changing the headunit

12-01-2005, 04:17 PM

o.k people, have a question cause i cant believe what Ford are saying to me....can i or can i not change the headunit and put my aftermarket clarion in??? Ford said if i remove the 3 parts of the standard Cd and radio i will imobilise the car...is this true???? they said it is like the BA falcon...but im sure ive heard of people doing this......Ford i tell you....money makers.
Anyhow if i can, what about the 3 slots? how do over come that, i dont want to cut it really but ford say they dont do anything aftermarket to accomodate a single din unit....so would it look a mess...mitch this is for you id be getting newcastle prosound to do it....but they are saying cant do it at the moment. So is the computor behind the stereo or what????
NOT HAPPY JAN

: .....and if i did cut it, how much would it cost for me to rplace it when i come to sell the car and want to pit it back to original.....its just money, money, money all the time.
P.s this site is whay cooler then the old one, i like it

mitch_lx · 13-01-2005, 02:14 AM

Long time no hear, stranger..
Well i havent tried to tackle this yet, buttt there are heaps of threads about this on the old forum. Im pretty sure that there is a new central unit with one big double DIN opening, might be off the ghia fiesta.

this is out of a thread in the old forum
"my sisters mate works for ford and he said this part works for a standard stereo
"Din adapter plate. (finis code 1222161)" Apparently thats the product code for the part you need.

"It is quite hard to get all of the dash off. 1st you have to remove the bit under the steering wheel. There are screws in the change holder and under the steering wheel itself. 2nd to remove the bit around the glove box. open the glove box there are two screws on the right hand side. the top one is no problem, the bottom one is harder to get to and the glove box has to be removed. there are two screws at the bottom, when the box is shut, to take out. 3rd to remove the centre piece of the dash there are two screws at the bottom, then there are another two hiding behind the heated screen buttons. to remove the buttons leaver them out with a flat headed screwdriver. then it should just pull away with i light tug."

Hope this helps?? by the way sup i got your pm, what was the question you needed to ask?

13-01-2005, 04:06 PM

Ok thanks but what about the part where ford say you cant change the unit or you will immobulise the car....is that true??? no good ripping it out if my car wont start lol and they also told me you couldnt put anything in its place as they dont make any cetral units with single or double din space...so are they lieing to me.....oh man i really wanna put my stereo in...its a beauty.

mitch_lx · 14-01-2005, 12:15 AM

Dont think the car will immobalise, in the threads i have read about changing the stereo it has never said anything about immobalising.
One thing is that when your removing your stock headunit it will probably shut down and not work, untill you enter the stereos pin code.
But if your removing the stock unit then this wont matter, just keep your stereo pin code in a safe place.
Let me know how you go with it all.

Pieoter · 27-01-2005, 01:26 PM

It is possible and has been done. Plenty of people in england have changed the headunit without any problems.

mitch_lx · 27-01-2005, 05:56 PM

Pieoter are you back from europe ?!?!?!?!?

Pieoter · 28-01-2005, 01:24 AM

Yeh, Im back.

Now im just deciding what to have done to the car.

28-01-2005, 10:03 AM

change it! you can!
immobilization? I dont think so...
the headunit is actually a double din device (not 3 slots).
yes you have to take off the facia of the dashboard and yes it s not the easiest thing to do for an amateur.
in order to do it right you also have to replace this facia with the one that hasnt the 2 stripes. Of course you can just cut them(on the other hand you could sell the old part with the ford headunit)
you also need an iso adaptor harness. why dont you go to someone who installs carstereos? and by the way if you go , what is the cost of such an installation there?In greece the usual charge is around 40€ including the harness and the double din adaptor...

mitch_lx · 29-01-2005, 09:41 AM

Pieoter, what are your options regarding mods???

Pieoter · 29-01-2005, 11:33 AM

I was thinking of these options.
1: Get a ICE system installed. Still need to talk to some people about what to get fitted.
2: Lowered 30-35mm and some other small things eg gear knob.
3: Exhaust(Full 2inch system) and Intake.

As I just got back I don't have exact prices.

