Explorer_PL
Explorer Addict
- Joined
- November 16, 2007
- Messages
- 2,914
- Reaction score
- 221
- City, State
- Rockland County, NY
- Year, Model & Trim Level
- 06EB V8
It took me few months to do it, but it's done now. I always wanted to upgrade the stock GPS head unit with a modern one. Lucky for us, the center stock on our Explorers is compatible with the F150 from those years, so with that, the market selection is much wider than if you were to google just "Explorers".
It took me few months for number of reasons.
First unit I got off ebay from a seller "tizpo_auto", looked just like Eonon 6173, but without the name on it. Plugged it in, but all I got was black screen, defective unit. Now the fun began. You email the seller and wait about 2 days for a response since all is based in China (I got the unit in 2 days since they have warehouses in NJ). They even send me a new screen to swap, but no luck with that, still not functional. I send it back to the warehouse (make sure that the returns are in US, otherwise you will pay big bucks, and it usually gets lost somewhere in transit). to their credit, they really tried, and gave me all money back.
Second unit I ordered from Eonon directly. Also got in 2 days, plugged it in, and it worked very nicely, but .....
The background lights are red, and can't be adjusted on 6173. It was annoying. then, the unit would not shut off when you turn the car off, it would just go on forever eventually draining the battery. I contacted them, again 2 days turn around on responses, and in the end they said that the CAN BUS is programmed to work with F150, not explorers. Now I know, they were wrong, but packed it up and shipped back. Again, no problems, got all my money back.
The last (successful) unit, I ordered from Amazon. At this point my wife is asking how many radios I got working in my car and if I need to see a doctor
This is what I got, I see it's no longer available:
https://www.amazon.com/Volsmart-Nav...7-b4d4-466b-8c26-2639359664eb&pf_rd_i=desktop
This one has the background lights selectable, so green is what I set it to. It did not shut off initially like the Eonon, but I figured out that I need to unplug one of the wires going to CAN BUS, and that did the trick. There are number of things I do not like, and this upgrade may not be for everyone, especially for someone expecting a lot for $289
The sun glare sometimes makes it impossible to see anything, the stock GPS did not have this problem.
AM radio can't get a good reception between the buildings.
It takes about 30 seconds to for it to start, like an android.
And probably there are more I do not remember now.
The GPS interface is much more modern that the old unit. I hooked up the back up camera (need to take a picture of that), and it works fine, the picture quality is pretty good. I have the blue tooth on that and it's synched with my phone. There are 18 FM memory pre-set, and 6 AM. And it came with the torque app. I just bought a wireless ELM327 adapter, and can see different stuff from ECU, and trouble codes, more than my scanner.
The most important for me is the trans temp:
The front main menu
The glare problem:
I just noticed the clock needs to be reset:
Phone interface
Radio interface
I have the steering wheel controls programmed as well.
Without glare, and at night, looks pretty cool.
It took me few months for number of reasons.
First unit I got off ebay from a seller "tizpo_auto", looked just like Eonon 6173, but without the name on it. Plugged it in, but all I got was black screen, defective unit. Now the fun began. You email the seller and wait about 2 days for a response since all is based in China (I got the unit in 2 days since they have warehouses in NJ). They even send me a new screen to swap, but no luck with that, still not functional. I send it back to the warehouse (make sure that the returns are in US, otherwise you will pay big bucks, and it usually gets lost somewhere in transit). to their credit, they really tried, and gave me all money back.
Second unit I ordered from Eonon directly. Also got in 2 days, plugged it in, and it worked very nicely, but .....
The background lights are red, and can't be adjusted on 6173. It was annoying. then, the unit would not shut off when you turn the car off, it would just go on forever eventually draining the battery. I contacted them, again 2 days turn around on responses, and in the end they said that the CAN BUS is programmed to work with F150, not explorers. Now I know, they were wrong, but packed it up and shipped back. Again, no problems, got all my money back.
The last (successful) unit, I ordered from Amazon. At this point my wife is asking how many radios I got working in my car and if I need to see a doctor
This is what I got, I see it's no longer available:
https://www.amazon.com/Volsmart-Nav...7-b4d4-466b-8c26-2639359664eb&pf_rd_i=desktop
This one has the background lights selectable, so green is what I set it to. It did not shut off initially like the Eonon, but I figured out that I need to unplug one of the wires going to CAN BUS, and that did the trick. There are number of things I do not like, and this upgrade may not be for everyone, especially for someone expecting a lot for $289
The sun glare sometimes makes it impossible to see anything, the stock GPS did not have this problem.
AM radio can't get a good reception between the buildings.
It takes about 30 seconds to for it to start, like an android.
And probably there are more I do not remember now.
The GPS interface is much more modern that the old unit. I hooked up the back up camera (need to take a picture of that), and it works fine, the picture quality is pretty good. I have the blue tooth on that and it's synched with my phone. There are 18 FM memory pre-set, and 6 AM. And it came with the torque app. I just bought a wireless ELM327 adapter, and can see different stuff from ECU, and trouble codes, more than my scanner.
The most important for me is the trans temp:
The front main menu
The glare problem:
I just noticed the clock needs to be reset:
Phone interface
Radio interface
I have the steering wheel controls programmed as well.
Without glare, and at night, looks pretty cool.
