P. Cont wiring help! My 2nd Kenwood DMX958XR - sound only from rear passenger speaker!

[2ahuman1791]

I wanted to upgrade my head unit in my 2003 4runner SR5 So I bought a "open box" Kenwood DMX958XR on Crutchfield. before taking my old unit out i made sure it still worked. sound was coming from all 4 speakers. everything good. so i wired up my Kenwood and im only getting mid range sound when radio is on from the rear passenger door speaker. the other 3 speakers are completely silent. very odd. I ended up sending this "open box" unit back thinking it was bruned out. Crutchfield sent me a brand new Kenwood, same model. I hooked it up and same issue. no sound from all those 3 speakers and only odd tone sound coming from rear passenger.
I did some research and i rememebr having a old kenwoood excelon in a previous car. in that car the P. Cont wire was hooked up to the red 12v+ ACC switched wire i believe. Or does it plug into 12v constant (yellow)?
Ami doing something wrong? I think my P. Cont wire (white/blue wire) is not hooked up correctly. I read that Kenwood uses this P. Cont wire for power to the radios built in amp to produce sound. Am i wrong? does anyone know why im having this sound issue? My old head unit works fine. I plugged it back in to verify my speakers worked over and over.

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[Deiimos]

Did you wire up the harness entirely yourself, or buy a premade harness from Crutchfield? If I recall Crutchfield offers ready made harnesses for various vehicles to make things easier, but maybe not in this case for an open box, not sure.

I would probably bench test the new unit just to make sure it is still working, especially if it was wired wrong.

Do NOT connect the P Cont wire to 12V or anything else randomly. It should never be connected to the yellow or red wire.
The P Cont wire is the “remote” turn on wire that turns on an external amplifiers mounted remotely in the trunk or wherever. Mostly for aftermarket amplifiers, but possible it could be used for very few OEM amplifiers if equipped in some situations. So this may or may not be needed, but you need to do it properly. This wires stays disconnected unless you need to use.

Which brings a question, does the 2003 4Runner have a separate factory amplifier that drives the speakers? An OEM amplifier makes installing an aftermarket head unit a bit more challenging, especially if not using proper harnesses / bypass kits. There is a good chance it has an amplifier you need to figure out how to tap into with your new Kenwood head unit, or get a wiring kit to either bypass it or make tapping into it easier. I'll try to do a quick search on an 03 4Runner, but maybe another member can answer that in the mean time.

At this point I would power the head unit up carefully, then test each channel with a test speaker to make sure it is still functioning properly, then go from there and rewire as necessary.

From the manual for reference and other members to offer thoughts as well.

 

[2ahuman1791]

no, my 03 4runner is a SR5 and has no factory amp or anything special. direct wires to speakers.
I do have a amp and sub but have yet to even hook it up due to this ridiculous audio issue. my amp/sub is not interfering at all with anything.
yes, the new kenwood unit is brand new. never been used. the other kenwood im sending back is "open box" but have since realized that deck is fine. its something not obvious causing this issue. everything obvious, even somewhat elusive ive checked and triple checked.
my other head unit (a cheap multimedia Sjoybring W019 from amazon) works and produces sound in all 4 speakers.
it is totally puzzling. im using the same toyota harnesses for all these decks. Sound only coming from the rear passenger and it sounds really mid range like. fiddling with settings doesnt help. i have no idea if its a setting issue either as the manual doesnt describe this issue.
I remember back in the day when i had a subaru, the kenwood excelon in that car had these signal chips inbetween either the speaker wires or on something else.
Do these kenwoods require signal chips between the wires to recieve signal? otherwise i cannot figure this out.
Im going to call cartoys tomorrow and ask them if they can figure it out for a fee.
I have that same manual in front of me. i read through it just becasue of this issue and its no help now.
Meanwhile if i plug my other cheap deck back in it plays music from all 4 speakers no problem.
what is with kenwood decks? Im thinking of returning it for a refund. this just so frustrating at christmas time Lol

 

[2ahuman1791]

ive been reading and watching videos and articles of people who solved this issue by connecting the amp remote wire to red 12v ACC and suddenly theres sound. I believe this is what was done in my subaru years ago too. i had a kenwood excelon dvd player in there which was already in the car when i bought it and the guy had the blue amp remote from the deck going into the 12v acc. What would happen if that was true? some people say it bypasses the fuse so if the fuse blew the deck would still get power which is very bad.
Or is this not possible? ive been at this for days now and its driving me nuts. I just got this new kenwood to replace one i thought was burned out and the same issue persists.
I been watching videos of people needing load resistors to trick the radio into thinking its hooked up to speakers. some radios will require some kind of ohm load to know to play sound. i duno im lost at this point.

