2018 Bypass Sony Amp

[LinkyPwns]

Hi SHO Forum!

I am looking to do a full audio upgrade to my 2018 SHO. The “premium” Sony system just doesn’t do it for me. I had an aftermarket system in my previous car and took most of it out before selling it. Ideally I want to reuse as much as possible.

My goals are:
1. Replace the front door speakers and the front tweeters with a component speaker set. It doesn’t seem worth messing with the front 3” speaker so it will be disconnected.

2. Replace the rear door speakers with a 2-way speaker system.

3. Leave the rear deck untouched. I only have a 4 channel amp and I believe the doors would be the priority. The rear woofers and rear 3” will be disconnected

4. Install a 12 subwoofer in the trunk.

5. Keep the factory tuner as I’m happy with it but I want a flat signal that doesn’t change with volume.

The biggest hurdle is going to be step 5. I have a Rockford Fosgate 3sixty.3 DSP from my last build. I could use its summing function to hook up to the high level from the factory Sony amp. That isn’t the best way though and I discovered the PAC AmpPRO AP4-FD21. It looks to be the best interface that can grab the signal before the Sony amp and then I could run a tos link to my RF DSP to tune.

I was researching the AP4-FD21 and it doesn’t list Taurus years 2016+ as being compatible. Has anyone tried installing one anyway? Can’t imagine there would be that much difference. I took some pictures of the factory amp and it looks like it’s a different build than some of the other amp pictures I’ve seen online. Any thoughts are welcome.




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[Lostneye]

I have run high level to a DSP(better than stock but not impressed), then the RF DSR1(got it when first launched, was buggy and very noisy for me) which installs in place of the factory amp. The PAC installs imn the dash not by the factory amp and keeps the factory amp in place and working so my rear door speakers are still hooked up to it. Although I normally have it faded to the front so they are off unless there are passengers in the back that care. PAC also has an optical out you can buy if you 360.3 has optical input.
I have a 2013 so I can say if it will work on a 2018 but my guess is it will. My amp does look different but as far as I know the ACM is compatible between 2013 and 2018 so it should plug in and work the same.

 

[LinkyPwns]

I have run high level to a DSP(better than stock but not impressed), then the RF DSR1(got it when first launched, was buggy and very noisy for me) which installs in place of the factory amp. The PAC installs imn the dash not by the factory amp and keeps the factory amp in place and working so my rear door speakers are still hooked up to it. Although I normally have it faded to the front so they are off unless there are passengers in the back that care. PAC also has an optical out you can buy if you 360.3 has optical input.
I have a 2013 so I can say if it will work on a 2018 but my guess is it will. My amp does look different but as far as I know the ACM is compatible between 2013 and 2018 so it should plug in and work the same.

Thanks for the reply, Lostneye. I would like to skip the rework and go straight to the PAC. I will try it out and get the optical adapter for hook up to the 360.3. If the FD21 doesn’t work then I will return it. Plan to order off crutchfield for easy return. The 360.3 is a little buggy to so it doesn’t surprise me that the DSR1 is buggy also.

From your post it sounds like you swapped the rear deck speakers but left the rear door speakers stock. I guess I was thinking the opposite thing. Do you mind sharing why you chose the deck over door?




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[Lostneye]

The only stock speakers still in the car are the rear doors hooked up to the factory amp and as said they are typically faded off. The rest of the system is tweeters in custom sail pods, 6.5s in the factory front door location and 2 Image Dynamics IDQ 12s IB with a wall behind the back seats. No center or rear deck speakers. I was going for an SQ setup and after demoing a few really nice sounding cars most of which did not have rear speakers I decided to just leave the stock ones in. I have competed in MECA a little. The car won second place in class(street) at state finals last year and a couple 1st places with this setup.
Like anything it depends on what your goal is. I have no plans on rear speakers and now with them on I find it more a distraction than it adding anything.

 

[LinkyPwns]

Well I am back with some updates.

• My scope of work changed from redoing all 4 door speakers to focusing on just the front.
  • Looking at JL C570 and going active from the amp thus consuming all 4 channels.
  • Leaving the rear alone and fading towards the front like Lostneye suggested.
• Contacted PAC audio about compatibility with the 2018 Taurus /w Sony. They said they sent one to a 2017 owner and never heard back if it worked or not (usually no news is good news). They could not comment on 2018 compatibility but said you could try it out and return it if it didn't work. They asked me to reply if it ended up working for me.
  • I still have not bought this yet. Need to save money first. I thought I'd use an ordinary line out converter temporarily and get a subwoofer going in the meantime since I had the stuff sitting in the garage.
• I have pulled 4 awg power wires and got them into the trunk space.
• Installed the subwoofer amp on the back of seat to the trunk. It folds down nicely.
• Installed ground wire for subwoofer amp.

