2005 and Earlier Chevrolet Impala

roderacer

Check out this site...

http://store.yahoo.com/autofanatics1/caldus.html

RR

night_owl1

The duster kinda looks like a hand held yarn mop. WalMart carries it and I have seen it at Sam's and Costco. The yarn is impregnated with a wax or something and it attracts dust.

night_owl1

I do not have the changer, so I don't know if this would work. However, fabricating a bracket to hang the changer from the bottom of the package shelf shouldn't be too difficult. I imagine using universal CB radio mounting brackets from Radio Shack would work nicely.

Radios and More has a mounting bracket for the 12 disk changer, but the application list does not include the '00 '01 Impala

http://www.radiosandmore.com/prod_detail.asp?pn=3545633

night_owl1

I finally got around to testing the connector in the trunk and I got 12 volts across the orange and black wires. Seems to me that means the connector is attached somewhere. Has anyone else tried?

cookie01

Those of us who would NEVER skip Hopper's tunes in any way, shape or form should know the new Blues Traveler CD "Bridge"will be in the stores May 8th (I believe). The pieces and cuts I've heard are top notch.

sweetpolly

KMart also sells the dusters (in the auto accessory dept.). I just purchased two through autobarn.com (they were ~7.95 each). I only bought them there because they were cheaper than the store (9.95 and up), plus I was ordering the brake/steering wheel lock for my son-in-law and most importantly, they had pretty lavender colored handles (I brake for purple!).

hvan3

The California Duster is a handheld "mop" that is use to dust off dust from your vehicle. It magnitized the dirt from the vehicle onto the mop. I use the California Duster twice a week. It works great! I dust twice a week and wash my car every 3 weeks. My Galaxy Silver always look clean!

gusman2

Its been a long while since my last post...

Here is my part of this saga.

I had a 95 Monte Carlo. I got a dealer-installed delco 12 disc changer. It worked great. Sold Monte to mom...bought 2K Impala... Good bye changer.

Saw some of the posts and I gave it some thought. So I stole the changer back and hooked it up. It does power up BUT the radio does not recogize it.

The trunk harness goes to the front. On the passenger side under the plastic part that has the light on it, and somewhat by the door there is a white plug with 5 wires in it that has the same color combo as the trunk harness. I am assuming this is what we need to get to the radio somehow.

SO... with that in mind, does anyone know how to get access to behind the radio? I am thinking of seeing how much the dealer wants for what I believe should be a small connecting harness. I hope to goodness it does not cost $75 for something that is less than 3 feet? Maybe if someone had a shop manual, this mystery can be cleared up and we can have some fun.

Thanks everyone!

hunter39

Kim at Hutton was supposed to talk more with the radio guys at their shop to find out if it can be done, she says she is sure there is a kit just doesn't know what the part number might be. I told her GM had told someone there was no such (Anyone remember who that was talked to GM about this eons ago?) thing for the 2k and 2k1 Impalas, if this is true then why is a cd changer wiring harness an option ($70) which turns out is already installed in most LS's that anyone has bothered to look into? I know I didn't pay more for the harness and yet there it is in my trunk. The plug matched the cd changer body that they sent me but alas I don't know if it works since they sent no cartridge, otherwise I'd have plugged it in and fired it up, then look for a kit to install it. Has anyone checked the base model trunk for this harness?

I know I volunteered to be the test case on this and so far I've had two different changers delivered and now sent back (thank God I'm wealthy and no chance so far that this will have a positive end. I'll keep plugging for the cause Y'all!

Crosley, Kenbuzz, on the headrest issue, the dealer is Lou Grubb at 27th Ave.& Camelback, they got back to me the other day and quoted me a price of 115.00 each! A bit spendy for one headrest leather or not. The problem for me and the headrest is that I have a long torso, not long legs (6'4" but only 33" inseam)so my head sits higher up, consequently the base of my head hits the top of the sport headrest (the one with the hole in the center on the LS)this is at the highest extended length. Not only is this uncomfortable but I think dangerous, if my head were to whip back in an accident, my neck wouldn't be supported. The base model headrests are curved nicely and my neck sits on them confortably when fully extended. This is what i wanted from them, only in leather like I have in my LS.

