2002 Durango Factory Amp?

I'm looking to install an aftermarket Clarion headunit.  WIll the power put out by the head unit conflict with the power put out by the factory Infinity amp?  Do i have to bypass the factory amp?  If I have to bypass it do I have to hardwire the bypass or does anyone know if a bypass harness is available?

Thanks

Brian

I've never had to bypass an Infinity amp in a Chrysler vehicle when installing an aftermarket head unit.  The reason for this is that the factory infinity head unit outputs an amplified (albeit, low powered) signal to the factory infinity amps, where the signal is amplified again and from there it goes to the speakers.   So you will be just fine hooking up an aftermarket head unit to the stock infinity system.  I suppose if you tried to turn it up REALLY loud it might start to distort and not sound as clear, but if you want that kind of volume you should be looking at an aftermarket 4-channel amp anyways.

A couple of things to keep in mind:

1.  use a wiring harness ( Metra 70-6502 or equivalent)

2.  If there's an extra GREEN/ black wire, usually with a quick slide connector on it, this is the infinity amplifier ground, and needs to be hooked up to a ground behind the radio.

3.  Make sure the blue wire in the metra wiring harness is hooked up to the clarion's remote turn-on wire (sometimes called "system control" or "amp rem").  It will either be a blue wire, or a blue/white wire.  If the clarion has both wires, use the blue/white wire.

THANKS for the knfo....

Since you brought it up!  If I decide to install an aftermarket 4 channel amp (I have a PPI AX400 old Art series) would I have to bypass the factory amp then?  It would be easiest to run speaker wires from the AX400 to behind the radio and connect them to speaker wires in the Metra harness but this would mean the power from the AX400 would be passing through the factory amp?    Would this create a problem?

That could definitely cause a problem because the factory amps are only designed to take an amplified signal that is low powered.  I don't know the exact number of watts, but I'd say anything over 30 RMS would definitely cause it to distort--probably even lower than that actually.  This is the same reason that back in my first reply, I had said that the only problem that might arise from hooking up the head unit normally would be if you turned it up really really loud (and therefore approached the maximum RMS that the factory amp could handle.

Not only is there a potential for distortion, but very high levels of power could possibly even damage the infinity amps.

Upgrading some (or all) of the speakers would probably be the next step if you were looking to improve the sound quality even more.  All that would be required for that task is a few speaker harnesses to plug in to factory wiring.

Now if  later on you wanted to add an aftermarket 4 channel amp and use the factory speaker wiring, the only way would be to bypass the factory amplifier.  To my knowledge there is not a harness that exists for this specific task, so you'd have to test all the inputs and outputs on the amp, for polarity and output.  In other words, a LOT of testing/cutting/splicing/taping/soldering, etc.

Or of course if you don't mind figuring out how to get from the inside of the vehicle to the door speakers (good luck!) then just run new speaker wires to all the speakers you want to be powered by the aftermarket 4-channel amp.  The infinity systems sometimes have as many as 10 speakers total, but most aftermarket 4-channel amps are 2 ohm stable in stereo modes so it is still possible to power all of them.

The harness from the Clarion Headunit has 2 yellow wires:  One with a 15a inline fuse and the other a 3a fuse.  The wiring diagram from Clarion lists the 15a one as "Memory Back Up Lead" and the 3a on as "Bus Power Lead"??  Which one gets connected to the Yellow "12 Volt Constant Power" wire coming from the aftermarket harness I purchased?

Thanks again for the help!

Dave,

So far you've been right on the money THANKS.  I installed the CD Player today and now have a new problem.  o Audio Cd Player to my factory 2002 Dodge Durango with the infinity upgrade.  I found out that I needed an antenna adapter towards the end of the install so I left it disconnected.  When I powered up the radio, i get static in all 4 channels.  However when I put a CD in I get about 1 second of music and then nothing?????  I'm assuming my speaker connections are correct since I get static in all 4 channels but i get dead silence when the cd is in (expect for the first 1 second)  ALL other aspects of the head unit work properly.  Have any clue on what the problem could be???

I really appreciate your help

Brian