beezerk

Thanks for you help. I did buy the harness recommended by crutchfield, but was wondering what wire you guys used for the ignition (red wire)? I was told by a local shop I would need to find another source since the oem harness does not have this wire.

Hope this helps - these are for the big 24 pin connector. Connector #s are the ones I used in my config...

See http://www.fordedgeforum.com/index.php?showtopic=3421

Car Radio Battery Constant 12v+ Wire: White/Red

#02 Car Radio Accessory Switched 12v+ Wire: Blue (remote-out)

Car Radio Ground Wire: Black/Blue

Car Stereo Antenna Trigger: Yellow/Green

Car Stereo Amp Trigger Wire: Purple/Red

---

#08 Left Front Speaker Positive Wire (+): White

#21 Left Front Speaker Negative Wire (-): White/Brown

---

#11 Right Front Speaker Positive Wire (+): White/Purple

#12 Right Front Speaker Negative Wire (-): White/Orange

---

#09 Left Rear Speaker Positive Wire (+): White/Green

#22 Left Rear Speaker Negative Wire (-): Brown/Yellow

---

#10 Right Rear Speaker Positive Wire (+): Brown/White

#23 Right Rear Speaker Negative Wire (-): Brown/Blue

alright i have an 07 with navi, and i want to add my 15 inch subs but the main thing thats holding me back is i kinda want to keep the oem navi but the down side to that is the distortion using the oem head unit, and i cant control my ipod from the screen plus id need crossovers and all that junk.. the main reason i want to use the oem unit is because i want to keep all the steering wheel controls, the down side to that is i cant have movies or music videos playing while i drive. i seen a post on here where someone installed i believe a pioneer head unit (cant seem to find the post) and the steering controls were compatable? basically i just want to know what i would need to keep the factory navi with the BEST sound quality, and around how much that would cost, or if i should invest into a new double din like that pioneer one and just hook up the subs that way..

 

suggestions? comments are welcome, sorry if some of this dont make sense i wrote it up in a hurry

See these threads for a simple solution to add an after market amp/sub to a factory system - I'm thinkin' a couple 370lb. MTX 22"s...

http://www.mtx.com/caraudio/products/subwo.../jackHammer.cfm

http://www.fordedgeforum.com/index.php?showtopic=3421

http://www.fordedgeforum.com/index.php?showtopic=3451

WHERE CAN I RUN THE AMP WIRE THRU THE FIRE WALL

No need to pull the battery. From under the driver's side dash, use a VERY sharp razor knife and cut a slit (carefully!) in the grommet next to the wiring harness. Electric tape the power cable to a wire coat hanger and just fish it through w/ that.

Whew...Just took a deep breath. This is promising. If it wasn't for sync I'd just get an AVIC Pioneer system and be happy but Sync just offers too much to throw it away.

 

Can you verify that I wouldn't really need the Re-Q5...just the RE-Q. I have the same speakers all around so I wouldn't think I needed to get so granular. The Re-Q should handle everything in the car, right?

 

Also, did you have a factory sub? I have a 4channel amp to power the speakers but was going to leave the factory sub on it's own. It's an experiment but I dont want to re-buy everything.

You're doing the opposite of my upgrade (factory head driving BA 5x7s with an MTX amp/Kicker sub via the Re-Q). My stock system was sub-less, so I can't offer an opinion on the merits of Ford's...

If you want to maintain your L/R balance & F/R fade capability and keep the install straightforward, I recommend the 5 channel Re-Q5, it's about ~$20 more than the Re-Q street (got both of mine at millionbuy on eBay - good etailer).

Be careful with the polarity on the speakers, in mine they were reversed, not sure why they did that, the white cable was connected to the negative, and the black ot the positive, I know as I used Metra connectors and those have the polarity marked, and thye were opposite in color to the stock configuration...maybe they have different codes...

I also swapped out the factory speakers, and verfed the colors, +/- matched...

So you're saying that if I wanted to convert the speaker outs on my factory headunit to RCA's and run the entire system off an amp that the HU's crossover will still interfere???? If I read that correctly then this is highly disappointing.

