Factory installed Sirius Artist/Title defect

[alceryes]

quote:Originally posted by gpohly

alceryes,

Yes, the Artist-Title is supposed to work. The manual that came with your factory Sirius says so. The newer head units have this function, the wiring harness into the head unit is wired for this function, and the Sirius radios have always had this function. But the wiring harness to the Sirius radio does not have this wire installed.

If you have an after-market CD changer, your case may be different. If both the Sirius and CD Changer are Mopar, then this is the first I've heard of one that DIDN'T work. There is a multiplexor kit that is normally installed with the CD Changer-Sirius combo, and it is wired all the way through with the Artist/Title info.

What year is your PT, and what head unit do you have?

Glenn
glenn@pohly.net

It's a DC3 (Dream Cruiser 3). It's an '04 and has got every available option there is (and many that are specific to the Dream Cruiser Series). The radio is completely stock. 6 disk CD changer w/Sirius built in.

[alceryes]

...just checked out my manual and the only console units listed are the RAZ, RBK, and RBQ units. Mine is the RBQ (am/fm stereo radio with 6-disc cd changer). It doesn't say anything in my manual about the title and artist being displayed...oh well...

[DREAM2]

Could you post what exactly is needed and how and what to disassemble to get this thing to work? I'd like to do it myself but have no idea where everything is. I have heard the reciver for the Sirius unit is in the rear of the car but I don't know where exactly or how to get to it.

[gpohly]

alceryes,

If your head unit displays title info from CDs and/or certain FM stations that brodcast this stuff, I'd say it should work.

If not , I have a brand new '04 cassette-CD radio w/ CD-Changer controls and Mode switch to control the CD-Changer and Sirius I'd probably sell - had the RB-1 put in my wife's new Jeep last week as an option when we took delivery.

Dream2,

I can post all the details, but it is a difficult fix. You have to run a wire from the headunit in the dash, all the way to the back left corner of your PT. The Sirius receiver is behind the plastic trim panel on the left side of the cargo area.

But running the wire is not the hard part. The wire has to be inserted into the factory wire connector at the Sirius radio. There is no pin in this connector for the wire - it was ommitted, along with the necessary wire. This involves dissassembling the connector - a trick in itself, because they are not designed to come apart easily once snapped together - finding an appropriate very, very small crimp-on socket that will fit the connector, putting the pin socket in the connetor, reassembling the connector, and tapping into the Artist/Title wire at the AUX connector on the back of the radio in the dash.

I have access to a good electronics lab, and just modifying the connector at the Sirius radio took more than a hour's work. Pulling the trim panels, adding the wire, pulling the radio, and completing the job took 3 hours of not-fun work.

What I am doing is pursuing this with Chrysler. I am obtaining a new harness to see if this is a systemic problem, or peculiar to a few. It may be that they were using up a stock of 2002 wire harnesses, before Sirius was offered as a factory option, and the harness that replaced it has the correct wire. Once I obtain a replacement harness and examine it, I might have a better, more permanant solution that was not as tricky as my fix. And I might get Chrysler to do it.

I did it just to prove to the dealer that it does indeed work - after they insisted it wasn't supposed to work and it was not possible to make it work.

I'll keep you posted.

[DREAM2]

Thanks for the work! If you find a harness that does work, let us know the part number and where to get one. I would rather do it myself instead of relying on Chrysler to take care of it.
I take it this would be a complete harnes that goes from the radio all the way back to the reciever? If it's plug and play, I'm up for it. Thanks again.

[coopj40]

Inetresting. I have a DCII 2003 and have the same radio as DREAM2 does and my radio does not give me the artist info either.
I am very interested in the fix keep us posted and thanks.

[gpohly]

Dream2,

I had assumed that the harness does go from the head unit to the Sirius in one piece. However, that's the most curious part: at the head unit, the harness DOES have a wire connected to the Artist/Title radio input - it's a green wire on the Aux input plug, pin 8. Every single wire in this 8-pin harness then appears at the Sirius radio end, EXCEPT that green wire, no wire is connected to the Artist/Title output on the Sirius end of the harness, and no wire is lurking around inside the harness unconneted - at least, not for 10 or 12" inside the harness that I could see.

