Use this article if…
Use this when the factory radio is out, you have the PVS harness in your hand, and neither plug will connect to anything behind the dash.
Quick answer
Nothing is missing from your kit. Our harness ends in the factory headunit plugs for your vehicle, so if nothing mates, the factory plugs have been removed or cut out by a previous aftermarket stereo install. Either unplug that old loom to get back to them, or have an auto electrician reinstate the factory plugs.
Problem
- The PVS harness will not connect to anything in the dash opening.
Symptoms
- Neither main plug mates with anything in the dash.
- The plugs look a similar size but will not latch.
- You have already removed some connectors and it still does not fit.
- Taped joins or extra bundled wiring are visible in front of the dash opening.
Cause
- The vehicle has had an aftermarket stereo fitted at some point. The installer either left an aftermarket loom sitting in line with the factory plugs, or cut the factory plugs off the loom completely.
Fix Step-by-step
- Look at what is actually plugged into the dash. If you can see taped joins, extra bundled wiring or connector blocks that do not look factory, that is an aftermarket loom from a previous stereo.
- If that aftermarket loom unplugs: pull it out completely and go back to the plugs behind it. Our harness then plugs straight in, with no cutting and no adapters.
- If the factory plugs have been cut off or soldered rather than plugged in: your vehicle no longer has them. An auto electrician needs to reinstate the factory headunit plugs before any plug and play harness will fit, ours or anyone else's.
- Once the factory plugs are back on the loom, our harness connects normally.
Notes
- Nothing is missing from your kit. Every PVS headunit harness ends in the factory plugs for your vehicle, so there is no adapter we have left out of the box.
- This is common on a vehicle bought second hand. The work was usually done years earlier by someone else, and the current owner has no way of knowing until the radio comes out.
- If you would rather have it done for you, we refer installers. We have used Second Stage Auto (Unit 3/17 Templar Pl, Bennetts Green NSW 2290) and Mackielec in Victoria over the last ten years, and they are who we recommend.
- Reinstating factory plugs is ordinary work for an auto electrician. It is not a big job.
Still stuck? Send us these photos
- Vehicle: model, series and year.
- Photos, wide and close: the dash opening with everything visible, and a close shot of the plugs you are left with, square on and close enough to count the pins. Shade rather than direct sun, and a torch held off to one side beats the flash.
- Tell us whether the old loom unplugged or whether the wiring is cut and soldered.