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It just followed me home (version 2)!

Man you have the deluxe sound system, I've legit never seen that on anything but Eddie Bauer and Limited trims...

My '98 XLT had the Mach Audio System (until I got tired of the display problems and installed a K'wood dbl din), also came with leather and running boards. No sunroof tho.
 



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Mine has the leather, which its Medium Graphite so it looks great, and the moonroof. Wish I could trade that moonroof for a nicer sound system, the highs and lows in it are a bit lacking IMO

Assuming no prior upgrades, remember that the speakers are now ~ 17 years old, exposed to less than optimal conditions much of the time. This is true whether it's the base or premium sound system from the factory.

You can upgrade the speakers, though due to the door placement, adding satellite tweeters wired in parallel, mounted somewhere like on the windshield columns (or headliner, I'd have to look again to remember where there's empty space not in the way) should help treble a lot.

Unlike a sub+ amp (which is obviously another option), satellite tweeters don't necessarily have to cost much at all. Some are around $5-$10 a pair on Amazon, then add your own wire.
 






Probably broken wires down around the door jam connection
 






I pulled the switch out and checked; no voltage on any of the 7 pins in reference to ground. Which is weird, as the fuse is good, and there is 12v at the fuse socket.

Could be broken wire(s) in the driver's door jam.

I have the Mach radio systems in most of my Explorer's/Mountaineers. I think they sound quite good. Even my XLT has it along with the 6 disc CD changer and sub woofer. My ST just has the base radio and it doesn't even come close to the sound quality of the Mach systems, but the no-display thing is is super common with these radios. I only have one that works and it's been repaired, The problem is that the power boards get too hot because the resistors are mounted to close to the board. This causes the solder joints to break. No one offers a replacement power board for the Mach radios with the CD changer. This is a well known problem with these Pioneer made radios.
 






Your truck's starting to look really good. I couldn't live with that dented lift-gate though. I have to get it fixed or replace it. Although it would probably cost more that the truck is worth to fix it.
 






Your truck's starting to look really good. I couldn't live with that dented lift-gate though. I have to get it fixed or replace it. Although it would probably cost more that the truck is worth to fix it.

Thanks! I drove it to work today, for gits and shiggles, and am quite happy with that grunty V8. The dent honestly does not bother me. In fact, someone earlier in this thread suggested putting a spot light in the dent, and I think I will do just that! The reverse lights on these are weaksauce, and I still have one of the LED spots off the old Sport lying around.
 






I'm no bodywork pro but you might be able to bang that dent out a lot, then decide whether to put some filler on there and paint it. If you put a light on too, all the less perfect it'd need to be to go unnoticed. I'd definitely take the hatch glass off before trying something like that.
 






Im just gonna leave it. Right now I have a dented hatch that doesn't leak. I could easily end up with a not-dented hatch that does. If I were to repair it, I'd replace it with a facelifted hatch (and tail lights) from my local U Pick.
 






Assuming no prior upgrades, remember that the speakers are now ~ 17 years old, exposed to less than optimal conditions much of the time. This is true whether it's the base or premium sound system from the factory.

You can upgrade the speakers, though due to the door placement, adding satellite tweeters wired in parallel, mounted somewhere like on the windshield columns (or headliner, I'd have to look again to remember where there's empty space not in the way) should help treble a lot.

Unlike a sub+ amp (which is obviously another option), satellite tweeters don't necessarily have to cost much at all. Some are around $5-$10 a pair on Amazon, then add your own wire.

Yeah, I've replaced a couple already due to age, most get to where they sound scrubby. Just one door though, never figured that out. I want to do a nice audio build at some point with nice door speakers and a sub, but I'm still working towards that slowly. Audio equipment isn't cheap if you buy good quality stuff, but I am eventually because I hate working with door panels. The higher ranges aren't the biggest problem to me, I've heard door speakers that did a great job of handling higher ranges so that's probably the route I'll go.
 






