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- Joined
- Aug 31, 2021
- Messages
- 1,891
- Reaction score
- 974
- Points
- 113
- Location
- Roanoke VA
- Vehicle Year
- 1997 and 1999
- Make / Model
- XLT 4x4 & B3000
- Engine Type
- 4.0 V6
- Engine Size
- 4.0L in XLT, 3.0L in B3000
- Transmission
- Automatic
- 2WD / 4WD
- 4WD
- Tire Size
- 31x10.5-15 K02's on the Ranger, 235/75R15 on Mazda
- My credo
- The perfect is the enemy of the good.
I have the Pioneer OEM 6-disc changer in the '97 XLT.
After a lot of looking at things, I was tracing the wiring from the 5-pin connector on the changer because that's how it would communicate with the radio (to use the buttons for CD on the radio) because I couldn't for the life of me see how it hooked to the radio after pulling the bezel/radio, looking at wiring, etc.
I always got "NO DJ" which if you look on page 40 of the owner manual that says, there's no changer hooked to the radio.
So I'm pulling on the wire coming from the changer side to find out where it runs (theoretically, to the radio) and lo and behold I pull out the little display/control unit.
Duh. It plays just fine.
But why would it have not been wired to the radio? The power feed, and the antenna feed (that's how it gets the audio to the radio), they are all laid in under the carpet and come up at the dash per what you would expect in an OEM install (guessing) so why would they have not run the 5-pin cable there and hooked it in? Who knows - could be aftermarket, but it's the one that came with that truck as an option and it's bolted via the pass seat rear bolts so it kinda seems oem.
If you look at the owner manual it says, you use the buttons on the radio to control the CD. That's how it -should- work.
BTW once you see it's playing (by the little control device) you have to put the radio on FM and find, where is the signal. I think there are like 10 choices so if it interferes with your fav station you can change it. I guess they did it like that because if you have a radio you have an antenna... so... it would always connect to any radio.
Really it seems bizarre, why wouldn't you just feed an audio signal to the radio directly. We're talking 25 yr old tech though.
Anyway that was a lot of time on something that actually is working. I guess having the little control is better than nothing, but I wonder what it would take to get it wired like it's supposed to be done.
So if anyone has come up against this let me know.
Edit: it can't be oem, at least not from factory, because the mfg date is 1999. It's oem-type though so it ought to be able to be wired into the radio. That would be the standard install from factory.
After a lot of looking at things, I was tracing the wiring from the 5-pin connector on the changer because that's how it would communicate with the radio (to use the buttons for CD on the radio) because I couldn't for the life of me see how it hooked to the radio after pulling the bezel/radio, looking at wiring, etc.
I always got "NO DJ" which if you look on page 40 of the owner manual that says, there's no changer hooked to the radio.
So I'm pulling on the wire coming from the changer side to find out where it runs (theoretically, to the radio) and lo and behold I pull out the little display/control unit.
Duh. It plays just fine.
But why would it have not been wired to the radio? The power feed, and the antenna feed (that's how it gets the audio to the radio), they are all laid in under the carpet and come up at the dash per what you would expect in an OEM install (guessing) so why would they have not run the 5-pin cable there and hooked it in? Who knows - could be aftermarket, but it's the one that came with that truck as an option and it's bolted via the pass seat rear bolts so it kinda seems oem.
If you look at the owner manual it says, you use the buttons on the radio to control the CD. That's how it -should- work.
BTW once you see it's playing (by the little control device) you have to put the radio on FM and find, where is the signal. I think there are like 10 choices so if it interferes with your fav station you can change it. I guess they did it like that because if you have a radio you have an antenna... so... it would always connect to any radio.
Really it seems bizarre, why wouldn't you just feed an audio signal to the radio directly. We're talking 25 yr old tech though.
Anyway that was a lot of time on something that actually is working. I guess having the little control is better than nothing, but I wonder what it would take to get it wired like it's supposed to be done.
So if anyone has come up against this let me know.
Edit: it can't be oem, at least not from factory, because the mfg date is 1999. It's oem-type though so it ought to be able to be wired into the radio. That would be the standard install from factory.
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