04 QC W/Infinity System - Replacing HU

I just bought a 2004 QC and love it. It's an older truck, but runs great.

I want to put an updated Stereo head unit in it so I can play from an AUX and/or USB input. I've done car stereo stuff before, so I'm not too worried about the process, but I can't seem to get clear info on what exactly I need.

I'd prefer to run my HU through the existing Infinity amp rather than bypass it or rewire anything. I'm looking for convenience in this process, not a massive sound upgrade.

As best I can tell from searching here and reading on many other forums, I can use a standard aftermarket wiring harness as long as I make sure that I connect the power to the amp correctly. Is this right? If I use this, then I don't need to purchase any additional amp bypass cabling, etc...?

Here's what I have in my cart...If you've swapped out the HU on an infinity system could you verify that this all looks correct?

Wiring Harness:
https://www.amazon.com/Scosche-Reverse-Chrysler-Vehicles-Connector/dp/B0007KPRK6/

Antenna Adapter:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002BEQNE/

Dash Bezel replacement:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KQ1JJA0/

Steering Wheel control interface:
https://www.amazon.com/Axxess-ASWC-1-Universal-Steering-Interface/dp/B00B4PJC9K/

Am I missing any pieces other than the new double din HU itself?

Thanks guys!

That is the same harness I used. Wire to radio and plug it in to stock harness. Amp worked as normal.

Sent from my VS985 4G using Tapatalk

Did you get this installed and it worked?
I tried this a while back and could not get any sound. I was told that I would need to bypass the amp or run speaker cable directly to the head unit.

jrilley1 said:

Did you get this installed and it worked?
I tried this a while back and could not get any sound. I was told that I would need to bypass the amp or run speaker cable directly to the head unit.

Click to expand...

You can almost always retain the factory amp on any vehicle but the harnesses and wiring used is very specific. Probably was an incorrect harness or maybe one wire not hooked up correctly. A lot of people mess up the connections of the blue colored wires and generally the factory amp turn on is one of them.

just make sure you hook up the blue remote turn on wire on the harness, 90% of us use that wire to turn on an aftermarket amp for our subs, in your case you will have to use that wire to turn on the OEM amp for the infinity system, do that and you should be good, the harness you bought will have a spot for that wire to hook it will be called "power antenna" or something like that

When I did mine every wire matched up to radio, color for color. Only wire that was not used was the illumination wire on the aftermarket harness.

Sent from my VS985 4G using Tapatalk

The problem that most people have is that they will try to connect their factory amp turn on (which is blue in the aftermarket harness) to the blue wire coming out of the radio. The solid blue wire coming from the back of an aftermarket radio is a power antenna lead. This wire loses 12v when any source other than the tuner is selected. So when they're listening to the tuner, everything works. Switch to USB/aux/cd/Bluetooth etc, and all of a sudden there is no more audio.

In this case the blue/white wire coming from the radio is what will be connected to the factory amp turn wire, even though it has no stripe.

justin13703 said:

The problem that most people have is that they will try to connect their factory amp turn on (which is blue in the aftermarket harness) to the blue wire coming out of the radio. The solid blue wire coming from the back of an aftermarket radio is a power antenna lead. This wire loses 12v when any source other than the tuner is selected. So when they're listening to the tuner, everything works. Switch to USB/aux/cd/Bluetooth etc, and all of a sudden there is no more audio.

In this case the blue/white wire coming from the radio is what will be connected to the factory amp turn wire, even though it has no stripe.

Click to expand...

i havent ran into this on newer radios, some radios have a separate amp and antenna wire, in that case it matters but if the radio only has one blue wire, it will retain power as long as the radio is turned on, i have it like this in all 4 of my rams

Demon-HeMi said:

i havent ran into this on newer radios, some radios have a separate amp and antenna wire, in that case it matters but if the radio only has one blue wire, it will retain power as long as the radio is turned on, i have it like this in all 4 of my rams

Click to expand...

It depends on the manufacturer. Some only have one blue wire and it doesn't matter. The ones that have a blue and a blue/white, it does matter and most people end up using the blue and not the blue/white, which is the correct one.

justin13703 said:

It depends on the manufacturer. Some only have one blue wire and it doesn't matter. The ones that have a blue and a blue/white, it does matter and most people end up using the blue and not the blue/white, which is the correct one.

Click to expand...

i have both on my pioneer radios and both stay hot if the radio is on, i never use FM

my kenwoods, alpines, jensens, and a few others i have laying around are the same, i have a tub of like 60 car radios laying around i can check dang near whatever brand you want lol!

Demon-HeMi said:

i have both on my pioneer radios and both stay hot if the radio is on, i never use FM

my kenwoods, alpines, jensens, and a few others i have laying around are the same, i have a tub of like 60 car radios laying around i can check dang near whatever brand you want lol!

Click to expand...

I was an installer for years, I personally fixed at least a dozen installs where people did this on their own and then couldn't figure it out lol.

Maybe they have changed in recent years, but yeah. Plenty of them a few years back would drop 12v off the solid blue wire when changed off of the tuner source mode. Seen it too many times to not at least mention it as a possibility.