'90 coupe radio wiring

I recently received an older Pioneer deck from my father, and was looking to put it in my '90 Reatta, the only problem is that I can't seem to find a reliable source for what wire goes where/does what(Reatta side) I don't want to use a harness/adapter if I can avoid it. Could someone provide me with this info or lead me in the right direction?

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Car/CD-Receivers/DEH-P200

^ deck I want to put in.

P.S. I know what wire is what on the Pioneer deck.

If you are planning on cutting off the vehicle side harness connector and splicing directly to the harness pigtail supllied with the head unit, I have one suggestion: don't.

Did this once many years ago and only discovered later that the adapter harness is inexpensive and makes the job so much quicker and easier while leaving the factory wiring intact. Metra makes these, and there are other suppliers as well. They can be easily found online or most Best Buy stores still stock the needed GM adapter. You'll also need a 1.5 din mounting adapter for a 1990/91 Reatta dash opening (as I gather the Pioneer is a single DIN unit) unless it already had one from the previous install. There are a couple of variations on these made by Metra and others.

KDirk

Edited April 19, 2015 by KDirk (see edit history)

glad you suggested not to then, that's exactly what I was about to do. I will check to see if I can find one at the local best buy.

I've bought them online for less than ten dollars. Don't hack up the factory wiring unless you need to. It is doable but not a good idea.

Is there also an adapter for the factory antenna to aftermarket deck?

Yes, I forgot to mention that. GM has a weird antenna connector, the standard type is known as a Motorola plug. There is an adaptor made for that and you'll need one of those as well.

An added benefit of using the harness adaptor is that it will have the same color code (EIA standard) as the radio side harness provided by Pioneer so you won't need to worry about translating wir color codes.

I suggest soldering and heat-shrinking the Pioneer harness to the adaptor harness rather than using crimp type fittings. Try to keep the wiring length short so you don't end up with a huge wad of extra wire to bundle up behind the radio. The head unit harness is usually way longer than needed. Also be warned that the cavity in the Reatta dash is not very deep and you may need to do some judicious trimming of the plastic support structure at the rear to get the new HU to fit. The side mount rails that hold the climate control panel and radio will need to be reused as well to hold it all in the dash.

I'm basing all this on my own experience installing over a dozen custom sound systems for my own cars and those of others in the past 20 years.

KDirk

+1 with what Kevin said. It always pains me to see hacked up factory wiring, when the proper plugs and sockets are so easily available and make for a much easier install. Unfortunately most "pros" hack off the factory connectors - saving themselves some material costs but, IMHO, permanently damaging their customers cars in the process. One (of many) reasons I always do my own audio work in my cars.

I got it working, $80 and 4 hours later, just to find out one of the door speakers is dead. thanks everyone!

Ouch. Well, if it has the factory speakers that is not surprising. These were Delco paper cone foam surround drivers and not all that great to begin with. After 25 years they are shot. They are 5.25" woofers and there is a component tweeter mounted up higher in the door. Keep the tweeters, they seldom go bad, and buy new woofers or even coaxial/triaxial drivers. I've used both Alpine and Infinity in my Reattae and been happy with both.

Keep in mind the rears are probably not much better unless they have been replaced at some point. These will be 6x9 in 90/91 model coupes. I would suggest any new drivers you buy should be polypropylene, kevlar or carbon fiber cones with either rubber or cloth surrounds - not foam - as foam surrounds will deteriorate and are easily torn.

Keep at it and you will have a respectable system before too much longer.

KDirk

Does anyone have the wiring color coding for a 1990 Reatta with the CD Player?  I'm installing a Sony stereo and need to know what each colored wire goes to (power, accessory power, illumination dimming, antenna trigger).  I found information on the speaker wiring and I used a volt meter to figure out the power and accessory power but I can't figure out what color wire does the illumination dimming and power antenna trigger.  

 

Yellow = battery power,

Brown/white stripe = accessory power,

Black = ground.

???  = illumination dimming,

??? = antenna trigger (I think it's pink?)

 

Larry

Whenever I have done a stereo install I buy the adapter harness from a retailer. Quick install and can be restored back to original.

This is according to www.the12volt.com - not always 100% accurate, but a good place to start. As far as I remember, the CD is just extra wiring on top of the "regular" wiring (only messed with it once a few years back when I found a remote CD in a Riviera in a junkyard and was going to put in my '90 coupe, but finally wound up using an MP3 player instead) , so if you are removing it, there should be no problems with wiring. Others might have additional details or corrections. Hope this helps!

 

1988-91 Buick Reatta Stereo Wiring Constant 12V+ Orange  Switched 12V+ Yellow  Ground Black  Illumination Gray  Dimmer Brown  Antenna Trigger Pink  Antenna Right Rear  Front Speakers 5 1/4" Doors Left Front (+) Tan  Left Front (-) Gray  Right Front (+) Light Green  Right Front (-) Dark Green  Rear Speakers 5 1/4" Rear Wall Left Rear (+) Brown  Left Rear (-) Yellow  Right Rear (+) Dark Blue  Right Rear (-) Light Blue 

Wow, that list did not "paste" well - let me try it again:

 

Constant 12V+ Orange

Switched 12V+ Yellow

Ground Black

Illumination Gray

Dimmer Brown

Antenna Trigger Pink 

Antenna Location Right Rear

Front Speakers 5 1/4" Doors

Left Front (+) Tan 

Left Front (-) Gray

Right Front (+) Light Green

Right Front (-) Dark Green

Rear Speakers 5 1/4" Rear Wall

Left Rear (+) Brown

Left Rear (-) Yellow

Right Rear (+) Dark Blue

Right Rear (-) Light Blue

 

One other thing to note - as wiring ages, sometimes the wiring color does not look like the "original" color. So you might have to look carefully.

Edited December 7, 2015 by repriebe (see edit history)