Hi all,...I bought the F-150 XL , and I'm doing my own mods to upgrade to the way I want her to be. Is this a , "do-able," project? Has anyone done this?

 

Hi jwel, welcome to the forum. That was one of my first upgrades. Super easy, but one problem. After you put it in, the dealer has to 'tell' the PCM that you now have cruise. The price on the dealer hooking it up to the machine and telling it you have a cruise usually costs about 60 bucks. I've heard of it being done for free, for 30 bucks, for 60, and for 85. A few calls might find the best price.

The work involved to swap it is as follows;
disconnect the battery. Let it sit for at least five minutes.
pop out the two little discs on each side of the steering wheel, I used a sharp small screwdrive, after tapeing around where I was prying. Sometimes your hand slips...
remove the airbag retaining bolts. 8 mm socket, look back there with a mirror to see the angle they go in at.
remove the airbag, gently, of course. No static electricity, watch where you set it.
The air bag has a harness that has to be removed to pull the air bag, it has a red safty clip, push the red safty up with the small screwdriver, then press the connector to remove the harness.
Remove the connector for the horn.
Big torx 45-50 I forget socket holds the steering wheel in place. Note the wheel only goes on one way.
Use a hook type steering wheel puller. Cheap at most autoparts places, someone may lend you one, or you can rent them for a couple bucks many places.
Reverse the job to reinstall the new wheel, if you swap the wheel complete. If you want to keep your wheel you can remove the dummy buttons on your wheel and install the real buttons. Four screws.
Then drive to dealership and have them turn it on. If they don't know how, there is a hotline for the service techs.

Hope this helps, if you have any questions about the way things hook up or whatever, just ask.
P.S. I have a spare black wheel with the dummy buttons, a complete gray wheel with black buttons, laying here in my computer room.
Wanna buy a cruise cheap?
I just swapped my gray plastic wheel for a leather one, with metal flake gray buttons. Gonna toss all my leftover stock parts up on e-bay pretty soon.
Truck has about 5k on it, and I'm on my third steering wheel already.
whoo hoo.
Chris

 

Ok, at the expense of sounding stupid, is all that is required to add cruise control is the new steering wheel? Unless I missed something in your instructions, that is all you added. I realize the 04 -05 150s are "drive-by-wire", but I would have thought it still required a separate actuator for the cruise function.

 

Sorry Grok, I was eating dinner and kinda screwed that up.
If you go to the dealership they sell you a 'kit'. It's a wheel with the switches installed.
Costs on the close order of 165.00 plus local tax. They will probably have to order it.

There is no servo, etc, under the hood.

The wire harness is already in your wheel housing.

The 7 button radio control/cruise combo has a different harness. You might be able to get the dealer to add that, but it seems to vary.

The five button cruise-only is in there already.

Truly, you don't need to swap the wheel. 4 screws pulls out the dummy switches, then you can put in the cruise switches.
Nobody sells the cruise switches alone.

You still have to pull the wheel to swap them. Access problem, when the wheel is installed, the plastic surround between the wheel and the dash covers the screw holes.

The green cruise light is in the IP, you just can't see it unless it's lit. High to the right on the STX, low right on the FX4. No clue on the XLT, but you might be able to see it in the sunlight. It's round..

A good price for a cruise wheel is 50 bucks plus shipping, used but in like new shape.
Sometimes they're on E-bay. Be cautious and check out the vendor.

Note the color combinations;
The black wheel likes to come with the light gray switches.
The light gray wheel likes to come with the black switches.
The black leather usually has metalflake gray switches.

I started with a black plastic steering wheel, with black fake switches, black air bag, black surround (the thing with the two disk shapped covers you remove to get at the airbag bolts).

I put in a gray steering wheel, with the black switches, black airbag, black surround. Looked really sharp.

My wife wanted a leather wheel. Her hands bother her when driving long distances so I got a black leather wheel. I installed it with gray switches, black airbag, black surround. Looks good, not as jaunty as with the gray wheel, but nice.

Once you are programed for cruise, you can swap cruise contlrols till your bolts wear out, and the PCM remembers you have cruise.
The cruise on these trucks is the best I have ever used. I normally don't care much for cruise control, but on this truck it's so darn precise, I love it. I can drive all day and never vary two miles an hour.
Hope that helps,
Chris

 

Thanks for the info, ChrisAdams,Grock. There's something about the seat position that makes me uncomfortable using the accelerator for extended periods. I've had cruise in every vehicle owned. Maybe just getting spoiled, but I miss that feature the most on my '05 XL. I was trying to keep the cost of this new truck down to where I could afford to own it. Putting mods and tweaks as I see the need. Thanks much

 

Chris,

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Thanks,
Aaron J. Wood