Confused on monsoon hu replacement

[Benilson09 10+ year member]

I am helping a friend replace his monsoon head unit in a 99 Pontiac Sunfire. I had been told that I need an amplifier integration harness, but didn't see one listed on the metra application guide. My question is what harness or harnesses do I need for this. It is being replaced with a Panasonic CQ-C1303U Any input would be greatly appreciated.

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[atoz350 10+ year member]

I don't believe Metra makes an integration harness for the Monsoon systems. You are going to have to bypass the amplifier. The factory amp does not use a remote turn on.

Edit: The Metra GMRC-01 might be what you are looking for, or check out the GMOS-04 that they use for Bose systems with Onstar.

 

[Benilson09 10+ year member]

Sounds good, you wouldn't happen to know where the amp is located?

 

[acold7dusta 10+ year member]

check in the trunk, pull back carpet untill you see it. the aleros w/ monsoon are on the drivers side i believe.

 

[Benilson09 10+ year member]

No prob, thanks for all the input

 

[KaeZoo 10+ year member]

You can integrate the factory amplifier without a special adapter. Just use the standard GM harness and be sure to connect the new head unit's remote wire to the blue power antenna wire in the harness. Bypassing the amplifier isn't reccomended if you're planning to keep the factory speakers.

 

[xtremekustomz 10+ year member]

I would bypass the amp. Not a good idea to send power into a factory amplifier. First of all it will ruin the amp and more than likely ruin the speakers and could in turn damage the aftermarket head unit. I've seen it happen many times.

 

[xtremekustomz 10+ year member]

Also depending on what impedence the speakers are, you may have to replace them too.

 

[KaeZoo 10+ year member]

If the factory speakers are being replaced with aftermarket, then it's best to bypass the amp. However, if you're sticking with stock speakers, you need to keep the factory amp. The new head unit can't do what the factory amplifier does; it has multiple speaker outputs with crossovers to run all the speakers in the system, some of which are not standard ohm loads.

I've replaced many GM Monsoon head units with aftermarket radios and have never had a problem keeping the factory amp. Unlike many Delco Bose systems, they're made to take a high level input.