Do All Am/fm/cd Nnbs Trucks Have Separate Amps?

[Dale_K]

My brand new 2010 work truck didn't come with a CD in the radio head unit so I put in a take-out OEM am/fm/cd unit and had the dealer unlock the radio. The system has hardly any volume. I can't hear the chimes or the turn signal clicker and the radios is very weak even turned all the way up. I posted a different thread about it and got a reply with a theory that all the am/fm/cd head units need a separate amp because that's the way they come from the factory.

 

Can anyone confirm whether I need an amp to make my new radio work right? In other words do stock trucks with the non-Bose am/fm/cd head unit come with factory amps?

[jdubya]

My brand new 2010 work truck didn't come with a CD in the radio head unit so I put in a take-out OEM am/fm/cd unit and had the dealer unlock the radio. The system has hardly any volume. I can't hear the chimes or the turn signal clicker and the radios is very weak even turned all the way up. I posted a different thread about it and got a reply with a theory that all the am/fm/cd head units need a separate amp because that's the way they come from the factory.

 

Can anyone confirm whether I need an amp to make my new radio work right? In other words do stock trucks with the non-Bose am/fm/cd head unit come with factory amps?

 

Sounds like you need an amp i would agree with that but my 07 GMT900 does not have an amp in it. I believe that only the Bose system has an amp. Is the head unit you have from a GMT900? If not maybe they have amps built into them that are causing the issue.

 

Either way, it would be easier just to get an aftermarket head unit and install that.

[smallengineguy]

Someone else? We're both having this problem.

[Dale_K]

I took my truck into the dealer yesterday to complain that the radio was very weak after they unlocked it. Told them I wanted to see if they could reconfigure the radio so that it worked right. The guy who sold me the radio had included the VIN and type of truck it came out of, which was a 2009 LTZ. That truck would have come equipped with a separate amp and my 2010 work truck doesn't have an amp. All the functions of the radio work, just very weakly and that is exactly what you'd expect if the unit was sending low level outputs to a separate amp.

 

The service manager came out and I told him I simply wanted a truck with a working OEM CD player the same as if I bought the truck that way. He said it was unlikely that a 2009 radio would work correctly in a 2010 truck but that sometimes Delphi could custom program a new 2010 radio and take the old non-cd unit back. He told the service advisor to call Delphi in Dallas and find out what it would cost. The basic answer was that it wasn't feasible. The cost estimate was $2,500 to upgrade everything it would take.

 

I visited a local car audio shop and they are going to install an aftermarket amp under the driver's seat. They'll use adapter harnesses to break out the existing speaker outputs and send them to the preamp inputs, then bring the amplified signals back to the dash and another adapter harness to tie them back to the factory wiring. The total cost including installation is about $300. It would have been only a little more expensive to buy an aftermarket head unit with usb, cd and satellite ready but this way I retain the factory dash and all the chimes and turn signal tick-tock will work without the need for any other modules.

 

I'm still not convinced they couldn't have reprogrammed the replacement radio to work without a separate amp because I think that exact radio was used in 2009 work trucks and I doubt they included an amp. But after the reply from Delphi I guess I'm wrong. If I kept fighting the local service guys I would poison the long term relationship and I might need them on my side in the future. Maybe I would have picked a different truck instead of the work truck if I'd known how hard a simple radio upgrade is.

[BigBlueLB756]

Like a good mechanic, a good electronics tech is a valuable asset to have around these days. I'll bet when they get everything wired up, you'll be happy with the results, and you can get the sound the way you want it.

[Doug_Scott]

It is actually preferable to have an external amp. You now have me thinking my 2010 Sierra SL may also have an external amp. Will make it a snap to upgrade the amp and speakers to something good, and keep the stock head unit without worry of smoking the head unit. Does anyone know if all the 2010's have this setup if they come with CD?

[smallengineguy]

I took my truck into the dealer yesterday to complain that the radio was very weak after they unlocked it. Told them I wanted to see if they could reconfigure the radio so that it worked right. The guy who sold me the radio had included the VIN and type of truck it came out of, which was a 2009 LTZ. That truck would have come equipped with a separate amp and my 2010 work truck doesn't have an amp. All the functions of the radio work, just very weakly and that is exactly what you'd expect if the unit was sending low level outputs to a separate amp.

 

The service manager came out and I told him I simply wanted a truck with a working OEM CD player the same as if I bought the truck that way. He said it was unlikely that a 2009 radio would work correctly in a 2010 truck but that sometimes Delphi could custom program a new 2010 radio and take the old non-cd unit back. He told the service advisor to call Delphi in Dallas and find out what it would cost. The basic answer was that it wasn't feasible. The cost estimate was $2,500 to upgrade everything it would take.

 

I visited a local car audio shop and they are going to install an aftermarket amp under the driver's seat. They'll use adapter harnesses to break out the existing speaker outputs and send them to the preamp inputs, then bring the amplified signals back to the dash and another adapter harness to tie them back to the factory wiring. The total cost including installation is about $300. It would have been only a little more expensive to buy an aftermarket head unit with usb, cd and satellite ready but this way I retain the factory dash and all the chimes and turn signal tick-tock will work without the need for any other modules.

 

I'm still not convinced they couldn't have reprogrammed the replacement radio to work without a separate amp because I think that exact radio was used in 2009 work trucks and I doubt they included an amp. But after the reply from Delphi I guess I'm wrong. If I kept fighting the local service guys I would poison the long term relationship and I might need them on my side in the future. Maybe I would have picked a different truck instead of the work truck if I'd known how hard a simple radio upgrade is.

 

 

They can't reprogram the radio you have to be louder. The internal amplifiers are only made to be powerful enough to feed the signal to the factory amp. Looks like I'll be picking up an amp as well.