harrisjohn6 Posted December 20, 2013 Report Share Posted December 20, 2013 In January as a Christmas present to myself I will be getting all the items on the linked wishlist installed. I currently have the Uconnect 4.3 w/o BT/NAV/Sat or anything so I am going to relocated the screen to the storage area behind the cup holder, have a tablet installed where the screen currently is. Have the output from the stereo routed to a signal processor, send it to an amp which will power my new Rockford speakers in the doors, tweeters in the A pillars and a single shallow mount 12 inch sub I will have a box designed for. Waiting on a local shop to give me the final install price. All the equipment will run me just under 1,600.00, if I can get the shop to come in close or under that for installation, and dash fabrication/modification I will be doing this in early next month if not. I will be doing in closer to March. The tablet will be my new head unit so to speak. I am going to stream music via Bluetooth to the Rockford 3Sixty.3 I will still be able to use the radio since I will be doing High Input from the factory head unit. I really wanted to replace it but it appears I can't because too many functions depend on it. The tablet will be an easily removable Nexus 7. I am planning on having the shop modify it so that it can charge while docked. Then use apps to control the way it is functioning based on the charging status. I have been struggling with trading in to trade up but I love my Journey and this will give me all I have been missing and so much more. http://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/27GJTG6J06G3E/ref=topnav_lists_2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Addicted to Dodge Posted December 20, 2013 Report Share Posted December 20, 2013 Man that is going to be one "sick" system. Good Luck with your modifications. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jkeaton Posted December 20, 2013 Report Share Posted December 20, 2013 Wow. More work than I want to get into on a new car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harrisjohn6 Posted February 4, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2014 It is indeed a lot of work and I have been having a terrible go at it. I wish there were more options for installers in my area. I do have a question for anyone that reads this and have installed an after market amp. I have the Rockford 3Sixty.3 processor and after the shop I went to installed it, I did not have any sound at all using the speaker signal from the head unit as high level input to my sound processor. My software did not even register a bleep, I only left the shop like that because I was told they were unable to install the software on their computers to tune it, and it could not be initialized until the inputs were selected. Which is true, but once they were it was still no sound being sent to the processor. Have anyone had issues getting sound from the Head Unit to either a Line Out Converter, Signal processor or amplifier? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mcgusto82 Posted February 4, 2014 Report Share Posted February 4, 2014 This is strange cause even in a can bus controlled car, you still have standard signals going to the speakers. Unless your not using the correct ground at each speaker. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harrisjohn6 Posted February 4, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2014 This is strange cause even in a can bus controlled car, you still have standard signals going to the speakers. Unless your not using the correct ground at each speaker. It was all factory wiring, the installer used stinger speed wire from the factory wiring to the 4 channel amp, and stinger wire from the radio to the signal processor. it made for an easier switch back to factory which turned out to be useful since this is what I had to do to get sound back. Now my car is at the dealer because I had an error message saying "Service Keyless System" and of course they are saying because of the attempted after market speakers that were installed. Which could be the case since it was the only change but it's a 125 dollar fix if the service peeps are to be believed It will set wiring back to factory behind the radio. I am taking my processor to be tested tomorrow so I will know if it was bad or not. If it turns out to be bad I will return to the installer after I RMA it if not I am going to do the install myself since all the wiring has been run. I am looking into a piece made by PAC-Audio that will give me low level output without tapping into the wires. I wish I had ran into that prior to going in for the mods. If I go the do it yourself route I will have photos and will document my trials and tribulations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harrisjohn6 Posted February 4, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 4, 2014 So the "Service Keyless System" message I was getting according to the deal the installer tapped into an ignition wire that was running to (or from) a module and it caused the voltage to drop and throw the error. They removed the installers work and actually said the work wasn't from a hack job but was just an older way of doing things. He said they needed to run it directly from the ignition switch to avoid the error. Shockingly the work I had done did not void the warranty according to the service guy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
