I have an '02 Ford Excursion Limited. It does not have any factory video system and therefore just has the basic radio setup with the rear controls. I have purchased the El Cheapo Chinese Brand head unit on Ebay.

Above you can see the basic wiring output of this radio. My questions are these:

1) I of course do not have an amp nor do i intend on installing one. I also bought a wiring harness through crutchfield. Can I simply install rca plugs onto the end of the wiring harness and plug these into the rca plugs on the radio? Or, are these simply the preouts that would not be used in my case (ie: the speaker wires are integrated into the wiring harness)?

2) The excursion has 6 speakers (I think) while this radio has 4x45 Watt output. Can I splice speakers 5 & 6 into speakers 3 & 4 without too many issues? I'm not looking for a super powerful system but just something I can enjoy at a moderate level while driving in town.

3) The headunit says it comes with wiring for the steering wheel controls. Is it as simple as wiring it up or do I still need to purchase some kind of kit?
Thoughts or issues I am not seeing? I know some of you are experts at all of this and I would appreciate any help you can give a newbie. Thanks!

 

1) Those are preouts you will not use, unless you use amps (like you assumed)
2)If your headunit says it can use speakers with 4 - 8 ohms impedence you can wire the rear speakers together. Or if it doesn't say and your connecting 4 ohms to an 8 ohm spec, if you don't crank it up too loud it may not damage your head unit.
or you add an impedence matching transformer and your good to go if you have to go that route.

You may get better sound with just a headunit upgrade, but you'll get MUCH better if you do speakers too.

3) I don't know about the steering wheel control on this head unit without seeing the install manual. It appears like it has the connections for it.

 

1) So you're saying that the speakers are then wired into the wiring harness and will require no extra work?
3) I looked at the harness and gave me more questions than answers! First, the one you posted says for sony or pioneer systems. Is this a universal thing or should I look for something specific? Second, there are a lot of wires coming off that harness. Am I connecting these to my wiring harness for the radio or is there a wiring harness that comes off of the steering wheel somewhere?

 

I edited that post to remove the part number I had listed, just for that reason, my bad.

What harness did you get. it came with with cable labels, right?

You'll need to tap the steering wheel control wire.

 

Go down to the AV portion of this forum and start again.

 

I might be doing this very soon myself, so just chiming in to follow.

 

for steering wheel controls you will need an interface.. pac makes one but it depends on what type you need the interface is usually specific to the head unit so it may be tough to find one for an offbrand head unit.. good luck..

 

Intrusting, I am also getting a Pioneer VAIC Z120BT Head unit on the 5th of Jan. I talked to a guy at a stero shop who quoted me 1900.00, got eveything for 1100.00 at Amazon, but he said there is a cable to integratet the rear DVD to the HU. I could not find this on line so I am going to buy it from him for 60.00.

Has anyone heard about having to cut the dash to fit it in.

 

if it is a double din you have to trim the hole on the top and bottom for it to fit and there is a double din dash kit made that will fill in the gaps on the sides.. if you do a good job trimming it will look very nice. i just used a very sharp razor blade to trim mine..

 

Looking for an inexpensive upgrade that would allow me to put in rear view camera. I have a 2000 with 6 disc CD changer in the between seat console, and would really like a rear view view, if you know what I mean.

I see there are a couple of manufaturers. Nice and inexpensive.

Anyone had one of these for a while?

 

Alright.... I began working on my install today and thought I would try and update as I go. I also came across a couple of unforseen problems and have a few issues that remain. At any rate, here is what I have so far.... with pictures too!

I began by installing the gps antenna. I did some reading online and found a few people who had installed the antenna underneath the hood with few/no problems. I thought I would try this first and if all else fails it can go underneath the dash. I would install it on the roof and run the wire through the brake light in the back lift gate but the cord is much too short for that. I installed it here:





I routed the wire along the body and through the molding here:





After this I removed the dash. To do this simply pull the radio out and look for the two bolts/screws in the radio cavity. With those two screws out there are about 6-8 clips holding it in place. Just be sure to pull the dash straight back towards the driver seat and you will have no problems. I thought I got all the clips out and unfortunately I broke one of them. After this I started trimming.





