2006 caravan radio install problem

OK as title says. I have a customer with a 2006 caravan xt. I removed old radio out and he wanted an aftermarket alpine installed. Seemed easy enough wired it up and when I plugged it in I noticed not enough wires in the factory plug and I knew it meant it had an amp from the factory. No infinity badges anywhere. It did have a factory sat radio also. Obviously I had no sound. So I look the vehicle up and and there is no option with metra other than the harness only. So I got a pac interface and again before I hooked it up I notice there is no can bus wires in the plug. On the radio the plug output label there is a wire saying radio on. Audio output is only 4 wires going to the amp or amps. If I plug the old radio in and leave the key on and plug in new radio I get the amp to work but as soon as I turn it off it won't come back on. Not much info out on the net. Anyone had this issue before. Customer does not want to bypass or change anything else. Thanks in advance for any help. DanDan

i'm pretty sure all I've used on these was a Metra 70-6502Kevin Gerry

Certified Electronics Technician

MECP First Class Installer

Owner/Installer

Classic Car Audio

since 1979

Yeah I have only used the simple harness on these vans. I think they are like the ram and liberty where the front door speaker has an amp on the speaker. Signal comes in splits off, one set going directly to the speaker it is mounted to and another set of wires going back inside to the rear speaker on that side.

Have no idea why they did it this way, but I usually bypass the amp at the speaker when doing a speaker install.

To master and control electricity is perfection. *evil laugh*

I remember another ASE master tech rewiring the amp turn on circuit in the underhood fusebox. I always just replace speakers and bypass the amps.To master and control electricity is perfection. *evil laugh*

Customer does not want to change anything but radio. I have never seen a set up like this from the factory. I did see a video of a van with a similar problem and the guy went to the NBS relay ( Stands for Name Brand Speaker) at the fuse box under the hood and rewired another one in it's place and it worked except it was an older van. I'm gonna check to see if it has one of these otherwise I'll keep checking. If I find a easy solution I will post it. Thanks, DanDan

From what you are saying about powering up the fact deck and unplugging it and it works till you cycle the key it definitely has an amplified system. Pac and Metra both make a harness to work with this type system. However this harness does not work on some Durangos. Maybe the same situation on this vehicle. The one that may work is the Metra CHTO-01 or Pac-audio.com C2RCHY4. But neither manufacturer lists their harness for that year and model. You may want to contact their tech support department to see why they do not have it listed.

Did you ever find a solution? I am having the same issue with my 2006 Jeep Grand Cherokee. New Pioneer stereo, PAC RP4-CH11 wiring harness adapter.

Here's the amp wiring info regarding the relay for the Caravan. For the Cherokee, I'd try plugging the factory radio in, turn the vehicle on, turn the radio on and the volume up about 1/2 way. Disconnect the factory radio with the key still on, and plug in the PAC harness and radio and see if you have sound...then shut the vehicle off and turn back to test if it's still working...If it's a BT radio you will need to have the front and rear speaker outputs flip-flopped or no voices will be heard on BT.