Kevin09HHRhappy

If I can come across a spare HVAC control panel trim, gonna duplicolor vinyl/fabric spray it black so the stereo doesn't stand out in comparisson. The buttons on the dash are black, the air vents are black, the backing trim on the door handles are black, instrument cluster is black, the trim around the shifter is black. The only things that are this metallic grayish/tan color are the factory stereo/HVAC, trims around buttons on steering wheel, and the storage pocket in front of shifter. Don't want to dye the original HVAC trim incase the factory stereo goes back in someday for trade in.



Would love to do this mod, especially with the remote start. I've upgraded base HVAC to electronic on B bodies before, you have to add sun load sensor, interior temp sensor, snorkle tube, solid state fan speed control (cause base B body has resistor type fan speed control, electric vaccum line control for mode/temp doors and wire to the PCM so HVAC control knows when engine coolant is warm before turning fan on in winter. I don't know what would take to do this to HHR, but already has solid state fan control and elelctric motors on mode and temp doors. With the data bus system, I dont have a clue.

nacademus

Am I able to add such a unit to my LS and have it work??? Do you know?
I mean the passenger side control HVAC

Kevin09HHRhappy

I would guess no since it would require a way to sperate the airflow out of the heater core and evaporator core between the ducts.

I wish it could be done. GM went through a spell in late 90's putting this option in several models. Family members 97 Lumina sedan had this option. Buddies 04 Silverado has this. The electronic temp and fan control is what I'd love. That way I can set temp and remote start will always acheive desired temp. Now I have to guess what temp will be next time I remote start and turn knobs accordingly.

Kevin09HHRhappy

I don't know the details, I just read on another thread that the HHR antenna is amplified. With the power antenna feed wire unhooked, it does sound like the FM stations are weak compaired to the before install.

I wish I had FSM wiring diagrams for this truck. I wanted to find the outputs for PARK from trans position switch. I couldn't find REVERSE output either, so looks like I'm running power wire from head unit all the way back to tail light. Not any more trouble since running RCA cable back to camera anyway, just a waste of wire.



How did u'all mount the back up camera? Looks like it will be in the way of hatch release if mounted on top of plate. No license plate screws on the bottom of plate. I can adapt a way to add fasteners to bottom of plate, but would like camera view to not be that low.

tmerkle111

I had a spot right next to the hatch release on the right side of it.

Kevin09HHRhappy

The one that came with the stereo is the license plate mount style. I'm guessing yours is the factory style that tucks up under the bowtie trim (beauty bar i think its called on here). I'd rather have that style.



I just noticed to take that picture, someone is just holding the camera ontop of a long Euro style license plate. I'm gettin a kick out of reading the owners manual that came with the stereo. Very obvious English was someones 2nd language. Use of wrong words, but close enough to figure out what its trying to tell you.

Kevin09HHRhappy

Long day today. Rear view camera install.

I went ahead and mounted it using top two license plate screws.

Removed all the trim panels to run the wiring from dash back to license plate. WOW I hope I never have to do that again. Wish I'd found a factory sub in junk yard so I could have installed it same time. I thougt I was going to have to take drivers seat out just to get wrench on the lower seat belt bolt, but was able to get it without.

The RCA cable that came with the stereo wasn't long enough for me. I ran it following factory wire channels. I prolly hurt video quality by splicing it.

The daylight image looked really good. Night time image was washed out, hard to see detail. I don't think it needs night vision with the reverse lights on.

The stereo head unit automatically switches to rear view camera when shift into reverse. It mutes what ever was playing, until shift out of reverse.

I'm in pain, and brain is tired. Gonna take some Tylenol 3 and go to bed.

Kevin09HHRhappy

Update:
Radio works great, RDS function shows artist/song title/station.

DVD works great, the 4.1 surround sounds great through the HHR's factory speakers.
High Resolution picture very nice, bright vivid colors. Played a little Finding Nemo and
the whale coming up from behind and swallowing them sounded awesome.

