Anybody upgrade a 2013 to Sync 3 / Carplay compatibility

[Mike D S]

Trusty big red was in the shop thanks to a lady that rubbed up against the rear qtr panel while parking her Tahoe. For a rental I had a 21 Limited and having carplay was pretty nice for the two weeks I had it. Now that I'm back in the 13 Limited I took a look at the options for upgrading. There are a bunch of options and prices are all over the place. Kits seem to run from $700-$800 to over $1500. I also saw on reddit a mention of being able to DIY the kit with some Forscan programming.

So anybody done this and can you give some input? While I would like to have the new functionality its a fair amount of money for the upgrade to I'd appreciate any feedback rom people that have done a kit or maybe have some good info on the DIY path?

Thanks,
Mike

 

[peterk9]

Your thread was moved to this subforum Mike. There are several threads on updating to Sync 3 here that a 'Search' will bring up. Good luck.

Peter

 

[Mike D S]

Peter, thanks and I’ll search here. I realize I did all my original searches in the other forum.

 

[peterk9]

Peter, thanks and I’ll search here. I realize I did all my original searches in the other forum.

You get all results if you don't specify a specific forum. Just use Advanced Search/Search Threads/ enter keywords/2011-2019 5th gen/Display results as threads. That will bring up threads even if posted in the wrong forum.

Peter

 

[Mike D S]

OK, so now that I'm in the right place and I've gone back and reviewed the other threads I found some limited info on pre-2016 upgrades other than several people saying they did kits successfully and several threads generally discussing but without a lot of specifics.

So a follow up question on APIM modules. One of the threads a guys said he pulled an APIM from a Focus, so are the APIMs from the later model years with native support generally interchangeable? I don't mind doing my own parts pulls if I can shave off several hundred, but would want to buy the programming as my Forscan experience is pretty minimal.

So if I go to the yard do I need to stick to explorers or can I look for anything in the right year range with an 8" screen? Does donor trim level matter if I'm going to reprogram?

 

[Joe Stewart]

APIM does not have to be from Explorer, but there are 2 different types of screens. You want what is called a recessed screen, the brackets will come off the SYNC2 screen and mount up to sync3 screen with no modification needed. Nothing from the sync2 system will work with sync3, including the USB hub. If you pull from a donor vehicle, make note of the vin number in order to program the apim. There are more lines of code on the sync3 than sync2, therefore programming is needed. Familiarize yourself with ForScan software in order to program the Apim, if you haven’t already done so. Also, note. If you pull or purchase apim, if it has navigation, it needs to be programmed as such. Non navigation is fine if you use CarPlay, because you will use phone navigation.

 

[Mike D S]

APIM does not have to be from Explorer, but there are 2 different types of screens. You want what is called a recessed screen, the brackets will come off the SYNC2 screen and mount up to sync3 screen with no modification needed. Nothing from the sync2 system will work with sync3, including the USB hub. If you pull from a donor vehicle, make note of the vin number in order to program the apim. There are more lines of code on the sync3 than sync2, therefore programming is needed. Familiarize yourself with ForScan software in order to program the Apim, if you haven’t already done so. Also, note. If you pull or purchase apim, if it has navigation, it needs to be programmed as such. Non navigation is fine if you use CarPlay, because you will use phone navigation.

Joe, thanks. I'm going to do some checking online and calling around for donors and see what I find. Do you know if there is much variation in APIM part numbers? Are there 3 or 4 I can focus on or am I going to find a ton of small revisions?

 

[Joe Stewart]

On my 15 XLT, i found a apim take off from 2019 transit. I would try to find the newest you can. They have a build date on tag on back of unit. Mine was a new unit, non navi.
Newer units will likely have later software revisions. There is some information online, giving some numbers that will determine if it is navi or non-navi. I got all mine on ebay and worked great. If i recall, it was general consensus to get 2017 or later.

 

[mmorey79]

Joe, thanks. I'm going to do some checking online and calling around for donors and see what I find. Do you know if there is much variation in APIM part numbers? Are there 3 or 4 I can focus on or am I going to find a ton of small revisions?

There are a ton of part numbers, ALL sync 3 APIM will carry 14G370 and 14G371 on them depending on which side you read (screen side is the APIM itself's part #, back side will be the complete assembly part #, I forget which is which off hand). The first four digits tell you what year and car it came from, last 2 or 3 letters are revision and equipment, for example early year APIM part #s with a xCx suffix are generally all nav units, but that changed later on. Some people have claimed there are issues using later APIMs with early cars but I kind of doubt it to be honest. I would avoid anything beyond a 2019 as they're harder to update safely. Early APIMs will need firmware updates if you want all of the 3.4 features to work, but 3.4 also has some bugs on 11-15 explorers as it wasn't fully developed for CGEA 1.2/C1MCA vehicles but does still have legacy support for them. I went back and forth and ultimately decided to ignore the bugs (they're really cosmetic) as 3.4 is much better than 3.3<. Cyanlabs.net has a database with a lot of part #s logged with their nav/not nav status. If you don't care about NAV any unit should work, as Joe said the screen is the thing that needs to be the right type. There's a guy named Mitral Shah on facebook that also sells kits for a pretty reasonable price pre-programmed and ready to install and can update to 3.4 etc. TBH unless you have a good selection of junkyards/pick and pulls locally the money saved may not be worth the time spent. I still saved quite a bit over his pricing, but there was a lot of trial and error to get a 100% perfect setup but I also chose to go above and beyond on a few parts (used a factory GPS antenna and splitter etc) and I wanted to learn about how it all worked, I ultimately also upgraded my wife's '14 Fusion with the small screen to sync 3 with what I learned.