Hey everyone. I use my bonneville as a commuter car basically, I don't want to sink a great deal of money into it so I didn't bother installing a CD player or speakers or anything like that. Its a 1990 SSE with the stock stereo. My question is in regards to the little gain slider and button right in front of the shifter...

When I push and hold the gain button, there is a noticable increase in bass response thanks to the factory amp. It actually sounds pretty nice, much to my surprise (15 year old speakers). However, as soon as I let go of the button, it goes back to normal. Whats the deal? Is there a malfunction in the switch somewhere thats preventing it from keeping the connection? How is the button supposed to function normally, is it a "push on/push off" type thing? I mean jeeze, I'd drive around holding the button down all day, but that gets rather uncomfortable after a while .

Any ideas? Is this a common problem?

over time the switch goes bad inside of the unit, mine is bad, when i had the stock stereo i just stuck a dime in next to it and that held it down.

you might be able to get one from the junkyard.

Yeah, I figured time was the enemy here and the switch just wore out. When you say "inside the unit", do you mean inside the stereo or just inside the little switching mechanism? If it were just the switch, I'd be willing to try and take it apart and see if I can give it a good cleaning, maybe that would help...

the switching mechanism, sorry bout that.

Is this the switch in the front of the center console?

If so..then it'* simply an on/off switch. Pull switch out of console and jump a wire between the two leads.

Yep, thats the one, in the center console right in front of the shifter. Time to make a trip out to the garage and do some modifications

Thanks for the help everyone.

Well, I popped the little on/off button and slider assembly out...much to my dismay, I discovered that the two circuit boards that make up the assembly are put into the plastic cover, then soldered to one another at quite a few different points, making it pretty tough to separate them and gain access to the switch mechanism to clean it. I don't have a soldering iron anyway, so i guess it'* time to run to the hardware store and get a cheap-o Weller soldering iron and put a jumper wire in. I would have preferred to make the switch operational, but this will do. Thanks again everyone.

Good luck on that...hope it works out and on a side note...

I'll put you on the list of wanted parts if you are interested.

Ha, I didn't even know such a list existed. I'll PM you, I've got a few things that I need.