GeezerOlds
Junior Member
Hi everyone! I’ve been lurking for some time and following along with the great instructions over in https://www.ramforum.com/threads/diy-2013-2017-ra3-ra4-8-4-radio-upgrade-hvac-conversion.135601/.
I’m upgrading from the RA2 in a 2016 to an RA4 I got from eBay. I got all the necessary parts and made my own harness based on the pinouts shown in that thread. When I got everything together I didn’t get any display on the radio at all when I started the truck. No sound either, like the radio wasn’t getting power at all. When I swapped back to my old RA2 everything worked fine. I went back and forth between the 2 radios several times, always ensuring the connections were solid and always getting the same result. I chalked it up to a bad radio from eBay (I did get a bad/water damaged single zone bezel as well but that’s a different story).
My wife has a 2014 Cherokee with the RA3 system in it. I decided for kicks that I’d try the RA4 in her vehicle before I went through the trouble of a return, and what do ya know but it worked immediately. Figured I’d try the RA4 in my truck one last time so I put her original radio back in her vehicle and now it’s behaving the exact same way the RA4 did in my truck. Just a blank screen, no audio, no controls, like it’s not getting power. Several angry swaps and curse words later and now it seems like only the RA4 works in her Jeep, not her original radio.
That would be fine, except the RA4 isn’t giving the option for ATC or dual zone control, both of which her vehicle came with from the factory. The hot/cold up and down arrows on either side of the bezel don’t do anything and the only way to control the (now single zone MTC) temp is via the slider on the radio touchscreen. Everything else including heated seats, heated steering wheel, etc all works fine from the radio.
Does anyone know what I’m missing when hooking these radios up, why they don’t appear to be getting power? Ideally I’d like to get the RA4 working in my truck andnput her original radio back into her Jeep so she gets the dual zone ATC feature back. But at the very least I’d like to re-enable that feature for her and put her RA3 in my truck (which I haven’t attempted yet).
Thanks very much!
I’m upgrading from the RA2 in a 2016 to an RA4 I got from eBay. I got all the necessary parts and made my own harness based on the pinouts shown in that thread. When I got everything together I didn’t get any display on the radio at all when I started the truck. No sound either, like the radio wasn’t getting power at all. When I swapped back to my old RA2 everything worked fine. I went back and forth between the 2 radios several times, always ensuring the connections were solid and always getting the same result. I chalked it up to a bad radio from eBay (I did get a bad/water damaged single zone bezel as well but that’s a different story).
My wife has a 2014 Cherokee with the RA3 system in it. I decided for kicks that I’d try the RA4 in her vehicle before I went through the trouble of a return, and what do ya know but it worked immediately. Figured I’d try the RA4 in my truck one last time so I put her original radio back in her vehicle and now it’s behaving the exact same way the RA4 did in my truck. Just a blank screen, no audio, no controls, like it’s not getting power. Several angry swaps and curse words later and now it seems like only the RA4 works in her Jeep, not her original radio.
That would be fine, except the RA4 isn’t giving the option for ATC or dual zone control, both of which her vehicle came with from the factory. The hot/cold up and down arrows on either side of the bezel don’t do anything and the only way to control the (now single zone MTC) temp is via the slider on the radio touchscreen. Everything else including heated seats, heated steering wheel, etc all works fine from the radio.
Does anyone know what I’m missing when hooking these radios up, why they don’t appear to be getting power? Ideally I’d like to get the RA4 working in my truck andnput her original radio back into her Jeep so she gets the dual zone ATC feature back. But at the very least I’d like to re-enable that feature for her and put her RA3 in my truck (which I haven’t attempted yet).
Thanks very much!
