Taurus w/ Digital Climate Controls

[beckSHO 10+ year member]

Well, on my 97 SHO, I have the digital climate controls. Ford, being the group of great engineers that they are, decided to make it impossible to install an aftermarket head unit in the stock location. And as far as I know, nobody has installed an aftermarket head unit in the location of the stock radio. Few have tried, and with no success, those few have given up. I'm not sure how many of you are familiar with this, or know how difficult of a task putting a head unit in the stock location might be. However, I am determined to do this. I have not started, and most likely won't be for some time, due to money issues and other things.

Now, here's where you guys come in. I will be stopping in, asking questions about various things. I am going to try my best to complete this. When/if I do, I will do a full write-up on this for all of the other digital climate control victims out there. Hopefully, I will be a "pioneer" of some sort with this. I am VERY determined to do this. I do not want to deal with a line level convertor anymore. Nor do I want not being able to fine tune or adjust the sound of my sound system.

I will try to give you guys some detail as to how the stock sound system is setup. If you already are familiar the MACH system in some Fords, then just bare with me here..... From what I know about the stock unit, the tuner, amp, and a couple other things are in the trunk. The radio up front, is just where all the controls are located at. You might say, well, just cut out the top half of the factory radio, and fiberglass a bracket for an aftermarket deck in there. That's what I thought at first. However, it isn't that easy. Here is a link to some pictures of how it looks. And here is a link to a thread on SHOforums, talking about this problem. Behind the face, with all of the digital climate controls and the radio controls, is a large circuit board. Just cut the top half of the circuit board off? No, the rest of the controls won't work. So, we have to do some improvising here. The circuit board that is behind the controls can be split into two peices. It could be possible to position it out of the way, and solder some "jumper wires" from all of the connections. Do you guys know what I mean? Then, I could fiberglass in a bracket for a deck. I would need some help with what wires to connect to the back of the deck, to get it lit up and the dimmer working and all that good stuff. From the back of the deck, I could send some RCA's to some amps which will be powering my speakers, and a sub or two down the line.

Now, time for some questions:

1) Has anybody gotten this to work before? If so, please inform me as much as possible.

2) Does this sound like a feasible project?

3) Is there anything I'm missing/not taking into consideration?

4) ADVICE!!! Please, I would LOVE for some advice and/or criticism. I have been slowly getting into this car audio thing. Little did I know I would become addicted! Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

Again, if I missed anything, PLEASE let me know. I think that with the determination, and time, I can get this done. A litlte (read: a lot) of help from you fellas would hopefully save me time, money, and effort. Thanks guys.

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[hoss 5,000+ posts]

1) Has anybody gotten this to work before? If so, please inform me as much as possible.

nope, no one has gotten it to work in a taurus. i had one that i wanted to try to do it on, but at the price ford asks for a replacement unit //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/crap.gif.7f4dd41e3e9b23fbd170a1ee6f65cecc.gif . i have seen it work in other vehicles, so it may be possible, thats a big maybe though... in all honesty, i dont think it would be possible with the way ford designed the unit.

2) Does this sound like a feasible project?

it is, but you have to really be on top of your electronics engineering, and you have to have a good grasp of integration and re-wiring the module. like i said before, it might be possible, but i really dont think it is. the way mine was made (G4), the pannel with the controls and the radio was a big circuit board with the "brains" being housed right behind the radio part of the piece. that would make it VERY difficult to delete the radio portion, note, difficult, not impossible //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif . but again, you would have to be pretty on top of it, and know how to re-wire the entire piece.

3) Is there anything I'm missing/not taking into consideration?

how big of a task this is //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif . take your stereo/AC controls out and take a look at them. study them. learn the piece front and back, take note of what it looks like, invision what you are going to have to do, then ask yourself if you still think its possible and if so is it possible for yourself to do. then go to http://www.taurusclub.com and talk to them about it. its not a new topic over there, they can offer some great insight and good suggestions. its long been discussed, and still no one that i know of has made it work yet, and that taurus forum has some VERY intelligent people on it.

4) ADVICE!!! Please, I would LOVE for some advice and/or criticism. I have been slowly getting into this car audio thing. Little did I know I would become addicted! Any help would be GREATLY appreciated.

honestly, i would suggest not taking on a project like this. if you mess up once, you are out alot of money. you are better off learning to fiberglass, and altering your dash. or even better yet, doing a conversion from digital to rotary knobs. still not very easy, but by far easier than custom electrical circuit modification //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[hoss 5,000+ posts]

disclaimer-- just wanted to re-iterate that i wasnt saying it couldnt be done, you shouldnt try it, you cant do it, etc, etc... more so just pointing out that it is a very expensive, very involved, very experimental, very heated topic with the taurii //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

 

[beckSHO 10+ year member]

disclaimer-- just wanted to re-iterate that i wasnt saying it couldnt be done, you shouldnt try it, you cant do it, etc, etc... more so just pointing out that it is a very expensive, very involved, very experimental, very heated topic with the taurii //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif

Yes, I understand what I will be getting myself into. However, my dad is an engineer of the sort, and we both love tinkering with these kinds of things. I wouldn't be doing this to my stock unit. I'd go to a yard and get one, or I might be able to get somebody over at SHOforums to donate me one. Like I said before, I am VERY determined to do this. Thanks for the help/insight.

