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Changing The Head Unit On A 2000 Deville (No Bose)


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I have the base 2000 Deville, no Bose, No Onstar. I have a Kenwood 5140 double din. I know all about the horror stories changing the H/U on these cars but some people make it look easy. I want to keep it all oem, just change the head unit. I understand I will need the PAC SWI-RC for steering wheel controls and the LC-GMRC-03 for integration (this is for non bose no onstar). My question is the instructions say for this module and my car the factory amp must be bypassed to use this module. Does that mean rip out the amp, the module will do it for you or maybe disconnect one pin in the wiring harness so the amp don't trigger? So what do they mean when they say bypass the factory amp? With what I want to do is it this easy and will it work by just installing the correct modules? Where is the amp anyway or does it even have one without Bose. Way too many conflicting stories and info on changing out these head units.Thanks Ron

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:welcomesmiley:

Without the specific option number for your radio, nothing is hard fact here. The list of factory options for your car is on a sticker on the bottom of the spare tire cover in the trunk, along with the paint number and VIN, which you can match to the VIN visible through the lower left corner of the windshield. For the purposes of discussion I'm using the UX8 radio, which is the base model for the 2002 model year, and probably for the 2000 model year.

The radio is in two parts, the head and the audio amplifier. The head is what you are replacing with the Kenwood DDX5034. The audio amplifier is behind the back seat. The speakers are connected to the audio amplifier. There are three shielded cables connected to the audio amplifier, all from the head unit; and one has the chime signal. It has a huge heat sink that "breathes" in the air between the back seat and the trunk.

I found the installation manual for the Kenwood DDX5034 here:

http://www.manualslib.com/manual/86353/Kenwood-Ddx5034.html

On one of the introduction pages it says to leave installation "to a professional." Since you are already using the steering wheel interface and phone/OnStar integration add-ons, you apparently qualify as a "professional."

Another warning in the operating manual is that the metal parts can become hot during use. The audio amplifier heat dissipation is in the head, not behind the back seat like in the production unit, so figure on letting the heat sink(s) on the Kenwood breathe as best you can.

To answer your question, I think that the simplest thing to do is to disconnect the production audio amplifier at the wiring harness, disconnect the shielded inputs, and wire the Kenwood directly to the speaker wires. You may be tempted to find the front speaker wires in the wiring harness at the front of the car to simplify part of the wiring, or you may want to run the wires to and from the location of the production power amplifier. I suggest that you do not leave the production power amplifier with power after installation.

My personal advice is to minimize damage to the original wiring so that you have all your options open in any future changes or upgrades.

Please post photos as you work through this job. That can make the thread very useful to others who want to upgrade the entertainment system of their Cadillac.

CTS-V_LateralGs_6-2018_tiny.jpg
-- Click Here for CaddyInfo page on "How To" Read Your OBD Codes
-- Click Here for my personal page to download my OBD code list as an Excel file, plus other Cadillac data
-- See my CaddyInfo car blogs: 2011 CTS-V, 1997 ETC
Yes, I was Jims_97_ETC before I changed cars.

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:welcomesmiley:

Without the specific option number for your radio, nothing is hard fact here. The list of factory options for your car is on a sticker on the bottom of the spare tire cover in the trunk, along with the paint number and VIN, which you can match to the VIN visible through the lower left corner of the windshield. For the purposes of discussion I'm using the UX8 radio, which is the base model for the 2002 model year, and probably for the 2000 model year.

The radio is in two parts, the head and the audio amplifier. The head is what you are replacing with the Kenwood DDX5034. The audio amplifier is behind the back seat. The speakers are connected to the audio amplifier. There are three shielded cables connected to the audio amplifier, all from the head unit; and one has the chime signal. It has a huge heat sink that "breathes" in the air between the back seat and the trunk.

I found the installation manual for the Kenwood DDX5034 here:

http://www.manualslib.com/manual/86353/Kenwood-Ddx5034.html

On one of the introduction pages it says to leave installation "to a professional." Since you are already using the steering wheel interface and phone/OnStar integration add-ons, you apparently qualify as a "professional."

Another warning in the operating manual is that the metal parts can become hot during use. The audio amplifier heat dissipation is in the head, not behind the back seat like in the production unit, so figure on letting the heat sink(s) on the Kenwood breathe as best you can.

To answer your question, I think that the simplest thing to do is to disconnect the production audio amplifier at the wiring harness, disconnect the shielded inputs, and wire the Kenwood directly to the speaker wires. You may be tempted to find the front speaker wires in the wiring harness at the front of the car to simplify part of the wiring, or you may want to run the wires to and from the location of the production power amplifier. I suggest that you do not leave the production power amplifier with power after installation.

My personal advice is to minimize damage to the original wiring so that you have all your options open in any future changes or upgrades.

Please post photos as you work through this job. That can make the thread very useful to others who want to upgrade the entertainment system of their Cadillac.

