Problems after trying to replace stereo!!!

[Peggy]

If anyone can help me I would appreciate it.

I bought a 2005 Dodge Ram 1500 with 4.7 engine. Whoever owned it before me replaced the stereo with a pioneer deh-150mp stereo. My husband wanted to replace the stereo and speakers but I asked him not to touch it that we would take it to a car stereo place and have them do it. Sorry, but he screws things up worse than he does fixing them...lol

Anyways, while I was at work one day he kept my truck needing to haul something. When I got home that evening he had been messing with the stereo and had replaced the speakers, which thankfully he did not mess them up, but the new stereo he bought he was unable to get any power to it so he put the pioneer back in.

This is where the problem begins. When I bought the truck everything worked on it just fine. After him messing with the stereo a list of problems have arisen and currently I don't have the money to take it to the shop to get someone to look at it right now so I'm hoping maybe someone on here has some ideas of what I can do or where to start. These are the problems I'm having:

1) Stereo will not hold memory.
2) Power door lock button will not work without key being turned on.
3) Horn will not work without key being turned on.
4) Driver's side back blinker intermittently works sometimes.

We have taken the stereo out several times and rewired it thinking maybe he wired it wrong. I printed out the wiring instructions and followed them exactly and still nothing. When this pioneer stereo was put in they didn't use a wiring harness they just cut all the wires.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated right now.

 

[BiGMERF]

wish i could be of better help... but it seems something is def crossed wire wise.... checked fuses?

 

[Peggy]

Yes we checked fuses. It's really got us puzzled too.

 

[justin13703]

Please tell me he used wiring harness to connect the radio. If he (or the person before) just hacked the stock plug off then yes it’s going to be a bit of work to get everything right again. I never understood why people cut those plugs off. A plug in color coded harness is 10 dollars lol

If the factory plug was cut off and you still have it, before you do anything you need to put that plug back on. Either solder and heat shrink the connections or use crimp connectors. If he has the correct plug in aftermarket harness, it should be color coded to the wires on the new radio.

Edit: nevermind. I see that the harness was cut. I’ll never figure out the reasoning behind that.

 

[BiGMERF]

Did ya figure it out ?

 

[BWL]

Try to get a diagram for the wiring harness that was cut. See if anything jumps out at you. There should be 2 power wires. An accessory and a constant. The constant for the locks and hazards may have been tied into that harness and he may have reversed them on there. Back blinker may be coincidental. The light sockets on those can wear out and get loose fitting on the bulb. Seen it many times. The part is replaceable just wiggle the bulb in the socket with the blinkers on to confirm. Also possible there's a wire that is supposed to be tied to the constant power that was paired in the harness that is now not, but I couldn't tell you which one and hooking power to wires to test this is a bad idea without the diagram and some know how.

 

[justin13703]

Do you still have the factory plug? If so, match up every one of the wires and crimp them back together. If not, either go to a junkyard and grab another one to put back on, or go to any car audio place (or online) and get a “reverse harness” which will be a replacement for the factory plug. Either way after you get that factory plug put back on, just get the aftermarket vehicle harness. It literally plugs in and is color coded to match every wire coming from your new radio. Also once you know the factory plug is back on correctly you can start troubleshooting the other electrical problems.

And yes it can be done with that plug cut off. But if you don’t know what you are doing it is a PITA and it’s just a cobbed up way to do it.

Here is all the wiring info for that truck.

https://www.the12volt.com/installbay/forum_posts.asp?tid=54234