Hey y'all, 1st post. The radio on my 02 Stratus R/T stopped working recently. The lights work and the radio turns on (time/stations shown on the display, CD spinning/playing), but there's no sound coming out of any of the speakers. When I checked the fuses I noticed that the 20 amp audio system fuse in the passenger compartment junction box was blown. I tried to replace the fuse but the new one burned out right away as well, so it seems there is a short to ground somewhere in the circuit. It's not in the radio itself, as I unhooked the radio from the circuit and the fuse still blows right away. Unfortunately, the Haynes manual does not have this fuse displayed in their wiring schematic, only two 10 ampers in the engine compartment fuse box. Any insight into this problem?

thanks,

Joe

 

hey joe..i have an 02 Rt as well, and the SAME thing happened to mine...it looked like it was on, but no sound..turns out, part of the factory amp grounded itself out, and wasnt allowed anything to pass through it into the speakers. a new amp is like 600 bucks from chrysler, i just made jumpers and do without it..[&o]

 

Nice, thanks for the tip BadStrat. Do all the 02 R/Ts have the factory amp? From the updated schematic that Haynes sent me it looks like there's an RCA cable that runs from the head unit to the amp, my stereo does not have this RCA cable so I thought that maybe I don't have an external amp. Although I don't know why you would need the RCA connection if the amp has speaker level inputs running to it. Where is the amp located at on your car? Also, how did you jumper around it? Did you totally take it out of the circuit and use the amplifier in the radio to power the speakers, or run a new power cable to the amp?

thanks,

Joe

 

ok...youll have to bear with me because im a performance guy, not a stereo guy.

the amp, i believe IS in every RT. it is located under the passenger seat, in a black metal box. i havent looked at the back of my radio, but i do know that there was a large harness going in, and coming out of the amp. the way that i jumped around the amp, i made connections from some wire i had, and i figured out which pin on the harness in was which speaker, and which speaker it should go to on the harness out, and connected them. i think it took like 8 or 10 jumper wires. i also have a control box which has to be inserted into the "subs in" line on the harness in, i then ran RCa cables to my aftermarket amp. when my radio burnout up, my dad was driving it, at the track, with the radio and subs off...[:@]

 

The story ends well. It turns out that the amp wasn't bad, but apparently something had gotten shoved underneath the passenger seat and was causing a short at the wiring harness connection to the amp. I pulled the seat out, cleaned everything up, put in a new fuse and voila!, music. Thanks for the troubleshooting advice BadStrat. The site will have a donation coming it's way from me.

Joe