help wiring up aftermarket stereo to pontiac vibe

tskiller

Junior Member
Hello,

I have a 2009 Pontiac vibe and am having some difficulties wiring up my new head unit. Metra wants 100$ for a harness that includes on-star support which i don't give a rats *** about. I also don't feel like paying nearly the same price to get it professionally installed (which would probably end up being much more expensive as chances are they would have to order this part anyways...)

Is there a cheaper wiring harness i could use that does NOT retain on-star? I guess worse comes to worse i could just hardwire it, but i would really prefer not to. Does anyone know where i could get the wiring diagram so i can tell what color means what for the OEM wiring?

P.S. i already tried a 2009 toyota matrix harness thinking that since they are the exact same car for replacement parts anywhere else on the vehicle, but no dice. GM decided to be ****ing retarded and use their shitty third party system for the stereo. //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/verymad.gif.3f39c5c2fd57527b671fad3efdfac756.gif//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/furious.gif.fc81ca146dbff91fede3ed290dbc4f4c.gif//content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/verymad.gif.3f39c5c2fd57527b671fad3efdfac756.gif

 
Okay first off toyota is not owned by gm, second I think you are going to have to get the harness because some features of the onstar are integrated into your cars computer system. But if you still dont car what you might be able to do is get the wiring harness that was made for a car without onstar but the same year make and model as yours, but there is a chance that the wiring harness will be different. If I were you I would pay the 100 bucks for the proper wiring harness and also the harness does the warning tones and signals as well. Spend the money get the right one that would be the safe and easy way to do it.

 
The toyota matrix and the pontiac vibe for most intents and purposes are identical cars, they are even manufactured in the same facility. Pretty much the only difference (besides the stereo apparently) is the exterior styling. my apologies for not being clear. I'm not interested in spending 100$ for a piece of plastic that should cost me 5$. I don't care about onstar or beeps or warnings.

 
Obviously you didn't read my entire thing you may be able to get a harness that does not have the onstar with it. But hey what do I know I have only done this for what 4 years now. I have seen cars get screwed up when things were not installed properly like think about it onstart watches to see if your air bags deploy hey they may not deploy if you don't wire it up. Do what you want but I told you your options in the post. I know you don't want to spend 100 bucks look around maybe you will find it somewhere cheaper. I may be wrong about what I am saying here but better be safe than sorry. I will look around and see what I can find.

 
Im sorry bud, but if you're buying brand new vehicles expect 2 things:

1) The aftermarket is always a few years behind the manufacturers so its takes several years for easy parts to come out

2) Alot of cars now come with onstar...premium sound...a lot of computer and data shit. The worst part about it is usually its tied into shit it doesnt really needto be tied into.

Of the top of my head though you are probably talking about the metra GMOS or the scosche GMLANSR kits.

Heres the thing, If you have premium sound.... you may or may not be able to even integrate in to that. Im not sure on 2009 vibes. Does it have premium sound?

Go up to your car, open the door with the keys in the ignition... do you hear door chimes... ARE THEY COMING THROUGH YOUR SPEAKERS?

Your car also has on-star correct? Im assuming you dont have it activated or use it?

The "piece of plastic" you are talking about is actually a little brain box that houses a circuit board and several different harnesses to try to integrate into your brand new car full of bullshit you dont need.

If you want things to work correctly, use the harness metra has for your vehicle. It may or may not be the two harnesses I mentioned, but it likely is..or a newer/similar version of them.

I only use these harnesses in these vehicles, because if you try what you want to do, it can be a real big ****ing headache.

The door chimes and onstar are tied into your radio system... not only that but if you have premium sound you're going to have even more headaches. For example in the mid 2000's gms, a lot of them have BOSE sound systems. Its totally unlike the early 2000 nissan bose systems which are easy to work with. However, theres normal bose and premium bose sond systems. If the volume rolls up or down wit hthe dial its normal bose... you can probably integrate in via the harness. If its premium bose... you're ****ed as far as AN EASY FIX goes.

That said, on some vehicle you can ditch the door chimes and onstar and try to use a different harness but its nto guaranteed anything is even goingto work. the style plus is actually similar to one other gm plug and saturn plugs. I dont however, install them in this method so I cant tell you which route to go. All I do know is a shop around here offers a non-warrantied install using the cheap method and they have all sorts of buggy results.

Im assuming if you own a 2009 vehicle you can afford the 100 to do it right...seriously... maybe you should have asked around before diving head ifrst into this.

 
By the way.. the way to tell if those mid 2000's bose systems are premium is that the volume is delayed behind the roll of the volume knob. forgot to mention that.

 
^^^He got it right but I will simplify:

If you have BOSE (which you probably don't on the Vibe): Need Adapter for shit ton of money

If you still want your door chimes: Need Adapter for shit ton of money

Else: Get $20 adapter from retailer and run your own accessory wire (lose illumination function).

EDIT: you said its an 09? I think you need the adapter anyway no matter what, unless you run all new speaker wire to the speakers.

As a note for the other guy: If you are blowing airbags from radio harnesses then somethings wrong...

And Vibe=Matrix with GM stereo components. They are both made in Fremont, California at the NUMMI factory (New United Motor Manufacturing Inc), along with the Corolla and Tacoma. Its a partnership between Toyota and GM.

http://www.nummi.com

 
Thanks for the assist.... haven't personally worked on the 09 vibes yet. Funny thing is I did a earlier model vibe about 4 days ago and it used the same parts as all the other mid 2000 GM models.

I think you also NEED to tuse the harness in this vehicle as well.

Id highly reccomend coughing up the 100 bucks.

 
^^^He got it right but I will simplify:
EDIT: you said its an 09? I think you need the adapter anyway no matter what, unless you run all new speaker wire to the speakers.

As a note for the other guy: If you are blowing airbags from radio harnesses then somethings wrong...

And Vibe=Matrix with GM stereo components. They are both made in Fremont, California at the NUMMI factory (New United Motor Manufacturing Inc), along with the Corolla and Tacoma. Its a partnership between Toyota and GM.

http://www.nummi.com
Yep almost what I said only it is not optional. "hope he listens to us":wow:

 
ok, I know this is an OLD post, but I stumbled across it while looking for info on my Vibe. I want to clarify some things for others that might stumble across it too.

First off, while the Matrix & Vibe are almost 100% identical mechanically & electrically they were NOT built on the same line. The Vibe was built @ NUMMI in Fremont, California while the Matrix is manufactured in Ontario, Canada.

The Vibe DOES NOT use GM's Databus LAN, the only reason why you'd need a GM LAN adapter is for retaining OnStar. All chimes come from a buzzer on the back side of the instrument cluster.

If you do not want to retain OnStar, you will need to find a wiring harness adapter for another GM Vehicle. Some have suggested a GM1204 will work.

Crutchfield, Scoche, JC Whitney & most shops will tell you that a 87 & up Toyota harness adapter will work, this is NOT the case with the Vibe (will work with the Matrix because of it's lack of OnStar)

 
Activity
No one is currently typing a reply...
Old Thread: Please note, there have been no replies in this thread for over 3 years!
Content in this thread may no longer be relevant.
Perhaps it would be better to start a new thread instead.

About this thread

tskiller

Junior Member
Thread starter
tskiller
Joined
Location
Plymouth, MI
Start date
Participants
Who Replied
Replies
12
Views
20,744
Last reply date
Last reply from
VibeBear
IMG_20260516_193114554_HDR.jpg

sherbanater

    May 16, 2026
  • 0
  • 0
IMG_20260516_192955471_HDR.jpg

sherbanater

    May 16, 2026
  • 0
  • 0

New threads

Top