Finally had half a day off work to get mine installed today. Pretty easy but I had wired up the harness a couple days ago. The parking brake override works great too...hehe!

Very happy with it and I spent alot of time cleaning up and bundling the wiring behind the dash. I mounted the Nav antenna under the top dash center tray and it picks up pretty well so far and is out of sight. I also re-pinned my aftermarket harness to use the VSS signal from the factory radio harness instead of wire tapping into the wire behind it. I like that idea alot better, one less thing to go wrong.

The dash kit I got was a Metra and despite having a crappy one or two in the past this one is pretty nice and solid. I did have to space out the assembly with some plastic washers to get it exactly even with the center dash/hvac panel installed back into the truck.

I bundled up the wire for the reverse camera under the center console hoping to soon find a way to tap into the wiring right by the shifter instead of having to run a wire all the way to the back for the signal to the radio to turn it on...we'll see, I don't even have a camera yet. I'm too busy digging through all the menus and stuff on the head unit itself tweaking everything to my tastes and programming things into the Nav system.

I also reset the vehicle dynamic display to acceleration and slope instead of the clock and compass because they looked like more fun options although I doubt I'll ever use that screen. I downloaded a couple of Ford and Ford F-150 backrounds for the screen and got them installed fine. I need to make an FX2 one for my truck though!!

If anyone comes up with the wire colors to trigger the reverse sensor right by the center console shifter harness let me know...thanks!!

 

Unless your running a wireless camera, your going to be running wires from the HU to the back of the truck. Its pretty simple to throw that reverse wire into the loom with the others. Unless someone can supply the exact wire, this is better than probing all your harness for a reverse wire, if there even is one in that harness.

Can you post some pics of your install? I have mixed feelings about the D3. It sounds like a solid unit, but I havent been overly impressed with the way it looks in most of the install pics. It looks aftermarket with its glossy black. I worry about the way it will blend with my carbon fiber dash which has matte grays and blacks. Glad to hear you are enjoying it.

 

Heres a few pics of mine...was starting to get dark out and the truck was in the garage so sorry for the pics w/flash...best I could do at the time. The gloss of the frame is not any more noticeable than my previous Alpins single DIN head unit that was in the truck until today. I did not take pics during the install process because I was too busy and my hands were always full. Didn't feel like stopping for pics since others have done nice install write ups for it on here:












I'll take more when it's better light this weekend. I am happy with how far down the unit dims when the vehicle lights come on. If you want more the unit has brightness and contrast settings to accomodate that.

 

Few more:

 

Thanks for the pics! Doesnt look too bad at all. We have the same dash kit except for the hvac controls. Very nice. Im going to do some hands on looking between the pioneer, keenwood, and eclipse, but your pics have calmed my concerns some.

Did you install any addons? I know your waiting on the camera, but what about bluetooth, or sat radio. Did you setup your steering wheel controls? Thanks again for posting the pics.

 

I don't have steering wheel controls. Mine has all the the lookgood stuff (it's an FX2) and alot of interior stuff like carbon fiber dash stuff, center console/shifter, power bucket seats, windows, locks, heated/power/turn-signal mirrors, power rear sliding window, keyless entry pad, etc. but no auto climate control, steering wheel controls, or sunroof. Mine even has cloth seats. Kinda unique!

I am waiting on my Pioneer Sirius satellite tuner box to arrive from the UPS man. It is very similar to and uses the same power connector and antenna as the Alpine one I have in there now so I just left all the connections there and removed the box itself. Should be a 5 minute install once I get it since I don't have to run any new power or antenna wires. I'm really wondering if there is any real difference in the guts of the satellite receiver compared to the Alpine one besides just needing a different shaped connector on the head unit end of the cable. Could just be a conspiracy....lol! I'll definately miss the Sirius until I get it back.

I'm still undecided on the bluetooth. I have heard there is a better unit coming out in the near future and that the current one is a little hit or miss so I may wait on it....not sure yet.

One good thing about these F150s is that there is a ton of room under the main head unit to mount things like satellite recievers and bluetooth recievers. Like I said I am very picky about soldering, heat shrink tubing, and neatly rounting and bundling the wiring so that saves even more room for lots of accessories!

 

You're welcome for the pics.

I'm sure you are aware of it but you can change the color of the controls and display seperately to whatever you prefer. I stuck with all green for now since it most replicates my dash colors.

 

Very nice man... when I first got my d3, I found a new feature every single day.

 

Lol...I know. I figured alot of it out and brought out the owners manual to learn more. Theres a TON of stuff you can do with programming the nav. My big moment of the day was when I was trying to do something in the nav settings and set the language to french....oops! Took a minute to translate my way back to an english setting.

I should throw in a special thanks to F150 Online member Justi for a nice write up and some good info!

 

Looks good. Enjoy!

 

Ok, sorry about that, it is unique! I hadn't seen a carbon dash with manual controls before either. Thats one thing I need to research a little more. I know there is an adapter to get the steering wheel radio controls to work, but not sure how it affects the HVAC controls.

Bluetooth is one of the features I really want, and a big reason for the HU swap. My wife has it in her maxima, works great. Thanks for the info on a new BT addon, I will look into that before I purchase.

I would be dying without my Sirius! I know what you mean about the Sirius tuners/controllers. Why they need two seperate boxes to get radio to work is beyond me, especially with all the processing power in the HU! Sirius and their partners have a bad setup there. And to top it off the factory tuner is worthless once you change the HU.

 

For starters you can CHECK OUT MY COMPLETE REVIEW and it has more than a few pictures of it in decent lighting to give you a good gauge of it's appearance.

I also installed the PAC steering wheel adapter with no problems at all. It does not affect the HVAC controls at all, they still work as they always did. You aren't changing anything about what they do stock. All it does is the PAC box learns the signal that your buttons already transmit and reacts to those codes, kind of like a garage door opener.

If there's anything I can help you with jrb03 let me know. I have all of the documentation for the stock harnesses, speed sensor wire, etc that I collected before my install.

ALL OF THAT SAID.. I would recommend checking out the new Kenwood 5120. It looks almost exactly like the Avic-D3 except it has a matte finish that I personally think would look better than the D3 even. I considered waiting for it (it was just released) but the D3 hit a price point that I couldn't pass up. Regardless of what path you take good luck!

 

I agree...I looked at alot of different similar brands but the current price on the Pioneer sold me.

 

Looks great, can't wait to install mine

 

Ya, I have seen your write up, thanks for that btw. Your pictures are what actually had me worried about how it would look in my truck. It looks pretty glossy. The colors in my dash are different and I didnt want it to stand out too much, but rather flow with the carbon dash. Klc has calmed those worries with his pics since he has a similar dash. I will be looking at that Kenwood deck this weekend, its pretty much between that one and the D3.

Thanks for the information on the PAC controller. I figured thats how it would work, but hadn't taken the time to investigate since I still havent settled on the HU yet.