aftermarket radio instillation

[96firebird]

I recently bought an aftermarket radio for my firebird. I have the radio controls on the steering wheel. Does anybody no like where i can go to have it put in rite, or if there is any harnesses that i can use.
Thanx

[MN6WS6]

I was a professional installer for quite a few years, and I am a firm believer in Metra products. Their kits hold up and their harnesses give no issue, and both are fairly easy to install. A lot of shops swear by Metra's stuff, and there is a reason for it. It's more expensive, but a better product.

As far as the steering wheel controls, they do offer harnesses to adapt that to an aftermarket radio, but the trick is to find a radio that works with the adapters. You definitely want to seek professional advice on what current radios work with what adapters. You may also want to think about just not using the steering wheel controls at all and save some money. Yes, it's nice to have, but when you are talking about spending anywhere from 50-100 bucks more just to keep from moving your hand an additional 12 inches, I'd just save the money myself.

[z28_Bignick_z28]

My brother just had a new deck installed in his '96 ws6, at bestbuy. the installer there told him that when isnstalling a aftermarket deck its hard( i think he ment expensive) Any way he just installed it and lost controll of his wheel functions. Not how sure right that is. but thats my 2 cents

[toddwirges]

PAX makes a universal adapter that works with aftermarket radios so long as they have a remote control. It basically interprets the factory wheel signals, allows you to program a remote function to each button, and sends the signal out via an ir emitter you have to mount in the car. One benefit of this setup is you can associate any remote function to any button on your wheel.

A professional installer should be able to handle this easily. The unit itself costs about $50 and the installer would have to spend at least an extra half hour or so.

[sneitzel]

Installing an aftermarket head unit is not that difficult. Especially when you use a harness like MN6WS6 mentions. The nice thing there is you can do most of the wiring work outside of the car then just plug things in and go.

Again, as MN6WS6 says the aftermarket head unit needs to have an input for auxiliary (steering wheel) controls. From there, you'll need the correct converter that matches both your car and the head unit and that is going to cost extra.

It comes down to whether the extra $$$ is worth it to you to get your steering wheel controls working or not. Me, I would spend the $$$ and do things right.