How To: Display gone bad on your Pontiac Radio?

[Wandering Mind]

l33t_tj, check your owner's manual for details. The anti-theft is tripped when you disconnect the power from the stereo. As Shadow-D said, take your time working inside the stereo and everything will be fine. When you put your stereo back into the car, it will ask you for a code. This will happen whether you disassemble the stereo, or just unplug it.

Does this site contain a respository of owner's manuals in .pdf format? If not, I have a good number of Grand Am .pdf owner's manuals I can post, from the mid 90's through to 2005...

[Shadow-D]

I didn't have a problem with the anti theft on my radio... I think as long as you are putting the same radio back into the same car it will work fine.

[l33t_tj]

Well I went ahead and pulled the radio out and replaced the bulb. I wasn't able to get an exact match, so I got a 12 volt "Instrument/Dash Light". The bulb itself was much bigger than the one I found inside the radio, but I managed to modify the little white plastic redirector piece to fit the bigger bulb.

I plugged it all in and tested it and it worked great, until I started the car.

When the engine is running the daylight running light system makes the radio display painfully dim, it is readable, but not in direct light. When you pull the handbrake, the display lights up like it does when the car is in ACC mode and the display is bright and easy to read.

Does anyone have any ideas about how to fix this? I was thinking of finding some way to disable the dlrs ability to dim the interior lights. I like having the lights automatically go on and off with the amount of light outside, so I don't really want to completly disable the system.

I was also thinking of temporarily running a power wire with a switch from the cigarette lighter power line to the bulb in the radio, that would work as long as I remembered to turn the switch off.

[Shadow-D]

Check your dimmer switch and make sure that it is at full bright.
Did you at least keep one of the old bulbs? If you did you can bring it to an electronics shop and they can match it up with one that is close if not the same one for ya...

[l33t_tj]

What about disconnecting/cutting the dimmer wire to the headunit? Would that make the display always be bright or would it make the display always be dim?

If cutting it would make it always dim, I could always hook the dimmer wire up to a 12v source to make the headunit think it should be bright.

Does that make sense?

[Shadow-D]

That wire doesn't only control your display, it also controls the lighting of the buttons.
Did you save or have the original bulbs?

[l33t_tj]

Originally Posted by Shadow-D

That wire doesn't only control your display, it also controls the lighting of the buttons.
Did you save or have the original bulbs?

So if I clip the dimmer wire will it make the display backlight and the button lighting go off or stay bright?

[Shadow-D]

I think it will make them stay bright but why do you want to hack it up rather than spend the time to fix it right?
You've gone this far, just fix it right...

[Wandering Mind]

Originally Posted by l33t_tj

Well I went ahead and pulled the radio out and replaced the bulb. I wasn't able to get an exact match, so I got a 12 volt "Instrument/Dash Light". The bulb itself was much bigger than the one I found inside the radio, but I managed to modify the little white plastic redirector piece to fit the bigger bulb.

I plugged it all in and tested it and it worked great, until I started the car.

When the engine is running the daylight running light system makes the radio display painfully dim, it is readable, but not in direct light. When you pull the handbrake, the display lights up like it does when the car is in ACC mode and the display is bright and easy to read.

Does anyone have any ideas about how to fix this? I was thinking of finding some way to disable the dlrs ability to dim the interior lights. I like having the lights automatically go on and off with the amount of light outside, so I don't really want to completly disable the system.

I was also thinking of temporarily running a power wire with a switch from the cigarette lighter power line to the bulb in the radio, that would work as long as I remembered to turn the switch off.

Sounds to me as though you might not have used a bright enough bulb as your replacement.

A 1.2 watt 12 volt bulb works ideally in all situations for me.

What you refer to as your DRL's, I believe, is actually your ALC (Automatic Light Control). When it gets dark outside, the head lights come on, and your stereo lights inherently dim. Had you used a bright enough replacement bulb, your LCD display would not be so painfully dim when the ALC kicks in at dusk.

Personally, I wouldn't hack on it any further, and I would source some appropriate and brighter bulbs, perhaps those I suggested earlier in the thread...

[l33t_tj]

The reason I don't want to put too much time and money into the stock radio is that I am getting a new fancy headunit for christmas. Also the stock headunit has lots of other problems including the volume knob not working sometimes and the cassette deck sounding terrible. I just want to have the display working to have a clock and know what side of the tape or radio station I'm on.

I don't want to completely overhaul the stock radio because I am getting a newer better one in just a month and a half.

[Shadow-D]

Well I do understand where you are coming from but If it was me, I'd still go out and buy the correct bulbs and fix the lights the right way rather than hack up the harness that will also effect the new radio...

[LAMARboarder]

Originally Posted by ddecker

Original style bulb is a 2721MF available from O'Rielly's Auto Parts at $1.29.

So, after reading this whole thread, I'm pretty confused as to what bulb exactly I need. Is ^^That^^ it? Do they need to be red bulbs or are they just clear? That part is shown with a little plasticy connector thinger on it, while the ones from Corvette Radios don't have that. I'd love to use the real bulb (obviously as inexpensively as possible), and dear God no Christmas light bulbs...

[Shadow-D]

The bulbs are clear and you have to do some soldering to do this repair.