Hey guys. We had an 05 Town & Country in the shop today for a stereo install, and ran into a problem. The vehicle had a seperate 6 disk changer mounted lower in the console if that helps with system identification. Anyway, we wired up the radio like we've done so many times in the past (remote wire hooked up, and the gray ground wire connected together with the ground strap), but couldn't get any sound. So we went back to stock to find a solution. There was a single wire white plug on the back of the factory unit that when plugged in, the sound would come on and stay on (even when immediately unplugged) until the radio was turned off. But when the radio was turned right back on, there wouldn't be any sound until that plug was again inserted. IIRC it was white with either a red, pink, or purple stripe. The wire seemed to change from about .8 to 1.2 volts, with no continuity to ground. And it never changed it's state whether plugged into the factory radio or disconnected. It just always metered around 1 volt.
The customer is bringing the vehicle back this saturday and we will be running new wires to all the speakers to bypass this problem. And we are doing the re-wire for free as we already quoted a basic deck install price. So I was hoping one of you guys know another solution. Any help would be appreciated.
that white wire is the PCI Bus wire, like a data wire to turn on the factory amplifiers. what you need to do is run the amp turn on of the aftermarket radio (you might want to use a relay to beef up the voltage) to the underhood fuse box. open the fuse box and on the drivers side at the front of the fuse box there is a relay (labeled NBS I believe). pull the relay out and leave out, and the very front corner opening is pin 87 of the relay which is the amp turn on. take a male spade connector and connect it to the amp turn on of the aftermarket radio then insert it into the pin 87 opening. that's all. the amps will come on and you'll be all set.
or you could rewire but that would take alot more time.
Thanks a bunch for the reply. My boss just said he thinks it was actually an 01. Will that change anything from your above reply? Sorry about the mistake, I guess I worked on too many cars yesterday.
they started it in 2001 so yes it will still apply.
Well, did the install today and everything was set up as you suggested. The only difference was that I had to add a relay to the remote turn on. The sound was cutting out when using the Sanyo cassette/CD's remote turn on. Adding a relay solved the problem. It was much nicer than running new wires to all the speakers. Thanks again!