Alright, I am finally getting around to writing up my DIY. Just a quick background of what I had and what I wanted to do. When purchasing my truck, I wanted to have navigation but all the trucks on site with navigation had at least $7000 added to the price tag so I went with one with the 5.0 RA2 Radio with bluetooth. I had read that it was not possible to swap out any radio in the 2013/2014 rams so I wasn’t even thinking of attempting it. A few weeks ago I stumbled across a post that said that it is a direct plug and play so I went out and found a "cheap" OEM navigation radio (RA4) to try it out. Here is a summary of my experience.
Parts I bought: RA4 8.4 radio with navigation (this has HD radio), Radio trim with AC controls (don’t buy this), Steering wheel with audio controls, Steering wheel back for audio controls
Start off by removing the negative off the battery and let the truck sit for a few minutes.
Next, to remove the radio trim and gain access to the radio you need to peal up the rubber cover at the sunglass holder, right under the “RAM”. This will reveal two hex screws, unscrew these an pull the whole trim off, it takes some force but will pop right out.
Now you have access to the four screws holding the radio in place, remove these four screws and pull the radio out. There is one large plug, one medium plug and two small plugs, unplug them all and set the radio aside. All these plugs will now be plugged into the new 8.4 radio, direct plugin (plug and play). Use the same four screws to fasten it back in place.
I bought the radio trim with the volume and climate controls but found out when I received it that it is not possible to swap this out. The 5.0 (RA2) radio has manual climate controls where the 8.4 radios have automatic controls. After digging into it, this is not possible to replace as it would require additional modules, flashing and might still not work. I decided to keep the original trim on and see how it works. After reattaching the radio trim, I realized its not a perfect fit at both the radio and the dash but is close enough that nobody would notice it without pointing it out.
My next step was adding audio controls to the steering wheel. (If you already have steering wheel controls you can skip this step) If you google around, you can find instructions on taking off the steering wheel/airbag. There are two screws on the bottom of the steering wheel column trim that will allow you to remove the top trim piece. Once this is removed, lower the steering wheel to the lowest position. There are three clips holding the air bag to the steering wheel, to remove these you need a straight edge screwdriver an you will pry the clips from the inside out. This will take some time to figure out but once you get the first on, its all downhill from there. After removing the third clip, disconnect the two connections to the airbag and set this aside. Now, remove the center nut and use a marker to mark where the steering wheel is aligned then wiggle the steering wheel back and forth to slide it off the column. Disconnect the plugs and if you bought a steering wheel with audio controls, it is a simple plug and reconnect everything. I bought a brown steering wheel so I took the harness and controls out of that steering wheel, replaced them with mine and installed a new back cover (with holes for steering controls) and reinstalled the steering wheel. It looked like the steering wheel can only go on one way because there is a notch in the column that realigns the steering wheel but if not, make sure you align the steering wheel with the marker marks from before. Now work backwards and reassemble everything (remember to replug in the air bag.
Reconnect the negative and turn your truck on! At first, the navigation screen said “SRT” when it turned on but the second time it showed up as “RAM”. I didn’t need to flash the system, everything works! Well, not everything, because the radio trim wouldn’t work, the climate controls on the screen do not work but when you adjust everything with the hard buttons, it shows it on the screen so its compatible. Since the 5.0 (RA2) radio had volume controls on the radio, you lose the volume controls on the dash, hence the adding audio controls to the steering wheel. The only other item I noticed that is different then if it came with your truck is the “Apps”. I don’t have the wifi in my system so I cannot download or use any apps, no big deal but if you are looking for that feature, this isn’t for you.
The navigation directions do show up on my cluster which is awesome, the radio sound quality is much better (more base) and the uconnect works perfect including navigation commands.
I was able to sell my 5.0 radio on ebay and everything ended up only costing me $100. I still have the brown steering wheel so if I can sell that, the cost goes down even more. If you have any questions, let me know but I am completely satisfied with this mod!