Hi all. Just picked up new(to me) '00 Quad cab. Good deal on the truck but the Infinity head unit powers up, tape moves, cd turns, but no sound. No hisses, snaps, no nothing. Checked amp fuse in the fuse block by the driver's door. What next?

 

This may sound dumb but remove the radio and be sure it is connected. The guy who sold the truck might have had an aftermarket radio in it just thrown the factory one back in so it would light up when he traded or sold it. Same thing at the factory amp, remove the passenger's kick panel and be sure the connections are all OK.

If everything looks good, check all the other fuses in the interior fuse panel too. And check all the fuses under the hood, seems I remember if the IOD fuse is blown the radio won't work. You can remove the radio and a have a good car audio shop bench test it for you, or you can do it yourself in the truck by cutting a pair of speaker output wires, like the front or the rear and connecting a known good speaker to them. I would say check the rears, because they are all on the same plug together, the black one. Here are the speaker wire colors for the radio:

Right Front Spkr (+) Purple
Right Front Spkr (-) Blue w/ Red Stripe

Left Front Spkr (+) Dark Green
Left Front Spkr (-) Brown w/ Red Stripe

Right Rear Spkr (+) Blue w/ White Stripe
Right Rear Spkr (-) Blue w/ Orange Stripe

Left Rear Spkr (+) Brown w/ Yellow Stripe
Left Rear Spkr (-) Brown w/ Blue Stripe

At the radio there is also a dark green wire with an orange or red stripe on it that is the remote on wire for the amplifier. Use a voltmeter and be sure you have 12 volts on that wire when the radio is on, both at the radio and at the amplifier. I have seen those go bad on factory Dodge/Chrysler radios in the past.

If the factory radio is bad, it may just be easier and cheaper to replace it with a good aftermarket one. Nowadays you can buy a good AM-FM CD deck with IPOD or MP3 player inputs for less than $100.00.

Also check to be sure there are speakers in the truck. I know that sounds stupid but if the guy who had the truck before you had a system in it he may have pulled all the speakers when he sold it and not put anything back in because he was selling it. And be sure none of the speakers are shorted to ground. You can do that by checking the speaker leads at the amplifier with a volt-ohm meter set for continuity to ground. Connect the negative lead on the meter to chassis ground in the truck and probe each speaker wire individually with the positive lead on the meter. If you find a wire that is shorted, pull that speaker and see that its terminals are not touching metal behind the speaker location. If that is the case, use duct tape on the inside edges of the speaker mounting hole and also on the speaker terminals to insulate it. If there is a short in the wire itself somewhere, it is easier to just run a new wire from the radio or amp to the speaker instead of spending all day trying to find where it is shorted. The speaker output wire colors at the amp are the same as the speaker wire colors at the radio.

Jimmy

 

Will a factory head unit - non infinity - from a 1994 Dakota plug into a 2000 infinity harness?

 

Yes it will. The plugs are the same, one black and one gray plug and a standard antenna jack. The ground cable should also be the same, it's the braided cable with the ring connector on it and it screws to the 10mm bolt on the back of the radio. If the radio doesn't work, try connecting the ground bolt on the back of the radio to a piece of about 14 gauge wire and ground it down in the kick panel, under an existing nut or bolt there to clean bare chassis metal. Sometimes the factory gound connections become contaminated over time and are not a good enough ground for the radio. You might also try that solution on your factory 2000 model radio. As long as the speaker outputs and the remote on output on the 94 model unit still work it should be OK. And it will mount to the same bolt holes in the dash.

Jimmy

 

Keep It Simple Stoopid...........Whoever sold the truck to the dealer neglected to plug the amp back in.

After reading horror stories about the infinity system, I feared the worst. Now if I could only do something so easy to the clear coat.......