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My first post on the board, and I've only owned my 2009 Escape for a month; thought I'd share my deck install with you guys. I already had the door speakers installed, my wife was horrified that I had the door panels off and was drilling holes in them when the car wasn't even a week old!
I went with the Metra kit, mostly because they specifically mention that the plastic is "textured" to match the factory style. This is, in fact, a very good match. I don't know what options those of you with the shiny "piano black" center stacks have. The Scosche makes a silver version for those of you with a silver center stack. Here's another photo of the Metra kit next to the OEM faceplate.
I'd already gone ahead and replaced the dreadful stock speakers (which may be the worst speakers I have ever seen in a late model vehicle) with a pair of Infinity Kappa Perfect 6.1 components. This required an adapter plate to put the 6.5" woofers in same location as the stock 6x8s, as well as drilling the door panels to flush mount the tweeters. Measure 47 times and cut once with a good hole saw. Here's a photo of the doors; I think it looks really clean, would dare say it looks like it could be stock.
One note about the Metra kit; at least with this Pioneer unit, when I installed the deck in the faceplate there was a bit of a gap (top-to-bottom). This caused the trim ring to look crappy, especially below the unit. I had to use electrical tape to shim the top and bottom of the head unit in order to force the trim ring flat.
And now we've come to the carnage behind the center stack. There are no less than 10 connections to the stock setup, and I have the crummy XLS base model so some of you may have more: cigarette lighter, traction control, aux in, HVAC 1, HVAC 2, audio harness, XSVI (databus) harness, antenna, ground strap, and a wire that I believe sends track and time information to the little LCD screen up top. This photo lists each of them, as well as the RCA wires I'd already run for the amp install I'll be doing next week.
Whew! As I could see it, there were TWO problems with a standard deck install.
First, the ground strap. The stock head unit has a metal frame that this strap connets to, grounding the chassis of the OEM deck. The aftermarket faceplate doesn't allow attachment of these frame piecs, nor the aftermarket deck. It's really a weird setup. Here is a closer photo of the ground strap in the vehicle, and a photo of the frame rails from the stock deck. In order to retain the ground strap, I decided to ground it to the chassis of the Pioneer head unit. To do this, I had to use pliers to straighten out the "hook" on the end of the ground plug. I then slipped this behind the plastic brackets on the Metra kit and bolted it directly into the deck frame with one of the screws provided with the Pioneer unit.
The second problem is that the XSVI interface means there is no accessory power from the ignition when you turn the car on. Long story short, instead of switchable 12v, you get a series of databus impulses that control the relay in the deck and keep it on until you open the door (R.A.P.) ...your options are (A) buy an XSVI interface for about $80, which retains this function but doesn't retain the vehicle's door chime. Well, I wanted a door chime, and after talking to some local installers they both confided that they just run the accessory wire separately, wherever they can piggyback into some ignition-switchable 12v.
I spent a night hunting through all the available wiring in the center stack to find a good place to pick up some 12v, even trying to tap into the Traction Control switch (which kinda worked and kinda didn't), and eventually just decided the wisest course of action for the ACC/ignition wire was to use one of those mini "add a fuse" circuits straight off my fusebox, which would put a fuse inline and not permanently modify anything. So far, that's working flawlessly. I just tried out 10a fuse after 10a fuse until I found one that was switched (the whole bottom row in my vehicle was constant).
Anyway, I got the deck in there, and it looks great. The LCD screen up top just says "FORD ESCAPE" all the time now, which is a little weird (kinda wish it was, say, a clock) but this screen doesn't do much in the base model XLS anyway and it sure beats having the screen be totally blank, which was what I expected.
Pics of the final install? Here you go:
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Edit: This deck also has a bluetooth connection with compatible phones, and I just realized that my 2-year-old Motorola Razr v3 (which seems like a dated, unexciting phone these days) supports that. It's pretty sweet, actually. Anyway, my point is that I was able to mount the microphone in the previous location for the Aux input; I popped that out and the microphone was almost the perfect size (more electrical tape shimming did the trick flawlessly). I've made a few calls and everyone says it sounds fine without me having to speak loudly, even though the microphone isn't very near my mouth; it's far enough away from the HVAC vents and doors, I guess. The install looks perfectly clean, and much better than trying to run wires out of the center stack and closer to the driver!
