DIY: 2013-2014 8.4 Radio Upgrade

[Sleek1]

I've read and re read this thread and I still have a question If I'm reading this right, cgeorgeemo reused his factory bezel for the 8.4 correct? I was under the impression the factory one from a 5.0 wouldn't work, so I ordered one of the bezels from oemautoparts w/o the volume control because I'm adding the steering wheel controls myself. But i thought there was something special about their bezels that had to do with the hvac till I saw this on their website."Simply remove the HVAC controls from your existing radio bezel and install onto this replacement using the same 4 screws!" So did I just waste my money on that bezel and could have just reused my factory one?

 

[1500ram12]

Depends, if you want a more factory 8.4 bezel look than no. If you don't care that it looks a little off than yes.

On another hand, some of these same guys over on ram.......z have just about figured out a way to use the factory 8.4 bezel with manual climate controls. Essentially making a harness to go from the non 8.4 equipped trucks hvac wiring to the 8.4 bezel allowing control of the hvac from the radio. I haven't seen if they verified that the radio controls work on the bezel or not. I know that they have some tweaking to do.

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[loveracing1988]

Depends, if you want a more factory 8.4 bezel look than no. If you don't care that it looks a little off than yes.

On another hand, some of these same guys over on ram.......z have just about figured out a way to use the factory 8.4 bezel with manual climate controls. Essentially making a harness to go from the non 8.4 equipped trucks hvac wiring to the 8.4 bezel allowing control of the hvac from the radio. I haven't seen if they verified that the radio controls work on the bezel or not. I know that they have some tweaking to do.

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Now this would be worth some money.

 

[cptwing]

The solution that currently exists will provide full functionality of the 8.4 MTC bezel, with the exception of the highest speed on the blower, speeds 1-6 work fine speed 7 does not, all else works both ways soft and hard buttons.

That said currently this solution works only on trucks that do not have the extra 5 pin fan control plug. The easiest way to know which one you have if you already installed the 8.4 is if the onscreen fan graphic only goes to "4" or by counting the number of clicks in your current fan dial.

If your onscreen fan graphic goes to 7 you do not have the extra 5 pin plug and this harness will work for you for everything except the 7th speed on the fan, personally I could easily live with that but alas I do have the 5 pin plug.

I tracked down where to buy all the plugs and the required module, I also have the pin-out to fab the harness. I along with others are trying to figure out how to make this work with the extra 5 pin plug.

The cost for this if you DIY would be about 100.00 give or take, plus whatever you pay for the 8.4 bezel.

Surprisingly the answer was staring us all in the face, but also required a few leaps of faith and of course tracking down the parts and the connectors the 5 pin was the trickiest.

The primary credit for this really goes to the getupkid, who like myself has the extra 5 pin plug and can't yet himself use it.

 

[Mpgrimm2]

@cptwing, do u have a link to the thread where this is being worked on?

I briefly took a look at a Laramie MTC vs ATC HVAC control schematic while looking up 70chall440's backup cam prints as an initial look into what everyone is talking about and saw the extra temp sensor module for the ATC. I also noticed some of the CanBus IPS connections (CanBus C appears to be critical running gear, ie Abs Brakes, etc).

Sounds like there are a lot of people interested in this upgrade... Me too.

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[1500ram12]

It's on ram.....z scroll down until you see under 4th gen, then it's under uconnect. It's the thread with 62 pages. The title is something like upgrading ra1 to ra2

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[Sleek1]

Have a question that I hope someone has an answer for A few weeks ago, I upgraded my 5.0 to an 8.4NA. Everything has worked fine for the last month, but today I get in my truck after it had been running for about 20 minutes with the heater on high and there was no volume. I tried turning the volume up but nothing. I tried switching from Sirius to FM but it wouldn't change. I also tried changing Sirius stations but it did not work. When I press the Multimedia button, Multimedia lights up for a second but then Radio lights back up, it flashes back and forth twice but stays on Radio. If I try to press any other function like Nav, Phone, or settings, the screen kind of flashes but it remains on Radio. I tried shutting the truck off and then starting it back up after the radio turned off but it still does the same thing. I don't know if it got too hot or something. Maybe I should try disconnecting the battery for a minute or so? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[Sleek1]

Thankfully, the battery thing worked and it's all back to normal

 

[tyler177]

Looking for some help.. I just did the upgrade from the 5.0 RA2 to the 8.4RA4 and everything works great except for the fact that the volume seems more muted and at higher volumes its almost like the 8.4 is limiting the volume because anything above level 26 starts to sound distorted and muddy almost. Am I the only one that is experiencing this? I use to be able to crank the RA2 all the way up and it would handle it. Thanks for the awesome write up btw.

 

[SATXCTD]

I have a 8.4 bezel with volume knob and plug and play harness if anyone is looking.

Pm me




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[alex_5_7]

Thanks a ton

 

[SitKneelBend]

Looking for some help.. I just did the upgrade from the 5.0 RA2 to the 8.4RA4 and everything works great except for the fact that the volume seems more muted and at higher volumes its almost like the 8.4 is limiting the volume because anything above level 26 starts to sound distorted and muddy almost. Am I the only one that is experiencing this? I use to be able to crank the RA2 all the way up and it would handle it. Thanks for the awesome write up btw.

What firmware version are you running?

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[JRG18]

What firmware version are you running?

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Ummmm, he wrote that post a year ago.......

 

[tron67j]

There is a thread on here in the section about adding steering wheel audio controls, here is a YouTube video that explains the process. Again, it is up to you but I find them very useful.