I can strongly recommend either an MTX Re-Q or Re-Q5.

I just installed a Re-Q (L/R/S outs) in the wife's Edge to add an amp and sub, see http://www.fordedgeforum.com/index.php?showtopic=3421. And I've had a Re-Q5 (F&R L/R/S outs + iPod in) in my '02 300M for 14 months running about 2KW of amps and speakers - it most definitely hits!

The Re-Qs compensates for both factory head unit EQs beautifully, at least my ears think so... In my experience, you MUST disable any EQ in the amps and let the Re-Q do it's job. Check http://www.reqsound.com/ for more details.

Hey beezerk,

 

Did you have problems determining which wire was to each speaker when you hooked up the MTX Re-Q. I just my Edge and I'm thinking about doing the same thing you did. Is it the standard Ford wire scheme?

 

Thanks! :shades:

White was more of a tan than a white - here's the wire colors going to the back of the head unit - I've noted the pin# (larger 24 pin connector of the 2) for the signals I spliced into:

Car Radio Battery Constant 12v+ Wire: White/Red

#02 Car Radio Accessory Switched 12v+ Wire: Blue (remote-out)

Car Radio Ground Wire: Black/Blue

Car Stereo Antenna Trigger: Yellow/Green

Car Stereo Amp Trigger Wire: Purple/Red (didn't use this)

---

#08 Left Front Speaker Positive Wire (+): White

#21 Left Front Speaker Negative Wire (-): White/Brown

---

#11 Right Front Speaker Positive Wire (+): White/Purple

#12 Right Front Speaker Negative Wire (-): White/Orange

---

#09 Left Rear Speaker Positive Wire (+): White/Green (didn't touch this)

#22 Left Rear Speaker Negative Wire (-): Brown/Yellow (didn't touch this)

---

#10 Right Rear Speaker Positive Wire (+): Brown/White (didn't touch this)

#23 Right Rear Speaker Negative Wire (-): Brown/Blue (didn't touch this)

Mounted the Re-Q and the sub's amp under the front pass seat - see the pic. Good clearance, protected, and easy access to settings, but then my pass seat is a manual...

Ran the +12V sub amp cable through the driver's side firewall bushing containing the main fuse block's wire bundle. Made a small cut (very carefully!) in the boot next to the bundle and pushed the 8ga power cable through it.

For the Re-Q's power, I Yed off the amp's +12V and Ground connectors. Don't confuse the Re-Q's rmt-IN (from #02 above) and rmt-OUT (to the sub's amp).

Check if you have it, I think that they will not make two differents headunits, one for each configuration chances are that they are the same connected differently...

Spliced into the front L/R outputs for the Re-Q inputs and skipped the bass blockers. Set the Re-Q's low-pass at 110Hz.

The combination of the sub (100W driving a vented Kicker 8") and the Boston Acoustics 5x7s has provided a huge improvement in listenability for a small amount of coin!

Thanks for all your help!

Set it at 100 HZ, and if you are going to use the same headunit, most probably it already has the low-pass at the output given that it has sub-woofer-out, also do not worry too much, mainly all speakers of that size will hardly reach 100 HZ without a roll off, what kind of speakers are placing on the doors? Also as the last resource you can use two caps in parallel and that will do the low pass for you, but most of them will not even need that, and roll off will begin above that point...also keep in mind that maybe the headunit already has a low pass in the output, if it has sub-woofer output to couple them properly...

I've never been a fan of active bass blockers - much prefer passive crossover, pre-amplification. Just looking to protect the speakers.

The OEM config has the 4 door speakers only - don't know if the head's high-pass is active since the car did not come with a factory sub. I'm keeping the factory head to drive the door speakers. Dropping in 2pr of old BA CX8 5x7 coaxs - still sound great; from a 93 Explorer -> 99 Expedition -> this 08 Edge... I am a major cheap@@s ;-)

Your comment on the sub-out has me re-thinking my approach for adding the re-Q/amp/sub. I was going to tap into the front L/R outs of the head as the source for the re-Q/amp/sub, but maybe I should just use the head's sub out as a source - Y/N?

well, I will assume the 6 cd is just like the nav unit in terms of first stages of removal

 

so, that giant center console (entire piece with the little pocket/holder on the dash down to the cubby hole area) can pop right out in 3 seconds with just easy hand pressure. I just put both hands flat on the top of that center console piece up on the dash and use firm pressure and pull slight down and right towards you and it will pop free.. cake. I have done it literally dozens of times. no tools, no prying, simple hand pressure.

