DeVille Stereo Equipment Options: '89-'93

[guyslp]

Hello All,

I've posted before that the stereo in my 1989 DeVille has developed really nasty static/rumbling in the right channel. I suspect this is probably due to a solder joint going bad but have not yet had time to extract the stereo and begin exploration.

The 1989 Owner's Manual shows three possible sound systems for this car, the standard one, which is what's in mine, and two different Delco-Bose Gold Series models, one with a cassette player and the other with a CD player.

I am contemplating the idea of upgrading to the Delco-Bose cassette type if I can find one. One thing that's unknown (and there are probably other potential issues, too) is whether the wiring harness connections for all three systems are the same or not. Does anyone happen to know whether any one of these three units is "plug and play" as far as connection to the wiring harness goes? Is there any additional wiring related to the Delco-Bose speaker system?

Given that the dash layout remained virtually identical from 1989 through 1993, I'd imagine that any stereo from any of those model years are interchangeable (or at least should be if they're the same type). If this presumption is incorrect, please set me straight.

Thanks in advance for any insights you can offer.

Brian

[winterset]

You will need to find out if there is an external amp or not on your current radio,and get whatever else matches up to yours with equal or better options. You probably want to avoid the bose, because i believe even back then, each speaker needs its own amp, and the older they are, the more $$ each replacement speaker costs. Not sure where cadillac put the amps for that vintage so you can check and look for one in your car. The hum can be your radio head unit, or if you have an amp.

[guyslp]

Winterset,

Thanks for giving me some additional things to consider.

I was hoping there might be someone else out there who's actually done what I had been contemplating who could confirm or refute some of those considerations.

The noise I'm describing is definitely not a hum. There seems to be at least some connection to ambient temperature, because the problem is more frequent and immediate in warmer weather, but it still happens when it's cold. The radio starts out functioning perfectly normally then, after playing for a while, a very loud combination of crackle-low rumble combination begins in the right channel speakers only. The service manual indicates that if you've got problems with two speakers on the same channel it's probably the radio internals. After asking about this in various locations the general consensus is it's probably a cracked solder joint (or more than one) on one or more of the PCBs of the stereo. The suspicion is that the same thing is causing the intermittent weirdness with my fuel data center where it begins to behave as though you're pressing each of the various display buttons without every having laid a finger on them.

As things are looking now I think I'll just end up sending the original radio out for repair (or doing the PCB resoldering myself, if it's reasonably easy to access after the radio's out and the cover's off) and put in new speakers, which are needed anyway.

I want to keep a cassette player since I have a number of the faux cassette adapters that allow me to play music from smartphones, iPods, etc. I'd like to keep the original look and don't want to schlep around lots of CDs anymore.

Brian