nevets27

Ah, fair point. Going to have the RAP solve that issue for me.

Two diodes is better... I guess I shouldn't say better but different. But it is they way I did it and I consider it better. Run both ACC and IGN to the positive of your 12v to 5v adapter and put a diode on each wire. Read here

Quick update, I'll follow up with pictures and more details later. Koni shocks are in, both front and rear bushings replaced in the front LCA. I haven't driven on them let so my impressions will follow later. Fixed the squeaky I had in the rear end. I'm going to guess this is somewhat common and doesn't look like I've read how to fix it. More on that later. Did the unlock all doors on a single key press mod. Current random thoughts/plans for electronicsl improvements. Add a button in the area in which you lift up the trunk that will unlatch the truck so you can open it without using the key fob or trunk release lever. It of course will be disabled when the can is locked and enabled when the car is unlocked. "push to pass" as I mentioned above I want the one click sunroof module if they are still being sold. Then hopefully figure out a way to have it open at a certain temperature, close at a certain temperature and close if it detects rain. There was a RAP module being sold but its not available anymore. It was a standard hobby board/circuit with some modifications but the schematic was lost in the post I read about it. I'll talk more about this later. Oh and RAP =Retained accessory power. I'll likely buy and install the DEI window roll up module. I already have had one for a long time in my other car. Though this isn't too high on the priority list. I'm a bit behind on my tablet install and bluetooth handsfree. It's taking a while to plan out some of the details and I'm not sure how happy I'm going to be with the nexus but I'll start with it for now. Currently looking for tires for my spec b rims. Once I can find a cheap good set of summer tires they will go on. Wish I could get some really nice summer tires but can't afford those expensive tires. May or may not buy new, had some decent luck with second hand tires. As long as you are careful. Suggestions on what tires I should be looking for would be helpful. And finally I recently got my airbag recall letter. I'm not excited to bring my car in. I have nothing wrong with my dash at the moment and messing with it is just asking for an issue but I also don't want to kill my passenger so I'll be getting that done in a few weeks.

Thanks. Maybe I'll post some more pics. Just a pain to get them from my phone to a hosting site and posted here but everyone likes pictures. Though my latest is just fixing weather striping. Was going to do a video of starting my car with my voice but not sure if anyone is as impressed/happy with it as I am. You didn't miss it. I'm just using stock springs, I don't have any desire to lower the car. I might be interested in stiffer stock springs, ones that don't lower but I will at the very least be trying the koni's with the stock first. I don't know of any stiffer stock height springs anyway. Though I doubt I'll want stiffer springs. This is a DD and rather some comfort over sporty.

Tough crowd.... Within the next week or so should be getting the koni's installed. Replace all the front LCA bushings and fix the exhaust tip hanging low on one side. Fixed both front door weather strips that the plastic tab broke off. Pretty terriblely designed but it's unlikely they will break again as I fabbed up a stainless steel plate to repair/replace the tab. Mod list is getting longer but an idea I had the other day that I know would be possible is a "push to pass" function. Reason and how it will function is this. I've noticed that when I make a quick decision to pass I have to hit far more buttons then I would like. That being sport # and down shift a few times (left paddle). What I intend to have happen is if the left/down shift paddle is held for 2 seconds or more than a signal will be sent to out the car to put it in sport # then send 5 down shift signals. So, hold downshift paddle, Si mode goes to sport # and downshifts and far as it can. Since both the sport # and paddles are just buttons I should be able to use something like an Arduino to detect if the paddle is being held down and if so tigger the switches. Open to suggestions to how to fully accomplish it though.

Well I can now officially start my car by saying "Ok Google, start my car" EDIT: And now it will open my garage door also within the same command. So I can now set a schedule for the block heater via my phone or ask google to warm up my car. I can also ask it to start my car and it will open the garage and start the car. Of course that can be set on a schedule also.

All of that ^ plus our high beam is a reflector which won't control the light well. Which will likely lead to lots of bright light right in front of the car (foreground) which will ruin your distant vision and actually make it harder to see further down the road. If you actually need really good distance there are good ways to get it.

Been really trying to no respond and have to be that guy but. The LEDs were definitely horrible. Light scattered with the hotspot not even close to where it should be and a ton of glare for oncoming drivers. LED bulbs should never be used. HIDs in halogen projectors are a bad idea also. There are some projectors that do ok with HIDs but it's still not a great idea. I haven't seen first hand how the stock projectors perform with HIDs but I do know there is an opening that let's light above the cut off (squirrel finder). Almost for sure, this will cause glare to oncoming drivers. Retrofiting proper HID projectors is the right way to do it. Maybe when it's warm and I can find some pnp hid bulbs I'll do a comparison of the OEM, OEM with HID and my retrofit. Also HIDs in the high beam is just wrong. For a few reasons.