This might be my longest post, sorry to drone on, those of you still reading!

crosley4

I bought my first new truck from Lou Grubb in 1973. A new 1973 3/4 ton, 2wd, orange and white, 350 engine , turbo 400 transmission, I liked that truck.

My next new truck came from Chapman Chevy in Sept 1999.

Headrests.......... in a word: YIKES! $115.00usd for a head rest seems a bit steep.

Good luck on the CD changer!

Tony

00impala

Compaired to the $315.00 for the Leather Seat bottom (Only)!!!

night_owl1

Funny you should ask how to get access to the back of the radio.

Check out the page for the latest How-To.

http://home.hawaii.rr.com/impala/

hunter39

For years I've carried a plastic storage tub in the trunk for keeping my "Arizona Survival kit" that includes water, jumper cables, spare oil,some cleaning products and oddly enough, the oft mentioned California duster. It's great for keeping things organized and above all anything that spills will not get loose and ruin the floor.
Just a suggestion

bdime

Maybe I'm the sensitive one but the boom box comment hits a nerve. Is it really necessary, in order to have good quality sound, to have the bass make my house shake as you drive by? Just have to vent a little. My standard radio with CD player is just fine with me. Now if I could only get the spouse and the kids to agree on a radio station or
a CD type- IT'S MY CAR- I GET TO CHOSE!

nick01

I think the radio and cd in the '01 is very good. There is no splatter or distortion at high volume and good bass at low volume. I read somewhere that the mp3 will make the multi-disc box obsolete. One disc will have the capacity of 20 or more discs. My info might not be accurate and I cant recall where I read it. Does anyone else have any info on the mp3 that will soon be on the market.
nick

2k_impala_ls

I think Teo is to busy driving his new LS around to let us know about the new amp. Jump in the trunk and let us know.

yurakm

http://www.delphiauto.com/pdf/delcopdfs/mp3.pdf

I have a lot of mp3 disks with Russian songs. In my experience, the 8 x compression is excellent, with 10 x to 12 x very good.

Have a two early disks with 20 x and 25 x compression. With so high compression the sound is rather poor, it lack depth, timbre and obertones. After serious computer processing (I used Adaptec SoundStream) the depth can be restored, but it is still artificial. Does not pay - it is better to use the 10x compression.

hunter39

I guess my comment to those of you who aren't interested in the stereo issues that some of us have is, don't read them. I pass over posts that have no interest to me. What difference is it to you if we want to make the sound quality better than what came with the car? Do you have a 2k with the useless power amp in the trunk? The feeling here is that the 2k1 got an upgraded power amp that has better sound quality than what we paid for in the 2k, this is a legitimate issue.
Now if you're happy with your stereo sound, fine, but those of us who are looking for something more or better in our case with maybe more capacity for cd's (which I like because I don't want to carry around a bunch of extra cd's all the time) then we have just as much right to post here with those who are like minded.

I've been on this site for one year now, and the information I've gathered has been very helpful, some has been useless, most has been insightful and for those of you who have been around for awhile, I consider you friends though we've never met. Maybe it's time there was a topic for 2K and one for 2k1 since the 2k1 seems to be perfect now...

pat

Since we do already have a separate discussion on the Impala Radio, perhaps this conversation on stereo issues would be better placed there.

Pat
Host
Sedans and Women's Auto Center Message Boards

hunter39

But there are also some other topics that are covered here on the "main" forum that are also on the other forums, again I say, if you don't want to read it, skip over it. Take my comments out if you like, censorship is great... errr, I mean editing is great!

watusi

Ive seen head units at places like circuit city and tweeter (formerlly bryn mawr sterio) that use mp3 decoders to read a data cd that holds mps files on it. therefore when you burn a cd rather that putting on 15-17 songs roughly 5megs a piece in audio format, you could put on 130 songs at roughly 5megs a piece in mp3 format.

130 songs on one cd....try to put 130 different versions of 'route 66' on that sucker heh heh

to bad these head units are not compadable with the impalas computer. so if you put one of those in you would lose your oil pressure moniter, the tire pressure monitor, and all of those fob setting, lights blink ect....plus the fact that these head units are relatively new technology so they run like $600....my suggestion, wait a few years they will come down in price, and im sure they would get around to making a model compatable to all of our bells and wistles.

pat

No need to remove your comments, I agree with you that folks can just skip posts in which they have no interest.