I am not a professional and never said I was doing the install. I was merely stating the parts I intended to give to the installer to let him use. I have the the base radio with cassette and cd player. As far as wiring the speakers direct to the Kenwood that ain't gonna happen because I don't trust anybody when it comes to that. Thats why I am buying the integration harness so nothing from my oem set up will be touched. All I wanted to know was how to by pass the oem amplifier so he can plug the integration module right in and connect what ever has to be connected. I don't want anything cut so I can return to original oem at any time.

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Well, from a short text message we do what we can. By "professional" I meant to infer "reasonably competent and understands wires" and "has access to installation tools," both electrical and car body interior work, which applies to a lot of DIY people. You seem to be knowledgeable about aftermarket radio installations but not the particular car involved here, so I addressed that.

I see that we very much share keeping the OEM wiring in good shape. If you get another car but want to keep the Kenwood, for example, you can go there without problems.

The speakers will be driven from the OEM audio amplifier or by the audio amplifier in the Kenwood. If the Kenwood can be installed so that it uses the OEM audio amplifier, that will keep the head (dashboard unit) running cool, but the Kenwood may have more power, with its 50 Watts peak 22 Watts continuous X 4 amplifiers rating. How that works, whether the integration harness allows a connection from the "preout" audio outputs of the Kenwood to the OEM audio amplifier, or to the speaker connections that plug into the OEM audio amplifier, I don't know. That would be connecting the Kenwood directly to the speakers. If the speakers aren't rated to take the power of the Kenwood, that, as you say, might cause distortion or even speaker failure at too high volume.

Again, to get right to your main question:

My question is the instructions say for this module and my car the factory amp must be bypassed to use this module. Does that mean rip out the amp, the module will do it for you or maybe disconnect one pin in the wiring harness so the amp don't trigger?

I haven't read the instructions except to look for a few things for my first post here, but if the Kenwood instructions say that the factory amp must be bypassed, they are saying that the Kenwood is designed to be connected directly to the speakers. If you do that, you can simply unplug the amp but leave it, and its wiring, in place except for being unplugged.

As you appear to desire, a cleaner install would replace just the head, with the audio outputs being pre-amp outputs driving the left and right channels of the same shielded lines that the OEM head uses to drive the OEM audio amplifier. From what you say of the instructions, that isn't what they are recommending in those instructions. Whether it can be done that way depends on the design of the Kenwood and what you have for an integration harness. You should ask Kenwood (or an installer experienced with the Kenwood AND Cadillacs of the same general model as yours) about installations that use the OEM audio amplifier. Anyone here with that experience is likely to chime in very soon.

CTS-V_LateralGs_6-2018_tiny.jpg
-- Click Here for CaddyInfo page on "How To" Read Your OBD Codes
-- Click Here for my personal page to download my OBD code list as an Excel file, plus other Cadillac data
-- See my CaddyInfo car blogs: 2011 CTS-V, 1997 ETC
Yes, I was Jims_97_ETC before I changed cars.

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Thanks Jim that was great info. From what I can gather you can run into problems with the security system on these cars if this head switch is not made exactly correct. Yes I want to retain the oem harness and such in the event I want to take it out and just swap the oem head back in. So is there a harness that just plugs in the oem amp and by just unplugging it does that disable it and shut it off? Yes I have run into this issue in other cars where the Kenwood combined with the cars amp was just too much and it sounded not to good. I don't want to do that with this install. Like I said my goal is to give the installer these tips if he is not too familiar working with these Caddy's and the way the security system works with the stereo system. I just want to disable or bypass the oem amp totally, like the description for this harness says, and plug the Kenwood in this harness and the new harness into the existing oem harness and I should be good to go. The only thing else to do would be to connect the illumination wire from the Kenwood into the light switch and wire the steering wheel control module. Both those connections are separate and no splicing into the oem harness would be necessary. I just want the new head unit to power all the oem speakers and bypass the oem amp, and the Kenwood and the new harness plugging into the oem harness. BTW it's the harness instructions that say to bypass the oem amp not the Kenwood instructions. This is the harness LC-GMRC-03 and those are the instructions when you order the part from their website.

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Just FYI.....the radio is on the vehicle network....and it is the chime module for the car.

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I did a little checking online. According to Crutchfield, the Metra Axxess LC-GMRC-03 retains the chime (apparently by doing the chime in the little black box instead of multiplexing it through the radio). The blurb on Crutchfield says that it "retain warning chimes, 12-volt accessory power, and Retained Accessory Power (R.A.P.) in select 1996-2001 Cadillacs." When I put in 2000 Deville, it says "WILL NOT WORK." They have a feature "find products that work" which produces the Metra 70-2054 which is just an amp bypass harness. Neither will retain Onstar or chime through the radio speakers. I see that the LC-GMRC-03 does say that it chimes through the speakers, though.