I was working on getting a remote wire figured out and thought I could come off of one of the wires to the DSP. Based on some wiring diagrams that I scraped off the internet I thought I could off of pin 3 on the C4326A connector. I got the trunk carpet pulled back and started looking at the plug and realized that I don't have a wire on pin 3! I took at meter to all pins from all connectors looking for a 12V+ voltage that would turn on and off with accessory power. I could not find one.




There are a couple options as I see it:

• Find a fuse to piggyback off of in the cabin that turns on/off with accessory power.
• Use the 3sixty.3 signal sense.
• Find another wiring diagram for a 2018 model.

So I thought I can put that off and maybe work on getting the full range signal from the left hand rear door 2-way speaker. I was looking at C4326B connector and that one is different too! I marked up the C4326B and C connectors that I seen on my car.




I think I've at least determined that the C4326B connector connects to the left side of the car. Turning on the radio and unplugging these connectors individually resulted like this:

• C4326A - all sound is lost. Suspect because no communications from ACIM up front.
• C4326B - sound is lost on the left hand side of the car. This includes driver front tweeter, driver front woofer, and driver rear door. I failed to determine if the front or rear center speakers were still playing.
• C4326C - all sound is lost. Suspect because +12V is part of this plug as well as other speaker connections.

Further testing and I might be able to isolate the left hand rear speaker. Does anyone have an updated wiring diagram for the newer model years? It sure would save me some headaches.

 

[LinkyPwns]

So I have found that one can view all Ford service manuals through a yearly contract for +$2,500 or a 72 hour pass for $22 on Ford Motorcraft Technical Resource Access. This is new to me, haven’t heard of it before.

I think I can find wiring diagram for the DSP plug pinouts on that website. Anyone have experience with this FMTRA website? Can you save manuals?

PS
Ordered the JL C5-570 and a PAC AP4-FD21 with optical module and factory harness.


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[Johnbigdog]

You can contact helm and just buy the dvd workshop manual?

https://www.helminc.com/helm/Result...8&Category=1&Keyword=&Module=&selected_media=

 

[AmericanPride]

Yooooooooooo. ALL STOP

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[AmericanPride]

Heard of these guys? 100% hands down the way to go. This is the type of stuff I do professionally.

Just using any kind of usual DSP or LOC because of the systems of the car. You could get extremely loud collision warnings, nav alerts, etc.

These guys know what they're doing. Trust me. They're main business is remote start systems and advanced bypass modules for Mercedes Benz and such

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[LinkyPwns]

You can contact helm and just buy the dvd workshop manual?

https://www.helminc.com/helm/Result.asp?Style=helm&Mfg=FMC&Make=FRD&Model=TAUR&Year=2018&Category=1&Keyword=&Module=&selected_media=

I'll look into that. I was hoping to avoid spending $200 for a wiring diagram if someone else had access already.

Heard of these guys? 100% hands down the way to go. This is the type of stuff I do professionally.

Just using any kind of usual DSP or LOC because of the systems of the car. You could get extremely loud collision warnings, nav alerts, etc.

These guys know what they're doing. Trust me. They're main business is remote start systems and advanced bypass modules for Mercedes Benz and such

I've used these guys to on a 2008 expedition with a kenwood radio. It was pretty slick. I kind of forgot about them to be honest.

Maestro DSR1 - https://maestro.idatalink.com/product/product/product_id/574
AF02 wiring harness - https://maestro.idatalink.com/accessories/category/product_id/580/project/ar


Looking at their wiring diagram, they are referencing a wiring that is not the same as in my 2018. Look at C4326B and C. I do not think they have it documented correctly for the year of 2018.

The PAC AP4-FD21 does the same thing, it helps control volume of the collision warnings, nav alerts, etc. Lostneye also recommended not to use the DSR1 - it was noisy and have low voltage on preamp.

 

[LinkyPwns]

So I wrote to a local Ford dealer and they were kind enough to supply some pictures of the plugs. I've attached them them to this post. I marked up what matched my connectors and included originals in case anyone wanted an original. I knew I wasn't crazy!

 

[LinkyPwns]

Hi Shoforum

So I was able to get the PAC AP4-FD21 hooked up with the tos link adapter. Ran the optical cable to a test bench were I was able to test the output of the AP4-FD21. It worked!!! I got two pictures - you can see it behind the radio.