They were talking about the ultra. The picture shows a steel arm but some have ordered it and got an aluminum. Not sure how reliable that is so your millage may vary...

Just stumbled upon these, they are a bit pricey and I already have the mevotech bushings but another option for solid rear LCA bushings. http://get-primitive.com/alignment-solutions/562-tomioka-front-control-arm-bushings.html http://get-primitive.com/1893-large_default/tomioka-front-control-arm-bushings.jpg

I was wondering/worried about that. I defiantly would prefer reliability over saving a few lbs on a my DD. I was going to try to make my 3.0 into kind of a spec b. Aluminum suspension components, upgraded shocks (going with koni over bilstien), upgrading brakes (since I didn't get the LGT brakes). But it still won't have the 6MT, torsen diff and seats. Which I am good with but at that point having aluminum LCA's doesn't really matter. They are/at least seem like good value. I did order the mevotech rear bushings because they are solid so we'll see how that goes.

So wait the ultra power arms that are steel in the picture are actually aluminum? How do I keep doing this the hard way. Got ball joints first,as I knew I needed them right away, then saw I need bushings so just got them delivered. Now it's seems I could get aluminum arms, with everything installed for cheaper then all the parts I need and have bought. I don't mind doing the work to rebuild my current arms but kind of like the idea of the aluminum, even though it has little effect. Just nice to add it to the mod list. Oddly, with everyone using these, what's happening to all the stock worn out/older aluminum arms no one wants to rebuild? I would be ok with rebuilding a pair. There is a few JDM shops around but their asking price for used and needing a rebuild arms is $160/pair which makes no sense. Maybe I'll see if they will go dumb cheap if I show I can get them much cheaper fully built ready to go.

Could you elaborate on the power supply setup? I had initially planned on building basically a good power supply and OTG on a circuit board to insure max power for charging and running the tablet. I might still do that at the begin during building/testing. But it seems like the no battery mod might be better with the only main issue I see is that sometimes the tablet thinks it's charging while on battery power, or so I've seen reported. For the issue of cranking I plan to run both IGN and ACC with diodes to the DC converter. And for shut down I plan to build a RAP (retained accessory power) which will retain ACC for the entire car. based on a few things so I don't need a time delay like you have done.

Love it! The one thing I worried I would miss from my first gen was ground clearance. Didn't have to lift it at all for an oil change, worked under it in a parking lot and never had to worry about snowbanks or driveways. I only ever beached it once when I was having some fun in deep snow and well the snow was much higher then the ground clearance. And only really got stuck because I had to slow down, a bit of digging and some rocking and drove right out. Really enjoyed snowy days and unplowed parking lots. We'll see if I stick with stock ride height or not. Unfortunately there is a lot less reason for the higher ride height in the summer. Anywhere there is a good amount of snow, all wheel drive and decent ground height is a great way to feel nothing will give you any trouble.

I don't have to piggyback or cut anything. See here: http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php?t=268062

Yeah that's a good suggestion. Two possible problems. One, I have tried the app SoundAbout, which is supposed to be able to route audio to different connection types. I did try it for that purpose. It didn't work how I wanted, through no real fault of the app but it is somewhat limited in its function. This leads me to the second problem. The way I'm planing to have my hands free phone calls and navigation sound come through the speakers no mater which input/source I'm on. I'm going to use the nav input and nav mute. I'm then going to have a parrot feeding into that for phone calls. But also navigation when I'm on any other input other then which ever input I'm using for audio out of the nexus. To do this anytime the parrot gets audio (either phone call or turn prompts from nav) it will mute the radio with the mute out of the parot via the nav in. So I plan to turn bluetooth on, on the nexus when I want nav audio. I tried soundabout because I would have preferred if all nav (google maps) audio would be routed to bluetooth and all media auto be routed to a USB DAC but I found out that soundabout can't differentiate between the two. That way I wouldn't have to turn the bluetooth on and off. Looks to me for the most part it can only route audio for phone calls, notifications and media. With media being anything other then phone and notifications. So I can't have bluetooth on when listening to the nexus. Oddly complicated I know. Pipe dream I guess, of just plugging in the the GROM. It was a nice idea though. I have emailed them back and forth a bit but I doubt its going to go anywhere. From my understanding if they allow the GROM to be a peripheral and not a host, it could then connect to a host, which the nexus is in this case. At this rate I'll end up with the joyconCPJexd and BSGr. Which will also allow me to use other things to control the nexus, other then the steering wheel. And possibly when I have the HU out I'll see if maybe I could piggyback of the actual buttons on the PCB. Pretty damn expensive though. This is the idea of what I would like the other way to control the nexus: Kind of also a pipe dream though.