 

[Deiimos]

I would not connect the red ACC wire to the blue/white Remote wire, but you can do whatever you feel like doing. With the radio powered on it is unlikely to damage anything being they are both 12v+ potential, but with the radio off I’m not certain if feeding 12V to the remote could damage the circuit or not. I see no reason to do it though, every wire has a specific purpose.

Bench testing is where I would be at with it to rule everything else out:

Yellow wire to battery constant 12v+

Red wire to same battery 12v+

Black to battery battery negative.

Radio will power on fully at this point.


Then use a cheap full range speaker from 2 ohm to 8 ohm or so, old car 6x9 speaker or house speaker doesn’t really matter other than you want full range, and connect it at the decks pigtail harness at the back of it, to the passenger rear and confirm the audio is okay, unhook it and test the other 3 channel one by one.

Make sure any filters, high pass or low pass are off in the audio settings menu, and that the fader / position is in the middle for all speakers. That deck does have filtering and make sure it is set to 2-WAY to send full sound to all 4 speakers.

Other than that hopefully the others can offer better insight on what to check. Without any of us there, it makes it a bit more difficult to understand what is wrong, but give some time for others to reply.

Lastly, it might not be a bad idea to take it to a car audio shop for diagnosing it. Might cost some money, but save the headache.

Some screenshots of the crossover stuff and such in the manual, and the last one that the deck apparently supports running active, so can use 2 channels to power mids, and the other two for tweeters, so make sure it is set to 2-way, you don't want 3-way unless running components. There are other pages of course with important info, but it shows that deck does have a lot of settings to mess with.

 

[ThxOne Premium Member]

I use nothing but Kenwood eXcelon head units. Take that PRK SW wire (light green) and screw it to a screw on the back of the head unit. This will bypass the parking brake and allows you to use the screen while driving. i.e. watch a movie. DON'T WATCH A MOVIE WHILE DRIVING. But it bypasses the brake.

 

[Mitchell Fosgate III]

Parking brake switch. Harder access. You'll need the right tools to access it. Socket ranch for example. To get to the Red wire there. This switch automatically activates the motor to tighten mechanism on each wheel to tighten the cable. So it brakes on an incline hill. When the driver stops and turns engine off, it automatically activates. Brakes. This feature is seen on the dash panel as brake red lights. Shows up then on the head unit double din as a warning sign. Cannot go further. Locked. It shares volts with the radio. Causing some functions to not work. Such as the DVD operation.

If you want to use the DVD, then bypass it. Green wire. Kenwood head units, they're good too. Popular brands. I don't think it's the head units or wiring though. If only the rear speakers are heard it could be the rear speakers connections are good, while the front door speakers are not connected properly. On the cars with premium sounds on 9 or 10 settings for volume digital screens, all the music is heard from the front. Not the side door panels. Interestingly. Higher frequencies from the head units than the 4 side door speakers. At higher volumes like to the max, 30, it could still be all in the front yet. The sounds. But loud. The four speakers, no sounds. But vibrations can be felt in the speaker itself. The back or front. This still is good because all music is coming from the front of the car now and not spread out as planned. But still good.

Check this good video out...​

How to Install Car Stereo (Pioneer AVH-2400 in 2000 Honda Accord)​

​

 

[2ahuman1791]

theres spam messages on here? Lol

 

[2ahuman1791]

sorry but neither of the last 2 comments are addressing my problem. Deiimos was close to figuring this out with me and I think I figured it out. as for ThxOne, i already bypassed my parking brake detect. thats not the issue.
the issue I think i found.
My car only has a solid blue wire for Ant Cont. I left the P. Cont wire unconnected and i think thats the reason Im not getting sound. Im supposed to wire the P. Cont blue/white wire into the solid blue Ant Cont wire. In a last ditch effort thats not the best is to wire the P. Cont to 12v ACC switched power which some people do only this can cause bypass shorting issues down the road if ever you blow a fuse because its more amperage than the low 200ma which the 12v blue wires output for amp power trigger.