Bluetooth is good. I'm not sure if its my phone or the stereo, but half people say they
have trouble hearing me. I wish it had plug to add remote mic instead of the built in
only. Since this unit was designed for European market, the mic and volume controls
are on the right side of display. It shows caller id on display and you can select sent,
missed and received calls from menu for one touch dialing. I would mis calls before
not hearing phone ring over car stereo, very nice to have system that mutes when
phone rings.

GPS, well I'm happy with map and nav once its running. The boot up along with
pressing "I Agree" on the don't run off a cliff playing with gps waring screen, every
time get back in vehicle is getting very old. If your using nav on a trip and do a quick
stop for gas or food, the nav map and route should come back up just like it was
when key was turned off. I'm still learing it and finding new features everyday.

SD card slot I haven't tried or the usb port yet, but I do need to store some music on a
card and keep in unit for the times that the iPod ignores the stereo control.

iPod control, The first week the iPod worked great, but last couple days it freezes up and
I have to unplug and plug iPod back in and then it plays until unit is switch away from
iPod or off and back on. It also doesn't charge the iPod like it said it would. I think
I've seen an iPod control cable at Best Buy that looks the same as this one, but has
power and ground wires seperated out of the cable. Will check and see if it will work
with this unit. The freezing could be that iPod needs to be updated, but read
somewhere that stereo may only recoginize original version of the iPod and once
updated will not be controlled by stereo. Will have to research that.

Rear view camera, is awesome. Turns on automatically when shift into reverse, mutes
sound of what ever source was playing at time. I need to measure out distance the
red/yellow/green grid lines are from the bumper so I will know how close an object is.
You can select the rear view camera at anytime through the system main menu, but
if you hook up camera's power supply to reverse lights like i did, ofcouse it won't
show image without being in reverse. I may toss in a relay and toggle switch
someday so I can check on the bike rack this summer.

45Wx4 output. When Loudness is selected, it sounds same as factory stereo, nice beat you can feel in your chest. With Loudness turned off, doesn't sound that great without having a sub (which my HHR doesn't). I have to watch the volume with Loudness turned on, over 20 and i can hear speakers begin to destort. I think with seperate sub woofer and Loudness turned off, it would be perfect for me. I'm not a big high dollar custom stereo guy, so others may not be as satisfied with factory speakers as I am.

So glad you can black the screen out at anytime for night driving. Under city street lights I don't notice it, but once I'm out in the country, the screen is to bright. I have yet to pull unit back out and rewire the ILLUMINATION feed, so it may not be dimming with dash lights yet. It currently doesn't change, I just don't know if its dim or bright all the time. about decided its bright all the time.

Overall I'm very happy with it. Most of the issues I've mentioned above, I can change when I get time.

And best of all, I've had 4 people that thought it was factory installed.

Kevin09HHRhappy

I had the family in the car yesterday and put a dvd in for them to watch. when they got tired of watching it, I stopped the dvd playing and switched to radio. We get out, turn car off. Its still very cold here, so I'm using remote start to warm up interior. We get in the HHR and the movie is playing. I stop the movie and switch it back to main menu. Next stop, same thing again, movie is playing when we get in the car. So from what I can tell, if you leave a dvd in the unit, it will switch back to disc play whenever unit turns back on. Kinda odd having to eject disc to keep it from auto playing constantly.

iPod control freezing has gotten worse. Have to unplug cable and reconnect every time you want to use iPod. Sometimes it freezes for a moment when press MENU during iPod playing. Usually after a 30 seconds it will do what you selected. Again, I don't know if this is problem with the iPod control program of the stereo, or if its my iPod causing the problem. Someone told me its because I'm leaving the iPod in the car all the time during cold weather. Overnight temps fall to 24, daytime high 40, not likes its -10 though.

Kevin09HHRhappy

Weather still hasn't been good enough to pull unit back out and connect ant pwr feed and the display dim input. I think I've figured out the ipod issue. The unit does not charge the ipod while connected like they advertised it would. My ipod is getting old and though holding a charge better than I'd expect, I think when batter drops down about half way, thats when the head unit freezes. I have seen an ipod control cable for Kenwood and Pioneer that looks to have the same plug style (at stereo) but has the positive and ground wires seperated out of the harness to be direct wired to vehicle ignition. Does anyone know if this cable is the same style plug that used by these china head units?