[bluto]

Since I did this mod a few years ago on my 2008, it has always bugged me that the USB cable coming out below the 12v outlet/aux in trim panel was just flopping around. It would be nice to have the 2009 and up trim piece that included the USB connector. The panel itself from a 2009+ does snap right into place but the button for the TCS is different in order to make room for the USB connector, but I figured there must be a way to make it work. I finally made it to the junkyard yesterday and found one of these trim pieces and USB cable, so below are the results on finishing this mod.

Here you can see the new trim piece installed with the old piece in front for reference:

The swap was mostly plug and play with a few exceptions. First when pulling this part from the junkyard, be sure to get the USB cable and cut the wire to the TCS button to leave the connector attached to the button (more on that later). Don't be too fussy about the part having some scratches on it because you really don't see much of it once it is installed. The USB cable is bundled with the rest of the harnesses in the area so you will need to cut away the electrical tape surrounding it to free it from the rest of the wires. You need to unplug it from the Sync module on the donor vehicle which is located at the left front of the center console. Rip away the side panel of the console if necessary to get to it.

When installing the new trim piece on my vehicle, I swapped the 12v outlet and aux input connector from my old panel although this was probably not 100% necessary. The only issue that had to be solved was the TCS button. On the 2008 version, the connector had provisions for 8 pins even though only 3 were used. On the 2009+ version, the connector has only space for 6 pins. I first verified that the colors of the wires were the same. So one could just cut and splice the three wires and be done. But I decided to de-pin the connector and pin the wires from the vehicle into the connector that fit the 2009+ TCS button. Be sure to take clear pictures of both connectors before starting. On the vehicle side, I was not able to de-pin the wires out the back of the old connector so I ended up cutting it away carefully. On the 6 pin pigtail connector I was able to de-pin the wires out the front of the connector and then very carefully snap the pins on the 3 wires from the vehicle into the right positions and replace the red cap on the front of the connector once complete. The connector now plugs into the 2009 TCS button and it works perfectly. The TCS disable indicator on the cluster cycles on and off when the button is pressed and the button lights up when the headlights are on. Now it was just a matter of connecting the USB connector to my Sync module and the project was done! Well almost done, now there was a new problem: A USB flash drive plugged in looks weird and sticks out where it could get knocked and broken off.

The solution was to install the now extra USB cable from the Sync upgrade kit into the center console and connect it to the second USB connector on the Sync module.

This worked well but required a little modding as well. I started by researching the second connector on the Sync module and found that many folks just connected a regular mini USB cable to the second port and ran it over to their glove box or whatnot. This seems a little less than optimal since it does not have the retention clip of like the Ford connector and could come unplugged. Here is an example I found:

But I had the upgrade kit's USB connector, so it should just plug into the second port on the Sync module, right? Wrong! It turns out that the connectors are keyed presumably to make it impossible for the guy on the assembly line to plug things in wrong. The kit's plug was the same as the plug from the junkyard and will only fit in port 1 on the Sync module. But with a little trimming with a utility knife I fixed it so it would plug into port 2:

Trimming the plastic along the side of the connector was all that was needed to allow it to plug into port 2 on the Sync module. Trimming along the cable end of the connector was necessary to get the plug to fit through the hole in the next step.

Continued in the next post:

 

[bluto]

With the cable now able to plug into port 2 on the Sync module, all that was left was to install it into the center console. The cable has a nice bulkhead connector already included that fit well in a 3/4" hole. I did several test holes in a thin piece of wood to find the 3/4" size and noted that some additional trimming of the plastic of the connector was necessary to get it to fit through the drilled hole for installation. I now drilled the 3/4" hole into the front of the console with a forstner bit and was lucky that it was in the right place although it could have been slightly higher:

Now to finish the install I fished the cable through the hole:

It did not fish very easily as there were some obstructions inside the console but I eventually got the plug up to the front and connected it to port 2 on the Sync module. Here is the finished look inside the console:

With everything connected, just use the voice command 'USB 2' in order to play media from the flash drive connected to port 2:

 

[vpasla1]

Great job, keep in mind on the sync updates it appears Ford diasabled accessing usb2 through the menu or through voice command.

I myself ran a mini usb cable to the center console.

 

[bluto]

Good to know about the software locks on port 2 (yea for DRM :roll: ).

