2006 Jeep Commander
Radiopro4 CH11 wiring harness
Kenwood bt565u stereo
OK with that out of the way the harness has two yellow (power) wires but the stereo only has one. Would I connect the two yellows to one? All any references say is color-to-color but I’ve never seen wiring with more than one wire per color.
I wouldn’t connect them, I’d probably pick one and cap off the other…then remember that you did that so if something isn’t working, the first thing to do is swap that wire.
It is possible that there are two power wires to allow higher current draw. They could have used one of a bigger gauge, but chose two for some reason. If the power wire from the unit seems larger gauge than the car power wires, maybe use both.
Also, if you have a meter, check for presence of power with the key in different positions. They should be different colors if switched differently, but maybe not.
I’ve been in electronics all my life and have learned that colors MEAN NOTHING!
I don’t go by colors as to what they are for… Rather I get the schematics/documentation of the various gizmos (in this case, car, wiring harness, and stereo) and determine what each color is being used for.
So what do the two yellow wires connect to on the car and what are those connections intended for?
And what needs to supply the power wire on the stereo. (Always on power or only on with ignition?)
FYI - I have seen car manufacturers totally change wire colors for the same thing from model year to model year. A certain color wire suddenly does the opposite of what it did the prior model year! (Best to learn what the wire is for…)
I checked the wiring harness for the car in the OP (you can double check me) and it did show two yellow/red wires that both said Constant 12v.
Now, I kind of surprised that there isn’t a wire turns on and off with the ignition, but maybe that data wire caries that information. But I was going to suggesting testing each of the wires for that.
you could connect both; connect both yellow wires together then solder to the single yellow wire of the new radio, and same for grounds. the OE radio connector has two +12 volt pins (pin #1 and #12) and two grounds (pin #11 and #22) however it’s likely only one of each is used. Look on the Jeep’s 22 way connector (which plugs into the factory radio) and see which pins are actually populated. If both power and ground wires are populated, you’ll need to do a 2-to-1 connection for each, or just use one and prevent the other one from shorting. The radio doesn’t really need two of each.
while normally true, the PAC adapter harness OP purchased uses the standardized color codes determined by the CEA for aftermarket car stereo adapter harnesses. The car’s factory wiring colors can be whatever the heck they wanted.
the OE harness calls out two pins each for power and ground, but that doesn’t mean they’re all used.
from about 2004 on up, Chrysler vehicles use CAN messages to tell modules to power up. The adapter harness Saint Cad bought has a small module to do this.