Yeah but no matter how great, treble is highly directional. On some vehicles there's not much in the way on door speakers but ours are pretty low and blocked by the seat and your leg, can't give a good sense of imaging from music. Frankly a speaker there might as well not even have a separate tweeter if you have one mounted higher.
 






Yeah but no matter how great, treble is highly directional. On some vehicles there's not much in the way on door speakers but ours are pretty low and blocked by the seat and your leg, can't give a good sense of imaging from music. Frankly a speaker there might as well not even have a separate tweeter if you have one mounted higher.

I actually hadn't thought about that very much, will be something to consider, considering I know my way around the dash and interior reasonably well and could add some higher up.
 






Had a bit of a tinker with the soldering iron and some heat shrink and now my fog lights work w/ the parkies, and not just when the headlights are on. Used the information here as a guide:
https://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=31137

7lBMGzgl.jpg
 






I actually hadn't thought about that very much, will be something to consider, considering I know my way around the dash and interior reasonably well and could add some higher up.

Well I just looked at mine again and with the contours of the cabin, it would require some fine tuning to get the balance just right. I mean if you aimed satellite tweeters optimally at your ears from the windshield pillar or even roof with equal driver biasing, it would dominate. It's just that much closer to your ears.

If balanced well it would still be a massive treble improvement instead of overly dominating, but to be optimal would require a little experimentation with drive power reduction from a low ohm series resistor, most easily dialed in with a rheostat in series then the value set on that measured, to pick an appropriate resistor value to put in its place. This because the radio only has L/R vs F/R and you'd be adding to the parallel L/R.

Probably too much info, jumping down into a rabbit hole. My main point would be, don't overspend on treble from low mounted door speakers, unless they are known to be a little bright, then that brightness might balance out from the cabin acoustics, from having the speakers where they are.
 






Well I just looked at mine again and with the contours of the cabin, it would require some fine tuning to get the balance just right. I mean if you aimed satellite tweeters optimally at your ears from the windshield pillar or even roof with equal driver biasing, it would dominate. It's just that much closer to your ears.

If balanced well it would still be a massive treble improvement instead of overly dominating, but to be optimal would require a little experimentation with drive power reduction from a low ohm series resistor, most easily dialed in with a rheostat in series then the value set on that measured, to pick an appropriate resistor value to put in its place. This because the radio only has L/R vs F/R and you'd be adding to the parallel L/R.

Probably too much info, jumping down into a rabbit hole. My main point would be, don't overspend on treble from low mounted door speakers, unless they are known to be a little bright, then that brightness might balance out from the cabin acoustics, from having the speakers where they are.

Yeah I won't spend too much on them, again, because Treble isn't the biggest problem, it's more of lacking lows that annoys me.
 












How much did night visibility improve?

It improved massively! It went from "Are my lights even on!?" to the normal baseline crappyness I've come to know and love. Sorry... I like my Exploder, but, mid-90's Fords have terrible headlights. ... or i'm just to use to the euro goodness of my fun car:
38IMh2Dl.jpg


Either way, i've got a plan in the works... Stay tuned!
 






Remember earlier when I said I had a plan...

Either way, i've got a plan in the works... Stay tuned!

Yeah... See. I did say it. Anywhoo... the UPS man just dropped off some goodies...

YawTsIzl.jpg


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Now, some of the roads around here are dark as balls at night, but.... lets face it... noone neeeds these kinds of lights on a road truck. That said... :D :D :D
 

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I decided I wasn't the hugest fan of the green on these, so, I said bugger to the warranty and broke out the paint!

i6EmcBVl.jpg


That's far better. Oh, and... did I mention how mahoosive these are? Here is a pic of one next to my head, for scale. And yes, before you ask, my head is a unit of measure!

Wr6YPlLl.jpg
 






Big sons o' guns! Definitely light up the road! You could probably find some Ford touch up paint and do the trim ring the same color green. That would look great I think.
 



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That would actually look pretty cool! I'll keep it in mind if the black doesn't hold up.
 






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