travis9935 Posted February 5, 2014 Report Share Posted February 5, 2014 Maybe they should try getting a signal from the speaker itself, that way you know there's no other issues getting a signal. It's like - temps here or I'd be all over trying to get mine going. Still waiting for my other stereo to come in since the other got fried using the leads out of the back of the radio! What a pita! Why can't Metra make a turbo kit for ours! :'( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harrisjohn6 Posted February 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2014 We're dealing with snow now, lots of snow. I talked to my installer last night to express my disappointment he believes one of the PAC-Audio products will fix the problem and wants me to bring it back in. He is going to purchase the part to negate having to spend the money to fix their mess up with the error I was receiving. He said the will have to run new speaker wire which they're going to chew the labor cost on as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
travis9935 Posted February 5, 2014 Report Share Posted February 5, 2014 But the Pac part is for getting a signal, if you have a oem amp, I bought my Audiocontrol LCQ for the signal, equalizer, stock bass rollout cancelor. To me it'd be kind of pointless to have the Audiocontrol unit then. Plus you lose the Treble, mid, bass levels on your stock radio with the Pac. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harrisjohn6 Posted February 7, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2014 I am fine losing all of that if the PAC unit will work. I can use the 3Sixty.3 for it. I stopped by Best Buy this morning to have them test my processor and the guy there told me that with the radios we have the radio needs to see a 2-4 ohm resistance load, he said a 50 watt 2 ohm resistor would do it and they were selling them for 15 bucks he was unsure if it needed to be 2 per channel and on all channels he was leaning toward on the front channels though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harrisjohn6 Posted February 7, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 7, 2014 In other news, I have the bezel and the tablet holder I am going to mold into it. Here are the photos I expect to have the tablet mounted this weekend, and hopefully repainted the following weekend. I will post pics of the finished products. Radio bezel from eBay 25 bucks shipped Front of tablet holder Back of tablet holder Addicted to Dodge 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
travis9935 Posted February 8, 2014 Report Share Posted February 8, 2014 So where you mounting the 4.3 inch climate & settings panel? How would the tablet work as a stand alone unit? I wonder why my stereo fried over just using the speaker outputs then? Wtf, keep us updated on what the solution comes out to be. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
travis9935 Posted February 8, 2014 Report Share Posted February 8, 2014 So if I wire a 50 watt 2 ohm resistor in line with the stereos + speaker leads to each speaker it will see it as a load? Otherwise it doesn't send a signal? So it's kind of like having led lights and needing the resistor so the Canbus don't freak out? But why the ef did it fry out my stereo just running the inputs to the oem integration unit? Dodge and their frickin Canbus crap makes the vehicles impossible to customize! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harrisjohn6 Posted February 10, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 10, 2014 So where you mounting the 4.3 inch climate & settings panel? How would the tablet work as a stand alone unit? I wonder why my stereo fried over just using the speaker outputs then? Wtf, keep us updated on what the solution comes out to be. Thanks I am using the storage bin down there by the cup holder to mount the uconnect screen. For the tablet I am initially going to stream bluetooth to my 3Sixty.3 processor. I am going to wire it so that it can charge. The holder will become a dock so to speak. When I get around to it I will use the slimport to get HDMI video and audio out of the tablet and from there use a device that will output to TOS/Link and send that to my processor. The PAC audio piece the installer used works unfortunately it only outputs to two channels, not sure if the installer was being cheap or if one that output all four channels truly would not work. I am going to give it a shot when I get the dash mod done. I would like to have the stereo handle fader/balance controls when use the radio. I also found out the stock head units distort at 29 so max un-distorted volume is 28 which sucks. I am happy with the sound and although my speakers are not what I will end up with I am impressed with the sound so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harrisjohn6 Posted February 10, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 10, 2014 So if I wire a 50 watt 2 ohm resistor in line with the stereos + speaker leads to each speaker it will see it as a load? Otherwise it doesn't send a signal? So it's kind of like having led lights and needing the resistor so the Canbus don't freak out? But why the ef did it fry out my stereo just running the inputs to the oem integration unit? Dodge and their frickin Canbus crap makes the vehicles impossible to customize! Yes, that is what the installers at Best Buy told me. As for frying your stereo I can't say. You installed after market LED's? There are CAN-Bus compatible LED headlights Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
