Big Day For The Avalanche Yesterday!

Royal Vader · September 5, 2010

Had a busy day yesterday. My son (GMGuy84 on this forum) and I tore into my Avalanche and swapped out the Bose 6 CD radio for an OEM touchscreen nav radio (15882766) and while we were at it replaced the Onstar VCIM with a newer one with bluetooth (20783877, and antenna 15938939). We also installed the GPS antenna (15201798) and the VSS harness. This was pretty fun, but some of it was a real PITA! The VCIM required both of us to get out - one to hold the clips back and the other to wiggle out the VCIM module. The other thing that I thought would be easy, but wasn't was adding the green voice wire to the wiring block under the dash. Pretty difficult to un-clip this thing, turn it around, locate the green/white wire and tap into it. The harnesses are pretty thick and I was worried about damaging the connectors, so I wound up unclipping most all of them to be able to turn the block around.

One thing that I forgot before we began was to eject all 6 of the CD's that were in the original radio. I had already unhooked the battery and was waiting for bleed down when I realized the disks were still in. Oh well, powered up the radio, took out the disks and then waited again for the power bleed down. Gave us time for a beer!

Here are the pics from our fun time. Beer was shared and valuable bonding time with my son was priceless!

Here is what we will be installing today:

Here is what we are starting with - a perfectly fine LTZ........

Prying off the trim bezel... We used some trim tools that I got from Harbor Freight for 7 bucks.

Out come the controls...

And finally the original radio is out!

Everything out, and you can see the dreaded Onstar VCIM in there yet to come out

Out comes the old Onstar module

Adding the GPS antenna and fishing down the harness to the radio location

Put everything back together, connected the voice harness and powered her up.

When I started the truck, the screen showed a Chevy bowtie emblem and played radio station garble for about one second and then went to Theftlock, which I expected.

Now, its off to the dealer to run the Tech2 re-learn. Looking forward to the nav functioning and the bluetooth. I want Onstar to work and I know it won't, hoping we can find a solution to this someday.

Enjoy the pics!!

highspeedvehicle · September 5, 2010

Had a busy day yesterday. My son (GMGuy84 on this forum) and I tore into my Avalanche and swapped out the Bose 6 CD radio for an OEM touchscreen nav radio (15882766) and while we were at it replaced the Onstar VCIM with a newer one with bluetooth (20783877, and antenna 15938939). We also installed the GPS antenna (15201798) and the VSS harness. This was pretty fun, but some of it was a real PITA! The VCIM required both of us to get out - one to hold the clips back and the other to wiggle out the VCIM module. The other thing that I thought would be easy, but wasn't was adding the green voice wire to the wiring block under the dash. Pretty difficult to un-clip this thing, turn it around, locate the green/white wire and tap into it. The harnesses are pretty thick and I was worried about damaging the connectors, so I wound up unclipping most all of them to be able to turn the block around.

One thing that I forgot before we began was to eject all 6 of the CD's that were in the original radio. I had already unhooked the battery and was waiting for bleed down when I realized the disks were still in. Oh well, powered up the radio, took out the disks and then waited again for the power bleed down. Gave us time for a beer!

Here are the pics from our fun time. Beer was shared and valuable bonding time with my son was priceless!

Here is what we will be installing today:

Here is what we are starting with - a perfectly fine LTZ........

Prying off the trim bezel... We used some trim tools that I got from Harbor Freight for 7 bucks.

Out come the controls...

And finally the original radio is out!

Everything out, and you can see the dreaded Onstar VCIM in there yet to come out

Out comes the old Onstar module

Adding the GPS antenna and fishing down the harness to the radio location

Put everything back together, connected the voice harness and powered her up.

When I started the truck, the screen showed a Chevy bowtie emblem and played radio station garble for about one second and then went to Theftlock, which I expected.

Now, its off to the dealer to run the Tech2 re-learn. Looking forward to the nav functioning and the bluetooth. I want Onstar to work and I know it won't, hoping we can find a solution to this someday.

Enjoy the pics!!

Nice upgrade David looks great!! You'll love the nav radio setup when it gets going.

inthemix · September 23, 2011

Great work David...I am in the process of adding a VSS/VOICE harness to my '09 Suburban 2500 (similar setup to your Avalanche). Did you have to hook up your OnStar to that VSS kit? My kit says I need to connect it to behind the open port of the OnStar box and insert the RED/BLACK wires (pins) in "pin holes 4 and 5" on the radio's harness (behind a grey cover). Any of this ring a bell? Thanks bud!