In the first picture I have two arrows pointing to where I trimmed. If you grind the plastic flat to match the middle section it should be perfect. Just grind the top portion of the plastic to match the lip of the bottom. In the end it should have about a 1/8" lip on the top and bottom and it will fit nicely. I wish, however, that I had ground the four supporting pieces off first using a angle grinder. This is my second picture. it probably doesn't make much sense here but when you take it apart you will understand. On the dash, on the top part of the radio housing where you will be grinding. There are four little plastic supporting pieces that will need to get ground first. if I had to do it again, I would start by grinding those flat.

This is about as far as i have gotten. The additional problems that popped up however, are this. I don't know how to attach the radio to the vehcile. I had intended on making little L brackets that screw to the side of the radio and then on to the plastic housing for the HVAC. however, the front of the radio (the touch screen) is slightly larger than the rest of the radio. Specifically, the top and bottom of the touch screen are bigger. As a result, the dash piece that I removed will not slip over the front of the radio, only the back. I am considering just letting the radio sit in there with no attachments as it is a snug fit. I don't like this though because it would be mighty easy to steal.... Just slide it right out and you're done. Thoughts???

The other issue concerns the width of the radio. It is a good 1/2" - 3/4" narrower then the old one. When the radio is in there is a noticeable gap on either side that is not very attractive. the radio itself shipped with a trim piece. This trim piece doesn't fit in the radio slot however. It is too tall and now wide enough. I wound up cutting this trim piece up and just stuck in the two vertical plastic pieces where the gaps were. It looked great in my opinion, like a professional install really. I think I will probably just use some double stick tape to hold them in place that way they won't fall out and can still be removed if needed.

Finally, I still don't know what to do with the rear speakers and steering wheel controls. I looked for the rear speaker terminals near the e-brake as one of you suggested but found nothing. Does this mean I am going to have to cut the wiring harness the second radio controller in the middle seat and tap a wire off of that?

The steering wheel controls.... In the radio manual it says that you can program the radio to respond to the steering wheel controls. Simple press the steering wheel control button for 6 seconds and then touch the corresponding function you would like the radio to do on the touch screen. Repeat as necessary. I don't know which wires are for the steering wheel controls however. Does anyone have a wiring diagram to help with this?

I am considering taking it to a professional installer for help... thoughts?

thanks for all the help!

 

One thing I forgot to ask.... Looking at number 8 on this pic....




How am I supposed to connect this??? The wiring harness I bought looks like it plugs into the factory radio harness in the truck and then ends with bare wires. Do I have to cut off this #8 harness?

 

The larger connector (#8) looks like they will probably supply you with another connector which could connect to the truck side and then be disconnected if you want to remove it. If you already have the Ford wiring harness you will most likely cut that connector off. I see the common wires there - yellow for constant power, red for acc, black for ground, orange for dimmer and purple/green/white/gray for the speaker connectors. By the way - take #3 and ground it.... that way everything will work even if you are moving down the road....

Do you have a link to the radio you are looking at?

**edit**
Think I found the radio you are looking at. The #8 connector does have another plug to plug into it and then to the truck. I would use the Ford adapter for this instead of having even more plugs behind the dash. There just isn't a lot of room back there for it. I'd be curious to know how this thing works - the slide/tilt mechanism for the display may require a bit more trimming than usual but looks like it has a lot of features for the money.

http://cgi.ebay.com/7-CAR-DVD-PLAYER...aultDomainQ5f0

 

Wouild thesecontrol the 6-disc changer in my console?

No wheel controls in my 2000, so at least there would be a few less connections to make, too.

 

I finished my install tonight. just need to wire up the Reverse sense to someplace that goes to 12V when I put the EX in Reverse. I'll either use something on the PAM or maybe the back-up lights. Will post picture tomorrow.

Anyway, I do not beleive these HU's will control "anything" external. They have no "data buss" to communicate with anything except an Ipod or a USB drive.