I guess if one were so inclined to add the second cable for port 2 inside the center console, they could swap plugs at the module while the are in there. With a little trimming, plug the original port 1 cable into port 2. Then plug the new hidden center console cable into port 1. Now the original topside connector can be used for charging on port 2 while the hidden connector on port 1 plays music from a flash drive.

 

[comcam]

I'll answer my own questions... I finally got a kit and a 2009+ radio My original radio was a 8L8T-19C108-xx, but I replaced it with a 9L8T-19C109-xx. The original (108) did not have the third connector for the sub-woofer. The new one does, but the radio does not seem to care that nothing is plugged into it.

Bluto,

Next, because of the great info on this forum, I have made great progress on my project to add SWC to my 08 XLT that did not have SWC from factory. Since I have an 08, I swapped in my ("old") cruise control buttons, re-pinned the wheel harness while removing both red and yellow SYNC wires, and tested illumination works on both sides. So far, so good. Also, I previously installed a Sony XAV-AX1000, and now have a cable like the "AUX" cable shown below, ready to connect.

Since slots 8/16 on the car side of clock spring harness are empty, should I just run the two signal leads of AUX cable to the clock spring, connecting to slots 8/16 using a spare clock spring harness plug I have? If so, this should complete the circuit all the way from the new audio controls on the steering wheel to the back of the Sony HU.

Anything special for the ground lead, or just connect to any convenient ground near the steering column?

Last, is there anything I am overlooking?

Blessings!
John H.

 

[comcam]

I think it will work fine. The new wheel is not a 2008 because 2008 has the 'on-off' on the bottom and 'cst-' as the 2nd button up. After 2008, they do not have 'cst-'. All the wires look the same between your two connectors except for the extra wires on the new one. I would use your old cruise switch and then just plug everything in. If you are paranoid, try this before reconnecting the battery... With the wheel connected, connect multimeter to pins 18-19 on the radio connector. Then with the meter set in resistance mode, press the various buttons on the audio controls on the steering wheel. You should get a different resistance reading for each button. If that works, then your wheel swap is complete.

This was super helpful, thank you!

 

[bluto]

Inside the steering wheel, you should have 6 wires going to the audio button. Two are for the 5 'radio' function buttons (volume +/-, skip +/-, media), another two are for the 3 'sync' functions (voice, hangup, ok), The final two are power and ground to light up the buttons. Take a look at the first post in this thread and you should be able to determine where these go from the pictures.

Once you get that done, you need to add 4 wires to the clockspring connector on the steering column and connect these to the 3.5mm plug that goes to the remote jack on your HU. You might need to cut a pigtail off a junkyard escape and harvest the pins/wires out of it.
Here is what the connector looks like (in this example, the vehicle had the 'radio' button wires already present, but not the 'sync' wires).

Here is how you want to connect these to your HU remote wire:

 

[comcam]

Inside the steering wheel, you should have 6 wires going to the audio button. Two are for the 5 'radio' function buttons (volume +/-, skip +/-, media), another two are for the 3 'sync' functions (voice, hangup, ok), The final two are power and ground to light up the buttons. Take a look at the first post in this thread and you should be able to determine where these go from the pictures.

Once you get that done, you need to add 4 wires to the clockspring connector on the steering column and connect these to the 3.5mm plug that goes to the remote jack on your HU. You might need to cut a pigtail off a junkyard escape and harvest the pins/wires out of it.
Here is what the connector looks like (in this example, the vehicle had the 'radio' button wires already present, but not the 'sync' wires).
View attachment 1974

Here is how you want to connect these to your HU remote wire:

View attachment 1976

Bluto,

As always, thank you for the detailed reply.

I should have highlighted that I am not using SYNC, don't have a SYNC module and don't want the 3-button functionality of it on the SWC. As such, I removed both the red or yellow steering harness leads.

Does removing these effect the functionality of the 5 audio control buttons? (I wouldn't think so).

In the above pics of the bodyside clockspring plug, you show a BU/WT lead (in pin 16) and a GY/YL lead (in pin 8). Since I don't have these pins present from factory, I added them and connected them to the Input 1 (green) and Input 2 (red) on the aux cable. I connected the GND (black) to a good ground in the steering column.

Also, using a spare clockspring, I tested the resistance of the 5 audio buttons and verified signal at pins 8 and 16 (ignore the lead wire colors, they were just spares for the test). **I can post the pics if that is helpful to others.