 

from there, removal will be easy as pie to see... a series of nuts, slide out cd unit from the frame, disconnect wires from back.. viola. 15 minute job at best.

Muy Bien! Seems you've done quite a bit of audio mods - So... one more question. Given that the re-Q/amp will have a low-pass crossover point of ~100-125Hz, I'm thinking of adding bass blockers on the 4 speakers for a poor man's high-pass crossover above ~100Hz. Are the bass blockers a reasonable solution? My thinking is to kill the low freq to the 4 speakers that the sub will be taking care of...

I have an 08 SEL w/ the base CDx6/MP3 and 4 speakers. I'm going to add an aftermkt amp and sub via an MTX re-Q converter.

I've searched the forum and haven't been able to find instructions for removing the head unit. (1) Does anyone out there have 'em? It's not obvious to me how to pop the center console bezel...

Also, (2) can anyone confirm that there is NO external amp in this factory config?

Thanks in advance...

Approximately 6 weeks ago I purchased a 2008 SEL FW Creme Broule on the lot with the following options:

 

Reverse Sensing

Tow Package (Level 2 I think)

Power Lift Gate

No Sirius, No Sync

Cloth Interior

Standard Wheels

Regular Floor mats

 

Cash price paid $25,000.

 

If i remember correctly, this included $3,750 in factory and dealer rebates.

'08 SEL FWD - 9/2/08 - Sanderson Ford, Glendale, AZ - FoMoCredit 100% @ 0%/72mo

base: 27730

white sand tricoat: 495

pwr liftgate: 490

18" chrome hubcaps: 750 (shoved down my throat, would NOT swap, still pissed)

delivery: 755

$300 under invoice: -1702

doc fee: 175

tags & title: 489

---------

TOTAL pre-tax: 29181

Have an '08 SEL w/ the CD/MP3 changer. Plays original and burned (.cda) 80min/700MB CD-Rs just fine.

HOWEVER, it will NOT play an MP3 CD. All I ever get is "Bad Disk" displayed after the head unit tries to initialize. This happens with 80min/700MB CD-Rs containing a single .mp3 in the root directory to multiple .mp3s in multiple sub-directories, with and without playlist files. Author software is Nero and/or Roxio's Creator Classic on 2 different XP machines. These MP3 CD play jus' fine in Alpine, Pioneer, and Sony units.

The manual is (HA!) of no help. Anyone out there with some thoughts besides a warranty punt on the stereo?

11/1 - Tried a 8x burn per some other posts - no joy. If anyone from FoMoCo scans this forum, can you tell me where the stereo specs can be found?

PHOENIX, AZ AREA - Looking to do a trade for wheels and tires with similar mileage - terms/$ TBD, NO shipping...

My 18" set of #64G chromes/TPMS for a set of #64R or #64P painted with TPMS.

I have 3 weeks / 500 miles on the OEM Michilin Latitude HPs.

Reply this thread and we can take it offline.

New to this forum, having just picked up an '08 SEL for my better half. Came with the standard option 'Premium AM/FM stereo, digital clock, six-disc in-dash CD changer player, MP3 capability, four speakers, auxiliary audio controls on steering wheel' - there'a a mouthful...

1st thing I'm doing is ripping out the stock speakers (ears... are... bleeding...) and adding an amp/sub combo - the stock head unit stays (for now).

Before I crack open the dash, does anyone know if this head unit has RCA outs? If no RCAs (which would SUCK, but would not be unexpected), has anyone out there tapped the speaker outs for the sub amp's input? If so, how and where?

Also, anyone know where to find the head unit's pin outs?