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Need a wire harness for radio


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I was in the same boat a couple months ago  -  I was installing a new Pioneer radio on my '14 TC and I just wanted to find which wires did what, so I could install it the same way I had done on so many cars in the old days  -  I did eventually got it working kinda, sorta, a little bit but not really, but it was far from satisfactory and I eventually had to tear it out and start all over . . . . after buying the custome harness for my van

The problem is . . . . these new cars and vans are all CanBus controlled.  One wire I was looking for was the key switched +12 volts which turns on the radio when you start the car.  Long story short, there is no such wire  -  The CanBus turns the radio on and it keeps it on after you shut off the car and until you open a door and then it shuts off and it's not using a 12 volt signal to do it.  My new Pioneer radio also needed a Vss speed signal and a Reverse signal and also a Parking brake signal and none of those exist as stand alone wires either  -  The OEM radio gets those signals from the CanBus and my new radio needed to get them the same way, because there is no other way

I'm sure the very idea of paying $50 or $75 for a harness to install your aftermarket radio is not something you think is worth the money, but in a new car it's just about the only way you *CAN* install an aftermarket radio . . . . and anyway, it will save you $75 worth of time, trouble and FRUSTRATION trying vs trying to do it the old fashioned way

Me?  I'm dense  -  I spent a dozen very frustrating hours taking the dash apart and putting it back together again several times trying to do it the old fashioned way and *THEN* I had no choice, so I spent the money for the harness  -  I coulda, shoulda just bought the harness in the first place . . . . but I'm old and stubborn

You could take it to a stereo install shop and they'll charge you $150 to do the install . . . . and $75 of that will be for the harness and the other $75 will be for the 20 minutes it takes them to do the job . . . . with the correct harness

Don  

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  • 1 month later...

How do you get the radio out of the dash?  You'll have to take the dash apart

But, if you don't have the parking brake wire connected, that alone shouldn't have anything to do with the operation of the GPS  -  The parking brake connection is only to enable the audio visual operation of the radio  -  Without the parking brake engaged, you can't watch movies on the radio . . . . the GPS should still work fine.  I ran my AVIC NEX 6100 for a couple months without a parking brake connection and everything worked just fine  -  Couldn't watch movies, but everything else worked.  My solution was to buy the aftermarket harness which provides all the necessary signals to the radio

Don

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