So my 6 CD OEM Ford radio died in my 2008 F-150 the other day. It would have been easy enough to buy an after market car radio I suppose and install it. But to be honest, I've never had much luck with CD players in cars. Seems after a few years the heads get out of alignment, or they skip, or they just die. I'd much rather have an MP3 player that had zero moving parts.

New after market radios can be had for as little as $20 on eBay, with installation kits for about $18 more that include a 2 DIN adapter frame and a Ford compatible cable to mate with the existing cables, and an antenna cable adapter.

But what if you are a real cheapskate like me? Well then the only thing is to install your own MP3 decoder into your existing radio. The whole project took less than an hour, and it works great!

The photos below show how I did it.

1) Remove the faceplate and the top and bottom enclosure panels by removing key screws.

2) Remove the motherboard and heatsink.

3) Solder the power ground wire to bottom of the motherboard. The solder trace corresponds to pin 13 of the main connector.

4) Solder power wire. If you want to have constant power regardless of key operation then use the pin 1 solder point, or pin 2 if you want keyed operation. I selected pin 1 since my MP3 decoder has a power switch built into it.

5) Now that power connectors are done, I need to solder wires to the AUX connector. The green, yellow, and blue are the AUX input pins. Pin 14 is also used as AUX in and is below pin 6. The pins correspond as follows:

R+ line in pin 6
R- line in pin 14
L+ line in pin 7
L- line in pin 8

Since my MP3 decoder used a common ground, I just wired my R- and L- to the same point.

6) If your MP3 decoder has wire connectors, you can skip this step. If it is hard wired, then you will want to use a connector with your input wires in case you need to remove the decoder for some reason. That way you won't have to desolder and resolder again.

7) Mark an opening for your encoder to fit onto your radio.

8) Cut a hole in your faceplate large enough to mount the MP3 decoder.

9) Cut a hole in the radio circuit board to allow the MP3 decoder to slide back. Make sure you don't cut any important PCB traces that are used to adjust your radio.

10) Reinstall the motherboard back onto the enclosure.

11) Here you can see all the wires completed and hooked up to the MP3 decoder. I used a zip cable to keep the wires away from the heat sink on the opposite side. Pop the top metal plate back on and you are done.

12) The finished radio in my F-150.

The MP3 decoder cost me $2.75 from China on eBay. When done it was the cheapest way to be able to play MP3 tunes off an SD card. By the way, it also plays through the mini USB port, and the large port can charge your cell phone.

Since this MP3 decoder is wired parallel into the AUX in jack, the AUX in port on top of the dash still works too.

One final thing...I have a Sirius Onyx XM satellite receiver. One of my pet peeves is that while driving, my XM radio will sometimes be interfered with when a strong FM radio station is picked up on a nearby frequency. When this happens, I have to retune to another station.

Using this MP3 decoder, which is also an FM receiver, I can use my XM radio with it instead of the car radio. Since I have no antenna hooked up to the decoder, it doesn't pick up any external stations, but my XM radio receiver is close enough that it picks that FM modulator up fine.

Now I get perfect XM radio with zero interference by using the MP3 decoder's FM setting rather than the Ford car radio FM receiver. Wish I had gotten a black one now instead of the silver....

 

By the way, here is a short video of it in action. Click on the link to download a zipped video file...it's about 75mb.

http://www.richhawley.com/mypics/decoder.zip

The LEDs on the decoder are not really flashing when I move in close...that is something to do with the frame video rate of my cellphone camera. To the naked eye it looks normal.

 

this is very interesting. I have an 05, and may dig into mine to put in an (or find the) aux cable. I like pandora radio...

 

I had one of these when I had the factory radio in the truck, it did the trick but doesn't appear to be available any more: https://www.crutchfield.com/S-xyflqy...-For-Ford.html
It plugs into the "AUX/DVD" port on the back of the factory radio (at least the 6-disc version, don't know about others) and plays through the "AUX" function of the radio.

There appear to be similar items available from other manufacturers, but I upgraded to a Nav unit, which was nice until someone smashed my window and relieved me of it as well as my toolbox, so a Bluetooth speaker in the cup holder it is for now.

 

I got lucky...the truck I bought already has the cable you plug into the back of the radio and a 3/16" jack up top in the storage area...it works great. But some versions didn't come with this, so your adapter would make it really easy.

Don't we all just wish we could catch someone when they are trying to rob us blind...I for one would hurt them so badly!

 

Not trying to bump this, but I just couldn't stand the silver mp3 decoder, so I ordered a black one and installed it. Looks much better I think.



Also I rewired my cigarette lighter to connect the positive to the accessory switch on lead so that it is disabled when I turn the truck off. I had this weird dual USB port adapter that drew power even when nothing was plugged in. It had a little LED light in it I guess to show that the thing had power to it. Anyways, I just clipped the 12v lead and connected one that is switched instead. Since I don't smoke, I don't need a lighter, and still have the 12v accessory outlet available for those things that use the round cylindrical plugs, like my 12v tire air compressor or my 12v handheld spotlight, etc. Another pic...

 

Nicely done Rich. That's good old fashioned American ingenuity! Refreshing, but sadly rare these days.