Install an Aftermarket Headunit in a Ford Explorer
Head units are what plays the actual music in your car. They are what you see. They come in many varieties. You should do research before buying one as there are many choices. My installation was in a '97 Explorer with JBL upgraded system.
Steps
- Research head units and pick the one you like the best. Important features are watts, pre-amp outputs (if you want to hook up new amps later), direct iPod connection, and there are many more.
- Buy the unit.
- Determine if your Explorer has the JBL audio system or if it not upgraded. If you have JBL, you will have more work to do, but the end product will sound better.
- Go to your local car audio shop and ask for the installation kit for your year of Explorer. You will need a mounting piece, wiring harness, and if you want the tuner to work properly, an aftermarket antenna. When installing a new headunit, you will not be able to get the antenna to go up when it should, so you either need to buy one and mount it or just skip it. For me, my antenna was stuck in the up position, so I could use it.
- Take out the 2 8mm screws that are located in the stock headunit in your car. They are located under the radio controls, but above the A/C controls.
- Open the headunit box and open the wiring harness package. Keep all packaging because it has necessary information on it.
- The harness' package should have a list of colors and corresponding functions. There should be a similar list on the headunit. Ex. Black-Ground, Red-12v (+), etc.
- If, in Step 3, you determined that you DO NOT have the JBL audio system, pull both harnesses out of the package. Using the key in Step 7, connect the wires. You can use solder or you can twist them together. Make sure you use electrical tape to cover the connections. If you don't, wires can SHORT.
- If you DO have the JBL audio system, look at the wiring harness's you bought. Find the one that is long and skinny. That is the important one. Hook it in the same way. On the key, you will see things like "Left Rear (+)" and "Right Front (-)." Ignore these for now.
- ONLY IF YOU HAVE JBL Take out the passenger side kick panel. You should see a bunch of wiring harness's. The one that is closest to the seat and door is the one that you want. Take a 9v battery and connect two wires to it. Then touch the wires to the wiring harness in the kick panel. If you hear a click from a speaker, you got the right harness. Then, you want to determine which speaker is which. Label the wires. If you care a lot, you can determine the polarity of each wire by taking off the door panel and touching the 9v to the wires again and look at the speaker. If the speaker goes out, then which ever wire the (+) end of the 9v is touching is + and the - is -. If it goes in, then the + is - and the - is +.
- JBL ONLY (warning: I hold no responsibility if something goes wrong here. You could mess yourself and/or your car up here. Be careful.)
- Now that you know which wire is which, cut the 4 pairs of wires. Cut them about {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} above the wiring harness. Now, you have 4 pairs of wires sticking out of the wring harness. Ignore these. Take the other side, the ones not connected to the harness and hook a {{safesubst:#invoke:convert|convert}} length of 16 gauge wire to each wire. Label these "Right Front (+)" etc.
- Now, go to the h/u (headunit) in your car and pull the trim around it. It all should come out. Once you have it out a little bit, look in the back. On the side with the Rear Wiper controls, you will have to screw two Philip's screws in the back and take off the rear wiper control knob. On the side with the cigarette lighter and the 4 wheel drive knob, you will have to take out one screw. Then you need to unplug the 4 Wheel drive harness. After that, pull the two wires off the back of the lighter. Then, the whole thing should slide out.
- Unplug the 2 wiring harnesses for the factory h/u.
- Get the h/u out of the trim by finding the tabs and pressing them and sliding it out.
- Now, using the mounting piece and it's directions, mount the new h/u in the trim.
- JBL ONLY Run the 8 wires from the kick up to the hole that is currently in your dash. Make sure they are labeled on each end.
- NO JBL Connect the two harnesses that you hooked into the h/u to the harnesses you took out of the old h/u.
- JBL ONLY Connect the long harness to the other piece that you unplugged from the factory h/u. Then using the key on the new h/u, connect the 8 wires from the kick to the wires on the new h/u.
- OPTIONAL If you want have any connectors come out in the glove box, do those now. You may want to have a direct iPod cable or an AUX cable to be in there. Follow directions on the h/u to connect them to it.
- Now that all the wires for the h/u are in, reconnect the lighter, 4 Wheel drive, and wiper controls and screw the screws back in.
- Slide the trim and all back in to place.
- Put the 8mm screws back in.
- Put the passenger kick panel back in.
- Turn it on.
Warnings
- Doing anything on this list, especially cutting wires, can hurt/kill you or your car. Be careful.