The Metra Axxess GMOS-06 doesn't switch out the power amplifier, does retain OnStar and speaker chiming, but it is for Bose systems (which for some years have power amplifiers in each Bose speaker in the doors, but not in the tweeters, console and rear deck speakers, etc.). My best information is from the 2002 FSM (I don't have the 2000 FSM) and it only shows details for two radios, the UX8 base and U57 Bose radios. The schematics show a radio amplifier for the U57 Bose system and passive speakers; I though that all the Cadillac Bose systems used active speakers.

At this point I think we need someone with the 2000 FSM AND the option number (a three-character code like UX8 on your RPO sticker) to tell for sure exactly what the wiring is for your radio.

CTS-V_LateralGs_6-2018_tiny.jpg
-- Click Here for CaddyInfo page on "How To" Read Your OBD Codes
-- Click Here for my personal page to download my OBD code list as an Excel file, plus other Cadillac data
-- See my CaddyInfo car blogs: 2011 CTS-V, 1997 ETC
Yes, I was Jims_97_ETC before I changed cars.

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Jim I was on the phone with Crutchfield today and they said the proper harness was the PAC 0S2-32 even tho it retains Onstar and Bose which I don't have. I can use the Metra Axxess LC-GMRC-03 and by-pass the amp but there is a lot of splicing and wiring they said. They also said with the 10inch sub in the deck the Kenwood head unit by itself might not be enough to power the whole system. They recommend keeping the factory amp in the equation. With the PAC 0S-32 it is plug and play so I ordered everything, called my installer and we will do it next week. I will keep the site posted how everything goes so if anyone in the future wishes to do this I can give first hand info of what parts are needed.

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Wow, it looks like you won, big time. You get all the awesome, modern capabilities of the Kenwood with it's Garmin nav, but keep the heat in behind the back seat where the car is built to keep it away from the passengers. And, you dodged a possible issue in mismatching the power amps and the speakers. Who would have thought that a 2000 Deville base radio has more oomph in the subwoofer than a new premium radio/nav upgrade?

Please do come back with results. A photo or two would be nice, too.

CTS-V_LateralGs_6-2018_tiny.jpg
-- Click Here for CaddyInfo page on "How To" Read Your OBD Codes
-- Click Here for my personal page to download my OBD code list as an Excel file, plus other Cadillac data
-- See my CaddyInfo car blogs: 2011 CTS-V, 1997 ETC
Yes, I was Jims_97_ETC before I changed cars.

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We'll be looking for you and the photos.

CTS-V_LateralGs_6-2018_tiny.jpg
-- Click Here for CaddyInfo page on "How To" Read Your OBD Codes
-- Click Here for my personal page to download my OBD code list as an Excel file, plus other Cadillac data
-- See my CaddyInfo car blogs: 2011 CTS-V, 1997 ETC
Yes, I was Jims_97_ETC before I changed cars.

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So I had the Kenwood put in today with NO problems. The PAC OS-2-32 worked flawlessly and integrated the system without issue. I retained the factory amp with chimes but not the steering wheel controls as I just didn't need them at the extra cost of another module. The installer modified the back plastic plate a little to get the interface harness and module to fit behind the radio. So anybody in the past who had truoble putting in a aftermarket radio was definitely doing something wrong as this is a plug and play operation. I took some pictures just for this purpose but I don't know how to use a url to upload pictures here. Sorry

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Open a free account on Photobucket. You can drag-and-drop your photos there, add captions to help locate them later, and Photobucket will generate the code you need to post the photos here with a single click. With the code in the clipboard, you use the "insert photo" mini-icon, which is just below the smiley and a little to the left. Clicking on it asks for a URL, and you paste the code from Photobucket there. Photobucket offers lots of options; I usually use "direct" because it displays the photo full screen width in the message.

CTS-V_LateralGs_6-2018_tiny.jpg
-- Click Here for CaddyInfo page on "How To" Read Your OBD Codes
-- Click Here for my personal page to download my OBD code list as an Excel file, plus other Cadillac data
-- See my CaddyInfo car blogs: 2011 CTS-V, 1997 ETC
Yes, I was Jims_97_ETC before I changed cars.

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This should be moved to the existing thread on this subject to keep continuity

http://caddyinfo.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=45196#entry230805

Pre-1995 - DTC codes OBD1  >>

1996 and newer - DTC codes OBD2 >> https://www.obd-codes.com/trouble_codes/gm/obd_codes.htm

How to check for codes Caddyinfo How To Technical Archive >> http://www.caddyinfo.com/wordpress/cadillac-how-to-faq/

Cadillac History & Specifications Year by Year  http://www.motorera.com/cadillac/index.htm

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This should be moved to the existing thread on this subject to keep continuity

http://caddyinfo.ipbhost.com/index.php?showtopic=45196#entry230805

Done

Bruce

2023 Cadillac CT4-V Blackwing

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