Ford Sync with Kenwood HU

[bogard1982]

Hi!

I am thinking of installing a Kenwood DNX7340BT to replace the stock HU of my 2009 Ford Explorer. My question is, will this cause any problems with Ford Sync (eg. voice commands, etc)? Furthermore, can I still retain the steering wheel controls with a different HU?

Would appreciate the experts / current owners with the same set up to provide some feedback.

Thank you in advance for your help.

 

[aaronajb1981]

If your getting that deck why do you care about the sync? All the sync is for is the bluetooth phone and the ipod/usb. Your new radio has all those functions in it. There are sync retention harnesses out there for the cost of about $250. But to me you can put that towards an adaptor to retaint he steering wheel controls and not worry about sync.

 

[bogard1982]

Hi!

It would be good if I could keep the voice commands of the SYNC music player. This is something that the Kenwood 7340BT does not have.

But thanks for the advice on the steering wheel controls.

 

[aaronajb1981]

If you really want that look into pioneer. theirs offer that. voice controlled nav and ipod control

 

[KillaBeave]

Any new headunit will kill your sync voice controls though it may have it's own. Some aftermarket HUs do work with the steering wheel audio controls though.

 

[aaronajb1981]

^^^ false, there are sync retention harnesses that have the ability for sync to still work. downfall is they go anywhere from 100-250. Depends on the brand and what all features you want to retain.

Any radio that has a remote or you can get one for can take the steering wheel controls. However to get this to work you will NEED another module for that.

This is why when i too my radio out of my edge i lost sync and no wheel controls anymore. I didnt want to buy the interfaces

 

[KillaBeave]

^^^ false, there are sync retention harnesses that have the ability for sync to still work. downfall is they go anywhere from 100-250. Depends on the brand and what all features you want to retain.

Any radio that has a remote or you can get one for can take the steering wheel controls. However to get this to work you will NEED another module for that.

This is why when i too my radio out of my edge i lost sync and no wheel controls anymore. I didnt want to buy the interfaces

I didn't know of the available retention harnesses, thanks for the correction.
http://www.autotoys.com/x/product.php?productid=10872#tabs
One of my good friends worked on the Sync project @ Ford and didn't know about these a couple months ago when I asked him about it (in-laws were wanting aftermarket in-dash nav).

If anyone has any expereince with these retention harnesses I'd be curious as to how they work. Looks like you'd need to locate a place for the screen (white? not everything has to look like an iPod! Surely there's a black one somewhere...)

If people have good expereinces with this I may be interesed in doing a similar upgrade in my 09 Fusion.