You are correct if I connect the nexus to the GROM via Bluetooth it would work from my reading also. But I also don't want my weakest link in the audio system to be from the nexus to the HU/GROM. Bluetooth is compressed and effects the quality of the audio. I rather be wired, like most here who use a USB DAC to have better sound quality they're on board DAC on the nexus. I'm no audiophile so I know I shouldn't care but like I said it would the weakest link. Bluetooth to the GROM for phone calls is nice. But I also have the crazy idea of using the nav input for phone calls. I would like to still use the radio and less so the cd player (I know I just talked about quality and I'm bringing up radio...) and I want phone calls to come through no matter what source I'm on. Thanks to utc_pyro, it's possible to achieve that. I have a post about it... Guess I should link my posts here as there are getting way more visibly then my build thread.... Which is where I laid out my "plan" This skips right to the nexus/audio part, and yes it's long... Sorry http://legacygt.com/forums/showthread.php?p=5755025 Though I'm starting to get to the point of thinking of committing to a single input/source. Problem is I don't know how realistic its going to be for me to steam audio on the nexus or to bring/have music with me. I previously was heavily listening to radio...

Well that piece of junk likely is saving you the headache. Can't miss what you don't have and sounds like you've got a solution that's working well for you. The 09 oem audio setup seems decent enough for me at least for the foreseeable future thankfully so that's the route I'm sticking with.

Both the nexus and the head unit. I'm not going to be using that, no external amps etc. If you look at how the GROM works it allows you to interact with android/the tablet. It does so when you are on the sat input because it kind of emulates a sat connection. When you aren't on the sat input then the steering wheel controls function the same as oem. Now it only allows basic media controls like skip pause etc. So in that sense it's less powerful. Technically a DAC plus a joyconCPJexc and a BSCr is pretty close to the same functionality other then the HU has no control over the the nexus for skipping tracks. But with the advantage of more configurable options via the joycon. With the joycon exc and BSCr you can still retain oem steering wheel controls and control the nexus. At least according to thier site. Of course this would of no interest for you since you aren't using anything oem. Technically I guess if the GROM did work with a hub you could actually still use the joycon exc plus the BSCr and get fully control of the steering wheel control yet still retain oem controls. But also have ability to skip tracks with the HU. Of course at great expense. Like I said I really want to have an integrated system that acts, feels and looks oem. Only reason for desire to skip tracks with HU is so my passenger can skip songs for me, without any additional controllers. Like I said nitpicky... Its mostly if not completely technically all possible it's just how many devices/modules/boxes I want to use and how much expense it would be. There is a point where spending over a hundred dollars to get a button to work is a but crazy. Though if I had money to burn I would be doing exactly that. Alternative is be smart enough to build what I want/need but I'm unfortunately just smart enough to be dangerous. Meaning I know all the pieces are there and possible but I could design the circuit to do it.

Email back says it's not possible to use the GROM with a hub, as i suspected. But inquired about if they would make a difference firmware as it seems to be technically possible. Yeah I know about the joycon. And I know I'm nitpicking but when I know something is either possible or technically possibly then I generally persuse it. I'm also striving for as close to an OEM type of install as possible. With that being said. The joycon does not allow you to use the controls on the head until to skip tracks. It also removes the ability to use the steering controls with the head unit, it will only control the nexus when its installed. Now that second issue can be solved but you need an additional board from joycon. If you could get audio, steering wheel controls and head until controls all via USB... Its a nice "plugin" solution and not far off the cost of a DAC + joycon x2. With also the possibility of adding bluetooth to the GROM and still retaining your oem AUX input. (I'll look up the other joycon board and update this)

Thanks for that tip. Unfortunately its not looking good. https://www.reddit.com/r/timurskernel/search?q=grom&restrict_sr=on From what I can gather the GROM is setup as a host (possibly in accessory/dock mode) and therefore won't work when the Nexus is setup up as the host because you can't have two hosts. Annoyingly, I think the only reason the GROM is setup as a host is to support android devices that aren't setup or able to be a host and therefore the GROM can be the host so their adapter has more compatibility. I don't see any need that it has to be a host for it to work. Therefore if they allowed their module to be a slave it could work. I've emailed them anyhow. Funny enough it seems like using a 30 pin ipod cable that's been modified and an app you can get pretty close to it functioning the same way as if the android was just plugged directly in. And that will work with the nexus in host mode. The app A DIY 30 pin to USB/headphone jack cable Other then being a little hacky, it looks like it might only support controlling of a single media app, which you can choose but If you use more the one app to play music it might be an issue, which I do. Would be really nice if we could interact with the HU via the sat bus, which is what GROM is doing over the data bus, then just input the audio into the audio L and R on that connector. Technically possible but beyond my capability.

