FAQ: BA Falcon and stereo changes

[paulr33]

Q) I have BA Falcon and I don't like the stereo

A) Read below

My friend got his xr6turbo mark II yesterday and we went to garys car radio to check out stereo options for it.

Headunit and Engine Management System

The BA falcon head unit is part of the engine management system and if removed/disabled it will cease to function and render the car un-startable. The headunit system is about $2000 brand new if its busted or damaged. They can also be repaired for a small fee to a few select electronic freaks if the damage isn't too bad. There have been some cases of the unit being damaged by tampering and you have one of those two options, costly either way.

Premium Sound vs Standard

The head unit I am talking about is the sound upgrade option. Not to be

confused with the Premium Sound option which has the TV display. The upgrade sound option has a 6 disc built in stack and its the stereo control and aircon control in one.

3rd Party Headunits

If you want to install your own head unit it must be installed in another location, the first place would be where the cigarette and tissue compartment is. We had a look at a BA falcon today that had this setup. The only downside to this is the factory head unit is still there and still works, just no sound comes out of it. You can then tap your head unit into power, acc, ground and speaker wires according and the other downside is the head unit is down low and just in front of the gearstick

New speakers & Amps

If you opt to keep the factory unit which you can do then you can get the front speaker wires, install a stinger high gain adapter and use it as a form of RCA out. The stock headunit doesn't have RCA preamped/gain outputs so you have to use inline adapters. You can then run these to your own amps and replace the factory speakers with 6" splits and and subs and amp to your hearts content. We got an install that used the front wires with an inline adapter and this ran the fronts and rears on a 4 channel amp. The rear speaker wires from the stock head unit were plugged to a monoblock amp and the set off to run 2 x 10" subs.

Caution

We were cautioned about doing this setup in the event of spark or voltage surge the factory head unit could be damaged or placed at risk and then be up for some costly repairs. The solution was to use inline fuses on the speaker wire so they break before the voltage/surge gets to the head unit. Although not 100% a lot better.

Result

This was the most cost effective and easiest method whilst retaining the factory system as it has controls on the steering wheel to choose tracks etc.

The standard system is a 6 disc in dash changer so its not too bad as a full package.

Conclusion

It seems Ford wanted to prevent people from changing the head unit and tampering with its sound setup. If you want better sound and a better setup they wanted you to get the premium sound option.

[sewid]

fun stuff!

As an aside Nissan tried to do some similar stuff with the R34 GTR and the built in LCD display has no RCA input or any easy way to plug your own video source into it unless you option it when you buy the car. They had at least 10 different Navi/TV options you could choose from the factory and/or dealer.

Luckily nowdays there is a guide floating around on how to hook any NTSC video source up with a bit of soldering and I have done it on mine, installed a DVD headunit, and watched "The Usual Suspects" on the screen the other night. Works brilliant

[Chris Rogers]

fun car to work on. (BA) did one today with TV interface and a decent stereo as well.

this one had the premium system on it and I still have a bit of a probelm with engine noise on it . this is using the stinger line out units.

if you are playing with the unit ( IE pulling it out) have the keys handy.

still waiting for someone to throw a 34 GTR at me...

[paulr33]

yeah so you had to use stinger adapters the premium sound doesnt have rca out?

how crap.

[Chris Rogers]

still waiting for an alternative mounting from aeropro. was talking to the local rep and he's says if theres enough interest then they will make one...

( I already get 5-6 called a week on VY commys.. same problem easier solution.)