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Successfully put an aftermarket headunit in my 13 SHO


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I figured I would give you guys a write up on how I did it. So here is all that I did.

For record, all bolts are the same length and are all 7mm.

First go here. I labeled each folder to each section of this write up so you can better understand what is going on.

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1lchahidegeMrtEnfT-twRVQdfeXLBsHA

First of all I took the dash apart to check and see what I was dealing with behind the controls. There is the CD/FM/Serious module and below that is the climate control module. On each side of the CD module are brackets and there are four bolts holding it in. So now that I knew what I was dealing with I started the project.

Section 1:
I went to ebay and got a sony controls replacement dash. I found one from a 2012 taurus for 60 bucks. Once I got it I took the sony controls apart I cut that bottom section out. I then took a piece of 1/4in black plexi I had and traced the controls onto that sheet then cut out the shape. I then cut a double din slot inside of that. After all of that I took some body filler(first time ever using it) and filled in the void between the bottom and top pieces. I then painted it black.

Section 2:
Now lets work on the stuff in the dash. You will see the FM module in there held in by 4 bolts. Once you get them undone the module will come straight out. There is enough slack in the harness to maneuver it around. Now go ahead and temporarily disconnect it and set it aside. 

Right below the FM module, you will see a smaller black box. That is the climate control module. I can not remember if there was a bolt holding it down but on the right is a metal tab it sits on that I had to bend down out of the way. Now take that module and set it down into the dash. I was having issues with the sync module complaining to me about the 911 feature being not available when I would unplug the FM module so I kept it connected took the side brackets off and positioned it slot facing up. I then did a dry fit of the dash kit I made to check fitment. My double din cage was hitting a small section of the sub dash So I went ahead and got the dremel out and cut that small section out. I did another dryfit with the headunit installed. Now it fits.

Section 3:
Next I went to the back where the factory amp is. I got a hold of the diagram that is in one of the sticky posts in this forum. At this point I need a acc wire for the headunit up front. I was going to use the factory amp enable wire, but it would kick on as soon as you open the door or do basically anything with the car. What I did was bought a PAC-TR4 and cut the Yellow right rear sub negative wire and used that as the sense wire for the PAC-TR4. I then ran my 12v switched wire from the PAC to the front to the headunit. As a safe measure, I also ran power and ground from my amp hookups to the front for the headunit while I was at it.

At this point I already installed the amps, I just never hooked up the speaker wires yet as the factory amp was still hooked up. What you will need to do for the 6x9 subs is cut those wires off the connector as that connector will need to stay hooked up for the PAC to sense the amp is turning on from the sync module up front. Just make sure you leave enough wire on the connector side in case you need to go back to stock. The connector in the middle is all the speaker outputs except for the 2 6x9s in the rear deck. So what I did instead of cutting each wire, was just tapped into each wire wire wire taps. At this point you can hook up to the amps. Just don't put the connector back into the factory amp. So now to recap with the amp. It is still receiving a turn on signal from the front. The PAC-TR4 senses a speaker level output and turns on the after market headunit, thus turning on the amps as well. At this point the factory amp is only used to turn on the aftermarket stuff.

Now before you install the dash kit and headunit, remember that little connector behind the sony controls? You will need that still. The climate control WILL NOT WORK if those controls are not at least connected somewhere. So I took the controls from the doner dash kit, reassembled them, and put them in the glove box just to the sync module does not complain. The harness can be unclipped from the sub dash and will reach into the glove box.

Section 4:
I ran my RCAs and remote turn on lead down the passenger side of the car while keeping the power wires on the driver side. I ran all the speaker wires to that harness that was in the factory amp and am using the cars factory wire. As you can see in the pictures, I still need to do a little clean up on the dash kit, but I think it looks good fore it being my first time using body filler.

Once again, link to the pics: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1lchahidegeMrtEnfT-twRVQdfeXLBsHA

Additional things to cover and some things I ran into while doing this:
Be careful when pulling panels up. I cant even tell you how many clips I broke due to being impatient. Take your time.

I ended up getting an alternator whine once everything was installed. I ended up having to ground everything to the frame part behind the back bumper and not just the metal in the trunk. Not sure if it is because of how I have it installed or what, but it has never been an issue until this car. 

Did I lose any features?

Depends, The back up sensors still work. I can hear the beep when I back up as that is a separate speaker. It does not turn the volume down like it used to but I am not usually blasting music when i am going backwards anyways. The beeping that comes from the side sensors actually comes out of the cluster itself so I did not lose that either.
Depending on how you have your chimes set up, you might have to go into Forscan and set the chimes to cluster only. I had to do that as they used to go through the speakers. I obvously lost that when I unhooked the speakers from the factory amp.

I don't know if you would consider this as losing functionality, but the heat controls are obviously a little more of a pain to deal with now as all you have is the screen to do everything with and maybe the cluster if you have climate control there too. I did not lose any climate control functionality, it is just in the climate section of sync instead.

How do I get the name of the song to show up on sync AND the aftermarket unit? I have an LG V30 that allows me to connect to 2 devices at the same time.

Feel free to post below with any questions.


 

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