door like my factory, I assume that feature was unique to the factory head unit and not part of the wiring.

The problem I'm having is finding a way to have a constant power source when the key is off so I can have presets without the radio being on and pulling constant power and draining my battery.

If someone knows of a wiring diagram or something it would be appreciated, or some knowledge about how to hook up aftermarket units in a Malibu.

I've been doing car audio my entire life freelance and this is the first time I've ever seen this. My GrandAm had the same features my malibu does and I never had these problems.

Thanks in advance.

nj85z28

It sounds similar to the sunfires and cavaliers around the year 2000-02 where you would need to use a test light to find yourself an accessory wire. I dont recall where I found it but it only took a few minutes of poking around in the wires under the dash to get it done.

MDTAHOE

What year is the car? Most newer GM you can not wire directly you must buy the proper harness or the door chimes, turn signal noise and onstar will not work.There were some models several years back that the first design aftermarket radio hook ups involved a harness that ran to the trunk to plug the factory radio in (in the trunk). If you did not do it the car would not start or the cel would come onor something would happen ( I can remember exactly)

Elboh

It's an 03 Malibu. I have constant power off the orange wire when the car is off because the radio stays on. I just need the alternate for the memory but I cant find it. I dont know if what Im looking for was built into the factory unit and its just not there or if im overlooking something. Im trying to avoid buying the 50.00$ harness to bypass all of this.