I recently got a 1996 Dodge Stratus. I'm sorting it out for my daughter. The stereo doesn't work. I've checked and have voltage at the battey, ignition, and light(s) feeds. I have good ground at the radio. That tells me that I need a new radio.

What stock Dodge, Chrysler, Plymouth radios fit a 1996 Stratus? I've heard that anything from 1995 - 2001 will fit. But then I've heard that a stereo from a PT Cruiser, etc.. won't fit (they are rounded, not squared). I could put in an aftermarket radio, but I'm not looking to do that right now. I'd rather keep it simple and see if I can find a used one for $50 or so.

Of course, I can't post an ad in the Want To Buy section, since I don't have 25 posts yet. If you have a radio that will fit, please PM or Email me a price shipped to ZIP Code 11757.

-Thanks, Ken

 

"stock" radios are fairly easy to come by. You'll be looking for the 95-01 square radios, there is some overlap in the 00-01 range when they were switching to the rounded radios. The connections are not the same between them. A quick search of a large online auction site has plenty of stock radios that will work, and the pictures will tell you if it's square or rounded.

 

Great! Thanks for the reply. I'm glad to have that cleared up. So, any square radio from 1995-2001 will work. I'm still hoping something will show up at a local junkyard. If not, then an auction site will have to do (unless I reach 25 posts and can post an ad in the (Want To Buy' section). I prefer to keep my business away from the auction sites if I can.

-Ken

 

Wouldn't you know it. I finally found a radio at a junkyard. It's the one with the 5-band EQ, cassette deck, and little joystick for the balance control. Once I found it (at like the 5th junkyard), I saw another one at the very next junkyard (I was still looking for sun visors and a passenger wiper arm). The only thing is that second one I saw had the 'Infinity' logo on it.

Well, wouldn't you know that the radio I got doesn't work. It lights up and seems to tune into stations (the little 'stereo' indicator comes on when you lock in a strong station), but there is no output. Next week, I'll return this non working unit and get the other one.

Anyone know if that logo means different internals (made by Infinity) or not? It doesn't really matter, I just want a stereo that WORKS! But, I figured that I'd ask... (I'm still trying to get to 25 posts, so that I can post a thread in the 'Want To Buy' section).

 

did you try hooking up a different speaker could have bad speakers,think in 1995 or so dodge switched to cheaper paper speakers could be blown or bad wiring, chrysler teamed up with infinity(also made radios for ford/jbl) in mid 80's to make an upgraded radio option. they were better then standard factory radios

 

There was no output from what I could tell. IIRC, the front dash speakers don't use the AMP, so I should have gotten something even if it was the amp. I'm betting it was a bad stereo.

The weird thing is that both of those units looked the same to me. Just that the one had the logo. I was just wondering what the differences were between them.

 

If you have an amp under the passenger seat, than it's the infinity system. There is actually 8 speakers (front dash, front doors, and woofer/tweeter on the rear deck). The tweeters are powered by the head unit itself with a crossover that sends the bass to the door speakers and the 6x9's in the back via the amplifier. If you're still not getting sound from that radio, and it's lighting up like it's powered, than it's also most likely a bad radio. At that point, you might as well just go aftermarket, and as long as you hook up the blue "amp turn on" wire to the unlabeled wire on the harness, you'll be good to go.

 

I'm going to bring back that bad radio tomorrow. I'll swing by and pick up that other radio (same one with 5-band EQ, but also has the Infinity logo) at the other junkyard on the same trip. If I remember, I'll post pics showing how the radios look exactly the same. I was just wondering if they were the same, or if the Infinity one had better internals. Not too important now since this one doesn't work.

 

If this replacement fails too, I would verify that the wires running into the amp are OK. I'm not 100% sure where the crossover is, but I believe it to be in the amp.

 

I returned the defective radio I bought to the junkyard that I bought it from. I went and got the other one from the junkyard that I saw it at and when I tried it out tonight, the FM radio doesn't work at all. I get nothing but static. I tried the AM radio and it works just fine. Ugh... This is getting annoying.

As it ends up, the first radio said 97 Caravan on the top of it, and this one says 01 Neon. Wouldn't you know that the left side mounting tab has been moved to the bottom of the radio? I'm thinking that I could trim that tab off (being careful to do it neatly) and just use the right side tab to hold the radio in place. It doesn't matter since this radio is no good, but I'm wondering if this applies to all Neons or is it because this radio is from a 2001 car?

-Ken