Aftermarket Radio Install, wiring harness issue

[asawyer3]

Please excuse me if I'm beating a dead horse, but I wasn't able to find a good answer to what I'm about to ask in previous posts, even those on similar topic.

I just purchased an '08 LR3 SE. It was an upgrade/downgrade from my fully loaded '07 Dodge Nitro, upgrade being obvious, downgrade being that the Nitro CAME fully loaded and required no aftermarket "attention" to appease a car-hating two year old.

So I purchased:

Headrest monitors http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=331147536688

In dash dvd/nav/rear view cam--whole kit and caboodle http://www.ebay.com/itm/121214267083?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649

And this wiring harness (per a post to this forum) http://www.ebay.com/itm/331129026412?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649


We wired the backup camera from the bumper to the stereo, as well as the headrest monitors. When we got ready to wire in the new stereo, we got stuck on the following issues; Please Help!

The Metra 70-9500 was the only harness recommendation I could find, however, my LR3 has three harnesses-- one that connects to the Metra and into the new stereo, the fiber optic one, and a smaller, non-FO one that seems to be the power supply.

So my questions:

1) What is the fiber optic facilitating and is it necessary for the functionality of the new headunit?

2) What adaptor do I need to purchase for the smaller LR3 harness in order to get power to the new headunit?


Thanks!

Abby

 

[bbyer]

Your SE may have the hi line fibre optic radio option.

If you have a pair of orange fibre optic cables plugging into to rear of your radio, the good news is you have the hi line radio.

The bad news is the 18 conductors for the perhaps 14 speakers terminate at the amplifier under the passenger seat; the fibre optic cable joins the two together; hence there are no conventional speaker wires coming out the rear of the hi line radio.

The link below is to a number of files on the entertainment system. You might want to figure out which system you have. Also you cannot just unplug the fibre optic cable as that will disable other systems.

http://bit.ly/1naq2yE

 

[PhyrraM]

The amplifier under the passenger seat ONLY gets audio info from the fiber optic cables, called the MOST bus. ALL of the onboard systems that use 'sound' thru the speakers are daisy chained off the MOST bus. This includes the phone/bluetooth, NAV/GPS, stereo, voice control, etc.

If your replacing the factory head unit, also plan to replace the amplifier(s) to all the speakers. I count 14 total speakers (8 locations) on my LR3. You will also need your own work-arounds for the steering wheel buttons if you wish to maintain any functions for them.

Some items may be available commercially, but I've never seen any integration into the factory stereo that was seamless.