2005 Dreamcruiser Convertible, changed head unit, no audio. Help!

[Vestas]

As usual, a first post on a forum is a HEeeeeelp! post. The PT Cruiser in the household is the significant others, but it's a 2005 Dreamcruiser Convertable. Recentely we succumbed to the "oops changed the battery and the 6 disc changer gave up" issue that I discovered was not uncommon for Chrysler 6 disc changers, namely when you leave discs in it and re-power it, bad things happen (tm).

While I intend to try and fix that changer, I bought a new kenwood head unit from Crutchfield along with the chrysler adapter etc. I'm not new to changing car stereos and the PT change seemed, on paper, very straight forward. What I'm hoping is that the problem I'm encountering is something PT Fans are familiar with before I spend all day on tech support at crutchfield processing a return.

Namely I wired up the Chrysler adapter, plugged in the new head unit and, well, there's no audio output. The new unit powers on fine but there's no sound out of the speakers. I've since pulled the unit and checked all the wires and connections, looked up the pin and wire positions for the PT and even looked at the cabling.

Now, it looks like (this if from the top of my head), pins 17-21 of the chrysler plug are speaker inputs, according to the info I've found, those are "Right rear pos/neg and Left Rear pos/neg". There are no "Front" wires. Which surprised me at first but is apparently normal. Checking the Kenwood pinouts, while the Chrysler "adapter" plug has front cabling, I've verified the "rear" outputs are connect correctly.

I'm not expecting any surprises, according to the adapter directions, the mute line does not get connected and my understand of the PT Cruiser is there's nothing fancy between those speaker wires and the speakers. I'm trying to hunt down a volt meter so I can test the output from the kenwood unit, I suspect the kenwood unit is broken, or the adapter plug has bad wires. However I thought I'd come to a PT forum and ask if this is a problem anyone else has had. I'm at work today and didn't have time last night to go hunt down a volt meter.

When I get time I'm going to try rewiring the adapter so the kenwood front outputs go to the rear lines on the chrysler (it shouldn't really matter as the "fader" functionality won't really work with only one set of speaker lines). And of course spend hours on the phone with tech support when I get the time.

Thanks for reading this long winded help request!

-Max

[Vestas]

So a bit more research and a call to Crutchfield discovers that this 2005 Dreamcruiser convertable uses the Infinity audio system which has a powered amp. Crutchfields official answer is "No support" so he told me I should probably send it back.

I found mention elsewhere on this forum that the red & blue wires need to be twisted together, i.e the P.Cont line form the radio needs to trip the cars internal amplifier on for audio to work.

Looking at my wiring harness doesn't make me confident at the moment that that is, in fact the right solution. Looking for some additional confirmation here if anyone has it, thanks!

[Vestas]

So for reference I've been trying to examine the wiring of the car and the harness. I know I need to get my new head units P.Cont line connected to whatever powers the amp in the infinity based system.

Looking at the pins the car harness I have:

1: filled, lines up with yellow wire on harness, should be continuous power
2: filled, lines up with red wire on harness, should be switched accessory
3: filled, lines up with orange wire on harness, should be illumination
4: empty
5: empty
6: empty
7: empty, lines up with front speaker on harness
8: empty, lines up with front speaker on harness
9: empty, lines up with front speaker on harness
10: empty, lines up with front speaker on harness
11: filled, lines up with ground on harness and should be gorund
12: empty, linked with yellow wire on harness
13:empty, linked with blue (p.cont) wire on harness
14: filled, no harness match, this should be PCI bus of the car I.E> DONT TOUCH
15: empty, lines up with unused mute line on harness
16: empty
17: empty
18: filled, lines up with front speaker on harness
19: filled, lines up with front speaker on harness
20: filled, lines up with front speaker on harness
21: filled, lines up with front speaker on harness
22: empty, ground pass through on harness

The question is, do I hook the P.Cont line coming from the head unit to the switched accessory (red line on harness) in the car? Or do I hook the switched accessory line to the p.cont line on the harness (blue) which doesn't appear to tie into anything on the vehicle side.