Here is the gist of the audio button resistance test:
1115 Ohms Resting
121 Ohms Volume +
53 Ohms Volume -
509 Ohms Media
212 Ohms Next
335 Ohms Previous

Based on the factory specs posted here (Thanks thesavo), it looks like I am on the right track...

So unless you recommend I do anything else/different, my next step is to pull the Sony HU, plug in the AUX cable to the remote jack, enter the Apple Carplay SWC learn mode, and hope for the best.

Cheers!

 

[bluto]

Edit:
I just looked at your PM. You are using the button module with the 3 additional Sync buttons. You do not need to have the actual Sync system in place to use these buttons with your aftermarket radio. If you wire it up as I showed above you can use all 8 buttons on the audio side of your steering wheel.

If you just want to only use the 5 'radio' buttons, then follow the way I describe below. You will only have 4 wires going to this button's plug inside the steering wheel, 2 for the buttons and 2 for power to the lights.

You should pin them so they come out on the clockspring connector like this:

So if you add the two missing wires to the connector as shown above and connect them to your multi-meter, you should get a different resistance value for each audio button that is pressed and held. And it looks like you have already done that.

The last step is to connect those two wires to the Sony jack. I could not find any explanation for it in the Sony manual, but the way I show it connected above should work. On that connector diagram when they say 'GND' I think what they really mean is it should be a signal ground for the button circuit. The radio is already grounded, right? That is why connecting the GND from the Sony jack to the car frame makes no sense. What you are really doing is creating a complete circuit from the Input 1 (Green) wire, through the buttons and back out into the GND (Black) wire of that 3.5 mm cable.

 

[comcam]

Bluto,

First, a huge THANK YOU...after some adjustments, it worked!

I now have all 5 working and illuminated SWC buttons from a NOS 09-12 wheel I bought on eBay for $50 (add the wheel to your favorites and wait, they offer you a discount, worked for me). Both sides of button banks are illuminated, cruise control still works great, horn is tested as well. Every time I do a small mod like this, I am encouraged to keep my Escape (with 68K miles) that much longer.

*In the photo above, you suggest using wires 7 (BLK/GRN) and 8 (GRY/YEL) but, I could not get a successful resistance test using these two pins. Nothing. Nada. Maybe this result is specific to my Escape, who knows.

Of note, my Escape which did not have SYNC or radio buttons from the factory, has the wire 7 from the factory, but nothing in slot 8 or 16.

In your photo, wires 8 (GRY/YEL) and 16 (BLU/WHT) are the "nearest" and "lowest" slots to the camera. These slots are the only ones that facilitated the resistance test, and on my Escape, both slots were unoccupied from the factory, so I decided to use them. Thank you for the junkyard recommendation, as that's where I found the body side clock spring pigtail connector/wires/pins to facilitate all of this fun!

Bottom line, here is what worked on my 2008 Escape XLT AWD:
I connected GND from the AUX cable to pin 8 on the clock spring connector
I connected INPUT 1 from AUX cable to pin 16 on the clock spring connector
I connected the male AUX cable end to the blue "Remote" jack on my Sony XAV-AX1000 HU.

Ultimately, I just wired the 5 radio buttons as all I want/need is volume +/-, skip +/-, media (I used the media button as the MUTE function).

Regarding my Sony XAV- AX1000, it couldn't be easier to use/program/etc. You just enter the main menu, select SWC options, select custom, select which function you want to set, and then it tells you when to push the corresponding button on the SWC. In less than 30 seconds, it is completely configured and working 100%. If you ask me, it is much easier than additional SWC interfaces, etc.

I just wanted to point out what worked on my 08, in case any one else runs into the same situation. Again, THANK YOU for your time and effort getting me over the finish line on this project, it is not lost on me.

Blessings,
John Herrick

 

[bluto]

Glad you got it to work!

I think what got confused/lost in the discussion on the sync buttons is that those three are completely separate form the 5 radio buttons and need their own path out of the steering wheel. If you ever decide to try to use them you just need to pin 2 extra wires from the side of the button module over to the clock spring connector (yellow and red wires from pictures 11 & 12 of the first post in this thread). And then find these same two wires on the steering column clock spring connector (the two missing wire holes in picture 13 from the first post). Then run these two wires over to your radio and connect one of them to Input 2 and the other to GND of the 3.5mm jack wire.

