2004 impala New radio installed and lost my system ding...

[dorlow 10+ year member]

Ok, I brought my car into Best Buy because my battery was draining fast (from my factory radio). If I didn't drive my car for more than a few days, my battery was dead. I did a parasitic drain test and found that it was something in the radio circuit. I figured i'd have Best Buy change the radio and ask them to look out for reasons why my battery was draining fast.

Well, when they changed it out, they said that it looks like someone spliced into my radio harness many times. Also, my factory amp was wired to be on 100% of the time. But there were many bare spots in the wires behind my factory harness and the only way they could make my install reliable is to eliminate my factory harness. But what went along with that is I lost my system ding.

So, now my car's amps draining when off is acceptable. Everything seems to work great. I got some new features in my car with a new stereo. So, most is good. But a few minutes ago, I got to thinking maybe it will be a problem not having a system ding. Nothing to ding at me if there's a problem with my car going down the road. Tires low on pressure, oil low, check engine light on, low on gas, etc.

Is there a way I could wire in a system ding that just wired a separate speaker to the factory wiring harness that would give me the ding back? I asked the Best Buy tech yesterday before I just thought of the repercussions and he said he basically disabled it so whatever was causing the drain shouldn't be doing it anymore. It sounded like to me that whatever he did to go around the factory harness disabled the factory stuff in it yet he didn't have to pull the harness out of the car... like he could still use the factory wiring but the factory signals through it aren't there anymore. I guess I didn't know exactly what he was doing, and trusted he was the expert and had him go at it.

UPDATE: Yeah, it kind of *****. I was driving when it's raining so I turned my lights on. I got out after parking and then walked away then realized the car never dinged at me for leaving my lights on. That will probably bite me someday.

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[negolien]

Go to crutchfield.com look up factory integration kit. Put in cr make model year and it will tell you which harness to get just get it on ebay or amazon it will be cheaper.

 

[inferno1985 10+ year member]

I have a wire harness for a 2004 impala. From my old one. It has the box with the speaker that will bypass the oem system ding and play through the box that is connected to the wire harness. If you want lmk

And they will not eliminate the harness. They will just bypass it by using another wire harness that connects into your factory one and has wires that you splice together to use with your aftermarket radio harness that came with the radio. If he got the right wire harness your system ding should still be there either through speakers or supplied speaker integrated into the wire harness like I mentioned above. I am willing to bet he either hooked it up wrong or got the wrong harness. Do you have steering wheel controls or navigation? Or base edition impala

 

[dorlow 10+ year member]

My impala has steering wheel controls. I had Best Buy hook those up so those work with the after market radio.

 

[inferno1985 10+ year member]

Okay nvtmnd. My old impala didn't have steering wheel Controls.

I thought I was finally gonna be able to give this wire harness away finally. Hah. But I would take the dash apart and check to see if the new harness has a box attached to it. If so that's where your ding will come from from now on. If it's there and no dinging . It's probably not hooked up right. Everything works as it should tho?

 

[dorlow 10+ year member]

Everything works fine other than the system ding. The tech installing it, which was the supervisor and seemed like a very knowledgeable guy, told me before he started (after the first attempt where he used the factory harness) that he tried to make the factory harness work and the only way he could make it work reliably was to go around it. He told me before he started it that it would disable the factory ding and would make the after market ding (they first installed) not work either. So he refunded it. He knew exactly what was going to happen before he started so I'm pretty sure the guy knows what he's doing.

Everything, other than the system chime, works perfect. I'm very happy with everything they did.

 

[inferno1985 10+ year member]

yea, but be cautious from now on looking at the dash id hate to over heat or suddenly run out of fuel because of no ding lol.

and you have a 04 impala? do you know by chance if they have replaced the intake manifold gasket on that car yet? they go bad. very bad design in the gasket and is well known preventative maintenance to be done when ever you can. the bead will roll over causing coolant to get in oil or oil into the coolant.

other than that them impalas are pretty solid.

 

[dorlow 10+ year member]

I've never had the intake manifold gasket replaced. I've owned the car since brand new off the lot. Haven't had that many problems with the car. It's been pretty reliable. Just slightly under 200,000 miles right now.