Installing new entertainment system

[dburkhead]

The radio with 6 CD changer on my 2005 Explorer is on its last legs. The CD changer died years ago--would neither eject nor recognize the disks in it. Lately the display has been intermittently dim (or more accurately, mostly dim with intermittently normal brightness). Add in that I also wanted to connect to my phone for music and audiobooks--currently using an FM transmitter that plugs into a power port to make the connection--and, well, it was time to change it out.

I bought a BOSS Audio Systems BV9362BI unit which was both inexpensive and had the features I wanted. I also got a dash kit and a wiring adapter for that generation Explorer with premium sound. Wired it all in and the unit would not turn on. I suspect that there's a problem with the unit and am working with tech support on that, but I have some questions about connections themselves.

My understanding is that connecting between the radio harness and the wiring adapter is a straightforward matter of matching colors and crimp-connecting them end to end. I did this. However, I had leftover connections on the wiring adapter. There are brown, orange, and pink wires for which there is no match on the radio harness. Am I correct in that I can just ignore these? In the Explorer there are two plugs (plus antenna) that plug into the back of the CD changer. The wiring adapter I purchased has two sockets, one for each of those plugs. The smaller socket has two wires with RCA plugs on the end and two loose wires. I don't know what, if anything, to do with these. There are RCA jacks on the radio but I don't know which of the audio ones (presume can ignore video and other) are appropriate if any are, let alone what I should do with the other two wires.

 

[PUR PONY]

more then likely you will have a couple wires left over. As long has you have red+, yellow+, black - wired your radio should turn on. Then you have your greys, purples, greens, and whites to your speakers. Usually the orange is for illumination but if its a touch screen you probably wont use that.

 

[dburkhead]

Do the "positive/negative" on the speaker connections matter (if just a speaker, they wouldn't but if there's active circuitry along the way they might).