Upgraded SYNC 3 questions

[maniacpaul]

I’ve recently done the SYNC 3 swap in my wife’s 2015 Explorer XLT. She started having an issue where it wouldn’t start up - entirely black, no usb power and no voice control. I was able to track it down to happening after a long drive. As if the system was overheating... I opened it up after one of these long drives and the screen and new apim were cold, but the existing CD player/radio part (which doesn’t get swapped in the upgrade) was scorching hot - actually blistering one of my fingers!!

is this piece supposed to get so hot? I’ve already got a used replacement coming hoping that there’s just something wrong with mine.

additional question that I’ve not seen asked or talked about:

the in dash right cluster has the obvious sync 2 colors and style on it. It does display phone and music info from CarPlay but not CarPlay maps/directions. Can this screen be swapped or upgraded? What does a recent Explorer with sync 3 from the factory have as that screen / what does it look like?

 

[peterk9]

Welcome to the Forum Paul.
I doubt anything in that system is supposed to be hot enough to cause blistering. It's been a while since I've seen the video on swapping out the Sync/radio system but isn't the APIM attached to the CD player? As for checking out recent Explorers for pictures, you want to stay with the 5th gen vehicles. I have attached the only picture I have from my previous 2017 Platinum. It was actually taken to show the trim piece.

Peter

 

[mmorey79]

The ACM (cd player/tuner) gets pretty warm, but not give you an injury warm. I'd say start by swapping that out for a new unit, if it gets hot enough I'm sure it can knock the APIM out as well. Carplay doesn't repeat to the IPC (cluster) on any Sync 3 car. The only "better" dash is the Platinum (same style as MKZ/Mondeo digital) but it doesn't work in 2011-2015 explorers.

 

[mguy13sport]

You can get the fancy Fullscreen IPC to work in the 5th gen but its certainly not plug and play

Custom Full Screen Instrument Panel Cluster Mod (16-19 Platinums)

This post will detail the modification, flashing, and bezel removal to convert the 16-19 Platinum Instrument Panel Clusters to a full-screen display(no longer a hybrid digital/analog IPC). This mod was made possible with custom designed firmware graphics by Pawel and a 3D-printed bezel by...

www.explorerforum.com

 

[mmorey79]

You can get the fancy Fullscreen IPC to work in the 5th gen but its certainly not plug and play

Custom Full Screen Instrument Panel Cluster Mod (16-19 Platinums)

This post will detail the modification, flashing, and bezel removal to convert the 16-19 Platinum Instrument Panel Clusters to a full-screen display(no longer a hybrid digital/analog IPC). This mod was made possible with custom designed firmware graphics by Pawel and a 3D-printed bezel by...

www.explorerforum.com

That's still only 2016-2019, the platinum cluster requires network support via gateway module that the 11-15 doesn't have. People have had limited success adding a gateway module but I don't think anyone has gotten it working well enough for something like that to be possible so far.