I am therefore assuming that there is either another connector set in the middle of this harness somewhere, or the wire is cut somewhere inside the harness. This would make sense for adding a CD-changer and multiplexor unit. I am hoping that there is a middle set of connectors, and the green wire ends at one side, and is not continued on the other to the Sirius.

This is what I am trying to find out with Chrysler, but am getting nowhere fast. The harness in my factory install runs from the left back of the car, down the fender well, and then disappears under the carpet at the back set. I think it is then routed under the center console, but you can't take that out without removing a seat.

Today, I am going down the dealer and will attempt to order the wire harness. In that way, I hope he'll either show me a diagram to ask which harness it is, and then I'll be able to confirm if it's one piece or two-piece, and hopefully get the routing. In the best of all possiblr worlds, I hope that there are two different part numbers for this harness - maybe one with the Artist/Title wire, and one without. But that's pretty optimistic...

[gpohly]

Picked up the new Sirius radio to head unit wiring harness today ordered from the dealer last week.

It is definately wired different than the factory wiring harness in my PT. And, the wire that is needed for the Artist/Title info that is missing in the factory harness is in the new harness.

I think I'll be able to get around to swapping these out this weekend. If this is the cure, it's good news for all those with PTs under warranty, not so good for ones not under warranty - the harness costs $100.

Hopefully, more results after this weekend.

[mainer]

quote:Originally posted by gpohly

Picked up the new Sirius radio to head unit wiring harness today ordered from the dealer last week.

It is definately wired different than the factory wiring harness in my PT. And, the wire that is needed for the Artist/Title info that is missing in the factory harness is in the new harness.

I think I'll be able to get around to swapping these out this weekend. If this is the cure, it's good news for all those with PTs under warranty, not so good for ones not under warranty - the harness costs $100.

Hopefully, more results after this weekend.

Did the the harness fix it?

[gpohly]

Finally got to work on the Sirius wiring with the new harness last Friday.

The new harness I got from the dealer will work. I verified it has the correct wiring by unplugging the factory harness at both the head unit and the Sirius reciver, and plugged in the new harness. I wanted to do this before I went to all the trouble of pulling out the fatory harness and returning it to the dealr. ( A condition or warranty for the replacement.)

Then I discovered a new twist: a factory installed Sirius, at least in the 2004 PT, has a two-piece wire harness. The first wire harness goes from the head unit to a 14-pin connector under the center console, and the second harness goes from the 14-pin connector under the center console to the Sirius receiver. I am assuming this is because a CD changer is installed under the drivers seat as an option, and the front half of this harness is used by the add-on multiplexor when you have both a CD-changer and a Sirius receiver.

The wire harness I got from the dealer is designed to be a dealer install item, and is a single harness that goes all the way from the head unit to the Sirius receiver. It will fix the problem, but is a completely different wire harness than the factory installed one.

What's really strange is that in the factory two-piece wire harness, the wire needed for the Artist/Title display is present in the first half of the wire harness from the head unit to the center console, but it is missing in the harness from the center console connector to the Sirius receiver. And the dealer knows nothing about that harness - it's not on any diagrams, and there is no part number on these two harnesses that I or the dealer could find.

The one-piece harness I got from the dealer will fix the problem. But it doesn't solve the mystery: Do I have a defective wire harness, or is it a factory design flaw?

I am going to keep pursuing that question. While I had the car apart Friday to check this out, I re-routed the factory harness center connectors from under the center console so that they hang out under the driver's seat. I then hooked up a temporary wire on a connector from the Artist/Title signal on the front harness, all the way back to the Sirius receiver. I can now show the dealer the two harnesses and connector, the missing wire in the second half of the harness, and clearly demonstrate that if I unplug the temporary wire I installed, Artist/Title doesn't work, and when I plug it in, it does.

With this proof, I hope to get the dealer to dig a little deeper.

I'll keep those interested posted. I'll update with harness schematics as I get around to drawing them, and Chrysler part numbers as I discover them.

Many have e-mailed me directly on this matter; I'll always answer as promptly as possible.

Glenn