Pieoter · 30-01-2005, 10:45 AM

Well I’m going to be the Guinea pig as I have just bought an ICE system. I did go a little overboard with the quality and the whole thing costs alot so I wouldn't be able to have anything else done for some time.

mitch_lx · 30-01-2005, 12:30 PM

lol
What did you end up getting?? ;)

Pieoter · 30-01-2005, 01:02 PM

MBQuart Reference 6.5inch splits front and back.
MP3 Headunit, not finalised yet
Amp, Not finalised yet

I came in just before closing time so we didn't have time to decide on the headunit and amp. I didn't want a sub becuase it would take up too much boot space and with friends I frequently find myself with a full boot. These splits PUMP.

mitch_lx · 31-01-2005, 02:26 AM

Well,now that we are on the topic... for a while i have also wanted to do a little something about the stereo, i didnt want to go too overboard because in my honest opinion the sound quality is pretty darn good when you have a good cd in the player.
Recently i was in one of my brothers cars (sss pulsar) and he has retained the standard headunit, front and back speakers. just spliced in a tweeter for each speaker and added a small subwoofer setup ie. To be honest the sound quality blew me away, just as good IF NOT better than alot of cars that i have been in with full stereo replacement.
What i wanted to know is there any easy way of hooking a sub with amp to power it into the stocko headunit??? i know very little about ice so i asked my brother and he said if the H.U as r.c outs then it makes things a hell of a lot easier.
Any suggestions and tips?
While i have all the door trims off im going to take the oportunity of sound deadening even more, if anyone has taken the trims off the mk6 they would have already seen how insulated they are :P
I was considering using two 8 inch subwoofers, i might do so in the future but for now im going to be using a jaycar 10 inch in sealed enclosure that i had from my previous car.
Should sounds pretty okay? i hope

Pieoter · 31-01-2005, 06:22 PM

Here is my system:
MbQuart Reference 6.5inch splits up front
MbQuart Reference 6x9's in a rear custom parcel shelf
Alpine CDA9827 headunit
Rockford Fosgate P4004 4 channel amp

Pieoter · 31-01-2005, 07:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mitch_lx

Well,now that we are on the topic... for a while i have also wanted to do a little something about the stereo, i didnt want to go too overboard because in my honest opinion the sound quality is pretty darn good when you have a good cd in the player.
Recently i was in one of my brothers cars (sss pulsar) and he has retained the standard headunit, front and back speakers. just spliced in a tweeter for each speaker and added a small subwoofer setup ie. To be honest the sound quality blew me away, just as good IF NOT better than alot of cars that i have been in with full stereo replacement.
What i wanted to know is there any easy way of hooking a sub with amp to power it into the stocko headunit??? i know very little about ice so i asked my brother and he said if the H.U as r.c outs then it makes things a hell of a lot easier.
Any suggestions and tips?
While i have all the door trims off im going to take the oportunity of sound deadening even more, if anyone has taken the trims off the mk6 they would have already seen how insulated they are :P
I was considering using two 8 inch subwoofers, i might do so in the future but for now im going to be using a jaycar 10 inch in sealed enclosure that i had from my previous car.
Should sounds pretty okay? i hope

If the headunit was no pre-outs you either need to get an equaliser + amp to run a sub or you can get an amp that takes high level signals.

I didn't want to run a sub as it would take up too much boot space.

chevaps · 01-02-2005, 02:30 AM

Mitch LX, you can do what Pieoter says, but an equalizer is way too expensive unless you wana go for the whole show car deal.
I had a kicker KX350.4 amp from my falcon with the intention of running my front speakers and a sub. It had high level inputs, but there was a lot of distortion due to double amplifying (or whatever you wana call it). So what i did was buy an alpine line out converter which "deamps" the signal from speaker wires and provides pre-outs RCA's.
I ran the front speaker wires into the line-out converter, then split the RCA's with a Y splitter cable and ran half from each channel to the front speaker inputs and the other half from the RCA's to the sub inputs. This way my rears were still running off the standard H/U and the front speakers AND sub were running off the amp which came from the front speaker cables off the H/U.
This only gives the same distortion you would hear if the speakers were just running directly off the H/U, which is very little indeed.
The main intetion behind this was to keep my car fully operative with the steering mounted controls. This thing still pumps out the bass even though essentially stock.

Hope this helps if you can make sense of my details

Tom

mitch_lx · 01-02-2005, 10:41 AM

thanks very much for all the info!!

