Radio not working

Tiny
JR47
  • MEMBER
  • 2000 CHRYSLER CIRRUS
  • 2.5L
  • V6
  • FWD
  • AUTOMATIC
  • 181,436 MILES
The car did not have one when I bought it, I have tried four different radios and none worked. Three of them were aftermarket radios and were wired up correctly and the fourth was a factory radio still nothing. Checked all the fuses which are good. Any ideas on what could be or is going on?
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Wednesday, July 27th, 2016 AT 8:23 PM

7 Replies

Tiny
CARADIODOC
  • MECHANIC
  • 33,689 POSTS
First of all, this was right in the middle of switching over, so does the car's plugs have two seven-pin connectors, a gray one and a black one, or a single gray connector with two rows of pins? Does the original radio have rounded corners on the face plate with a screw hole in each of the four corners, or is it a square-face radio with two mounting ears?

What is the symptom with the factory radio? Does the display light up? Do the back-lights work when the dash / tail lights are turned on? Does the car have a factory amp? It would be mounted to the floor under the passenger front seat.
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Wednesday, July 27th, 2016 AT 8:36 PM
Tiny
CARADIODOC
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What is the model number of the factory radio?
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Wednesday, July 27th, 2016 AT 8:37 PM
Tiny
JR47
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It has the two seven pin connectors and it is a square face radio, it has a factory amp and the radio display does not light up, but all the dash and other lights work properly. I do not have the model number for the radio at the moment, I can get it for you tomorrow if it is needed
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Wednesday, July 27th, 2016 AT 9:03 PM
Tiny
CARADIODOC
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Does not matter. There is one round-face radio that cannot be repaired but there is a better factory radio that replaces it. For yours, by far the most common cause of a totally dead radio is the missing ground strap. There is no ground wire in those two connectors. There is a braided ground strap that must be bolted to the back, or there will be a small black wire that clips to one of two terminals on the back. Usually the radio will work through the outer shield of the antenna cable, but that isn't a very reliable power ground.

The next thing to look at is a lot of do-it-yourselfers think they found a ground wire in the gray plug by reading continuity to ground. In reality, one of those is reading through all of the tail and running lights on the car, so it will read very low resistance, and the other one reads the same because it is reading through all the dash lights, then to ground. The tail light circuit tells the radio to dim the display when the head lights are on. The dash lights tell the display how much to dim.

If someone tried to use one of those lighting wires for the ground on an aftermarket radio, that would have grounded that circuit through the antenna cable's ground shield and blown a fuse. If the dash lights work and the tail lights work, those fuses are okay.

Next, the first two wires in the gray plug must have 12 volts. The first one is pink and must have 12 volts all the time for the station preset and clock memory. If that is missing, some radios will work but the clock will keep resetting to "12:00". Some will work but have no sound. Some will be completely dead. That memory circuit is not labeled for the radio. It is always tied into some other circuit that is always live. In this case it is the interior lights, so check that those work.

The second wire is red. That one must have 12 volts when the ignition switch is in the "ACC" or "RUN" positions. If that is missing, look for a cut wire. It comes from the ignition switch, but there is a whole lot more stuff on that circuit, so if the switch is bad, you will have a lot more problems than the radio.
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Wednesday, July 27th, 2016 AT 9:43 PM
Tiny
JR47
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I did not find any braided ground strap or a small black wire like you mentioned.
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Friday, July 29th, 2016 AT 10:27 PM
Tiny
CARADIODOC
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Either someone cut it off or it fell down inside the dash. You will see a threaded bolt hole in the middle of the back of the radio where the strap bolts to. You can run a new wire too, and bolt the other end to the firewall sheet metal.
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Saturday, July 30th, 2016 AT 1:48 AM
Tiny
JR47
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Well I'll try that out and get back to you if it works
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Friday, August 5th, 2016 AT 9:46 PM

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