2001 Chrysler T&C no sound

Help!  I've just installed an Alpine head unit into my 2001 T&C, purchased and hooked up the wiring harness, and get no sound.  The unit operates perfectly and checks good in another vehicle.  Likewise, the OEM stereo is working fine in the Chrysler.  There are two wires hooked to the OEM unit that don't have a place in the wiring harness.  One is clearly a ground that was anchored to the back of the stereo chassis.  The second is a pink/gray wire terminating in a rectangular white and red connector.  Does this need to go somewhere?  I've tried hooking power to it and it didn't seem to like that!  I don't have the Infinity package, so I don't think I have any external amps.

Thanks for your help!  Shawn.

Make sure that your remote turn-on output from your Alpine is hooked up to the blue wire in the wiring harness going to the car.  I've had more chrysler products than I can count not get sound, even non-infinity systems.  Alpines have a blue power antenna and blue/white remote turn on output.  The pink/gray wire can probably be disregarded. 

Chris,

Thanks for the advice, but no luck...  I've tried hooking the remote turn-on output to the blue wire in the wiring harness, but the Chrysler harness doesn't actually have a wire connected to that blue wire.  Any other ideas? 

Thanks again, Shawn.

All righty now...now it gets truly bizzarre...

If I hook up the factory stereo, leave the key on, unplug the black and gray harness (but leave the ground and the pink/grey wire hooked up to the factory unit) and plug the harnesses into the Alpine, all's good in the world.  I have function and sound.  I can then unplug the pink/grey wire and, as long as I keep the key on, can turn the Alpine on/off and it works great.  However, once I turn off the key, the pink/grey wire has to be hooked up to the factory radio again to get sound.  As I said before, I've tried hooking the remote turn on lead and straight 12V power to this wire and get nothing.  The factory unit must send some kind of signal to something on this wire...any idea what?

Any help would be greatly appreciated...I can't be the only fool out there who has tried to upgrade his minivan's mediocre system.  For the record, I was ready to throw in the towel and live with the factory unit until I caught a glimpse of what I'm missing!  Now I'm really desperate!

Thanks again,  Shawn.

well i'm just guessin but i heard some alpine headunit needs an external amp or am i wrong? could it be a defective head unit?

i don't think ur the only one trying to upgrade a minivan, my friend use to have a minivan and he put a decent system into it until someone broke in and stole everything

Hmm...I haven't heard of this on a Chrysler before, but some late model GMs have a databus wire that goes to the radio, and in order to replace the fact. radio you have to either stick it in the trunk and run the necessary wires back to it, or use a databus interface.  If everything works with the pink/grey wire and ground attached, I would suggest that you extend the ground wire and the pink/grey wire so that you can stick the fact. radio out of the way in the vehicle somewhere, and hook up the Alpine like you did before.

Thanks for the advice.  While it looks a little funny with a factory unit sitting on the floor (for now), all works perfectly.  Any idea who I could get a databus interface from...or how much?

-Shawn.

I don't know if it's a databus wire or something else entirely.  I wouldn't bother trying to find one...since you already know which two wires you need, just cut and splice extensions into them, making sure you leave enough wire at the connector to splice into.

Zorro33,

I have given up for now...I have the Alpine installed with the factory unit tucked under the passenger's feet.  To get sound, I had to run extensions of the power, ground, and the pink/grey wire with the white clip to the factory unit.  The important one seems to be the pink/grey one since it somehow "talks" to the Town & Country and "tells" it to turn on the stereo system.  When I get some time, I plan to disassemble the Chrysler radio to see if I can take a smaller portion of it out and hide it behind the console.  Good luck and please let me know if you find a better solution!

OK... for all those wanting to power up the OEM amplifier on the Infinity systems here's what you have to do:

These wires are found behind the OEM deck:

On the black plug ( with the locking tab on the top ) go the the last wire on the right side, it's a LIGHT GREEN wire. This is the OEM remote turn on lead for the Infinity system. Use the remote turn on lead from the Alpine ( BLUE/WHITE ) or use the ignition lead fron the deck to turn on this wire ( RED / WHITE on grey plug ).