1st Gen Durango 1998 - 2003 Durango's

Aftermarket Head Unit and now Dash Lights are on and Guages wont work

Old Sep 25, 2012 | 07:19 PM
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Default Aftermarket Head Unit and now Dash Lights are on and Guages wont work

I have a 2001 Dodge Durango SLT and I bought a Kenwood KDC-352U Head Unit. I wired everything according to the wiring diagram except the stock amp unit. I am getting no sound out of any speaker and the idiot lights all came on as well as the gauges in my dash don't work. I hooked the stock head unit back up and everything is fine. Then I went and hooked the aftermarket head unit back up with the power control wire hooked to the amp wire and the same thing happened. Not sure what I am doing wrong. If anyone can help that would be great.
 
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Old Sep 25, 2012 | 07:47 PM
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Originally Posted by leosgod
I have a 2001 Dodge Durango SLT and I bought a Kenwood KDC-352U Head Unit. I wired everything according to the wiring diagram except the stock amp unit. I am getting no sound out of any speaker and the idiot lights all came on as well as the gauges in my dash don't work. I hooked the stock head unit back up and everything is fine. Then I went and hooked the aftermarket head unit back up with the power control wire hooked to the amp wire and the same thing happened. Not sure what I am doing wrong. If anyone can help that would be great.
Sounds like a bad ground to me


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Old Sep 25, 2012 | 08:40 PM
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if everything is hooked up correctly i would suggest returning the headunit as it is probably bad.

i take it that you used an adapter that plugs into the factory plugs
 
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Old Sep 25, 2012 | 11:45 PM
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Maybe worth checking to make sure you didn't hook the power antenna (or remote) wire from your radio to anything other than the amp. If you hook it to the illumination wire in the harness for example im sure it will turn on your guage lights as if your head lights were on. Couldn't hurt to double check


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Old Sep 25, 2012 | 11:56 PM
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Just noticed you by passed the factory amp? Its possible that amp needs power to power up something else. I have seen strange things ran through the radio harness. My friend had an older Renault and after installing the radio the car wouldn't start. Found out there Was an ignition wire of some sort and the head lights run through the radio harness.


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Old Sep 26, 2012 | 07:22 AM
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Ok, so unless the ground was bad at the new head unit I can see why. Otherwise the old unit still works and all the dash gauges work when that one is installed.

As for a bad head unit, I would think that it is fine seeings how it lights up and I can go into all the functions, but maybe something else is screwed up internally? I bought the adapters needed to plug into the stock harness.

I checked every connection three times, I put the new head unit in with power control wire hooked to the amp wire as it tells me in the manual for the head unit, did the same thing with the antenna wire, and I tried by passed it all together, all with the same result.

My buddy suggested that I attempt to power the amp but bypass it from the sound stand point. Today when I get home from work I will take pictures, maybe someone can pick a mistake that I am making.

Thanks for all your comments.
 
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Old Sep 26, 2012 | 08:52 AM
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It could be possible that someone making the harness to plug into the factory wires could have screwed of and put a wrong wire into the wrong cavity. probably unlikely but there is human error in the world sadly.

Personally when i install aftermarket head units i prefer to buy the pigtails with the factory plugs on one end and a bare wire on the outer so i can make my own harness.
 
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Old Sep 27, 2012 | 08:39 AM
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Well, I actually found the problem. In the wiring description it tells me to hook up the Power Control Wire (Blue/White) to available amp wire or to the Antenna wire. I was assuming that the Amp wire was the Blue/Green wire that sat alone and wasn't in the main harness. So instead of hooking that one together I should have hooked it to the Antenna wire (Blue). I still have no idea what the Blue/Green wire is so I just electrical taped it off. But I now have sound, no idiot lights, and all my gauges work fine.
 
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