Car Stereos: 2004 Durango aftermarket stereo install, factory radio, pin positions

Question
Hello,
I recently bought an Alpine CDE-103BT and tryed to install it in my 2004 Durango, wired it up with the harness, but no power to the new head unit. I was told that I will need an additional part but he was not sure what.
Any help would be great,
John

Answer
Hi John,

Sorry about the delay in answering your question.

You may be able to use the basic harness, with a bit of extra wiring.  The trouble is that the factory radio doesn't have a key-switched power wire; it's represented by a red wire in the adapter harness, but there's no such wire in the factory plug.  You can bypass this by connecting the red wire from your new head unit to a key-switched power source.  In the Durango, this can usually be found at one of the DC power outlets (ie, cigarette lighter outlets).  Usually you'll find one outlet that's powered through the key switch; connecting the red wire from your head unit to the feed wire from this power outlet will get your new head unit working perfectly.

However, you may have another problem if the Durango is equipped with a factory amplifier.  Take a look at the speaker wires in your adapter harness:  there should be eight wires, variously colored white, gray, green and violet, with and without black stripes.  When you plug it into the factory plug, there should be eight matching wires (they'll be different colors, but the pin positions will line up).  If you have all eight wires in place, then you shouldn't have any problems.  However, if you only see four factory wires, then you have a digitally-controlled factory amplifier.  In this case, you'll need to use a Metra CHTO-01 adapter to integrate the new head unit with the stock amp.

Hope this helps!

Brian