I recently purchased an aftermarket stereo for my 2005 Dodge Dakota. I used a wire harness to connect everything. All the wires are connected to their respective counterpart correctly. I noticed that on the wire harness there is an extra orange wire that says illumination but there is nothing to connect it to on the aftermarket stereo. I have power to the stereo (I can hear the cd player spinning), however there is no display showing up on the stereo. Any ideas what could be the reason for this?

 

Are there instructions and wiring diagrams for your new head unit as well as the new wiring harness? You need to compare the two and see what that orange wire is supposed to be connected to. Display turning on = illumination connected to power imo.....

 

Is the wiring coming from the Radio? if so, It would be safe to assume it also needs power like the radio. Test it to make sure before putting it all back together, The only wire I had missing was "Dim" to tell the radio to dim the screen.

 

The orange wire is not needed. It's for the dimmer. In my truck I had to use the can-bus adapter harness! It was over 100 for it but the only way an aftermarket would work in y truck

 

Topclubmartin is right. You may need a can-bus adapter. Go to Crutchfields web site and run their advisor and it will tell you whether you need the can-bus or not.

With mine I needed it and I brought the wiring hardness and wired everything before I installed the radio and it was plug an play.

Good Luck.

P.S. you can pick up a can-bus for around $70 US.