New aftermarket HU works fine except for radio

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I've got a 2001 Olds Alero, V6, 4dr and I replaced the stock cd/radio HU with a Sony CDX-GT31W 208W receiver. I purchased the Metra VT-GMRC-01 wiring harness (thank you GM for making things expensive and difficult) to keep the safety chimes in place along with an antenna adapter. The wiring harness works fine, all speakers are functioning and the new HU powers up without a hitch. That is everything except the radio has no reception at all. The existing antenna plug was connected with the adapter into the new HU just like the diagram says and nada. The antenna in the car is actually in the rear windshield so there shouldn't be a need to use the blue antenna power wire from the Sony end of the harness right?

Am I just completely clueless or is there something else I need to check?

Thanks

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[DjiNN 10+ year member]

you dont need the antenna power wire unless the (correct me if i'm wrong) car has a antenna that needs power to come out of the car. As for the reception ... try pushing the antenna wire around .. same thing happened to my car i just pushed the antenna/wires around and it got better reception ..

 

[lashlee 10+ year member]

In the past, and I'm sure it's still the same, most aftermarket radios lack a tuner that is as good as the factory. In most cases, an aftermarket manufacturer is looking for a specific customer, and therefore designs the radios with certain features, like sat radio or an ipod hookup. In these cases, and mine especially, the tuner is left on the back burner since it is used so infrequently. One company, RF used delco tuners for some time in their early EFX line of units, but they were relatively expensive.

It's all marketing, and demographics. The bean counters at the oem level say they need a good tuner, and skip MP3, or RCA outputs, but you get my point. With the newer push towards nav, and bluetooth, I'd say that the tuners are starting to loose some of their quality as well.

 

[mlstrass 5,000+ posts]

Had pretty much the same issue on my Altima a while back. Rear window antenna's usually have some sort of signal booster, requiring you to connect the blue ANT wire like you would for a power antenna....

 

[ultimate157 5,000+ posts]

Had pretty much the same issue on my Altima a while back. Rear window antenna's usually have some sort of signal booster, requiring you to connect the blue ANT wire like you would for a power antenna....

x2. The antenna in my Porsche is built into the front windshield, and has a signal booster. You probably need to hook up the power ant wire to your factory harness.

 

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I finally got through to Metra and this is what they told me to try: Cconnecting the blue power antenna wire from the Sony harness to the blue/white amp power on wire from Metra harness.

FYI: It didn't work.

Also tried bypassing the Metra harness altogether and connecting the Sony blue (antenna power on) wire to the only blue wire on the original harness for the car. That didn't work either.

 

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Also noted that the guy at Metra said there was no separate blue antenna wire and blue/white amp power on in its harness- they were together. In fact the blue/white wire off the Metra harness says "AWP" not "AMP" 12 Volt. Either way...it didn't help to connect it to the sony antenna wire.

 

[ultimate157 5,000+ posts]

Trace each wire through the connector and see if you have any that aren't connected to your Sony.

 

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Finally got the radio working. Did in fact have to connect the blue antenna wire from the HU to the blue/white (AWP...still not sure what that stands for) wire in the Metra harness. Next had to tighten up connection on existing black coax antenna wire under dash down next to passenger door which had somehow worked loose. Radio works like a charm now.

Thanks for all the help guys.