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2003 cavalier wiring diagram helpThis forum post has messages dated from 12/20/09 through 04/01/11, please be sure to read all the messages. If you feel it is old or outdated, please follow up with a question or comment and someone may be able to update it, or reply with newer information if you have it. - Chevrolet-Cavalier
| 2003 cavalier wiring diagram helpI am trying to install my new head unit into my 2003 cavalier. What i need is some diagrams or something to help me figure out which wires are what and where they go. Thanks. |
#112/20/09 21:08Nick Horvath | So today I installed my new head-unit for my '03 Cavalier and I used this exact diagram (which helped tremendously) . The head-unit came with a wiring harness that I used. These are the colors and the descriptions. Yellow (Connect to the constant 12 V supply terminal. Red (Connect to terminal controlled by ignition switch (12 V DC)). Black (chassis ground). What I did was connect the RED and YELLOW from the wire harness to the ORANGE wire and that gave it power. I understood the speakers part and colors you gave me, and thank you. But there was a PURPLE wire I left off, I'm assuming that is the trigger wire (which you said was the PINK wire). Also the illumination wire (Gray) was tied with the GRAY speaker to the harness wire and I think this caused a problem (The head unit doesn't turn off when the car turns off along with the cars dashboard lights and I makes a really loud bass sound.) So that leads to my first question, If I were to take off the illumination wire where would I wire that to if I have to at all?...and also the same for the PURPLE wire. Second thing, there were two (2) black wires in my car. Assuming they were both ground wires I attached it to the ground wire on the harness. IF one of them isn't a ground wire what would it be? And my last question, How would I hook these wires up to make it so when I turned my car off the head unit would also turn off. Thank you so much and I hope to hear from you soon. -Nick |
| Nick, I have 2 aftermarket stereo's with me here now. I wanted to hook one of these up instead of the stock stereo in my 2003 Chevrolet Cavalier, but the wiring diagram and the factory wires are not entirely correct on Modifiedlife's website. I had the same issues you did with the purple wire, and at one point there were 3 wires I did not connect at all, one being the purple, another being the grey, and the other I do not remember the color of. Some colors were a little tricky to see due to being dark. However, I bought a nice little tool kit from Walmart which helped me specify which wires were the ground wires and positive wires. That purple wire shows up as being a ground wire, as do the 2 others that I did not wire into the stereo. After figuring out they were grounds, I decided to hook them up to the ground on the stereo. All this did was cause issues with the car itself. After hooking them up I tried starting the car. It turned over but quickly stalled right after. I believe those wires are tied into the gauges on the dashboard, and some other things as well as my ABS and Service lights were both on when I had them tied together. I purchased a wire harness from Best Buy, but the connections are not what they should be, therefore I did not use it and tried piecing things together manually. I reverted back to the original stereo for now and am doing some digging around in order to find certain connections that I need in order to get this stereo functioning properly. Also, about your 12v switched power. The actual factory wiring does not have a 12v switched power supply, so you need to tap into the steering column in order to provide a switched power source to your stereo. I had the same issue you did with connecting both the 12v+ and the switched wire from the aftermarket stereo to the 12v+ factory wire. The stereo stays on constantly and needs to be turned off by hand when leaving the car. |
| Nick, A correction about the 3 wires without specifications. One I believe controls the chime for your door and lights being on when the car is off and the door is open. Another correction is the lights that were on the dash. One was the Service light, and the other was the Theft light, not the ABS light. These lines also seemed to mess with the gauges themselves. As my car was idling without the wires hooked up, I was receiving a strange noise from the dash and the gauges would all drop as the car was off. I hope this helps a bit when trying to figure out what those wires go to. I am still searching around trying to figure things out. |
#407/03/10 09:58Cavalier OD | Nick: I have been having the same problems with my chevy, even the repair manual has no explanation for the extra wires which seem to have no relationship with the aftermarket radio....Can you please follow up and tell me what I need to do because the radio has absolutely no power now though everything seems to be hooked up properly...why are there two black wires If there is anything you can do.... |
| I have a 2004 chevy cavalier and it won't shift out of first gear... I found a wire draging the ground from the trans and the wires were broken and i don't know where they go. It's two wires and the colors are yellow and purple. They come from the trans and go where ? |
| So i just installed a new CD player into my 03' cavalier. No wire harness was required for this job. I found a wire diagram online for the stock stereo wires from the car. It helped a bunch! Only problem i ran into was there was an extra red wire from the new stereo harness, a purple wire and a black wire left from the cars stock wires. The red wire was for the battery and ignition, which was stated on the CD player wire diagram. I left these wires alone and plugged my battery back in and the CD player lit up for a minute, then wouldnt come back on. After that, i decided to do what Nick did and connect the red wire to the yellow from the CD player harness, and to the orange wire from the car. I taped off the extra black and purple wires left from the car then tried it again..and it worked! The purple and black wires are pretty much useless...i am assuming one is for the door chime, because mine doenst work anymore(but thats ok, i thought it was annoying anyways...lol) Other than that little issue, there was no other problems with taping off those 2 wires. =] |
| Also, all of my lights, gauges and warning/service/whatever lights still all work properly. Only thing is that the stereo does stay on even if i open my door. So i assume that the purple and black wires went to a door chime, and a stereo power off when door opens thing lol. |
#811/13/10 21:09Dodge Parts | Such a great article! Thank you so much for the knowledge of this exciting niche. |
| I found that using a higher gauge wire connector worked well when Splicing the RED/YELLOW wires to the ORANGE (12v Constant), rather than using electrical tape or a lower gauged wire connector. |
| So today I installed my new head-unit for my '03 Cavalier and I used this exact diagram (which helped tremendously) . The head-unit came with a wiring harness that I used. These are the colors and the descriptions. Yellow (Connect to the constant 12 V supply terminal. Red (Connect to terminal controlled by ignition switch (12 V DC)). Black (chassis ground). What I did was connect the RED and YELLOW from the wire harness to the ORANGE wire and that gave it power. I understood the speakers part and colors you gave me, and thank you. But there was a PURPLE wire I left off, I'm assuming that is the trigger wire (which you said was the PINK wire). Also the illumination wire (Gray) was tied with the GRAY speaker to the harness wire and I think this caused a problem (The head unit doesn't turn off when the car turns off along with the cars dashboard lights and I makes a really loud bass sound.) So that leads to my first question, If I were to take off the illumination wire where would I wire that to if I have to at all?...and also the same for the PURPLE wire. Second thing, there were two (2) black wires in my car. Assuming they were both ground wires I attached it to the ground wire on the harness. IF one of them isn't a ground wire what would it be? And my last question, How would I hook these wires up to make it so when I turned my car off the head unit would also turn off. Thank you so much and I hope to hear from you soon. |
| i have 03 cavalier and my after market radio that was installed stops working when hit a bump and powers off then acts like it wants to come back on but doesn't. it used to come on when i started my car but dosent do that either now? can you help me?? |
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