As i said i know very little about stereos so i didnt understand most of that but it might help my brother out a bit.
Mitch

Pieoter · 02-02-2005, 08:51 PM

Everything gets installed on the 18th(Hopefully). The amp is on back order so im waiting for the next shipment.

Pieoter · 18-02-2005, 09:49 PM

Just a little update. I put the car in at 8:30 this morning and I havn't got it back. They say it should be ready lunch tomorrow.

If i can drive out of there Ford are wrong. I am 99.9% sure they are wrong as people in the UK frequently change headunits and ford even sell the parts to turn their 3 piece POS dash into a normal Double DIN or 2 x single DIN.

mitch_lx · 19-02-2005, 01:49 PM

very nice!! good luck with it. i cant possibly see any problems with immobalisers etc..

24-10-2005, 10:53 PM

Hey All... Not Sure If Im To Late On The Subject...

Im A Mechanic For Ford And I Have Jst Recently Purchased An Xr6 Ute... And Im Looking At Installing My Existing Stereo. Use Were Talking Before About Taking The Centre Unit (icc Unit) Out And Were Worried About The Imobiliser Cutting In... Im Not 100% Sure About That But I Am Sure That All Of Your Accessiories Ie Dimisters Auto Headlights Interior Lights Central Locking And A Lot More All Run Thru The Icc... If That Is Removed A Lot Of Your Accessories Will Not Function.

I Got In Touch With Lifestyle Store In Parramatta And They Have Made A Neat Bracket And Trim Wich Allows Your To Put Your After Market Head Deck Down In Where The Power Source/storage Area Is... I Have A Pic I Can Send If Any One Is Interested. This Still Allows Ure Icc Unit To Function Everything. Only Thing It Wont Do Is Control Your Audio.

Again Im Not Sure If This Problem Has Already Been Solved.. Jst Signed Up And Was Interested In How Everyone Has Overcome This Problem. Hope It Helps!

Teki04 · 24-10-2005, 11:13 PM

Im confused XR6BAUTE_AUS.... do you own a Fiesta? Or are you talking about an XR6?

Pieoter · 25-10-2005, 10:16 AM

I have changed headunit and everything works pefectly.

GROOV3 · 26-10-2005, 10:18 PM

i posted a thread about mine ages ago, just ordered the iso adapter and facia from auto leads remove dash cut bars fit facia fit dash fit deck wala

car still starts shock horor lol

oh ford i have a problem my std deck has shorted and does work and for some reason car dont work, oh thats right our impobolisers are if you cd player has the right security code in them and they turn on you can start your car lol

ford ****ers

Scareybear · 27-10-2005, 10:12 PM

I'm still running the stock head unit, running kenwood splits up front & Jl W6 in back, just bought a speaker level to RCA adapter for around 20 bucks, works fine for me, still shudder at the thought of cutting the dash...

nash777 · 03-11-2005, 12:03 AM

no way man.. ive tried everything including blowing up the standard head unit and getting it repaired...

im running POLK 6x9s in the rear parcel shelf. with a 300w amp... but if the standard rear speakers are removed you NOT access the Fade function on the standard deck.. so i will blow the front speakers... and the amp distorts... there is NO WAY around this.. i have taken it everywhere...

the car is NOT imbomalbized if you take it out... only choice left cut the dash!!!! arrgghhh... hope this helped someone..

cost me over $700 in install and repairs.

xurbanx · 03-11-2005, 04:41 AM

Im pretty happy with the stock unit :] kinda wish there was more "oomph" but i've never gone past the 8 on the volume ^^

Danny · 03-11-2005, 09:44 AM

8!!!!???????

Helder man, 8 is still very very low, I find optimum for sound/Bass over distortion is about 22 vol with 4x bass and 7x treble

But 8 is very low! how do you hear it? lol

MISTA FIESTA · 03-11-2005, 12:37 PM

I also couldnt see my self cutting the dash AHHH

I am running the stock unit, with pioneer 6 inch front, Pioneer 6X9 in the rear quarters, Pioneer 12 inch subs of a 300watt, and also have the fade problem, which was very confusing even for my bro who installed it all.

I usally run about 15 vol with 4x bass and 4x treble for Ipod and 22 vol with 7x bass and 7x treble for radio and cds with no destort.

STOCKY KICKS ****