2011-14 Sync 3 Conversion
 

I will preface this with yes, I know it’s supposedly impossible. I’m just a very strong willed idiot of a mechanical engineering undergrad with some basic electrical knowledge who likes everything to be OEM+. Aftermarket units are not and will not ever be an option for me, so I will find a way to make it work. I come from a background of restoring classic cars in my shop, so the mechanical and automotive electrical knowledge is there, but the computer knowledge not so much.

To help with getting this stuff to make more sense and start moving forward, my car is a 2014 GT Premium with the factory voice activated nav. I believe this system is considered the “SYNC with Voice Activated Navigation” system, and is a derivative of SYNC 1.0.

Now that we have that out of the way, I’ll start with what I already know. From the research I’ve done, reading as many threads by a user Shimatzu02 who unfortunately stopped posting in April 2020 on the FORScan forum and somewhere else I can’t remember, we can get as far as getting the screen on a SYNC 3 APIM to flash when plugged in as well as having it recognized by FORScan. However, the screen won’t boot when the car is turned on, from what I understand do to a lack of I-CAN (or MMCAN call it what you want) signal being sent from the IPC. Now, I won’t lie in saying I don’t completely understand all the computer stuff going on here, but I’m getting there. What I do know is that the I-CAN system in newer ford cars runs as a derivative of the HSCAN system, which our cars do have. Other than this hiccup, I see no reason why this should not work. Our cars have an APIM from the factory with what seems to be the same connectors, albeit I’m pretty certain the pinouts are different. Only other issue I can see is our ACM being too old to cooperate happily, but I’m more than happy to swap that as well.

Im hoping that maybe some people here who are a little smarter/more knowledgeable than me can help me start to piece together how I can possibly make this work. So far my only three ideas are to source and IPC from a newer car and tie it into the CAN system in the car and then using its ICAN to start the APIM, finding a way to integrate the ICAN of the APIM into the regular HSCAN system that is present in the S197, or finding a way to program/code/trick the APIM into booting without it. I’m well aware all of these ideas seem quite complicated, and I’m sure there’s a slew of reasons why they won’t work, but I’m not smart enough to realize any of them, so I turn to you all.

I’m also hoping to complete an S550 wheel swap and get all of the buttons functioning, something which, from what I see, people have gotten close to but never quite gotten done before. That’ll be the next (or simultaneous) project, but I’m a lot more confident in that one.

Thank you everyone for your help. I hope we can figure this out together and get SYNC 3 into our cars. Just make them all the better.

Welcome,

I Moved you To Interior Mods Where Some Related Threads Would be. Also I Would Go Through Repair & Service Help For and Programming Related Threads Which May Shed Some Light on Your Questions.

Repair Section

https://themustangsource.com/forums/f804/

Dtc & Body Codes With Some Apim info on Post 2

https://themustangsource.com/forums/...e-info-550475/

Some Interesting Links Here With a Site Which Has a Program For Pulling up As Built If You Can Figure it Out as Well As The Ford Site for As Built on Car By Vin.

https://themustangsource.com/forums/...h-inop-551889/

I Seem To Recall For One Upgrade a Certain Module Had To Be Replaced Which Had To Be New and Was No Longer Available. Just Waking Up So Maybe That one Will Come To Me Later. Seems A-1 Cardone Said They Could Reflash Used To Whatever Vin But Don't Know if OP Ever Ran That Down.

Anyhoo, only a Few People Who Have Gone Down the Reprogramming Trail That May or May Not Come Back In For Some Q&A. If You Find a Likely Person Send Em a PM & See if They are Still Out There!

Sorry I Was Mr Retrofit on The 05-09's But That is Where My Expertise Stops During My 12 Year or So Retreat From The Mustang World. Still Learning again During The Last Couple of Years Back Here!

Best of Luck!

Kc ADMIN

been there done that. good luck.. for the amount of $$$ I put or spent you could get a Dynavin and call it a day.

but im dumb and want to be different lol

Whats on the car:
explorer ST steering wheel - i also have a gt350r (horn works and buttons lights up)

custom center dash: top buttons are from a f350, lower is for a/c from I beleive a focus or an edge. Uses the same just it's a two peice instead of a one peice construction.

Radio: sync 3 w/nav pretty much eveything works but im using a canbus to start sync. I wish all the buttons work but i got what i want to work and im ok for now.

It's Been 3 years or so now.
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/themust...140f53a180.jpg


https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/themust...e1ed73386f.jpg

Have any guide or info on the center console bezel?

yes, I tried different audio controls but chose to use i beleive it was a f250/f150 audio controls and used a f250 trim and molded it to the mustang trim. I relocated the a/c controls down. I also used a Ford escape/taurus controls as its is split and did not want to cut up the board..

Ill try and see if I took any photos and post uppits been awhile since I did this. Are you gonna try and retro one?

Right now, I'm still up in the air.

I'm working on finishing up my rear parking aid mod WITHOUT drilling into the bumper. It's been a work in progress for several months. Just today I finally busted out the dremel and made some serious progress. And that's ignoring the steering wheel piece.

I'm mostly curious about "used a F250 trim and **molded** it to the mustang trim.

I wanna do that next.. i had a bumper i was gonna pick up but it got sold lol.

Here are pics i just took. I just cut the part where the controls are, i had to cut the mustang trim but not to much, I wanna redo it but the **** trim is like 230 from ford.
Plastic epoxy and filler. Whatever soundman car audio uses lol 😆

https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/themust...42d5f25822.jpg
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/themust...5ee84ae082.jpg
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/themust...76958bd77e.jpg
https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/themust...debcb137e1.jpg
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/themust...49de3d5b23.jpg

If you ever decide to paint it, this guy found a solid paint color match.

STARTED MY IPAD MINI INSTALL PROJECT - Page 2 - The Mustang Source - Ford Mustang Forums