But why have a separate "Radio" discussion if we are going to discuss it here instead? Some folks may only read that discussion, and they would therefore miss out on conversation here that might be of great interest to them.

Pat
Host
Sedans and Women's Auto Center Message Boards

nick01

watusi....Yes it will be a while yet for the mp3, but it's a coming. That will be something . Only 2 or 3 cd's for a cross country trip or a 2 week vacation. You can bet that Delco is working on that new radio right now as we type.

yurakm....tried the link to Delphi and couldnt make it work.

night_owl1

*slinking away, tail between legs*

Bad news on the changer front. Meet me on the radio board for more info.

fathertyricius

I feel that whatever the topic that anyone on this board wants to express should feel totally free to say what he or she wants to say whether it be regarding the stereo system of the 2k or the 01, or anything pertaining to the car. Ive learned a lot about our great car and I feel that having many different message boards for all different subjects is ridiculous. Just expressing my opinion..... OH .. The stereo in my 01 LS is fantastic... no complaints.

pat

Well, certainly everyone is entitled to express their opinions on anything they want as long as it complies with the Terms of Use (no issue with that) and it fits in with the discussion topic.

I am puzzled by folks reactions to my comments earlier. We have a separate discussion specifically dedicated to the Impala Radio. Why not have stereo discussions there? In fact, there are seven separate discussions within your Owners Club counting this one and the one about the radio.

Since there is a very appropriate place to have the conversation about the stereo issues, I just wondered why we don't move over there. There surely could be folks following only the Radio discussion who would miss comments here that they might really be interested in.

Pat
Host
Sedans and Women's Auto Center Message Boards

oil_mutt

Many of you have your filter and oil changes done at the dealership and I have experienced a real sloppy job on one of our Ford products. After having the head gasket replaced the dealer changed the oil and filter and when it was due for the next change I took it to Walmart where I have always had it done and they refused to work on the car, claiming that the oil plug was overtorqued and had been severely damaged by the last person that changed it.

I took it back to the Ford dealer the very next morning, which was a Saturday and told them that I would pay them for an oil and filter change but they had to replace the oil plug. After much discussion the dealer wanted $12 for the oil plug and I told him I would file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau.

Since it was a Saturday morning and no one was in the back I went back to watch the guy change the oil, filter and replace the oil plug. To my amazement this was not an ASC certified technician, but a smelly, hairy, grumpy old guy who just did their oil and filter changes. I asked him what size socket he used on the oil plug and he said he used a 17mm socket. Right then and there I knew what the problem was because the oil plug takes a 5/8" socket. When I pointed it out to him, he said his boss said to use a 17mm socket on all oil plugs.

As you can see there are bozos at the dealership as well as the quick lube places and we have to be on guard.

St. Louis MO

00impala

I for one think it was not a good idea to have a "Owners Club" for one thing some of the other topics have not had a post in 3 weeks, and there have been 7 Topics since the inception of the owners Club. And why is is called "Chevrolet Owners Club"? Most of the Other Topics go 3-4 weeks without a post, then when they get a post it is a carbon copy of something posted on this forum FIRST, The more things change the more they stay the same, I prefer to read a bunch of post about differnt subject matter as long as it pertains to the Impala, Seems crazy to look thru 7 topics just to find all of the "New" posts on this Forum, I liked it the way it "WAS" and I read this Topic exclusivly. Don

hunter39

I agree Don, besides which I felt like the topics that are here are varied anyway, everyone post's about dealer experiences here, we have photos here, we have modifications here, and we have stereo issues here. Why bother going to a bunch of different forums? If someone sees a topic here they don't want to read, pass on it. Seems simple enough. I just took offense to being characterized as some punk who wanted to turn up his pumped up boom box and drive down the street frightening children and old people. I feel as others do that the 2k Impala lacked a decent sounding stereo amp, now if I want to go to the expense to make it better what difference does it make to someone who has no interest in changing their own? If it doesn't interest them, read on

pat

All you have to do is "subscribe" to the Impala folder, and then use the "Read Subscriptions" button to follow all the new posts - when you do it this way, it doesn't matter how many or how few discussions have new posts.

What do you folks want to happen? You want the Owners Club to be disbanded and all posts related to the Impala occur in this discussion? I'm sure that can be arranged if that's what you would like.

