[Jerm12]

Hello,

Recently purchased my first V (2007). The head unit is pretty bad, was hoping to do the double din swap w/ the cts DIC…Does anyone by chance have the instructions by I belive a member named “Darkwing” titled “procedures to modify center stack to support aftermarket radio”? Apparently they are really good, but no longer available thru any of the links.
Thank you

 

[Submariner409]

You need to talk to the guys at Crutchfield tomorrow, business hours EDT.

The original head unit is programmed with THAT car's VIN and is part of the car's TheftLock, security, and serial data bus systems. Do it wrong and it goes into theft lockdown, ignition and fuel disabled.

 

[AAIIIC]

Recently purchased my first V (2007). The head unit is pretty bad, was hoping to do the double din swap w/ the cts DIC…Does anyone by chance have the instructions by I belive a member named “Darkwing” titled “procedures to modify center stack to support aftermarket radio”? Apparently they are really good, but no longer available thru any of the links.
Thank you

What old threads did you find with dead links? I tried searching for Darkwing and your post is the only thing that comes up. Just trying to get a lead on where you were looking so I can see if I can recover anything useful.

In the meantime, if you haven't already, try the "CTS-V1 vs the World" group on FB, lots of guys have done the double DIN install there and I'm sure there are some posts about how to modify things.

The original head unit is programmed with THAT car's VIN and is part of the car's TheftLock, security, and serial data bus systems. Do it wrong and it goes into theft lockdown, ignition and fuel disabled.

Having seen plenty of threads here and on ls1tech and on FB about doing a double DIN install using a base model CTS radio, I'm 99% sure that's not true. The stereo itself won't work, but the car will work just fine. Nowadays you can buy a Tech2 clone and program things yourself, but "back in the day" when guys were first doing this 9 or 10 years ago, they would install the base radio and then drive the car to the dealer to have the dealer tech program the VIN into the radio.