03 Explorer H/U Swap

I have a 2003 Eddie Bauer Explorer w/ factory sub. I purchased a new head unit (touch screen, video, reverse camera, etc.) I bought a harness from Wal-Mart (Scosche FDK106). Does anybody know if this is the right harness? Any tips on the install? I have not done a swap myself. Any information would be great.

Thought this place was full of information... Guess I need to look elsewhere?

Relax, not many people come onto the audio forum.

I'm not 100% sure, but I don't think the harness you bought will work with the 03 Eddie, since you have the factory sub.

Why not just pop the radio out and check if they'll plug in?

I was going to but have not got around to it

I think im going to just go ahead and buy one through crutchfield it looks a bit different. Does the factory sub connect through rca's?

TDEP22 said:

I think im going to just go ahead and buy one through crutchfield it looks a bit different. Does the factory sub connect through rca's?

Click to expand...

Nope. It's connected via a harness. I think you can tap into the harness and get it working though.

so my new head unit harness is set up like this. The plug that goes into the new head unit, then some free wires (power amp sub ground illumination) then also has a group of wires that goes into another plug. Am I supposed to cut that and wire those wires into the harness adapter I bought?

Uh, I don't think I'm understanding what you mean here.

The harnesses you bought should be able to utilize all the wires from the factory radio.
The aftermarket radio should wire into the harness you bought. Some wires may be left over.
But you will certainly need the power and ground wires for the radio to work.

this is the harness that came with new head unit and plugs into the new head unit. There are these "free" wires, and it also splits into a plug.



These are the harnesses from (left to right) plugs into new head unit, then I have the end of the new head unit harness where there is a plug. Do I just snip this and connect the wires to the adapter harness? Then you can see my adapter harness and that plugs into stock unit.

The adapter harness you bought should utilize all factory connections. If there are left over wires in the new radio, they are usually for additional things. Such as a parking brake ground or power antenna, which you don't have. If they don't match up with the harnesses, you won't need them.

I have used a couple of those adapters, and I too was unsure at first. So I called tech, and the first thing they said was no, you make no cuts or modifications to the stock harness. So I matched up the wires from the HU harness to the adapter (which should be marked) and then solder and shrink wrap. Start with the hot and it will be self explanatory once you start to to narrow it down. Basically the first harness is proprietary to the HU, the second is vehicle/manufacturer specific. You put the two together for rock n roll.

My HU came with the same harness. There is an ISO style plug at the end of the wires used for power/gnd/accessory and speakers.

You have 2 options here. You can just cut off the ISO harness, and you'll have the same type of wiring you find on most US head units, or you can search around for a female ISO plug that matches this one.

Simplest thing to do is cut the ISO plug off, and color match the wires from that plug to your Sosche wiring harness. With the exception of your "free" wires, all the colors should match up.

Red= accessory power
Yellow = +12 constant power
Black = GND
All others are speaker wires.

One thing that might throw you is having 2 black wires. These are both ground wires, so just tie them together.