ok , so i am new here , but i used the forums for my other car so i am not new to using these! so here is my question. I went to put my cd player in my truck and the wireing harness i bought didnt fit...SO after calling and driving around to all the stores around here i came up with this, and im here to find out if this is true. I need to but a $120.00 amp turn on harness from metra in order to put an aftermarket stereo in my rig?? i had an 05' hyundai tiburon before , and that needed a remote turn on for the amp in there too , but i got it to work without any 100 dollar harness!! do i really need to buy such a thing?? please say it aint so!?!! i searched the forums and found alot of anwers that lead me to beleive i do in fact have to buy one... but nothing that def. says i do. thanks alot everyone
Hi slammer,
First off, welcome to the forum. Second, with regards to the harness, it will really depend on the type of radio you are going to install and also what kind of radio is currently installed in the Nitro.
A. If you have the premium radio setup (6 speaker with amplifier I believe - someone correct me if I'm wrong please), then you may need the wiring harness to turn the stock amp on. The wiring harness will then have the basic wires you need to wire up the replacement radio.
B. If you have the standard radio setup (no amp), then it will more than likely depend on what kind of radio you are putting in aftermarket. I'll list those choice below:
a. Regular radio without video/DVD or navigation - With this type of radio you can probably get away without using the wiring harness. The stock radio wiring harness has all of the leads that you will need to wire up a new radio except for the +12 volt turn on lead (the 'ignition key switched' power lead). You can however get this switched power right from the APO (Accessory Power Outlet aka the cigarette lighter). I thought there was a post about the power outlet, but I can't currently find it. If anything I know there is a post that touches on it here:
http://www.nitroforumz.com/showthread.php?t=1865 ( yeah it's my post
)
b. Non-regular radio (fancy radio with DVD playback/video and/or navigation) - For this type of radio you could in theory still do the splicing job as mentioned above, the problem is you would lose navigation and video playback capabilities. The reason for this is that there is currently no known wire to tap into to get the VSS (Vehicle Speed Sensor) or Parking Brake (actually there may be for this one..). The VSS line is needed to tell the GPS/Navgiation how fast you are going and without it, the unit would be useless. And the Parking brake line is required (legally) to be hooked up to most DVD playback systems so that you can't playback videos while you are driving. Some nav systems also require it so that you can't route a course unless you are parked (my JVC unit does that.). With the stock radios all of this information is carried over the CANBUS (the Nitros internal computer system) and is decoded/encoded by the radio, this unfortunately, is why the aftermarket wiring harness is so expensive as it basically has a CANBUS decoder built into.
whew.. hope that helps. And if anyone notices any wrong information, lemme know..