 

[ThxOne Premium Member]

sorry but neither of the last 2 comments are addressing my problem. Deiimos was close to figuring this out with me and I think I figured it out. one is spam and as for ThxOne, i already bypassed my parking brake detect. thats not the issue.
the issue I think i found.
My car only has a solid blue wire for Ant Cont. I left the P. Cont wire unconnected and i think thats the reason Im not getting sound. Im supposed to wire the P. Cont blue/white wire into the solid blue Ant Cont wire. In a last ditch effort thats not the best is to wire the P. Cont to 12v ACC switched power which some people do only this can cause bypass shorting issues down the road if ever you blow a fuse because its more amperage than the low 200ma which the 12v blue wires output for amp power trigger.

Kenwood makes pretty good head units. The XR are even better than regular eXcelon head units. If you are only getting sound out of ONE speaker then the wiring is the issue. Your speakers wires are not right with the exception of possibly the purple and purple and black. These are the right rear speaker outs from the head unit. Turn the head unit on and use the balance and fade. If it fades to the rear and balance to the right still plays the right rear speaker then you have those wires correct. The speaker wire colors look to be the same as the Sjoybring W019. 4Runner... are you using an aftermarket wire harness? The Kenwood blue wires will be for turning on an "amplified antenna" or to be a remote signal wire for an aftermarket amplifier. Blue with white stripe to turn on an amplifier. The Blue wire is for an antenna that goes up and down or is amplified to boost radio signals. DO NOT CONNECT THESE TO A BATTERY OR 12v POWER SOURCE. It will blow fuses or destroy the head unit.

What is your factory radio option? JBL, Non JBL, With Navigation, Without Navigation? It's important.

 

[2ahuman1791]

Kenwood makes pretty good head units. The XR are even better than regular eXcelon head units. If you are only getting sound out of ONE speaker then the wiring is the issue. Your speakers wires are not right with the exception of possibly the purple and purple and black. These are the right rear speaker outs from the head unit. Turn the head unit on and use the balance and fade. If it fades to the rear and balance to the right still plays the right rear speaker then you have those wires correct. The speaker wire colors look to be the same as the Sjoybring W019. 4Runner... are you using an aftermarket wire harness? The Kenwood blue wires will be for turning on an "amplified antenna" or to be a remote signal wire for an aftermarket amplifier. Blue with white stripe to turn on an amplifier. The Blue wire is for an antenna that goes up and down or is amplified to boost radio signals. DO NOT CONNECT THESE TO A BATTERY OR 12v POWER SOURCE. It will blow fuses or destroy the head unit.

What is your factory radio option? JBL, Non JBL, With Navigation, Without Navigation? It's important.

my speaker wires were solid. no shorts. no issues whatsoever. the problem is the P.Cont wire needs power to my built in amp for signal and i left it unconnected. i already did everything imaginable including balance and fade and a million other things it wasn't. my 2003 4runner is non JBL and non navigation. The reason the sjoybring is working is because its forcing power to the power amp that triggers my sound. on the Kenwood those wires are separate and i didnt connect both. my car doesn't have any premium sound but it does have some kind of annoying amp turn on sesnor for the speakers. so my problem was i left my P. Cont wire unconnected. Connecting all the blue wires is what i needed to do all along. my car only has a solid blue wire. no blue/white wire. i left it alone. my antenna is shared with my factory amp trigger, on the kenwood harness these are separate and i couldnt figure it out till i ran into videos of folks connecting all the blues and suddenly theres sound.
forget about my speaker wires. they are and were connected 100% and not cross connected or wired wrong. i am not sloppy when color matching. i triple check during and after. i used the same crimps for the sjoybring radio too. this is a issue with my stock power amplifier, which my 4runner isnt supposed to have but i was wrong. my power antenna is also for power amp sense wire in the toyota 4runner.
i really appreciate the reaspose and input on this, even now as i havent hooked it up the way im talking about yet becasue im waiting on a fresh harness.

