Michael,
Thanks for the input. It was a great help. The VIN decoder showed my XLT as an Eddie Bauer body "U18" in the 5-7 numbers. I am still trying to locate the wiring harness and compass module for my install. If you get a line on one please let me know. I also have the shop manual on CD and all the wiring diagrams if you need them. Just contact me via. e-mail

Bob

 

Email sent!

Michael

 

Alright, you could probably consider the following to be a litmus test for this modification since most people will not want to go to the lengths required should their vehicle not meet the following criteria. Short and sweet folks, if you want to know whether or not your 97-99 Expedition can be easily outfitted with the over head information center/temp/compass functions, here is what you need to check for:

1) There is a removable kick panel located in the passenger footwell. Take a shop light or flash light and carefull remove this panel. This is not a difficult task since the panel is held in place by plastic tabs with metal expansion clips on each tab but be careful because if you apply to much force, you may deform or break one of the tabs.

2) Once you have removed the panel, you will observe that there are a number of electrical wiring connectors located here . Locate the two nearly identical type connectors containing about 28-30 wires - one gray and one black colored. Observe that the black wiring connector has a wire loom that curves up from underneath the carpet and connects to the back side of this connector. This is the connector for the harness that goes to the overhead area.

3) Count the number of wires on one side of the connector. The overhead wiring harness for the info center module uses upwards of 12-14 wires, so if this black connector only has 4-5 wires inserted into each side of the connector, then your vehicle is not wired to power/support the info center module functions.

Does that mean it cant be done - absolutely not! What is does mean is that in order to make this work, you will need to acquire a complete dash panel wiring loom from an Eddie Bauer equipped vehicle of the same year. Once you have the instrument panel wiring harness, you will then need to remove the dash assembly from your vehicle (which also may require removal of the front seats, center floor console, and steering column assembly) so that you can either replace the existing harness with the replacement from the EB equipped vehicle or scavenge the appropriate wires from the donor wire harness and insert them in the appropriate connectors/locations in your vehicles harness. Regardless of the path you follow, this is very labor intensive and well beyond what most people will want to go through simply for a couple added features. Now I am hard headed and having done such work on my other car (Mazda Miata), I am much less intimidated by the task and although it may take a couple of weeks to complete, I intend to take a stab at this and I will keep you updated on the progress.

 

Great info on the wiring harness location and termination! I checked mine today and discovered that I don't have all the needed wires. I will try to locate the harness and take it from there. This has evolved into more of a challenge than just an attempt to get a functional OTC! Where there is a will there is a way.
Thanks,
Michael

 

Guys I have a 2001 EXP EB AZ. It has all the bells but the back up system and side air bags. If you need to know something about the trucks let me know and I'll see what I can find for you.

 

Cool!

Say, you know if you have a spare minute or two this weekend, do you mind pulling out your front seats, center console, and dash panel assembly then tracking down a few wires in the main wiring loom as it connects from the wiring harness that runs from the overhead console.


You gotta know that I could not resist that!

 

I'll get right on top of it. The blue goes to the green one that goes to the yellow with black strip... OH that wire goes to the machine guns or was that the launcher...