Louie

Those of you who went with a double-DIN head unit might be able to help me on this one: was the Ford wiring harness a plug&play fit for your aftermarket HU, or did you have to buy ISO adapters?
I'm seriously contemplating going the aftermarket HU route, but I don't want to splice any wires. I read all the relevant threads here and I'm still missing this little piece of info. The ideal solution for me would be a wiring harness that connects the aftermarket HU with the Ford connectors. Btw, I have the Shaker500, if it makes any difference.

Thanks in advance for helping an audio newbie

Infinity

The pre-wired connector works, you still need the second harness that contains 2 RCA jacks and 2 remote turn-on wires.

05YellowGT

I had the Shaker500 and ordered from Crutchfield and they sent a harness that connects the HU to the OEM harness , was just plug and play. Except if you want to have the display dim when the lights come on you'll have to splice a wire for that , that's because of the SJB ...

GaryD9

A very long answer to a single question....

This past weekend, I pulled out the Shaker500 on my 08 and put in a 7" (DD) HU. Rather than go the easy way with Crutchfield, I gathered all my parts "locally."

Dash mount adapter was the Metra Ford 2004 and up (99-5807) I'm not really happy with the fit of the dash mount - it sits too far back in the console. This could probably be "fixed" with a few washers, though.

Antenna adapter was Metra's Chrysler Antenna adapter (40CR10.) Not much to say - it works.

For wiring harnesses, I was faced with using the metra "system" which would include Metra part 80-5520 (main ford harness), 80-5521 (amp ford harness), and then JV-1680A (JVC harness.) The 5520 has a plug on one side for the car, and a plug on the other side that plugs into the JVC harness (which then plugs into the HU.) this is a very clean system, but has problems: The JVC side of the harness was missing several wires that the radio I have needs (ie: parking brake), and the Ford side of the harness would have required cutting due to the ILL signal not being a simple 0-12V.

The other harness choice is to use a Scosche. Unlike the metra system, the Scosche harness is only a single package, and contains plugs for attaching to the Ford side, and then just loose wires on the other end. Part FDK11B has plugs for both the standard radio harness AND the amp harness. You then have to attach the wires for that harness to the radio's harness (usually one comes with an aftermarket radio) by hand. Solder, butts, whatever. This option (compared to the Metra option) was better for me and my HU, as it let me provide a complete harness with everything attached as needed.

I got all the Metra parts from Circuit City's installation department, and the Scosche parts from Best Buy's install department. Circuit City will let you see and order the parts from their website, but Best Buy required that I physically walk back to their mobile installations department...

Most of the harness wiring was connecting like colors. For the amp part of the harness, a voltage regulator was put inline for the turn-on signal. (There are dozens of threads talking about this: search for 'voltage') The ford ILL (orange, I think) wire along with many other unused ones were taped off. The ILL wire on the JVC unit was extended and tapped into a wire going to the hazards button (I think it was blue/white on the plug.) Overall, the harness wiring was much easier than I had expected... with the only exception being the soldering of the voltage regulator... (my hand shakes, and there are three legs very close together that need wires soldered... and I don't know of any secure way to make that attachment without solder.)

LIPony

I had the same problem on my 2007 and the D3. I scratched up the 99-5807 kit, so I got the (95-5812) instead. The fit is much better. Its just for DD radios and it comes with spacers. The instructions say to use the spacers on 2007 and Up Mustangs. Here is a link to the kit.
I actually went to circuit city and got it there.


http://www.audiooutfitter.com/95-581...a/p317821.html

GaryD9

That's funny... After posting that message, I decided to try and find something that might fit better... and picked up the DD kit (that includes the spacers.) The fit IS much better, though I only used the spacers on the top... the bottom fit was good without them.

I did experience a 'new' problem with this particular kit (which I'll fix this weekend.) The front of my HU doesn't stick out far enough to allow the motorized screen to tilt and retract fully. A simple fix, but something I wish I had checked BEFORE putting the car back together.

LIPony

Glad to hear the new kit fits better. They must have changed the center stack in 2007 to accomodate the Extra wires (Sirius & Aux Jack in the center console.)