Stumpy's In Depth Guide to Replacing the Stock Stereo in a 2009 Aveo5 base model

[Stumpy]

Welcome to Stumpy's in depth guide to changing out the stock stereo!
It is one of the best and relatively inexpensive upgrades to your user experience. The stock stereo barely moves the speakers and has no features what so ever. I aim to provide a visually rich guide to aid others in relieving their ears from poor sound quality and to ease the worries of complicated wiring schemes.

Let us look at what we have. The housing on my Aveo has the space for a double DIN, which means two 2" bays or one 4" bay. We see the stock, yucky, stereo and a little cargo bucket below it. Personally, I use the cargo bucket to my advantage so I want to keep it. That leaves me with a single slot to buy a radio for. I wanted Bluetooth in my stereo and an auxiliary input. No CD, no subs, nothing crazy. Not looking to make it an expensive job, but I want to do it right and have the features I want. Your install may be more complicated if you have additional features, especially during the wiring steps. I cannot help you with those complicated projects, I am no pro.

First, we pop off the trim from the sides. This is fairly easy on this model with only two clips holding it in place. I gently pried it from the bottom using a flat head screwdriver, but a trim tool will make quick work as well.

We see the side mounting bracket that holds the stereo and bucket in place. It is held on with four Phillips screws. Remove the big mounting screws and the whole thing slides out nice and easy.

At this point, the possibilities are endless as to what you want to fit in. Stereo, GPS, touch screen, tablet etc. I took, as I almost always do, the quick and easy route without "jerry-rigging" as they say. I unplugged the stereo and took the mounting screws out from it.

This is the stereo I chose. It was "stoopit" cheap at Walmart for around 22$. Being sold as of 12/19/15 as a holiday item. It ended up being leagues better than stock at 4 X 20watt and sounds pretty good with the stock speakers (yes I know its no Kenwood, Alpine etc. Let's be modest)

It doesn't come with mounting holes because it has a metal bracket and looks like it was designed to be paired with a crazy plastic mount kit (more money to waste). I bent the tabs back and slid the new stereo bracket off. Then it fit well in the side DIN bracket. At this point, look inside at the circuitry to make sure you can drill the stereo shell without hitting anything inside. With this model, there is plenty of room. Dry fit the whole assembly and see how the new stereo fits, making adjustments as needed. Once you figure out how the stereo will fit, replicate the position and use tape to hold it in place. Dry fit again to ensure a proper fit. Use self tapping screws and go right through the tape. Your stereo is fitted and ready for wiring.

My stereo, as should all stereos, provides a wiring harness to match the back of your new head unit. It does not match the stock male plug. This is the hardest part of this install. I do things cheap and quick but I am NOT willing to mess up my stock radio wiring harness by modifying or clipping the connector. I WILL spend the extra money to get the right connection to make this almost fool proof and I HIGHLY recommend you do the same.

I will be the the financial martyr for you all. I had to go to a specialty car audio place to even find out which adapter to use, let alone have it in hand within a timetable I can handle(now = more $$). I pass to you the part number and brand to match the stock male plug. Metra turbowire 70-8405. Make sure it is the female when shopping online and expect to spend at least $10 but not more than $20-25 anywhere online or in person. No stores had this on the shelf because it was used so rarely and bought even less. The absolute best part about this harness is that the colors match up to current wire color schemes and if they don't, the purpose of the wire is printed on the wire itself(suh-weeet).

I'm not going to go into the details on fastening the wires. If you get the right adapter harness, the colors match up and the plug matches up etc. If you don't want to do the job right, make it work on your own. Again, I am not a pro and I have never connected an external amp for subs. I had two wires extra that didn't need to get hooked up, yours may differ. Either way, I connected the wires together and electrical taped them, then taped the whole thing a few times so it wouldn't birdcage as I pushed it into the dash. Your harness is ready!

The assembly is so fast and easy. Plug in your new harness to the stock one and the back of your new stereo. Connect the antenna plug and turn your car in to test if it all works. It should, this is so basic if you spend the extra money for the right connector, it is almost foolproof. Turn the car off ,fit the stereo assembly into the dash and put the four screws back in. Pop the trim back on and you are done! Blast tunes as you zip away!

[petrified.rabbit]

Your dash doesn't look like a 2009? Nice write up though.

[Stumpy]

Yeah... I checked my VIN and you are right. All the paperwork and even the title is wrong(smooth moves on their part). Guess I have an 08. You learn something new everyday.

[MetroMPG]

Thanks for the write-up & pics.

Oh, and for attaching the pics. So many threads get wrecked when people use external image hosting sites and eventually the sites disappear or the pics get deleted.

[Stumpy]

You are welcome! I like doing good how to guides. I will be doing more soon, keep posted. Feel free to add them to the mods/guide area. Up next: short ram air!

[Ron_J]

I got one of these radios for Christmas, but haven't put it in yet. How do you like it? I mainly wanted bluetooth and AM/FM.

[Stumpy]

After a week, I have mixed feelings about it. It it easy to use and is a big step up from the stock stereo. The problem I had with it was the overall power output and that the Bluetooth got a little mixed up and wouldn't work sometimes. I had to unplug and reset the unit and the Bluetooth came back. Taking the stereo out to do that is easy but still an extra step, besides the time it too me trying to figure out why my music wouldn't play. If that Bluetooth glitch happens, now you know how to quickly fix it.The XOVIsion was a good move, but not enough for me personally. I have changed my stereo (again) to a more expensive unit because I bought all new speakers that are more powerful. I like my music loud and fast, so why have a stereo that won't use the capacity of the speakers I paid for?My opinion is that if you are NOT going to change the stock speakers or are someone who is not looking to blast tunes, the aforementioned XOVision stereo will be the cheapest and best option for 20$. The stock speakers are 20W, the channels on the stereo are 20W, its a good match. There is still the option to add an amp with extra speakers or sub, if what you hear isn't enough.

[PoisonIvy]

I agree that this stereo will work fine for upgrade over stock. But if you're looking for a little more quality/reliability my advice is to save up and spend at least in the $100 range with a name like Pioneer, Kenwood, Sony, JVC, etc.

Stumpy, how long ago did you buy your car? If you bought it on the premise that it was a 2009, I'd be pretty choked to find out it was a 2008. 2009 saw the introduction of the ECOTEC engine, which has a longer timing belt interval, and overall doesn't develop leaks as badly as the previous model. I've owned both a 2004 and a 2010, the 2010 was hands down a pretty sizeable step up in fit and finish, quality, etc. I'm not knocking the 1st generations out there, but I found my 2010 was probably closer to the Sonic in overall quality then the 1st gen Aveos.

[Stumpy]

I bought it used with about 84,000 miles from a dealer. I have a powertrain warranty so if it blows up, it sucks that they will have to swap my engine. I have requested a timing job and they said they would do it free around 94,000. A roll of the dice on their part. I'm a preventive maintenance kind of guy and I'm under the hood often enough that the other issues that may arise will hopefully be caught earlier.

[Ron_J]

Well, I got the XDVision radio in and I think I'll be taking it back out. It works ok, and looks good, but it doesn't pick up radio stations worth crap. The stocker is much better in that regard. Looks like I'll have to splurge for a better radio.