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DIY for Installing HomeLink in SE, SEL, and Sport Edges


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  • 7 months later...
  • 1 year later...

I added Homelink to my SE but have no pics. It is one of the first upgrades I did before finding this forum so had no plans to document.

 

I bought a "TAN" homlink visor unit from eBay. Removed the visor from the car by taking off the "beauty cover" then the two screws and lowered it down. It is a clam-shell that the factory fuses the plastic together on. I have some of the plastic pry tools so I just started pushing them in against the edges around the perimeter and heard cracking. I did this all the way around and then deeper in to the visor where it was fused. The fabric is just wrapped around the edges and held in place by some sharp pointy pieces of plastic all the way around the perimeter, there is no adhesive so it just lifted off.

 

Once open I added some very thin heat shrink tubing wrapped wire out the tube the visor hangs on which was already hollow and ran it with enough slack for the visor to be slid out and back in again. I just kind of curved it down in the space adjacent to the tube and notched out a spot next to where the homelink goes and routed it through there. Where the factory homelink unit goes is conveniently marked and grooved. The four corners already have holes and the plastic is grooved where you cut it. So you just use a sharp blade and go along those marks and you have the spot cut out to mount the in visor homelink box. It isn't in any way hooked up to any electronics systems. It just needs power. I connected the two power wires to it with by soldering them to the copper spot on the board. There were 4 contacts, you only use two... the outer two I believe. I tried all contacts with a 12V source and even reversed polarity without hurting the thing so have no fear. It just snapped in to the plastic body. There was a spot for a screw which I didnt have and it didnt really need but I used epoxy to hold it there instead of a screw.

 

The fabric just has to be stretched back over the ends and "hooked" on the sharp plastic pieces. I used some thick CA (cyanoacrylate AKA superglue) on some of the points of plastic to keep the fabric in place while I worked it as It seemed to want to slip back. If you don't get the fabric back to where it was or even tighter than it was the pattern that the sharp pointy plastic pieces will be visible at the edge... which is why I used some glue. You will of course also have to trim the fabric around the buttons that protrude from the remote unit. The tan plastic beauty cover just easily pulls off of the homelink unit and can be attached after cutting out the fabric.

 

Closing the clam-shell up is the tricky part. I tried some plastic weld I bought at lowes and it was crap. It hardened but didn't melt the plastic so it didn't stick well and came open easily. I then used the brand they have at autozone and it actually worked much better. I clamped it closed overnight with some wood clamps I have and its still in the car today 3 months later.

 

I will warn you, there is a metal rod inside the visor that needs to be secured before you close it. I didnt do that so now when I fold the visor up there is a light thump heard from inside it because that thing moves. It could be because the inner parts of the clam-shell didn't glue together as well as the edges or I didn't seat it properly I don't know. It hasn't bothered me enough to rip it back open and find out.

 

You have to pop off the A-Pillar cover by pulling it away from the pillar. There are two or three clips holding it in place that will come out of the retaining holes. THERE ARE AIR BAGS IN THERE SO BEWARE!!! There was also a bit of plastic keeping the cover attached to the pillar, I presume so it doesn't go flying when the air bags deploy. If you twist its end it will fit through the hole it is held in through so you can get better access to the wires. To install I fed the wire back in to the hole in the headliner and just got the screws in enough to hold it up. I fished the wire out to where the A-Pillar is at the corner of the headliner.

 

I had installed one side of this connector from radio-shack on the visors wires already(I cut off the little interlocking ear pieces, they weren't really necessary):

Male - http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103448

Female - http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2103449

 

In the wires that run up the A-Pillar are two wires that the factory install would have used that I tapped in to and added the other half of the connector. One is Yellow with a Green stripe (+12v) and the other is just Black(ground). The yellow wire runs the vanity/upper center console lighting. Now I can just plug/unplug it at will if needed.

 

In the end I added the homelink (with no vanity mirrors) to my SE for about $24 including the one tube of working plastic epoxy and connector.

 

HomeLink_zpsef3e097b.jpg

Edited by 12Edge
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  • 8 months later...

I just performed this "mod" on my 2013 SEL for the same reason the author of this article did. I was doing great until I got to the part about finding the factory electrical connector and probably never would have figured that out without this article! Popping off the A-pillar trim and lowering the headliner is very easy, but who would have thought that would be necessary to find an electrical connection? Anyway, thanks to this author, I finished the job very quickly once I understood what to do....thanks so much for sharing your experience!! (I also bought a "new" visor...guess I'm a perfectionist too, but the car only has 300 miles on it and I want factory look above anything else!). And the new part looks and works great!

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Just for information purposes, I bought my brand new, homelink equipped, genuine Ford OEM Visor from an outfit named Tasca Parts that sells primarily on ebay. I got the item for $275 including shipping (and, of course, no tax)....a bit cheaper than at the Ford Dealer. It arrived in an Original, never opened Genuine Ford Parts box all properly packaged and in perfect condition. The Part Number on the part is CA18-7804105-BA, and it is the "Light Stone" color that matches my interior perfectly. For us "perfectionists", it seems like a good value. It is advertised to fit 2011-2013 Edge and MKX vehicles. And, it also fits vehicles with or without the Vista Roof (my Edge has the Vista roof).

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  • 11 months later...

Thanks for the writeup. I just added a home link to my wifes new 2014 sel. I bought a new visor on ebay for 160 the day we bought the edge. but the seller claimed it was sold and refunded my money

 

300+ dollars for the visor seemed steep so I bought a homelink transmitter on ebay for $20. Took my visor out thanks to this thread. Took part of the fabric off and added the home link thanks to a writeup on the escape forum. No cutting necessary Just slide the wire through the connector and press fit. Cut out the plastic and fabric and reassemble. All done in less than an hour and it looks perfect

 

Ryan

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Yes, the nice thing about the edge is the wires are already next to the homelink transmitter, so you can simply slide them into the connector from the homelink module. I should have taken pictures, but wanted to get the job done before the wife saw her brand new car taken apart. I did not remove the vanity mirror , just the lower cloth on the visor (Ieft the upper fabric in place) I used a piece of thin plastic folded in half and a flathead screwdriver to pry the visor apart slightly. I then used a sprinkler screwdriver (smooth, no ridges) and a right angle pick used to remove the fabric from the visor. To reinstall a credit card was used to first pull the fabric tight and push into the seam of the visor. Then using the same credit card work around the visor to push all the fabric back into position

 

Not the best picture, The camera makes it look darker, but the color appears to me to match the dome light plastic in person. For $20 and an hour of time, I would recommend trying it, worse case, if you are unhappy you replace it with the $300 visor you were planning on purchasing in the first place

homelink.jpg

Edited by Ryan Krummick
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  • 2 months later...

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