I went with the Metra kit, mostly because they specifically mention that the plastic is "textured" to match the factory style. This is, in fact, a very good match. I don't know what options those of you with the shiny "piano black" center stacks have. The Scosche makes a silver version for those of you with a silver center stack. Here's another photo of the Metra kit next to the OEM faceplate.
I'd already gone ahead and replaced the dreadful stock speakers (which may be the worst speakers I have ever seen in a late model vehicle) with a pair of Infinity Kappa Perfect 6.1 components. This required an adapter plate to put the 6.5" woofers in same location as the stock 6x8s, as well as drilling the door panels to flush mount the tweeters. Measure 47 times and cut once with a good hole saw. Here's a photo of the doors; I think it looks really clean, would dare say it looks like it could be stock.
One note about the Metra kit; at least with this Pioneer unit, when I installed the deck in the faceplate there was a bit of a gap (top-to-bottom). This caused the trim ring to look crappy, especially below the unit. I had to use electrical tape to shim the top and bottom of the head unit in order to force the trim ring flat.
And now we've come to the carnage behind the center stack. There are no less than 10 connections to the stock setup, and I have the crummy XLS base model so some of you may have more: cigarette lighter, traction control, aux in, HVAC 1, HVAC 2, audio harness, XSVI (databus) harness, antenna, ground strap, and a wire that I believe sends track and time information to the little LCD screen up top. This photo lists each of them, as well as the RCA wires I'd already run for the amp install I'll be doing next week.
Whew! As I could see it, there were TWO problems with a standard deck install.
First, the ground strap. The stock head unit has a metal frame that this strap connets to, grounding the chassis of the OEM deck. The aftermarket faceplate doesn't allow attachment of these frame piecs, nor the aftermarket deck. It's really a weird setup. Here is a closer photo of the ground strap in the vehicle, and a photo of the frame rails from the stock deck. In order to retain the ground strap, I decided to ground it to the chassis of the Pioneer head unit. To do this, I had to use pliers to straighten out the "hook" on the end of the ground plug. I then slipped this behind the plastic brackets on the Metra kit and bolted it directly into the deck frame with one of the screws provided with the Pioneer unit.
The second problem is that the XSVI interface means there is no accessory power from the ignition when you turn the car on. Long story short, instead of switchable 12v, you get a series of databus impulses that control the relay in the deck and keep it on until you open the door (R.A.P.) ...your options are (A) buy an XSVI interface for about $80, which retains this function but doesn't retain the vehicle's door chime. Well, I wanted a door chime, and after talking to some local installers they both confided that they just run the accessory wire separately, wherever they can piggyback into some ignition-switchable 12v.
I spent a night hunting through all the available wiring in the center stack to find a good place to pick up some 12v, even trying to tap into the Traction Control switch (which kinda worked and kinda didn't), and eventually just decided the wisest course of action for the ACC/ignition wire was to use one of those mini "add a fuse" circuits straight off my fusebox, which would put a fuse inline and not permanently modify anything. So far, that's working flawlessly. I just tried out 10a fuse after 10a fuse until I found one that was switched (the whole bottom row in my vehicle was constant).
Anyway, I got the deck in there, and it looks great. The LCD screen up top just says "FORD ESCAPE" all the time now, which is a little weird (kinda wish it was, say, a clock) but this screen doesn't do much in the base model XLS anyway and it sure beats having the screen be totally blank, which was what I expected.
Pics of the final install? Here you go:
Edit: This deck also has a bluetooth connection with compatible phones, and I just realized that my 2-year-old Motorola Razr v3 (which seems like a dated, unexciting phone these days) supports that. It's pretty sweet, actually. Anyway, my point is that I was able to mount the microphone in the previous location for the Aux input; I popped that out and the microphone was almost the perfect size (more electrical tape shimming did the trick flawlessly). I've made a few calls and everyone says it sounds fine without me having to speak loudly, even though the microphone isn't very near my mouth; it's far enough away from the HVAC vents and doors, I guess. The install looks perfectly clean, and much better than trying to run wires out of the center stack and closer to the driver!