 

[hoss 5,000+ posts]

Yes, I understand what I will be getting myself into. However, my dad is an engineer of the sort, and we both love tinkering with these kinds of things. I wouldn't be doing this to my stock unit. I'd go to a yard and get one, or I might be able to get somebody over at SHOforums to donate me one. Like I said before, I am VERY determined to do this. Thanks for the help/insight.

if you can get a spare unit for cheap, then by all means its worth a shot //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif . and i would love to see it done.

i really wish that JL had the cleansweep when i had my bull //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/frown.gif.a3531fa0534503350665a1e957861287.gif

 

[beckSHO 10+ year member]

In a nutshell, it's a pain in the ***. Don't bother. Get a cleansweep / 3Sixty.

I thought hard about one of those, but decided I'd much rather have a head unit. If worse comes to worse, I will just end up mounting the headunit elsewhere in the cabin.

 

[beckSHO 10+ year member]

well, then you're stuck with a non-functional hu stuck in your dash. that's ghetto. cleansweep FTW.

Non-functional? Why do you think it wouldn't be functional?

 

[hoss 5,000+ posts]

because in order to attempt this, you are going to have to dismantle and destroy your existing factory HU. and if you are unsuccesful with your mod, you will be stuck with a non-functional HU

 

[l1nemup 10+ year member]

With the circuit board right behind the radio, what if you just mounted the face plate to the dash and extended those wires intead of mounting the entire radio there and attempting to redo an entire circuit board? Just an idea that might make it easier for you.

 

[emb2580]

BeckSHO, I am a member of the the SHO forum, http://www.SHOforum.com (duh) it's free to register, maybe they could help you out? I know it's easier if you have the manual hvac setup but digital? pretty much impossible from what i've heard

 

[hoss 5,000+ posts]

With the circuit board right behind the radio, what if you just mounted the face plate to the dash and extended those wires intead of mounting the entire radio there and attempting to redo an entire circuit board? Just an idea that might make it easier for you.

thats a much smarter, much more practical, much easier method of doing it //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/smile.gif.1ebc41e1811405b213edfc4622c41e27.gif. and it is a method that is proven possible, as people have done it before. still not a project for the novice, but its been done before, unlike modifying the taurus digi climate controls.

 

[beckSHO 10+ year member]

BeckSHO, I am a member of the the SHO forum, http://www.SHOforum.com (duh) it's free to register, maybe they could help you out? I know it's easier if you have the manual hvac setup but digital? pretty much impossible from what i've heard

I am already a member there, great forum. However, I searched and asked about the topic, and so far... nada.

what i meant is that you have a h/u that controls everything somewhere in your car, while the one in your dash just sits there doing nothing.

I think you have me misunderstood. I am thinking about leaving the factory radio in it's current spot. The actual tuner and everything is in the back, but the controls are up front. I would leave this just how it is. I would put a head unit in underneat that part, in front of the shifter knob. I would, obviously, use the head unit to power everything. But I would just use the factory thing for the time. It will still work, just no sound. You know what I mean? Also, if done properly, it would look pretty snazzy. That's just my opinion though.

 

[espguitarist91 10+ year member]

My sister had a 93 or 94 sho, i fogot which one. Her friend installed a dual head unit in there(he let her borrow it), i dont know how. Well I had to uninstall it, and when i looked at it i had no idea how it was working. He had the power wire going to a fuse in the fuse box, 3 remote wires coming off the original harness, and all the wires were just screwed up. I put her old headunit(crappy aftermarket) back in it and everything worked, except for an annoying engine hum. Dont know if i can help, but id say it would be a pita.

Everything worked climate control wise while both h/u's were in.

 

[beckSHO 10+ year member]

My sister had a 93 or 94 sho, i fogot which one. Her friend installed a dual head unit in there(he let her borrow it), i dont know how. Well I had to uninstall it, and when i looked at it i had no idea how it was working. He had the power wire going to a fuse in the fuse box, 3 remote wires coming off the original harness, and all the wires were just screwed up. I put her old headunit(crappy aftermarket) back in it and everything worked, except for an annoying engine hum. Dont know if i can help, but id say it would be a pita.Everything worked climate control wise while both h/u's were in.

Unfortunately, that is the generation SHO before mine. So, I doubt you will be of any help. Thanks anyways.

 

[espguitarist91 10+ year member]

Oh well, I tried

Good luck with everything.