Matt0925

Last week I got in my new head unit, Pioneer AVIC-X850BT and a PAC C2R-FRD1, I got all of the connections soldered up, I assume all correctly. Yesterday I pulled out the shaker 500, its an 08 gt500 for your reference, the started hooking everything back up. The antenna wire was a pain in the butt, so I gave up and ran to Best Buy and picked up an extension, I believe model number 40-CR10. Got it plugged in then screwed the head unit in.

I turned the car on to test everything and noticed a soft pop. I thought the PAC harness had a resister already built in to counteract this? It wasn't very loud, so maybe it did do something to help, but it was still enough to notice. Do I need to splice in another one somewhere?

I turned on headlights to test the dimming while on the map. The screen got darker for a second, then light again, then continued to flash back and forth about every second. Does the PAC harness not support the dimming feature? Again, I thought that the dimming was accounted for with this harness.

Lastly, I'm receiving no radio signal, every station comes in as static. Did I use the wrong extension for the antenna? Any thoughts on this?

Thanks!

JWButler14

You may want to add another resistor on your remote turn on wires for your amps. No aftermarket radio will dim like the factory one did with the dimmer switch. You may have hooked your illumination wire up to the dimmer wire on the harness which is why the display is getting darker and lighter so try swapping it to the illumination wire on the PAC harness.

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Matt0925

Thank you for the reply. I guess I misunderstood some of the advantages of going with the PAC harness rather than the metra one. I thought it was totally plug and play where as the metra required running wires for the VSS and the dimming.

So assuming I decide I do want it to dim, what wire do I splice into to control that? I remember someone saying to tap into the parking lights, anyone know what color that is?

Any thoughts on the antenna/radio issue?

JWButler14

You should have the orange/white off the PAC harness connected to the illumination wire on the radio harness. As far as the antenna goes, do you have the right antenna adapter? You have one like this http://bestkits.com/product.php?p=40

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Matt0925

By connecting those wires it will constantly be bright however, correct? I know people have discussed running a wire to the headlight switch and using that to dim the screen, is that possible? Or is that a separate wire that needs to be run?

I assume that I have the correct adapter. I asked the guy at BB which one I needed, he looked it up for me then went and grabbed it. The package lists Ford, Dodge and some GM I believe. Maybe it is the wrong one? Both ends seemed to fit, but its hard to tell for sure with everything being so snug back there.

JWButler14

When your cars dash lights come on it will send 12volts to that wire which will make the radio dim.

And did you connect the blue wire off the PAC harness to the power antenna wire on the radio harness?

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Iskwezm

Replied to your PM Matt.

Matt0925

It seems I am way off about a lot of this wiring stuff. I thought the blue wire for the antenna on the harness did not get connected to the HU? If it does that's not good, I'm out of wires on the HU side. I'm away from the car at the moment, tonight after work I may head up there and take a look at it, see if I messed something up. Although I don't remember the HU having a antenna power wire? That said, I could have just messed up, I was a bit frustrated towards the end of my soldering.

JWButler14

If the radio harnes doesn't have a power antenna wire you can either hook up the power antenna wire off of the PAC harness to the blue/white or the red of the radio harness

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