Pat
Host
Sedans and Women's Auto Center Message Boards

bdime

I apologize if you were in some way offended. I don't believe I tried to characterize you in any way. I made a statement about being happy with my own radio and asked a question that generated alot of opinions. The radio discussion can certainly take place anywhere you want to put them- but that does not mean I can't have an opinion about them or make a statement about people impelled to share their tunes with everyone else. Perhaps you keep your quality sound to yourself. Great! Could you teach others to do the same? I promise to keep my
music confined to my own vehicle too. As far as my opinions- they are also worth what you paid for them;)

night_owl1

I fell into the bad habit of posting stuff in both areas. That practice is usually unwelcome in the newsgroup world. I remember when Pat first offered to set up the Impala Owner's club, I had my reservations. Would I miss posts? How was this going to work?

Personally, I think the Owner's Club system works well. When I access Edmunds, I go right to the Impala owners club. There is a list of all the Impala related discussions going on and the date of the last post. If you log in first, the system will tell you how many new posts are in each group that you have not read.

The new users can find all the Impala discussions easily. The Impala radio board existed a long time before the Impala Owners group and I only found it because someone mentioned it here. It would have been nice to have them all listed in one place. Try and do a board search on "impala." For some reason, a whole bunch of unrelated topics come up. I dunno why hatchbacks, SUVs, station wagons, Hondas, are related to the Impala.

It helps organize our wildly ranging threads. Provided that we take advantage of it. While it is true that readers can bypass subjects in the main forum that do not interest them, important information can get lost in the flood and it's not easy to find things. I have been trying to sort all the archived Impala discussions into a FAQ, but it's too hard to filter out the threads. (side note, Pat are they still working on a "view all" option?)

You can compare the Owner's club to the the newspaper. The front section usually has a sprinkling of the day's events, mostly concentrating on the big stories. Then we have the sports section, the entertainment section, the local news section, etc. Sometimes there is a crossover between the front and latter sections, sometimes it's just to say "for more info, see the sports section."

It's really our fault that the other topics are stagnant. And some of the topics have had info that was not covered in the same depth here. I don't think the photos of the logo nuts was posted here, was it?

I like it the way it is now. Pat, thanks for reminding me that we do have a radio discussion group. Not like I need another person to point out all my bad habits. If we choose to discuss everything under the sun here, that's fine. If we separate our discussions into separate groups, that ok too.

night_owl1

BTW this club is not the Chevy Owners Club. It's the Chevy Impala Owners Club. We just happen to be the only club in the Chevy Owner Clubs section.

Special aint' we?

bdime

Thanks for your eloquent comments. I agree it is a good idea to take certain threads to it's own forum. We repeatedly get questions from lurkers or newbies that have been addressed before and somehow need better organization so we don't have to repeat things. Having some seperate topic headings certainly helps. I know everyone is not interested in my comments on dealers in my area- but someone might be looking and appreciate the input. I fully realize that true music lovers and sterophiles have their own preferences for sound quality. That's great. If I may be so bold is it okay to move on?

yurakm

currently does not works. Even the root, www.delco.com. Hope, they will fix it Monday.

Basically, they have brochures (in Adobe Acrobat format) about their future / experimental products. Probably, advertized to their customer - auto companies. One of the products is CD/mp3 combo. As well as I remember, it plays CDs, mp3 disks (CD-R and CD-RW) and "sticks" with mp3.

yurakm

http://www.delphiauto.com/pdf/delcopdfs/mp3.pdf

mediumfry

Amongst all the radio discussion nobody mentioned the security topic. I HEARD from a dealer (which is a notably unreliable source) that the guts of the GPS is also in the radio, and so ONSTAR wouldn't be able to track the car if it was stolen and the radio was taken out. To combat this problem they said the ignition is disabled if the original radio is not sensed.

I have the books but am simply too lazy to try to look this up. Does anybody know if this is true?

