Silver Spark

When I was looking for my car I filled out at least 10 requests for quotes. I got exactly 0!

Anyone else have this problem? When it is 0 - -5F outside the Spark doesn't get warm enough to produce heat after a 15 minute drive (the water temp is 170F). At 20 - 30F it's fine (after 1 mile water temp is ~190). My commute is 15 minutes and it would be nice to have some heat. Maybe I'll have to do the old Truck Drivers trick and put some cardboard over the radiator?

I noticed my headlights brighten when taking off from a stop. The ECU should crank up the output on the alternator to create enough power so you never see it dim. On my other car (A Honda Fit) had weak starting from new and I found there was a poor connection from the frame to the engine. I added a 4 gauge wire there and it works great now! It seems the problem might be that the ECU cannot see the voltage loss creating the dimming. Once the weather warms up here I can take a look at the situation with the Spark...

My Scangauge II talks to my Spark using Canbus...

Modern engines don't need as much break in as older ones. The tolerances are better now. The only thing you could do to hurt an engine during break in is to baby it too much so the rings don't seal. Short low speed trips would be bad. Otherwise normal driving as long as you don't jump on the highway and run for hours at one speed until 500 or 1000 miles is a good method. I like to change the oil early and put straight 30 weight oil in to help the top end break in. On the Spark it's hard to decel for ring seating as the mileage nanny keeps the revs up...

Air is 80% nitrogen so the improvement is not that much. There would be less variation from cold to hot so it might decrease your mileage! Say factory setting is 28 psi cold that might be 30 psi hot and all nitrogen might be 28.5 psi hot.... Never tried it in tires. We use it at work to keep moisture out of sealed units...

My bad! I thought the little Snowflake button was the rear defroster (I wondered why it was a snow flake). I double checked the manual and found the fan speed knob doubles as a switch for the rear defroster! I didn't expect that one!

On the subject of a speaker sounding blown. I put in some aftermarket speakers and just squeezed the stock crimps to fit. A few days later I heard some breaking up or a coil rubbing type sound. I cut the factory crimps off and used the aftermarket ones (one is small and one larger). Well a few days later one speaker didn't work at all! So I ran new wires from the back speakers all the way to the radio. I hope that will fix it! Not sure what's going on? Maybe a short in the factory harness?...

Well the defroster works but only a tiny bit. After 15 minutes there is only 1/4" lines defrosted. Probably needs a software update....

Well I got a reply from Metra today. Looks like the Pink wire is not used (I thought it was orange). The tiny USB is to change the software in the interface (I took a peek there's a lot of stuff in there). And you should tie the blue from the 44 pin to the blue on the radio and to an amp if you have it. Not sure why the car needs to know when your amp is on....

A couple of comments about the install. The GM radio has welded ears. The screws or bolts holding the radio to the metra bracket don't really fit into the hole for the radio. I undid the 2 screws holding the metal to the plastic on the sides and spread the metal to fit the radio. A bit of a pita. Why did GM use a SMA for the antenna connection? I was supposed to get the adapter with the kit but it isn't here! You need about 4 tiny screw drivers and a bit of luck to remove the vent stuff from the old face plate. The original is carbon fiber looking, I might try to use it and fill in the g

I removed the Onstar module under the drivers seat and tried using my read window defroster and it didn't work. The car is new with only 70 miles on it so had never tried the defroster before. Do I have to jumper the data lines if I leave them disconnected from the Onstar? Anybody know?

Thanks for the help. I didn't get the LCD for doing the comfort settings the mini USB could be for that or maybe just power for it (see next). The orange comes off the interface module, which is basically the chimes. I looked up the GM 44 pin connector and it calls this signal "Low Speed GMLAN Serial Data" so it might be for the comfort settings. I think the blue amp control wire from the radio is best for controlling the powered sub. The GM connector calls for pin 43 (Blue and White Metra harness) to be Entertainment Remote Enable, not sure when that is active...

I just purchased the 99-33098-LC kit and have a couple of questions. 1. What is the orange wire coming from the 4 pin interface connector for? There's nothing in the instructions on what this wire is for... 2. What is the mini USB on the interface for? Same thing no info... 3. I have a powered amp which I would normally tie the remote on to the blue wire on the radio. The radio's blue wire says output only. The instructions say to tie the blue wire (on the 44 pin connector) to the radio's amp turn on. Should I tie the 2 blues together then to the amp turn on or just the radio'

Well if anyone wants to know the Yellow is power all the time and black is ground on the 16 pin Onstar connector. And you need a 12 foot RCA cable to get from the spare tire to the radio (for the sub).