2012 Sync Swap- Questions about programming??
Thread Starter
I'm a honda boii
Joined: Jul 2022
Posts: 24
Likes: 4
From: Ontario
Hey all. sorry for the long delay here. Thought I'd update on the process, spoiler it's not exciting. Its been a long year, got laid off, family and friend health troubles etc... such is life.
My main goal has been to just get the APIM to power on, and I couldn't get past that hurdle yet. I've tried multiple different components listed in the aforementioned emulator project, all to no avail. I couldn't even get the gateway module to help me out here. I pulled one out of a 2020 ecosport and no dice.
I understand that the speedometer is typically serving as the GWM in 2013-2014 models. However, my problem is that I cannot for the life of me find one in a u pull yard for an FX4 model or anything similar with a digital display that came with sync 8". Plenty of base model work trucks with the base (and i mean base) models, but none above that. Another concern is that if I do swap in a newer cluster, it will likely be looking for a BCM and other modules on the network that simply dont exist, like the air bag module. And since this vehicle is daily driven, it needs to be safe, no lights on the dash and mileage correct, because i am a bit OCD with that stuff. Id rather not spend $100 on ebay for a cluster without knowing if/how it will work.
So bearing all this in mind, I have caved and decided to go with an aliexpress test harness and modify it. I'm ordering it today in hopes that I can pull this off and if i dont, oh well i have a cool gadget to throw in my tinkering bin in the workshop. My ultimate goal is to tie in the new parts with that emulator. I will likely have to disable GPS (since the emulator doesn't transmit vehicle movements, to my knowledge) and sirius due to travel link not being an option pre 2013 (or at least according to my diagrams). To me personally, I could care less about either of those things since I have maps on my phone and dont use sirius. I will pump the brakes on this if I have to swap the ACM or DSP. That's too pricey. I will mess around once it comes in with where to wire things in and whatnot. Hope to update you all soon!
My main goal has been to just get the APIM to power on, and I couldn't get past that hurdle yet. I've tried multiple different components listed in the aforementioned emulator project, all to no avail. I couldn't even get the gateway module to help me out here. I pulled one out of a 2020 ecosport and no dice.
I understand that the speedometer is typically serving as the GWM in 2013-2014 models. However, my problem is that I cannot for the life of me find one in a u pull yard for an FX4 model or anything similar with a digital display that came with sync 8". Plenty of base model work trucks with the base (and i mean base) models, but none above that. Another concern is that if I do swap in a newer cluster, it will likely be looking for a BCM and other modules on the network that simply dont exist, like the air bag module. And since this vehicle is daily driven, it needs to be safe, no lights on the dash and mileage correct, because i am a bit OCD with that stuff. Id rather not spend $100 on ebay for a cluster without knowing if/how it will work.
So bearing all this in mind, I have caved and decided to go with an aliexpress test harness and modify it. I'm ordering it today in hopes that I can pull this off and if i dont, oh well i have a cool gadget to throw in my tinkering bin in the workshop. My ultimate goal is to tie in the new parts with that emulator. I will likely have to disable GPS (since the emulator doesn't transmit vehicle movements, to my knowledge) and sirius due to travel link not being an option pre 2013 (or at least according to my diagrams). To me personally, I could care less about either of those things since I have maps on my phone and dont use sirius. I will pump the brakes on this if I have to swap the ACM or DSP. That's too pricey. I will mess around once it comes in with where to wire things in and whatnot. Hope to update you all soon!
Member
Joined: Jun 2021
Posts: 67
Likes: 53
From: South Dakota
Before all of the tariff stuff I did the sync 2 to sync 3 conversion on my FX4 - it literally was a plug in and go. These units are still sold all over on ebay and they preprogram in your vin. I still have no issues with it.
https://www.f150forum.com/f38/sync-2...-happy-568047/
https://www.f150forum.com/f38/sync-2...-happy-568047/