Either way, good job!

 

[Keheid2003]

I have a 2010 I pulled the sync and wiring harness from another escape. There was like 6 plugs and one screw to remove the old wiring harness. New harness had 7 plugs the new plug hook into the sync. I only problem I have is every time I start the car I says 911 assist is disabled see dealer for assistance. Anyone know how to fix it.

 

[bluto]

There are two wires that need to connect from the sync module to the HSCAN bus. This allows sync to talk to the ECM for vehicle health reports and to know when the airbags are deployed for the 911 assist. The sync module not having this connection is causing the alert messages. For those that used the Sync upgrade kit, these two wires were separated out and instructions were provided to tap the CAN bus connection at the DLC connector:

This is a snip from the sync kit instructions for a Mustang:

Full pdf found here at the bottom of post #1: 2009 Genuine Ford Accessory Catalog / SYNC News! - The Mustang Source - Ford Mustang Forums

So now you know where to find the wires that need to be tapped, you just need to locate these wires on the factory sync harness. Take a look at the below pinout that I found here:

https://www.justanswer.com/ford/2ysoo-layout-54-pin-connector-sync-module.html

Pins 53 & 54 of the 54 pin connector of the sync module should be the CANBUS wires. You should be able to trace them in the harness that you pulled from the donor vehicle. Just be sure to triple check everything before splicing and once more before applying power!

 

[Keheid2003]

There are two wires that need to connect from the sync module to the HSCAN bus. This allows sync to talk to the ECM for vehicle health reports and to know when the airbags are deployed for the 911 assist. The sync module not having this connection is causing the alert messages. For those that used the Sync upgrade kit, these two wires were separated out and instructions were provided to tap the CAN bus connection at the DLC connector:

This is a snip from the sync kit instructions for a Mustang:
View attachment 2820
Full pdf found here at the bottom of post #1: 2009 Genuine Ford Accessory Catalog / SYNC News! - The Mustang Source - Ford Mustang Forums

So now you know where to find the wires that need to be tapped, you just need to locate these wires on the factory sync harness. Take a look at the below pinout that I found here:

https://www.justanswer.com/ford/2ysoo-layout-54-pin-connector-sync-module.html

View attachment 2821
Pins 53 & 54 of the 54 pin connector of the sync module should be the CANBUS wires. You should be able to trace them in the harness that you pulled from the donor vehicle. Just be sure to triple check everything before splicing and once more before applying power!

I think it's already connected through the factory harness. My factory steering wheel buttons work. I just don't have the phone\ok button on the wheel

I didn't have to run a power wire. All but two wires ran to a plug and they was black. the two black wire had a terminal for grounding. That kit is for a 09 mustang and the 09 mustang didn't have factory sync. It was a dealer install. The factory 09 mustang harness doesn't have the wires for sync but starting in 09 an escape could have factory sync. 09 and on escape should have the wires ran for the sync. I will check to make sure.

 

[bluto]

If you want the sync buttons to work on the steering wheel, it will probably not be enough just swap the button module. You may need to add the two extra wires inside the steering wheel that connect to the clock spring and then on the steering column connector coming out of the clock spring two wires will be added there that go to the sync module. Take a look at the first post in this thread for more details.

 

[Keheid2003]

The problem that I am worried about is the 911 assist error. I wouldn't worry about it if it didn't scream at me every time I started the car. The hs/ms wire are connected the data port. Forscan gives me two codes for the sync. One is for the mic the other is for the steering wheel sync button. So guess my next step I to add the mic and button to see if that will fix it. If nothing else I should have hands free calling them.

 

[bluto]

It seems like it would have a good chance of fixing the issue. Not having a microphone could be a 'fatal error' that causes the 911 assist disabled message. Can you see the sync module on the both the HS and MS bus in forscan? Are there any config options for it? I never hooked mine to the HS bus since it wouldn't do anything meaningful on an '08.

 

[Keheid2003]

I think forscan only read the sync on the hs bus cause to access it my switch got to be set to hs.
As for config options I can't remember what all of them was.
Turn on/ off
1 usb2
2 Gps if I turn it on I get another code for it
3 911 assist I think it's the same thing in menu on the radio it doesn't help
4 something about messages to screen 911 or gps messages can't remember what it says. I turned it on and it didn't help.
There was option for display size