That's nice to hear, although distressing that Ford would lie to me. Not just one employee, but two. I don't like the stereo and would like to replace it, but not at the risk of voiding my warranty. Good to hear that this may be possible.

 

The saleman at my dealer recommended a place and said it would void my warranty. They did not have a problem with it at all.

 

Voiding the warranty is total nonsense, I have worked in car dealers for years & I know for a fact that that's simply not true.

One of the very first things I did to my 05 FEH was rip out the factory sound system & all the speakers. I replaced the head unit with an Eclipse 5435 NAV/DVD/MP3/high power stereo setup(awesome unit that blows away the obsolete factory NAV setup) & all four speakers with Infiniti seperate component speakers.

If the wiring that I did caused an electrical short to occur, sure it would probably void the warranty on that specific problem(in other words I would have to pay to fix my own screwup), but other than that it will not affect the warranty in any way.

~John

 

I love what you guys have done with the audio system. Does any of them have iPod "video" input to display on the big screen?

Another concern, I already have the built-in Nav system thing. Is is possible to install one of these big-screen aftermarket stereos "on-top" of the existing Nav system, so I won't lose the fuel/engine status readout on the screen?

 

Mine does have video inputs and I've used it with my iPod that plays video. Works great.

As far as installing something "on top," I doubt it. What I wish somebody would invent would be a scanguage-type device that outputs all of it's data over a single RCA video output. Make it display all of the useful things that the built-in computer does and more...and then I could just use that as one of my video inputs.

 

Hi all, I have a dilemma here. I dislike the stock Nav/CD system, but the "premium package" I ordered came with one.

Now the question is: how do I install one of these "modern" stereos with BIG LCD screen (I love big screens), iPod interface, Satellite interface WITHOUT losing the Nav/Fuel gauge information available on the stock system?

xp10re suggested a device tha outputs all the data as RCA video output. But is this the only way to go? Maybe there's a way to hack into the stock Nav display unit to see what type of interface it has? Do you think it's a proprietary interface that there's no chance ever we will find a 3rd party device that can output all of it on the sweet big LCD screens of these aftermarket stereos?

 

My Eclipse also has video in & it works very well for Ipod video etc.

I think you're kinda stuck with that stock NAV however, I don't think there are any hacks to allow it to interface with any other sources.

~John

 

I'm guessing it is all proprietary, but you could try contacting Visteon who made the system to ask if it was possible.

 

Even then the issue becomes how do you program your Eclipse or whatever system to read the information and display it in some way. Thats yet another (likely proprietary) interface that would be very difficult to obtain.... and then you have to figure out how to load firmware on the new unit....etc...

Its just not very likely, and the aftermarket people aren't going to support it unless all the hybrid systems were standardized in how they output info.

A company could combine a ScanGuage with a stereo... they'd add the OBD interface and cable (which is supposed to be a standard interface) and then you'd have something pretty cool! I'm not sure how big a market there is but you'd have to admit it would be **** cool! Anyone want to drop a hint to the company that makes the scanguage?

 

Its the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act that I think is being referred to here. There is a lot of "urban legion" about this Act too.

Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act is rather complex, and that gets worse when one adds in "case law" with it too.

Basically, it is meant to allow normal maintenance to be done (like oil changes) by anyone without automatically voiding one's warranty. It might be difficult for anyone today to remember back when simply changing your own oil voided your car's warranty, but it use to. Before the Act, car manufacturers would void warranties if the owner went to any place for maintenance, other than a dealership. Matter of fact, it had to be the selling dealership, not just any dealership.

Another section, though, allows a manufacturer to completely void a warranty if there is any evidence of abuse. High-performance mods to a Mustang, or off-road mods to a Jeep have been, unfortunately, taken as acceptable evidence of abuse.