travis9935 Posted February 10, 2014 Report Share Posted February 10, 2014 Can you use y's on the rca's? I am looking to 4 channel my doors and 2 channel for my subs. My Stock stereo distorts at 18+ even worse with the ipod! Whom did your install? Best buy? Do you have any more info on the whole 50 watt load resistor for the stereo outputs? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
travis9935 Posted February 10, 2014 Report Share Posted February 10, 2014 No I never installed leds, just pointing out its the same concept, I installed 55 watt hids in the low beams & driving lights tho! Awesome output! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
travis9935 Posted February 10, 2014 Report Share Posted February 10, 2014 No I never installed leds, just pointing out its the same concept, I installed 55 watt hids in the low beams & driving lights tho! Awesome output! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harrisjohn6 Posted February 10, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 10, 2014 Can you use y's on the rca's? I am looking to 4 channel my doors and 2 channel for my subs. My Stock stereo distorts at 18+ even worse with the ipod! Whom did your install? Best buy? Do you have any more info on the whole 50 watt load resistor for the stereo outputs? I don't see why you couldn't split the RCA's that way. the 3Sixty.3 summed the signal it was receiving and sends it to all 4 channels on my amplifier. I have 4 more channels of output I can use which 2 will be for my subs when I get to that point. I went with a local shop called Car Teks. I would not hesitate to use Best Buy though, they were knowledgeable when I went their for information. Your speakers may be the cause of distortion I noticed a big increase in clarity when I changed out my stock speakers before I put them amp on them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harrisjohn6 Posted February 10, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 10, 2014 Also I do not have any more info on the 2 ohm resistor. You should stop by Best Buy man. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
travis9935 Posted February 11, 2014 Report Share Posted February 11, 2014 Yeah I kind of noticed a decrease in sound clarity, they are pioneer 4 ways, my 12' Avenger had a 7" pioneer dvd player I installed, but when I went to stock before I traded it in the 4-6X9 3 way pioneers sounded really good with the stock stereo! It had the plain jane stereo to! I was hoping for the same in the 13' Journey. Fail! My Audiocontrol LCQ6 is pretty much the same thing as what your using but half the price, so I hope it will work. So they could not get the speaker leads behind of the stereo to work, the Pac was the only option? So I'm guessing they at least used the speaker output wires behind the stereo for the amps? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harrisjohn6 Posted February 11, 2014 Author Report Share Posted February 11, 2014 Not sure what it looks like behind the stereo, I have not had time to look, I am going to this weekend if I can get access to a friends garage. I do know for certain they did not use the cars speaker wiring, they had to run wire from the amp to each speaker. Initially they used Stinger speed cable from the stock stereo to the 3Sixty.3 (High Level Input) and RCA's from the 3Sixty.3 to the 4 channel Rockford Amp. They used speed cable again and ran that back the stereo and tied into where the factory speakers connection was to go back to each speaker. The Journey stereo is a major fail. I can't wait until the tablet is the center of my install. I love my Journey just not happy about not being able to snatch out the stock stereo. When I drove off the lot my intention was to install an aftermarket. I should have done more research, I'm getting to where I want to be. Going with the active signal processor opened up to so many possibilities being able to stream BT Audio, and it has a TOS/Link input. I will rarely use the stock radio when I get the Nexus 7 installed, and working like I know it can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
travis9935 Posted February 11, 2014 Report Share Posted February 11, 2014 I may sell my Audiocontrol unit then and get the Pac and put in a in dash equalizer to get signal to my amps, since the Pac unit makes the equalizer adjustability on the stock stereo useless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
travis9935 Posted February 11, 2014 Report Share Posted February 11, 2014 I have been contemplating putting that cd less pioneer unit in the glove box and remoting the faceplate to the empty pocket! That unit is only like 3" deep, I wanted to use the pocket for the whole stereo but behind the pocket there isn't enough room. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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