Ford Explorer 2018 Radio Upgrade

[maxxmillion614]

Good Evening Folks,

I have a 2018 Ford Explorer XLT with a 4" screen, boring sound system and I am wanting to upgrade it to something nicer like a 8" Sony System with CarPlay. Has anyone thought about or has performed such an upgrade? and if so how did it turn out? I'm curious to know as I'm in the researching phase and looking at diagrams, it's hard to tell if the SUV is pre-wired for it or not. Any feedback is appreciated.

Maxx

 

[peterk9]

Welcome to the Forum Maxx.
Many members have upgraded their audio system. My suggestion is to use the "search' feature at the upper right and you'll find many threads about that.
The easiest way is to click on "Search" and then search for "Audio upgrades" and search the "Threads".

Peter

 

[mmorey79]

Wiring is all there, but not all in the right places. The cheap but difficult path is get all the hard parts and some extra pins, and move a handful of pins around in the connectors. The more expensive path is buy the pre-made adapter harness, they've gotten real cheap out of china, but the quality control is bad so you may have issues where you need to fix pins etc anyway. You could also get an extension harness and splice it if you're comfortable with splicing but not de-pinning/re-pinning connectors. I did our 2014 Fusion (all Sync 1 are basically the same) and also did our 2015 explorer but it was already sony 8" audio. Sync-3 wiring.PDF and airborne Ape's APIM page of insanity both are good resources for the wiring changes needed.

 

[wnofearw]

Good Evening Folks,

I have a 2018 Ford Explorer XLT with a 4" screen, boring sound system and I am wanting to upgrade it to something nicer like a 8" Sony System with CarPlay. Has anyone thought about or has performed such an upgrade? and if so how did it turn out? I'm curious to know as I'm in the researching phase and looking at diagrams, it's hard to tell if the SUV is pre-wired for it or not. Any feedback is appreciated.

Maxx

Hey Maxx,
i recently purchased a 2017 PIU with the wonderful 4" screen. I looked into upgrading the radio as well. I read that there were some issues programming another explorer radio into your vehicle. Some of the posts i read online said you may even need to take to a dealer for programming. I don't know how much of it was true/fictitious. I actually purchased a replacement radio from Teyes late last year. I don't have a covered garage so i haven't installed it yet(cold in NY this time of year, lol) But looks nice, 10" screen, and according to what I read, its very responsive, etc.

-Welton

 

[mmorey79]

Hey Maxx,
i recently purchased a 2017 PIU with the wonderful 4" screen. I looked into upgrading the radio as well. I read that there were some issues programming another explorer radio into your vehicle. Some of the posts i read online said you may even need to take to a dealer for programming. I don't know how much of it was true/fictitious. I actually purchased a replacement radio from Teyes late last year. I don't have a covered garage so i haven't installed it yet(cold in NY this time of year, lol) But looks nice, 10" screen, and according to what I read, its very responsive, etc.

-Welton

Programming can be done with Forscan. Frankly most dealers aren't going to touch a radio swap that isn't like for like, if you're trying to put together an upgrade they're not likely to be any help. PIUs have an added issue that not all of them come with "sync" some have the 4" screen but don't have the full sync module and bluetooth capability. There are several sites/folks that will make the programming file to upload or if you buy the parts from them they usually come preprogrammed. Most of them are less eager to work on 4->8 swaps unless you buy the more expensive adapter harness etc as it's less likely to have issues due to bad wiring that sometimes happens in the really cheap harnesses.

 

[goots]

Good Evening Folks,

I have a 2018 Ford Explorer XLT with a 4" screen, boring sound system and I am wanting to upgrade it to something nicer like a 8" Sony System with CarPlay. Has anyone thought about or has performed such an upgrade? and if so how did it turn out? I'm curious to know as I'm in the researching phase and looking at diagrams, it's hard to tell if the SUV is pre-wired for it or not. Any feedback is appreciated.

Maxx

Tons of info on this, but the showstopper is the cost. It costs approx $2000 to swap to the 8" system from what I have seen.

 

[mmorey79]

Tons of info on this, but the showstopper is the cost. It costs approx $2000 to swap to the 8" system from what I have seen.

Pretty sure mitral shah on Facebook sells the parts for about half that, not apples to apples but I did our 2014 fusion 4->8 sync 3 for about a quarter of that by doing the wiring manually and learning the programming myself.

 

[goots]

Pretty sure mitral shah on Facebook sells the parts for about half that, not apples to apples but I did our 2014 fusion 4->8 sync 3 for about a quarter of that by doing the wiring manually and learning the programming myself.

On a '16 up or a '11-'15?

 

[mmorey79]

On a '16 up or a '11-'15?

Honestly shouldn’t make a lot of difference might be a little more to get a 16+ FCIM since they’re newer obviously and you can’t use the older ones on a 16.

 

[maxxmillion614]

Wiring is all there, but not all in the right places. The cheap but difficult path is get all the hard parts and some extra pins, and move a handful of pins around in the connectors. The more expensive path is buy the pre-made adapter harness, they've gotten real cheap out of china, but the quality control is bad so you may have issues where you need to fix pins etc anyway. You could also get an extension harness and splice it if you're comfortable with splicing but not de-pinning/re-pinning connectors. I did our 2014 Fusion (all Sync 1 are basically the same) and also did our 2015 explorer but it was already sony 8" audio. Sync-3 wiring.PDF and airborne Ape's APIM page of insanity both are good resources for the wiring changes need

Thanks MMorey79, you wouldn't know the part number for the extension harness would you? Also do you know if the Explorer XLT is pre-wired for a Sony Amp?

 

[mmorey79]

Thanks MMorey79, you wouldn't know the part number for the extension harness would you? Also do you know if the Explorer XLT is pre-wired for a Sony Amp?

Amazon product ASIN B07G5BV38Y this would be an example, if you already have a backup camera stock that displays on the 4" screen you can hack off the RCA or buy another adapter that goes from the FCDIM (4" screen) connector to RCA and then would plug into that RCA. You'd still need to splice into a couple ACM wires if you have satellite radio and want the satellite radio data link to work, and you'd need to cut off the factory plug at your usb/3.5mm input jack and reuse a pair of those wires for 12v to the new usb hub, you'd need to either buy a usb hub adapter and cut off the end or get a usb hub from a junk car with the connector end cut off or a service replacement connector. this or one other document I can't think of enough details to find on google are the best two sources for doing a 4->8 conversion.