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So, I'm still "shopping" for fun to see if I can find a radio with better capability than the stock monsoon unit, that would preserve the feel and appearance of the factory radio.
I just found this radio, I'm going to post some pictures below.
I'm not sure if it's a 1.5 din size, or how it's length compares yet to the stock radio. But here's the good:
* It has the same look and feel of the original radio and a built in equalizer.
* It has the right Pontiac color display and backlighting.
* The CD player apparently can play MP3's.
* The display is slightly better than the stock Monsoon unit.
* The display shows the level the volume is set at!
* Could work with the USA Spec AUX adapter.
* Can have a nice one for about $100-150
Manufacturer Part Number:15223357, 22724376, 22711910
“GM832” RADIO RECEIVER CD PLAYER OPTION US8 04-05 PONTIAC GRAND AM
One eBay seller said, "Will need to be programmed after installation." I wonder if he means for Theft Lock?
I'm also wondering if the steering wheel controls would work?
I see the pinouts are different - I could make an adaptive plug and play harness, that's no problem.
Has anyone seen this unit before? There were several versions of it, and it was used in Pontiacs and Toyotas. One version had a cassette and CD in the same unit, and there were also different button colors.
Last edited by k3000; 09-09-2019 at 01:50 AM.
Reason: fix mistakes
The hardest part of swapping gm stereos is getting the wiring harness working. I grab a stereo from the junkyard and cut the wiring with about 6" of slack so that I can build a harness. Trying to get the connector outside of a junkyard is a nightmare and they generally don't charge for the connector if it's still attached to the stereo.
I agree. I'm looking at the pinouts for the Grand Prix's this radio comes from, it's also in the Bonnevilles.
There's a lot of talk about having to "pair" it to the car, I'm trying to figure out if they're talking about Theft Lock or if this radio will literally only work in some models...
The "pairing" they're talking about is matching the VIN to the head unit. As an improvement on the older TheftLock system, GM started incorporating programming which stored the VIN of the original vehicle in the head unit so that it would not work if stolen and installed in a different vehicle. Unfortunately, that means it won't work at all in your car because your car doesn't doesn't provide the signal with the VIN that the head unit is looking for. I suppose it might be possible to program the head unit to ignore the lack of VIN signal (much like you can program the PCM to ignore the lack of a fuel enable signal from VATS) but I've never heard of anyone being able to do that.
WhiteBird00, I appreciate your thoughts on this! I really do like the look and feel of this radio, but I'm trying to decide if it would be worth it to try to adapt it. What do you think about how it does play MP3s and it does have some better capabilites. Does it look like it would be the same height and length as our radios? I know our radios are longer on the top of the radio, but I think the bottom may be the right stock length for our cars. I'm reading up on the VIN locking thing, what a PITA! Apparently you might be able to get it to work by disconnecting one of the pins on a chip inside, but it's not clear if there could be side effects like losing the radio memory for the clock and presets. I'm going to put that link below this. I'm also still very much deciphering what the pinouts would be from the Grand Prix. Thanks for the patience with me! Like I said I'm shopping for fun to see if something meets my fancy! If it's not a 1.5 DIN that would physically fit without mods, that could be a deal breaker too.
Sorry for the disorganized text, it is close to 2am but I have received a few questions about the outcome and wanted to post for all.
I have an 01 Impala with the Class II CD/RDS radio and it turned out the 15216905 mp3 radio I bought was from a S10 (these vehicles belong to different body platform and have different body control modules, the dealer wasn't able to reprogram the vin with a TechII... this didn't work under neither vehicle's platform/body choices in the techII)
Anyway long story short, I was looking at the circuit boards of both radios and found a small 8 pin chip that was a 4Kb EEProm . I figured this could be where the vin is stored and maybe other vehicle settings that can be changed by through the radio.