Nevertheless, the Impala Radio is a pretty complex unit, and therefore I'm not holding my breath on interchangeable aftermarket units. A notable drawback, but the advantages of those systems, in my opinion, outweigh the disadvantages.

night_owl1

The OnStar equipment is in the trunk



Sorry, wanted to try and post a photo.

yurakm

This makes the OnStar very easy to remove.

nosirrahg

A few days ago I posted that I'd read a few complaints at the NHTSA site about Impalas injesting plastic bags into their air induction system and stalling the engine from lack of oxygen. Yesterday afternoon I was changing the oil in my Impala (the light came on at 6,500 miles this time, BTW - probably a little longer than last time due to that drive to Florida in March), and as I'm crawling around under there to drain the oil, I find a plastic bag lodged in front of the radiator on the passenger side. It had apparently been there for awhile; it was a little tattered from slapping around in there. It was hung up on what I THINK is the exterior temperature sensor for the "driver information center".

Anyway, I couldn't tell exactly where the opening is of the air inlet to the engine, but I assure you when I change my air filter, I'll to probe upstream and make sure there's not another bag lurking in there.

I also used the freezer bag trick to remove the oil filter - it wasn't the best answer, and I still had a fair amount of oil drip out on the garage floor after I'd removed the filter, but I definitely got less oil on the suspension parts, and it made disposal of the filter a snap.

tpken

Joe - you were asking about Teo. I think Frank is still on vacation in Europe - probably test driving every exotic car he can! Not sure when he is expected back.

Ken

impalaboy2001

I'm currently living in Northwest Florida, and I was told that the personal calling, and virtual advisor plans, would be in affect by the end of the 1st quater. I called Onstar and they dont yet know when the service will be implemented. Does anyone in Florida have this service yet?

pat

By "view all" I think you mean view all the messages in a particular discussion group? I am told that feature can never be made available on this new platform.

While I understand (some of) the technical reasoning, I must say that I miss it very much and I know many of our members do as well.

Sorry.

You certainly can have more discussions created to separate out various topics if that's what you'd like. All you need to do is just ask Karen and she'll make them for you.

Also if any of you haven't tried subscribing to the entire Impala Owners Club folder and then using the "Read Subscription" button to read the new posts, you might want to play around with it to see how it works.

Let me know if I can help.

Pat
Host
Sedans and Women's Auto Center Message Boards

nick01

that one worked fine. Thanks
Nick

watusi

if you open your hood and look down at the air box youll notice it continues forward at an angle under the stabilization bar, and down towards the headlight.....if you remove the headlight youll find that the air intake in located directly in back of the headlight assembly, and despite the fact that its routed through a rather large box, the air intake itself if only as wide as the tube that goes from the filter into the throttle body...

what i would like to do is get a k&n cone filter and mount it directly on the end of the rubber tube and remove the airbox all together, probably get a huge increase in air flow this was....would have to rig up some kind of heat shield though...

tomaso7

OK bought the small and medium sized California Duster. Previously I used Zaino wax and its High gloss for 3 good coats. LS looks like a custom show car. The Duster worked great the first time I used it. Used it on a cool surface for the first time to rid any residue that may have been on the duster. The second time I used the duster it left smudges where I lightly dusted. The dirt that was on the duster seemed to caused the smudges on the Zaino wax. I had to use the Zaino High Gloss to get rid of the smudges. The CD people say the duster works better as it gets dirtier. My question: has anyone who has used Zaino and the duster received the same results. Thanks

night_owl1

I don't know how much of an improvement you will get by taking out the existing air box. Like you noted, the intake horn is as large as the hose leading from the box to the throttle body. So it's not like it is the restrictor here. The intake on my wife's '95 Saturn is silly. The horn is 1/2 the diameter of the size of the duct leading to the throttle body.

You might lose some performance, because right now, the air source is outside of the engine compartment and if you replace the filter box with a cone filter, you'll suck hot air, even if you hook up a heat shield.

Replacing the duct from the air box to the throttle body with a smooth walled unit would do wonders for air flow. And replacing the stock paper filter with a K&N one wouldn't hurt either.

night_owl1

Wah!

Then again, without the 1K limit, that would be one long page.

night_owl1

I balance a funnel in the suspension, under the oil filter. When I spin the filter, I allow the oil the drip off the sides and it hits the funnel and is redirected. Works pretty well.

alanwagen

I have 2000 with the 3.4 motor.
Is there a better way to access the oil filter?
It seems that the engine cradle makes it a tight fit to get my hand up there. Sort of an odd angle. Tips?
Thanks, Alan