My son just bought a used ES. The previous owner replaced the stock stereo with a Pioneer unit. The head unit is attached to a wiring harness that plugs into the factory harness.

The stereo plays but only really the high end of sound. In the front, sound only comes out of dash speakers, nothing comes out of the doors. The rear deck speakers seem to only pump out highs also.

The first thing I did was replace the head unit with one that I had previously in my neon. Same result. After doing a bit of research, I read that the amps are notorious for failing so I bought a used one on ebay. It was a junk yard pull and looked like it had seen some weather and after switching the two, I still didn't have any bass or sound from the door speakers. I can't say for certain if either amp is any good so I'm back to square one.

Any ideas on the next step for troubleshooting? It seems like it is a crossover issue since the dash speakers are probably set to produce the high and the door speakers are set to handle the lows. Is the routing to the speakers and crossover handled by the amp? Is there an aftermarket option that I can wire up to plug into the factory wiring?

Thanks.

 

First things first, make sure that the blue "power antenna" wire from the aftermarket radio, is connected to the amp turn on wire AND the power antenna wire on the harness. For some reason, unless both are connected, it won't work. The radio from the neon may not be setup internally to power on the amp setup.

 

Having spent a fair amount of time looking at this, I can almost certainly say that there is no wires hooked up in two places. I will take a look at this either today or tomorrow and report back.

Thanks.

 

Ok, I'm in and the power antenna wire is currently not hooked up to anything. However, the wiring harness information I have on the Stratus does not show an amp turn on wire. This is what I have:

1998 Dodge Stratus Stereo Wiring
Constant 12V+ Pink/Yellow
Switched 12V+ Red/White
Ground n/a
Illumination Orange/Brown
Dimmer Black/Light Blue
Antenna Trigger Orange/Red
Left Front (+) Dark Green
Left Front (-) Brown/Red
Right Front (+) Purple
Right Front (-) Dark Blue/Red
Left Rear (+) Brown/Yellow
Left Rear (-) Brown/Light Blue
Right Rear (+) Dark Blue/White
Right Rear (-) Dark Blue/Orange

But looking at my wiring harness, I don't think the colors match up. The blue from the car stereo harness lines up with a green/red wire which isn't even listed.

 

Well, I took a pair of patch wires and bypassed the amplifier and I was able to get sound out of all of the speakers except for the front dash speakers (which is interesting because those speakers actually work with the amp hooked up). There are only 12 wires coming out of the amplifier. From trial and error, it seems that four are for the door speakers and eight are for the rear deck speakers. How do the dash speakers get sound? Am I missing a combination?

So this at least tells me that the wiring post amp is working and that the amp is not working. So I'm back to either a defective amp or the amp is not turning on due to the wiring.

I was hoping that there was an aftermarket amp bypass cable for the Stratus but I can't find one. I've found them for other Dodges but nothing for the Stratus.

 

The front dash speakers are run directly by the head unit, which splits and goes to the amp
The rear ones are run by a passthrough for the highs, and the amplified line for the lows.

Connect the power antenna and amplifier turn on lines on the radio side, to the amp wire on the car side of the harness.

The "Antenna Trigger" wire is the amp turn on wire unless you have a power antenna, which I'm quite certain you don't. Factory wire color rarely match the "standard colors" found on aftermarket systems and wire harnesses.

 

Ok, I hooked up the power antenna and amp trigger wires from the head unit to the antenna wire on the harness. The amp is still not working.

At this point, I think I'm done fighting with the amp. I don't feel like going the trial and error approach of buying another one on ebay. When I called the dealership, the replacement cost for a new one is $280.

I bought a Haynes manual, hoping it would give the wiring for the harnesses in and out of the amplifier but it only includes a generic 4 speaker wiring without an amplifier. Is the only place to get the amplifier wiring the official Dodge shop manual? I can certainly pick up the wiring colors for the door and rear deck speakers but I'm not sure I can decipher the wiring harness that goes into the amplifier.