I have a 94 with wheel controls and I want to get a pontiac CD deck and have it work. I have an aftermarket Kenwood that i want to throw out the window. Will any year work or do i have to get year specific? Ive heard the wheel controls aren't all compatible, whats truth?

Also, I heard Sony decks sometimes work with radio controls. If i can't find a deck, this might be a nice option.

 

I don't know what year cd player would work in your car. However, there are interfaces that allow the use of the steering wheel controls with just about any aftermarket head unit.

 

I just installed a JVC Head unit with the Steering wheel button Adapter from PAC audio, I used the SWI-Jack unit,

it was very easy to install, just tap into the headunit adapter harness for power and ground and then into the dark blue #6or7 pin ( on my 2000 Camaro) on the Factory radio harness for the control signal, so just 3 wires,

Then follow the PAC directions to program the unit which were very easy, the buttons were switched around from the PAC directions but that was easy to resolve with a re-program, the whole thing should take you less than 1.5 hours to do,

consider that if you replace a kenwood with a factory head unit you will be losing sound quality and the tuner will not be quite as good,

if you really want a factory unit, just get one from a 93-97 car, then your almost gaurenteed it will work although I dont think the 98-02 ones were any differnt but I dont know,

 

Thanks guys, back in the GTP days, all that was available was for SONY to retain wheel controls. Good things change since. How much do those adapters run? I'd just have Best Buy or a shop do it. Wiring scares me.

Honestly, Im not a big audiophile. So going back to stock sound, doesn't concern me.

 

the apadters can be bought off Ebay for around $50. Dealers sale them for around $70-$80. Like I said they take about 1.5 hours to install. It would be cheaper to go with the factory HU and then sale the kenwood but it wont sound as good.

 

oh ****, that's right I forgot, your aftermarket head unit has to have that feature meaning it has an input wire or plug for the control adapter,

if it does not have the feature then you have to get a differnet adapter that works by sending a wireless signal to the head unit, for this to work the head unit must have the wireless remote feature.