We all know that factory stereo systems are crap. 13-year-old factory systems are REALLY crap. Crappy amps, crappy speakers, and crappy head units. Sure, the Ford AM/FM Cassette deck with electronic tuning was great in its day, but its day has long passed. Make way for the present. Thankfully, there are many aftermarket companies that would just love to help you upgrade or replace your factory system... for a price.
There are several ways to upgrade your stereo system. The route you choose depends on several factors, perhaps the most important one being what you've got for a factory stereo. These cars come with three basic stereo systems: Base, Premium, and Premium with Equalizer, and the wiring for all three systems are very different. Before you decide what you're going to install and how you're going to install it, you MUST first find out what your factory system is. If you've got the equalizer in your dash it's a no-brainer - you've obviously got the Premium with EQ setup. If you don't have the equalizer it gets a bit trickier, but is still relatively simple. First, look at your door speaker panels. If there's a "premium sound" emblem, you know what you've got, but these emblems sometimes fall off, so if they're not there it doesn't necessarily mean you don't have PS. The next way to tell is to remove your existing radio and look at the plugs going into it. All radios will have two plugs, but you're looking for the one with the speaker wires. The speaker plug will have either five or eight wires, and that's how you tell: if it has five wires it's premium sound, if it has eight wires it's the standard radio.
Now that you've determined the type of factory system in your car you can decide what you want to do with it.
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STOCK SETUP: |
CHARACTERISTICS: |
WHAT THIS MEANS TO YOU: |
| Basic Radio/Cassette |
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If you've got the basic setup and you are only wishing to install a new head unit, you're in luck. This is the easiest factory setup to modify in this way. You can use all of the factory wiring, but keep in mind there are no door speakers - you'll have to add them. If you wish to install amplifiers it's a bit more complicated as you must run new speaker wires. |
| Premium Sound Without Equalizer |
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If you've got premium
sound and want to install a head unit only, you must run new speaker wires.
Connecting your new head unit to the factory speaker wires WILL result in
damage to the head unit. If you're planning to install a separate amplifier along with your head unit this is the easiest system to do so. You can mount your new amp to the same panel the factory amp is mounted to, and you can use most of the factory speaker wires. You will only need to run your RCA pre-amp wires to the trunk area along with your amplifier power wire. This is the setup I installed in my car, except I installed TWO aftermarket amps - one to drive the speakers and an extra one for the subwoofer. |
| Premium Sound WITH equalizer |
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This setup is quite similar to the non-EQ premium sound setup, and installing an aftermarket stereo is similar to the non-eq system as well. You can use the EQ with an aftermarket deck, but you MUST use the RCA line-level pre-outs on your deck. This means that you must use an aftermarket amplifier as well. |
| Note: Just because your car is equipped with a certain type of system does not mean that the wiring for the other systems is not there. It has been reported that some cars with premium sound also have the non-premium sound speaker connectors in the dash (I haven't been so lucky). If this is the case with your car and you're planning on installing a head-unit only, you can go ahead and use the factory speaker wires in the second connector, but you MUST disconnect the factory amplifier before doing so! Conversely, some cars may have Premium Sound wiring even though the car does not have premium sound. In other words, if you look behind your rear seat you just may find the Premium Sound wiring harness. This would be a big help if you're planning on installing an aftermarket amplifier. | ||