I tried to exchange these EEProms between both radios with the rationale that I would bring the vin and settings from one to the other but this did not work. It results in a 'CAL ERROR' message for ~1-2 secs when the radio is on. An interest side effect is that Theftlock was completely bypassed
So I returned each EEPROM to the radio they belonged to but left pin 8 of the EEPROM not soldered/connected. (pin eight is power to the EEPROM)
Except for the CAL ERROR message for a 1-2 secs when I turn on the radio, all works perfect. All sound settings, bass, treble, radio stations, resume place on the cd/mp3 are stored when the vehicle is shutdown too. All integration/Class II features: Chimes, OnStar, dimming, off when door open etc work fine too
Bottom line, just find the 9355093 8 pin serial EEPROM, take a soldering iron and a very small screwdriver/knife. Heat pin #8 and lift/pry *very* carefully so it no longer contacts board.
On the MP3 Head Unit circuit board there are two small 8 pin EEPROMS near the pushbutton/tone button area. One that says AMI, the other says 9355093
The one you want is 9355093 .
BTW, with a new HU I obviously lost the Impala specific 'hold display' button to customize the impala body module settings. Nevertheless it still retains the settings I last programmed with the previous HU. (which can be plugged again in a pinch if needed to alter any of these settings) On the new HU, if you hold '6' for a while you can THANKFULLY switch the chimes to a lower volume.
Disclaimer: I have not tested this in any other scenario other than the above (15216905 MP# HU from a Chevy S10). YMMV but in my opinion, provided you have some soldering skills and follow ESD precautions, the risk of lifting the power pin on the EEPROM is low and can be reversed easily if any issues.
Last edited by WhiteBird00; 09-10-2019 at 10:18 AM.
Reason: Put quoted forum post in a quote box
That head unit is double DIN so it will not fit without a modified bezel. I assume that the same double DIN bezels that are used with aftermarket HUs would work but I can't be sure - GM did some odd things with their face plates over the years.
Here are the pinouts for the two radio connectors:
Grand Prix Radio Connector C1
Grand Prix Radio Connector C2
It would be nice if simply removing the one IC pin would make it work but I suspect there might be other issues. I don't know for sure but most of what I've read is about swapping them to another contemporary vehicle and just bypassing the VIN check rather than trying to put one in an older vehicle that didn't have the same design. Also note that head units of that type from vehicles with factory amps are impossible to connect without some sort of adapter. That's because the HU sends a constant audio signal that doesn't vary with volume and a separate gain signal that tells the amp how much volume to produce.
Thanks for your interest in this, I love learning about it! This is starting to remind me of when I brought the "perfect" Firebird for me. All I wanted to change was the engine, color, rear axle, and roof. LMAO I picked a better 91 Trans Am for my second Firebird. All that was "missing" on that car was the 350.
Is it pin A7 on connector C1 for the steering wheel controls, and is that set up similarly in the different models?
Was wondering what the gain control was. I think in my reading I saw there's two different radios that say MP3 on the front of them that look the same, but there's a non-Monsoon model that I would guess would work with the Firebird's Monsoon line level amp.
The double din part is another less than desireable thing, I was hopeing it was 1.5 din size.
Is C2 exclusively for things like a CD changer? What do the pinouts on C2 do? Are they like two outputs and one audio signal input?
Someone wrote me back that if the VIN has been cleared from the eproms in these radios, that's when they refer to it as "unlocked," and it then pulls the VIN from the data bus in the new vehicle.
I see the Firebird has the 1807 circuit on pin A1, connector C1. Does that mean it might be able to talk to a new radio from a newer model car and acquire the Firebird's VIN?
I'm not sure I would try this mod at this point, but as you can see I'm very curious about it!
The radio in my car has Theftlock turned off. I guess that means the car's VIN is stored in the radio, but it just does not "lock" if the power to the radio is interrupted because the battery is disconnected, or for some other reason?
Is it pin A7 on connector C1 for the steering wheel controls, and is that set up similarly in the different models?