[Vestas]

So i tried red/blue on harness together. That would be ignition wire with blue wire on harness no dice.

Tried the inverse, the p.cont line from the amp with the ignition wire, no dice (didn't think it would, surprised I didn't fry the head unit).

There must be a way to link a new head unit to trigger the infinity amp turn on in the car some how, but I'm out of options at this point.

[azphotog]

If your car has the infinity system than you need an adapter to provide the correct signals to the amplfier. Here is a link to one that will work HARNESS PAC C2R-CHY4 Radio replacement interface for 2004+ chrysler, dodge, jeep The C2R-CHY4 allows you to replace the factory radio in Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep LSFT & MSFT CANbus vehicles. Connectors are provided for either type, and the interface . I have an older version in my 2007 with the Boston system. The problem is that the amp is turned by the computer so the HU needs a converter to "talk" to the amp and tell it to tuyrn on. You can probably find the adapter cheaper by looking around.

Don

[Vestas]

Thanks for the link, that lines up with what I've been researching, one more part for the win!

I'll give it a shot and let folks know. Thanks for the help. Good thing this is one of the easiest cars to do radio dash work on I've ever had.

[Vestas]

I received the harness today, sadly I don't think it's going to be viable. The harness, despite being listed for the car, does not have CAN-BUS leads on the right pins. it has leads on pin 5 and 6, the BUS lead on the pt cruiser I have is on pin 14 and is only one wire, not two. Pins 5 and 6 go nowhere.

I can't believe nobody has hooked an aftermarket radio up to the car before but I guess that's feasible. I called crutchfield again and they basically said don't bother. I've also got e-mail inquiries out to Installer.com and PAC-AUDIO (who make the BUS interface) to see if they have any tips.

it's interesting that looking at the harness, it seems to get it's internally illumination power and it's accessory/switch power off the CAN-BUS. it's very clear on my chrysler that there are seperate accessory/switch lines and illumination power lines on the cars main plug. As I said, radio works fine just can't power on the internal amp.

Never ceases to amaze me no matter how many times I install after market radios, the little hang-ups that make the process far more painful than it should be. As a backup plan, does anyone know a good place to buy factory radios from? I started this process because the cd-changer siezed on the one in the car and if all else fails, I'd still like to replace the head unit.

[fabreezai]

Originally Posted by Vestas

I received the harness today, sadly I don't think it's going to be viable. The harness, despite being listed for the car, does not have CAN-BUS leads on the right pins. it has leads on pin 5 and 6, the BUS lead on the pt cruiser I have is on pin 14 and is only one wire, not two. Pins 5 and 6 go nowhere.

I can't believe nobody has hooked an aftermarket radio up to the car before but I guess that's feasible. I called crutchfield again and they basically said don't bother. I've also got e-mail inquiries out to Installer.com and PAC-AUDIO (who make the BUS interface) to see if they have any tips.

it's interesting that looking at the harness, it seems to get it's internally illumination power and it's accessory/switch power off the CAN-BUS. it's very clear on my chrysler that there are seperate accessory/switch lines and illumination power lines on the cars main plug. As I said, radio works fine just can't power on the internal amp.

Never ceases to amaze me no matter how many times I install after market radios, the little hang-ups that make the process far more painful than it should be. As a backup plan, does anyone know a good place to buy factory radios from? I started this process because the cd-changer siezed on the one in the car and if all else fails, I'd still like to replace the head unit.

Vestas, check your pm's.

[bdk6t2t]

What was the solution to this problem? My situation is exactly the same… 05 Dream Cruiser with the 6 disc player and premium 6 speaker Infinity System that won’t eject the discs. I installed a new Kenwood head unit but can’t get any sound due to the factory amp not turning on.

[Busted_PT]

Originally Posted by bdk6t2t

What was the solution to this problem? My situation is exactly the same… 05 Dream Cruiser with the 6 disc player and premium 6 speaker Infinity System that won’t eject the discs. I installed a new Kenwood head unit but can’t get any sound due to the factory amp not turning on.

You would be better served to get a adapter harness to make this a plug and play. Google for the wiring diagram for your car. Must hook all the speakers before any sound will come out.