I used this guy's video to help get into the dash. It is a perfectly done video - thank you 4D tech.

I forget where I saw it but the optical output is 2 channel and it is faded towards the front speakers. Fading to the rear "mutes" the toslink. I plan to fade to the front anyway to emphasize the JL C5-570 when I get around to installing them.

I plan to use the RF 360.3 to control sub level and split out my signals.

I have not modified the wiring harness yet.

My immediate goals now are:

1. Run the optical cable and remote wire back to the truck area
2. Install the RF 360.3
3. Run RF 360.3 remote control cable to glove compartment and velcro remote control in glove compartment
4. Power up the sub amp
5. Put the sub in the trunk. (unsure how to hold it in place yet).
6. Enjoy some bass

 

[LinkyPwns]

Some unknown compatibility points on the AP4-FD21 that I can not confirm yet:

1. Was not able to test chimes yet but the slider bar was present in the windows application for the PAC device.
2. Not sure where the sound for the collision alert comes from but maybe that falls under chimes.
3. Did not use RCAs at all so I don't know if there are any unknown compatibility issues. I assume the would work fine.

 

[LinkyPwns]

I got the 360.3 mounted and am now enjoying bass! I got to get the 360.3 remote mounted and the subwoofer secured better.

The backup “sensors” lower the speaker volume and the subwoofer does too. Pretty nice. Bass settings on the radio effects the sub level


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[AmericanPride]

I got the 360.3 mounted and am now enjoying bass! I got to get the 360.3 remote mounted and the subwoofer secured better.

The backup “sensors” lower the speaker volume and the subwoofer does too. Pretty nice. Bass settings on the radio effects the sub level


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I've done this a couple of times for customers to secure the sub box. ( one literally was a '13 Taurus SEL )

Go to your hardware store and buy a couple pieces of flat metal. For example, should be about that price https://www.lowes.com/pd/Hillman-4-ft-x-1-25-in-Hot-Rolled-Steel-Solid/3059231

Flip your seat backs down and take your seat bottom out. Figure out the bend you need and the length. PRE DRILL HOLES on the bench.

Mount the bars, put the box against the bars, screw.

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[LinkyPwns]

I've done this a couple of times for customers to secure the sub box. ( one literally was a '13 Taurus SEL )

Go to your hardware store and buy a couple pieces of flat metal. For example, should be about that price https://www.lowes.com/pd/Hillman-4-ft-x-1-25-in-Hot-Rolled-Steel-Solid/3059231

Flip your seat backs down and take your seat bottom out. Figure out the bend you need and the length. PRE DRILL HOLES on the bench.

Mount the bars, put the box against the bars, screw.

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Dang that sounds rock solid! I will give that a try and should work perfectly for my sub box as it has "wings" on the side of the box where the amp used to be mounted. I'll take some pictures when I get around to this. Then I can feel comfortable taking corners harder and accelerating knowing the box isn't going to shift in the trunk.

 

[LinkyPwns]

Hi everyone,

I'm starting to prepare to swap the front component speakers for the JL C5-570 setup that I got for Christmas. I want to use the original factory wiring (there will be some dB loss yes, but at least the factory wiring is at 18 awg). I got the PAC APH-FD01 harness as a bundle package when I bought the AP4-FD21 and TOSLINK adapter.

The APH-FD01 is not compatible with 2018 since they changed the amplifier pinout. I made a drawing detailing the connections I need to make and help keep it straight in my head. I thought I'd share it for reference.

Regards

 

[Pinball-Mark]

Nice little setup. Just a question. Why didn't you use the front and rear outputs of the PAC to the 4 channel amp (or optical to the 4 channel amp)? Is the output quality not there with the PAC? hence the TOS1 fiber to the 360.3 then amp?

 

[LinkyPwns]

Nice little setup. Just a question. Why didn't you use the front and rear outputs of the PAC to the 4 channel amp (or optical to the 4 channel amp)? Is the output quality not there with the PAC? hence the TOS1 fiber to the 360.3 then amp?

Thanks. The 360.3 was leftover from my previous car so I thought I'd might as well make use of it. Then I was reading some other topics/threads and one of the PAC users was reporting some noise issues with the RCA cables and switching to the optical connection fixed it. It might have been Lostneye who redid his input source several times (started with DSR1 -> PAC with RCA -> PAC with TOS).

If I didn't have the 360 I would have went with RCA probably to save some money.

 

[Pinball-Mark]

Post some pics of the setup when you have it all complete! So just to be clear since you kinda switched up your setup. You are just running the PAC via TOS to a 360.3 then RCA to a 4 channel amp? which then powers your 2 front doors?