 

[ThxOne Premium Member]

my speaker wires were solid. no shorts. no issues whatsoever. the problem is the P.Cont wire needs power to my built in amp for signal and i left it unconnected. i already did everything imaginable including balance and fade and a million other things it wasn't. my 2003 4runner is non JBL and non navigation. The reason the sjoybring is working is because its forcing power to the power amp that triggers my sound. on the Kenwood those wires are separate and i didnt connect both. my car doesn't have any premium sound but it does have some kind of annoying amp turn on sesnor for the speakers. so my problem was i left my P. Cont wire unconnected. Connecting all the blue wires is what i needed to do all along. my car only has a solid blue wire. no blue/white wire. i left it alone. my antenna is shared with my factory amp trigger, on the kenwood harness these are separate and i couldnt figure it out till i ran into videos of folks connecting all the blues and suddenly theres sound.
forget about my speaker wires. they are and were connected 100% and not cross connected or wired wrong. i am not sloppy when color matching. i triple check during and after. i used the same crimps for the sjoybring radio too. this is a issue with my stock power amplifier, which my 4runner isnt supposed to have but i was wrong. my power antenna is also for power amp sense wire in the toyota 4runner.
i really appreciate the reaspose and input on this, even now as i havent hooked it up the way im talking about yet becasue im waiting on a fresh harness.

My advice. Bypass the factory amp. The kenwood should have plenty of power for the speakers.

 

[2ahuman1791]

My advice. Bypass the factory amp. The kenwood should have plenty of power for the speakers.

well assuming all my connections were correct, which they were. the Sjoybring deck plays sound while the two DMX958XR's (both the new one and the one i sent back thinking it was blown) play ONLY mid range sound from the rear passenger speaker. Mid range. Not clear sound. I did not hook up the P. Cont wire. Keep in mind the sjoybring is sending power to antenna and factory amp (assuming i have one) from the one blue wire. The kenwood antenna wire is only hooked up. I swap back to the sjoybring deck and everything plays. What is the issue? My only guess is the P. Cont wire needs to tie into the power antenna which i never tried yet which the sjoybring IS powering both.
any ideas?

 

[ThxOne Premium Member]

well assuming all my connections were correct, which they were. the Sjoybring deck plays sound while the two DMX958XR's (both the new one and the one i sent back thinking it was blown) play ONLY mid range sound from the rear passenger speaker. Mid range. Not clear sound. I did not hook up the P. Cont wire. Keep in mind the sjoybring is sending power to antenna and factory amp (assuming i have one) from the one blue wire. The kenwood antenna wire is only hooked up. I swap back to the sjoybring deck and everything plays. What is the issue? My only guess is the P. Cont wire needs to tie into the power antenna which i never tried yet which the sjoybring IS powering both.
any ideas?

Looking at the wires from the Sjoybring W019 the BLUE wire is the amp/antenna turn on. What the BLUE/WHITE wire is on the Kenwood. If you have the solid blue from the Kenwood hooked up disconnect it and use the blue/white wire instead. Let me know if that fixes it.

 

[2ahuman1791]

Looking at the wires from the Sjoybring W019 the BLUE wire is the amp/antenna turn on. What the BLUE/WHITE wire is on the Kenwood. If you have the solid blue from the Kenwood hooked up disconnect it and use the blue/white wire instead. Let me know if that fixes it.

you are totally correct, but im not using the sjoybring harness for my kenwood. both have their own harnesses. Im just swapping radios when i say one works and one deosnt (kenwood) but you are 100% on the exact issue i think it is too. the blue wire is acting as both and i left my P. Cont hanging on the kenwood. So I need to swap out the Antenna wire for the blue/white wire, or wire them all together as some videos show. Is that correct? I do use radio tuner and i do have amp in glass antennas in my 4runner. is it safe to just wire both blue and blue/white wire from kenwood to the single blue wire in my 4runner?
can you believe I already sent back a DMX958XR due to this misunderstanding of mine!