my '97 intrepid has 3 sets of speakers 6x9's in the rear, 5x1/4 in the doors, and 3/12 in the dash. I just hooked up a kenwood reciever with all the wires hooked up. The 6x9's and the 3x1/2's work fine, but the 5x1/4's don't make a sound. On all the diagram's of '97 intrepids state that there are only 2 sets of speakers in the car, when my intrepid clearly has 3 sets. I got frustrated and hooked up my old stock stereo and all 3 sets of speakers work...with the same wires hooked in to the same inputs on both stereo's. What I want to know is where all the wires from the 5x1/4 in the doors and the 3x1/2 in the dash all hook up. Where do I find the wires befor they apear in my stereo hook-up area. how do I fix the problem, and why do the 5x1/4's only work with a stock dodge intrepid radio and not with a $700 kenwood cd player (kdc-x959)
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z
First off that is an awesome head unit and I would also be pissed if I spent 700 bucks and the thing didn't work.
The last time I did one of these I think the speakers all worked fine, all 3 pairs. First off, did you use the standard Chrsyler wiring harness (Metra 70-1817 or equivalent) when you hooked up the Kenwood? Make sure that the blue wire of the harness is hooked up to the kenwood's blue, or if present, blue/white wire. (it should be labeled "AMP REMOTE" or "SYS CONTROL").
Now once you've verified that all that is the case, the next thing to do is look at the factory wiring plug. Compare it to the wiring harness you're (hopefully) using. Make sure there aren't two wires going to the same pin. If there are, match up the wiring harness and see if those pins are the ones that correspond to the white and grey wires. If so, then the front speakers are wired up in parallel. This puts a 2-ohm stereo load on the front channels but most head units can handle this kind of load. And if your head unit couldn't handle this 2-ohm stereo load you wouldn't get sound out of any of the front speakers; that's why this problem is kinda odd.
If there are no extra wires on the factory plug, the only other thing I can think of would be to get a digital multimeter (very cheap, just needs to be able to test for resistance). you want to test each pair of front speaker wires in the wiring harness for resistance. To do this, touch the red test lead to the white wire, and the black test lead to the WHITE/ black wire. You will either get approx. 2 ohms, approx. 4 ohms, or approx. 8 ohms. Then repeat this same process but do it for the grey and grey/black wires. Just to make sure you're doing the process correctly, repeat it again but for the purple & PURPLE / black wires, and the green & GREEN/ black wires. These are the rear speaker wires and since you only have 2 rear speakers you will definitely get something close to 4 ohms for each speaker. If not, then you're doing something wrong and the readings for the front speakers might not be right.
If you do indeed have to get to that step, let me know what the readings that you get are.
Also just to clarify, this vehicle did not come with the infinity sound system, correct? just the standard 6-speaker system? Do you remember if a 4-speaker system was an option?
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Ethan
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"Patience, persistence, and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success"
Donate to the12volt.comjust to reply to the last reply, yes I am using a compatible wire harness, no there are no two wires hooked up to one pin
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z
Were there any other loose wires back there behind the dash opening that are not used when the kenwood is hooked up? Also, what did you ground the kenwoood to? The factory braided grounding strap?
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Ethan
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"Patience, persistence, and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success"
Donate to the12volt.comno other loose wires behind the dash opening, like I said, when I swich the old factory radio in, all 6 speakers work. And yes, it was grounded to the braided strap.
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z