We just put an Alpine stereo into our 99 Dodge Durango. The cd player won't work. What's wrong?

Question

We bought it last spring, it was in my husbands truck and then we took it out and it was in the garage for a few months. When you put a cd in it, it starts like its playing, but theres no sound??? I'd also like to know if anyone knows how we can make it so we can use the radio controls on the steering wheel with the alpine stereo.

Answer 1

The short answer: disconnect whatever's connected to the blue wire coming from the Alpine head unit. Re-connect it to the blue-white wire from the head unit. This WILL fix your problem completely.

The long answer: your Durango is equipped with a factory amplifier. There's a wire in the factory harness that turns on the amp. Currently that wire is connected to the power antenna activation output (blue wire) at the head unit. The result is that the amplifier only turns on when the tuner is selected; when the CD player is selected, the amp shuts off and you get no sound. When you re-connect the wire to the blue-white wire from the Alpine head unit, the factory amp will turn on whenever the head unit is switched on, regardless of which function is selected.

This is an extremely common problem in Chrysler vehicles because most adapter harnesses use blue for the factory amp turn-on wire, but after-market decks use blue/white.
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If your Alpine head unit has a jack on the rear for a wired remote, you can purchase this adapter to integrate your steering wheel controls:
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-L0Hepv5JmmC/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=118900&I=127SWIJACK&search=swi

If your deck does not have the wired remote input, but does have a separate wireless remote, you can purchase this adapter:
http://www.crutchfield.com/S-L0Hepv5JmmC/cgi-bin/ProdView.asp?g=118900&I=127SWIX&search=swi

If your Alpine deck doesn't have a wired remote input OR a wireless remote, then you can't use it with your steering wheel controls.

Answer 2

You may have one of the Alpine radios that can shut off the internal amplifier.
You would find the correct menu and select "power on" that would allow the CD player to power the speakers.

They make them like that so you can get better sound quality if you are using only the amplifier preouts.

Answer 3

It sounds like you didn't connect the speaker wires to the radio. Check the wires. About the radio controls on the steering wheel: I think it only works on factory radio.

Answer 4

The steering wheel controls will only work with the factory radio. If the radio works and the CD player doesn't the unit is defective.

Answer 5

the wiring in the deck is wrong. You should re-wire the radio. The audio cables may be wrong. Im not sure about the steering wheel controls.