2014 PIU stereo upgrade options. | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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2014 PIU stereo upgrade options.

VikingWerewolf

New Member
Joined
January 29, 2020
Messages
8
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City, State
Boston, MA
Year, Model & Trim Level
2014 Ford PIU Base
I bought a 2014 PIU with a base radio, no sync, no aux jack, and no bluetooth capability. I'm trying to find options to upgrade my stereo so I can play music thats on my phone through the stereo system using bluetooth. I ordered a touch screen head unit, but ended up canceling the order when it had been over a month since I ordered it and it still hadn't shipped. The company's customer service made me lose faith in their ability to handle any issues that might come up if I ever actually got it, plus it was coming from China and I didn't want a box of Coronavirus coming to my house.

Now I'm looking at double din touch screen radio options and trying to figure out the correct dash kit to use, but when I emailed the company that makes the dash kits they said that none of their dash kits will work on a PIU because of differences in the CANBUS programming. So I'm really at a loss here as far as what can be done to upgrade the stereo.

I know there are other threads about upgrading PIU stereos, but I'm wondering if anyone has run into these issues specifically with trying to find a dash kit and double din stereo setup for their PIU with the same setup...
 



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Welcome to the Forum.:wave:
Good luck with your project.

Peter
 


















Both of those are the exact same thing I ordered and canceled. I paid for expedited shipping, which only means it doesn't take a month to get to you after it ships. It says on the website 10 business days or more for processing. I emailed them to see if there were any updates around that time and they said 5-15 business days or more. At around 21 business days, which was a full month after I made the order I canceled it because A. They told me it wouldn't ship until after Chinese New Year, and B. It was coming from China in the midst of the Coronavirus outbreak. The whole experience left me with little faith in their product. I waited double the time it said it would take for processing on the website, and I was going to have to wait another week for it to (maybe) be shipped. If there was an issue with it, would they be as slow to work on it as they were processing the order?

I read a lot of bad reviews before I ordered, and was a little worried when one of the first pages that came up when I searched for Phoenix is the Better Business Bureau complaint page for them. But I decided to give them a shot due to the limited options for dealing with the non-Sync base radio and dash panel. Turns out it was a huge disappointment.
 












That's the Crutchfield guide for our model
OP says they have a 2014 PIU, so this is the actual guide: Upgrading the stereo system in your 2011-2015 Ford Explorer

Although, based on comments, I'm in the same group of people all over this forum that are interested in the large screen Android options but completely lost as to what to pick or do to prepare for it...
 






I've resigned myself that Ford screwed us on any sort of meaningful audio or console function upgrade. Aside from speakers, adding fun things to these vehicles seems like an expensive and potentially fruitless nightmare. Based upon Viking's experience and research, I am not about to pop $540 on an questionable system. Unless someome has actually done it and can report back.

I enabled Sirius (with a new ACM and hex editing), but the hex was irritating and tons of trial and error to get the exact right sequence. While it IS working, there are some quirks I'm not crazy about.

Thanks Ford engineers. Great job.
 












I've resigned myself that Ford screwed us on any sort of meaningful audio or console function upgrade. Aside from speakers, adding fun things to these vehicles seems like an expensive and potentially fruitless nightmare. Based upon Viking's experience and research, I am not about to pop $540 on an questionable system. Unless someome has actually done it and can report back.

I enabled Sirius (with a new ACM and hex editing), but the hex was irritating and tons of trial and error to get the exact right sequence. While it IS working, there are some quirks I'm not crazy about.

Thanks Ford engineers. Great job.
I got the metra dash kit on Amazon for about $250 and then put in an alpine iLX-w650. If I was doing it over again I’d get a wireless CarPlay receiver vs a wired one. Aside from that it works great. Ended up putting in a backup camera and hooking up a sub to it as well. Pretty happy with the setup.
 






I got the metra dash kit on Amazon for about $250 and then put in an alpine iLX-w650. If I was doing it over again I’d get a wireless CarPlay receiver vs a wired one. Aside from that it works great. Ended up putting in a backup camera and hooking up a sub to it as well. Pretty happy with the setup.
Been a while since you posted but was wondering if you had any trouble with the climate controls after installing the dash kit.
 






Been a while since you posted but was wondering if you had any trouble with the climate controls after installing the dash kit.
I did not. I’m assuming your PIU doesn’t have auto climate control.
 






I did not. I’m assuming your PIU doesn’t have auto climate control.
Nope just the standard dials.

IMG_2001.jpg
 


















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