I have a 2001 Pontiac Bonneville. I dont believe it has the BOSE speakers.

Ok I removed the factory HU. Now I am trying to use my old after market stereo in its place. I have the adapter and all the wires connected. The only thing I am confused about is...1.) What the orange wire (Illumination/Dash Light) get connected to? 2.) What do all the black ground wires connect to? I have 3 on the adapter and 1 from the HU. 3.) What is the gold wire coming from my HU? 4.) Finally, I have 2 yellow 12 volt wires from the adapter and one from the HU? So where does the extra one go?

I looked at the manuals but nothing states what they all go to!

All of this leads to it making sounds like it wants to turn on but the actual HU wont light up!!!

Thanks

Ok, if the car has the Bose sound package. The front doors would possibly have BOSE stamped in the speaker grills. Either that, or the factory HU would have BOSE written on it somewhere on the front. Now for the wiring help. The orange illumination wire would go to the aftermarket stereo if it is applicable. In my Bonneville, the orange wire controls the aftermarket lights on the HU itself. (this only applies to the higher end of aftermarket HUs.) Being a Bose system, the external amp has to have the ground wire to work. Now, for the gold wire, I think the wire is the Bose amp trigger wire. The 2 yellow wires are 1 for the Bose system, and the other is for the aftermarket HU. Be sure to check the polarity and make sure. Plus, most pigtails that you buy to put aftermarket stereo systems in usually have the wires labeled. They are hard to see, but they are the best way to know what all the wires go to.

Unless you have the SSEi, you won't have the Bose audio system. There are no markings on the speaker grilles to indicate this. It was not an option in the SE or SLE. Bose will appear on the display briefly during power up IF you do, but with the exception of whether you have the AM/FM/Cassette, AM/FM/CD or AM/FM/CD/Cassette, the head unit is the same for all 2000-2002 Bonnevilles. The only real difference with the Bose system is whether you have an external amplifier or not.

Are you aware that you will lose ALL your warning chimes, unless you install a special interface between the car and aftermarket radio?

Yea I must not have Bose.

I was told the 1 of the 2 yells 12 Volt wires get attached to the ignition harness. How do I do that? See my HU is a little dated....like 2002.

Im not sure on the 2000- 02 Bonnies... I do know that my uncle has a 98 SLE with Bose. Unusual I know.

Im not sure on what yellow goes to what. I do know that if you test them, the one that has a constant charge without the key being on goes to the yellow on the aftermarket HU. The easiest way to test them is to take a 12v test light and ground it to a piece of metal. (I dont know if the newer Bonnies have cigarette lighters. But, the outer rim of the lighter is a good ground.) Then, take the tester and touch each of the 2 wires to see if the little light comes on. If the light comes on without the key on, that is the wire that needs to go to the HU. Now, on the ignition harness, is there a red wire? If not then, the other yellow is the ignition switch. There is nothing wrong with a dated HU. I have used many dated HUs and they have sounded great.

There is no "ignition switched" 12 VDC supply at the connector of the OEM radio. These are class 2 radios and have power applied all the time. You will need to locate this elsewhere, unless you have one of the "special interfaces" I referred to earlier. 2K+ radios are an entirely different ball game than previous years.

Whether or not the OEM radio turns on is dependant on several factors. Basically, if you press the power button, the radio queries the vehicle data bus to determine the current power mode. If the ignition is on, the radio will "come alive". Likewise, when you turn your ignition off, the radio will continue to operate until you either turn it off, or it receives a data message that either a door has opened or the retained accessory power timer has reached 10 minutes. In any event, without a computerized interface between the radio and the car, you'll have to look somewhere other than the radio connector for switched voltage.

As for backlighting, I'm at work right now and don't have diagrams or connector information in front of me so my help here may be limited for now.

Have a look here, this would be your best choice (assuming you don't use OnStar):

http://www.pac-audio.com/products/pr...adio#C2R-GM32R

Scroll down to look for part number C2R-GM32R.

Bose was only available in the 2000-01 Bonneville SSEi, however the head unit remained the same for 2002. In 2003 there was updated software in the radio to support XM, but is otherwise still backwards compatible. In 2002, GM started installing a Monsoon amplifier in the SSEi and GXP.

Like I said before, I am not the foremost in 2000 and up Bonnevilles. I dont know much about the relay system that allows the stereo to come on when the key is off. My uncle had a Ford Focus that had a relay system in it that would allow the radio to come on for 1 hour if you pushed the power button. (key being out of the car and not previously driven) I do know about the system that allows the stereo to stay on after the key is turned off after being driven. (I have 3 vehicles that have this system) Sorry if I have misguided. I didnt realize that the 00-up Bonnies had this.

No problem. The 2000 model year Bonneville introduced some very significant design changes with both body styling and electronic systems.