No, that connection is for control of the external audio device (e.g. CD changer). I believe the steering wheel controls work through the data bus.
Originally Posted by k3000
Was wondering what the gain control was. I think in my reading I saw there's two different radios that say MP3 on the front of them that look the same, but there's a non-Monsoon model that I would guess would work with the Firebird's Monsoon line level amp.
Yes, it's quite likely that a non-Monsoon version of the HU would have the necessary speaker level output to work with a Firebird Monsoon amp.
Originally Posted by k3000
Is C2 exclusively for things like a CD changer? What do the pinouts on C2 do? Are they like two outputs and one audio signal input?
C2 is for an external audio device which generally means a CD changer although in some models it used to include an external cassette tape player. The connections are left and right audio positive and a common audio negative from the external player to the head unit.
Originally Posted by k3000
Someone wrote me back that if the VIN has been cleared from the eproms in these radios, that's when they refer to it as "unlocked," and it then pulls the VIN from the data bus in the new vehicle.
I see the Firebird has the 1807 circuit on pin A1, connector C1. Does that mean it might be able to talk to a new radio from a newer model car and acquire the Firebird's VIN?
Sorry, I don't know where you see a Firebird head unit connection with a circuit 1807 in it (the pinouts are in the Monsoon FAQ) but even if it was, it doesn't necessarily correspond to the same numbered circuit in any other vehicle. Circuits are numbered for each model individually. It is not unusual for two vehicles to share the same circuit number for the same function because the engineers start numbering in the same places but it would be just a coincidence. In this case, the Firebird has no data connection in the head unit harness so there would be no retrieving the VIN that way. In fact, I don't believe that the VIN is available on any data bus in the car - it just wasn't used for anything at the time.
Originally Posted by k3000
The radio in my car has Theftlock turned off. I guess that means the car's VIN is stored in the radio, but it just does not "lock" if the power to the radio is interrupted because the battery is disconnected, or for some other reason?
TheftLock has nothing to do with the VIN. It is an older system which allowed an owner to set a PIN code to lock the head unit whenever it lost its battery (constant) power connection. The idea was that removing the HU from the car would disconnect the battery power so the HU would lock until the correct PIN was entered. As a theft deterrent it turned out to be somewhat less than completely effective. It wasn't long before the unlocking procedure (also posted in the Monsoon FAQ sticky) became public knowledge. Besides, it wasn't enabled by default so most owners never bothered to set a PIN in the radio and the radio could be transplanted without issue.
I'm confused about the Theftlock. I'm fairly familiar with the theft lock on our radios. I think what they call Theftlock in radios starting 2003 and up is more the VIN locked radios. And, I don't think you have to enable it, I think it's on by default in 2003 and up radios. Not sure though.
I'm confused about the Theftlock. I'm fairly familiar with the theft lock on our radios. I think what they call Theftlock in radios starting 2003 and up is more the VIN locked radios. And, I don't think you have to enable it, I think it's on by default in 2003 and up radios. Not sure though.
Yes, later models had the VIN based TheftLock and all of them were double DIN head units. Firebirds had the old style PIN based TheftLock which was not enabled from the factory and was not related to the VIN.
Sorry, I forgot that was the Grand Am or Prix C1 - I'm working too many hours this week. lol
My latest idea, I might see if I can find one of these radios in whatever condition what's not for the factory amp with the gain control, and try the pin cutting to see what happens, just as a low cost experiment.
I'm probably going to read more on re-burning the eproms too. That would not be too much for me to deal with, but I still might not want to take the time and effort to go down that path!
I never heard back from that guy that makes those nice metal face plates custom from scratch. HU something I think his business name is. I like his work I wish he would write back!
We seem similar - for fun I just keep picking away at these projects until I get somewhere!
Thanks again! Who knows, maybe eventually I'll find something I like better than the stock unit.
09-08-2019, 02:30 AM
I wonder if this radio would fit / work? 
