I have a 2004 Dakota 4.7L no power locks or windows or anything.

When I bought it the radio would come on but no sound out all. Then I noticed that the Door Open Chime only work intermittently. I believe that this is all related to the Time and Alarm Module or earlier known as Central Timer Module part # 56049071AJ.

My concern is that I spend the money on one and it doesn't fix the radio/speaker issue. I could care less about the door open chime.

Any thoughts?

 

Welcome to the Forum..

The CTM only controls the steering wheel radio controls if the truck has them. The rest of the radio functions are independent from the CTM. The radio has a constant 12volt and accessory 12 volt power supply and illumination power all from the fuse box. The radio is grounded with its own ground strap bolted to the back of the radio.

Chances are either the radio has a bad ground, a shorted speaker or speaker wire or it has an internal problem with its speaker outputs. The factory ground strap can become contaminated over time and not provide a good enough ground for the radio to operate. You can try running a new 12 or 14 gauge ground wire from the case of the radio down to one of the kick panels and ground it to clean bare metal under an existing bolt or nut. If that does not solve the problem you can use a volt ohm meter to check the speaker leads at the radio location for continuity to ground. If a speaker lead shorts to ground it will mute the radio's outputs to avoid internal damage. You can also test the speakers' resistance either at the radio location or by removing each speaker to test and check the speaker's condition. A speaker with a blown or shorted voice coil could be the problem but it is not very likely that all 4 speakers went out at the same time. You can temporarily connect a known working speaker to the speaker wires at each speaker location to check for a bad speaker and test the radio's outputs too.

If none of those tests come up with anything you can remove the radio and take it in to a good car audio shop and get it bench tested and repaired, but that could cost as much or more than a good aftermarket replacement radio or even a used OEM radio from the junk yard. Buying electronic parts from the bone yard may or may not be a good idea though.

The door chime does run through the CTM. That problem could be the CTM, the ignition cylinder or switch or it could be a bad door latch switch or pin switch in the door jamb, depending on which one you have.

Jimmy

 

Welcome to the forum GoCards!

If you have the Infinity audio system it could also be an issue with the power amp, by the passenger side kick panel. Check for power.

If you have "tweeters" on the doors it should be Infinity.

Do you know if the radio was ever swapped out for another model?

 

meant to reply

 

When I got it the stock radio was in it and no sound. So I pulled the stock radio and put an aftermarket headunit it. I wired it up(not my first time) and all of its functions work, just no sound.

It doesn't have the infinity system in it so no extra amp.

I guess I need to start with the continuity of the speaker wires.

If the radio comes on I would expect the ground to be good for the speakers?

Thanks for the help...Just want some sound haha nothing crazy.

 

The radio may turn on and light up but with the higher powered aftermarket decks available today the factory ground sometimes is not a good enough ground and the deck will not be able to reproduce any music. You may want to try a better ground first, that is the easiest solution. Then if still no sound, check the speaker wires for short to ground and also check the speakers themselves. If you have a blown speaker the deck may see it as a short and mute the outputs. You could also have a bad spot in a voice coil causing the problem. A quick and dirty way to test that is turn the volume up very high and very fast, give the volume **** a good sharp twist and then bring it right back down again quickly. If the speaker comes on then you have a bad voice coil. Even if it does come on after that it will probably go back out again almost right away but that is one way to test the speaker. Each speaker should read about 3.6 to 3.8 ohms when you check the voice coil with a meter. Anything different indicates a problem with the speaker.

Jimmy

 

Do you know what wire from the factory harness is the ground?

 

There is no regular ground wire in the radio harness on a Dodge. 2000 and earlier had a silver braided ground strap that had a ring terminal on the end of it that was bolted to the back of the case of the OEM radio with a 3/8" machine thread bolt. 2001 and up have a separate black ground wire that has a 1/4" female spade terminal on it that clips onto a 1/4" male lug on the back of the radio case. In either case, the factory radio grounds can become contaminated over time and not provide a good enough ground for a higher powered aftermarket radio.

Jimmy

 

I never did find the problem. I ended up running new wire from the radio harness to the two front door speakers and they work fine now. Figured it would be easier then spending all that time searching. No back speakers, but I could care less!

Thanks for the help.

 

Glad to know it's fixed. Unless you find an obvious problem like a chafed or cut speaker wire in the door cavity it is usually easier to just run new wires. The molex connector inside the rubber bellows in the upper door jamb can sometimes develop connection problems too and is a royal pain to fix.

Jimmy