Newb questions on fit/wiring of aftermarket HU in 1998 Buick Park Avenue

[PA2013]

After seeing some good deals spring up recently on 7" Android-based double DIN car radios, I'm considering a head unit upgrade for the Park Avenue, but have never undertaken such a project before, so I have a few questions before starting just to be sure that I'm understanding everything correctly.

1. First, what's the story on actually getting the radio to fit? I've heard from some threads that the depth of the compartment in the Park Ave is a concern and personally observed that the brown trim bezel that sits in front of the head unit has awfully rounded corners. Is there a lot of cutting and grinding that has to be done to get an aftermarket unit to fit or is it plug n play with the standard Scosche GM mounting kit?

2. How difficult is it to run the GPS antenna from the radio compartment to someplace in which it'll actually work?

3. Which pins on the harness are for the steering wheel controls? I looked at the wiring guide for this vehicle and don't see any information on there for steering wheel controls; is it just missing from that diagram? If so, which wire(s) does it use?

4. I read in another thread (for the previous generation Park Avenue) that the automatic dimming of the climate control display was dependent on the radio and that using an aftermarket radio would render the module unable to change its brightness automatically; is that how it works on the 1997-2005 generation as well? If so, is there any way to bypass this limitation?

5. While we're on the topic of dimming and such, I'm guessing the gray/black "illumination" wire on the harness gets attached to the "illumination" wire on the radio, but what do I do with the "dimmer" wire on the harness? Does it get left disconnected or does it connect somewhere else?

6. Lastly, from what I can see in the pictures in the listing for the radio I was looking at, the actual connections for the speakers themselves (see the attached picture) end in a female "ISO" port. How do I attach these wires to the wires on the factory harness adapter? Do I just cut connector 9 off and manually connect the wires or is there a more civilized way to hook it up?

7. Is anybody else here using any of those 7" Android-powered head units? Aside from the painfully long startup times, are there any other noteworthy limitations or things that might be good to know before buying one?

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[AFS585]

i'd use metra 95-2009 for the dash kit and an aswc-1 for steering wheel controls. as far as the unit itself goes, i've seen way more defects than i have happy customers when we install them at my shop. they're just very cheaply built and it shows, we typically do everything we can to persuade the customer to buy a better unit. if you do go with that unit, cut the port off and solder and heat shrink connections to a metra 70-2001 if you're feeling up to the task. otherwise but connectors will do, albeit not at all professional looking. don't forget to buy a 40-gm10 and you should be all set.

 

[keep_hope_alive Premium Member]

good answer above.

the illumination wire should be orange/white in the adapter harness. it is switched voltage that the HU uses to change illumination modes (day/night).

the dimmer wire is orange in the adapter harness. it is not typically compatible with aftermarket radios which have internal control circuitry.

always insulate (tape) unused wires separately to prevent shorts.

 

[PA2013]

Thank you for the clarification, this is helpful and answers 5, 6, and 7 pretty well. And thanks for pointing out the antenna adapter, I would've forgot all about that. What I'm still not clear on however, is which wire on the harness is for the steering wheel controls. I've looked at several diagrams and the only ones that seem to show the steering wheel controls at all are the ones for the factory premium radios:

Comparing this to the base level radio diagram shows that they are actually almost identical:

Here's where it gets interesting: If I follow the diagram for the premium radio, it says that pin E6 (which would be the fourth pin from the top left corner) is the steering wheel control signal. However, looking at the picture of the Metra 70-2001 shows that it omits this pin as it only has four columns of pins from the right side. Is this just an incorrectly rendered picture or is it something else?

the dimmer wire is orange in the adapter harness. it is not typically compatible with aftermarket radios which have internal control circuitry.

What exactly is the difference between the "dimmer" and "illumination"?

 

[AFS585]

the aftermarket radio needs to have steering wheel input for this to work, that's another benefit of a better radio. for the auto detect to work, you need to hold vol up. pin # used on aswc is 3 and tie pin 4 to ground. tie pin 11 and 1 together. vehicle swc wire color is light green, pin E5. that's directly from aswc application guide.

 

[PA2013]

... vehicle swc wire color is light green, pin E5. that's directly from aswc application guide.

Interesting. So you're saying both of those diagrams are wrong?

the aftermarket radio needs to have steering wheel input for this to work, that's another benefit of a better radio.

That's fine because the Android-based head units that I've been looking at do have steering wheel control input. I wouldn't want to install something with which I'm going to significantly lose functionality.