penumbra

Hi everyone,

Over the past couple weeks, I've spent hours and hours reading about other people's amp installs. A lot of people have the Sync or 8" screen w/ Sony, but very few had the 8" without Sony upgrade. I wanted to share my results in case they might help others.

I have '14 Lariat SuperCrew with the 8" My Ford Touch screen - but not the Sony speaker upgrade.

TLDR edition:
-Parrot FOR-11CK = no factory wire cutting
-Alpine MRV-F300 = no LOC required
-Kicker 11HS8 = nothing living under the rear seats

Lots of people were asking how to install an amp without cutting the factory wires, which are bundled in a pain in the *** harness. I used a Parrot FOR-11CK, which is a harness for a box to add BlueTooth and a line in for many Fiestas and other Fords.

I started by running a 9 conductor wire under the carpet to the dash, to bring the speaker leads back to an Alpine MRV-F300, behind the rear seat. This unit doesn't require a line out converter (LOC) as it can take either line level or speaker level inputs.

Once the dash was disassembled according to the usual instructions (Crutchfield Master Sheet), I removed the 8" display entirely. Beneath is the CD player (picture 1), which also serves the rest of the radio functions, and comes out next.

The Parrot harness comes with 2 cables. One has 3 connectors and acts as a pass-through for the driver's side connector on the cd player to the factory harness. The harness' third connector (usually used for the Parrot BT unit) can then be cut off. Each wire is helpfully labeled with it's purpose (e.g. "left rear positive"). The other cable in the package can be discarded.

In the pictures, you can see the radio/cd player unit as well as the connector that is to be cut off to use the Parrot harness. You can also see the pass through for the MyFord Touch Lockpick, which I used with a camera from camera-source.com to add a backup cam.

One of my big questions was how the tweeter was wired. Someone helpfully shared with me it is just inline with the front door speakers and has a simple capacitor or similar acting as a high pass filter. Because they aren't on a separate channel from the radio/cd player/amp, it doesn't require a summing LOC to combine the leads like the Sony speaker system does.

I replaced my tweeters with a pair from Focal, which were part of kit (PS 130 V) including the crossover setup (aka high-pass filter / low pass filter). The filters are wired directly to the Alpine amp as the front left/right speakers.

Behind the rear driver's side seat, I have a Kicker 11HS8. It's a really tight fit and gets squeezed a bit when the rear seat is up. It fits, though, and it seems to work well.

It took me about two days to get it all put together and it sounds amazing. For me, the system sounds great with amazing audio reproduction and more power than I will need.

Hopefully this is useful for someone else.

Mr. Ford-Man

Thanks for the info! I have the same 8" non Sony setup in my 2014 Tremor. I was wondering about the front tweeter so thank you for verifying what I had suspected about them branching off the front door speaker wiring. A am doing a similar setup in my F150. One other thing I have been wondering about is if there are any amplifiers after the stock head unit. My assumption has been that there is not.

penumbra

No, there are not. The Sony adds an amp in the center console and has a funky center channel setup. The non-Sony just runs straight out of the head unit (not the display).

davemak

This is awesome! Thanks. I want to do a similar thing with a different amp. Were you able to use any type of turn-on lead from the Parrot harness, or did you wire all power (constant, turn-on & ground) as dedicated leads outside the harness?

Thanks,
Dave

penumbra

I didn't, but not for good reason. It works fine. However, your constant on should come from the battery if you're running an amp, as you'll prob need more than the meager power in the harness.

davemak

Thanks. What did you do specifically for the remote turn-on? Tap the Parrot harness or go to fuse #38 with an 'add a circuit'?

Yes, 12V constant power will be dedicated for me, just curious about turn-on.

penumbra

I was putting in a LockPick (backup cam hack thing) at the same time and pulled a wire from that. In retrospect, that was dumb. I used a 9 strand cable that would have much more conveniently housed the remote turn-on.

Regardless, both my amp and sub sense from the audio, so I'm don't think I'm using it, but my memory is getting hazy.

davemak

> Once the dash was disassembled according to the usual instructions (Crutchfield Master Sheet)...


Greetings, I am curious about the disassembly. I looked on the Crutchfield site, but couldn't find anything specific to the late model F150s.

I did see the video from LockPick that shows disassembly for a 2009 Lariat - before I dive into my own, I want to do it as cleanly as possible without possibly damaging anything.

Can you link to the Crutchfield instructions you are referring to? I'm trying to determine if I need to do all the disassembly in the video to avoid the possibility of damage.

I'm taking a slightly different approach and plan to install this amp behind the dash somewhere using the same harness you did. From what you saw, do you think there is sufficient room to do so (I have the exact same radio configuration you do)?





Thanks!

penumbra

You need to buy them from Crutchfield ($10, only avail over the phone) or buy something from them (adapter, head unit, speakers, etc.) and they send them with the gear.

It's worth the $10 if you are the sort to want to be precise about it.

Mr. Ford-Man

I can help. PM sent Dave.