Has anyone connected an android to the GROM-USB via usb? Looks like it should be possible to play audio over the USB connection and allow controlling the android device via steering and HU controls. Working on gathering parts for my nexus install, posted here, if anyone wants to give any suggestions.

I'll get back to the headlight retrofit later. Though the build log is actually finished here on HID planet I've been doing a lot of work researching, planing and purchasing for my Nexus 7, bluetooth hands free etc. install. The plan/requirements/parts. Audio requirements: Play music from Nexus 7 Stream music over bluetooth Have the AUX in port still available Take calls over bluetooth, mute speakers automatically when on any input (radio, cd) and have the call audio play over the speakers Have the nexus 7 interrupt (mute music) the audio when listening to music on any input (radio, cd) during navigation for turn by turn. Plan/hardware to enable the above requirements Nexus 7 running timur rom USB DAC or GROM-USB3 Parrot Mki9100 for hands free calls Bluetooth receiver (not sure which one yet) Yes the parrot can do bluetooth streaming but its going to be low quality so makes more sense to use a separate receiver that can use newer bluetooth specs like aptx HD. Also the parrot is kind of dedicated to hands free in this configuration The parrot is going to be wired into the HU via the navigation input on i88. More info on that here. That leaves 2 inputs and the stock aux in, for a total of 3 inputs to the stock HU. Option 1 is to wire all 3 into an audio mixer and then out to the stock aux in. Since only 1 of the 3 will be used at any one time to listen to music. Option 2, wire all 3 inputs directly to the HU aux in, which doesn't seem like a good idea. Option 3, I just though of and if it can be done might have the nicest outcome. Wire the nexus USB to GROM USB. This should allow media to stream through the USB, won't even need a DAC. And it allows pause/skip via HU controls and car controls. It should work according to GROM https://gromaudio.com/support/usb-faq.html Does anyone have a GROM-USB3 (on any model with USB for that matter) and tried it before? Wire a bluetooth receiver to the GROM external input OR use the bluetooth adapter they sell, for music streaming While researching I did also learned that you can plug an android phone into a 30 pin ipod connector and get audio and controls. You'll need The app A DIY 30 pin to USB/headphone jack cable To power everything: I want to insure I have enough 5v power to run everything comfortably. I over estimated that I'll need 6 amps for nexus (I know it won't even draw 2 amps but there is a good chance it will get replaced with something more power hungry in the future). 6 amps for the USB hub in the dash. 6 amps for the USB hub in the console armrest. I was also going to wire up a couple USB charging ports and wanted a minimum of 2 amps per port, which would have been another 6 amps total but the fast charging standards are screwy. Fast charging requires voltage changes so I haven't seen a good DIY version. I did buy a board capable of QC though to test out. So I need about 12 amps in the dash and 6 in the arm rest. I've found a couple different ways to get the need power and I'll post them up after I can get them more organized and ordered. Cheap over rated china crap makes this more difficult. I also bought a usb tester with some dummy loads to test what every power supply and cabling I end up with to see their true capabilities before putting them in the car. They are neat little things and I'll likely get a little bit nicer one later on as they are are seemingly get more popular and more feature rich. If you are curious I ended up with these parts: USB Tester with QC trigger Dummy load That covers power for now. Some incite to the reset of the hardware and configuration. I should probably draw up a diagram at some point as this might sound confusing. Nexus 7 will be wired to a OTG power splitter cable (I'm going to make my own circuit on a board but that isn't important) then to the output of USB hub 1 in the dash. The following will be plugged into that hub: USB DAC (might not be if I end up using a GROM) Joycon (might not be if I end up using a GROM) Joystick/HID - Something to control the tablet without touching the screen. but haven't found anything out there like this Output of Hub 2 Hub 2 will be in the center console armrest with the following plugged into it. Rear backup camera Tatrix Cable USB Digital ATSC TV Tuner - just because, no real reason for it USB thumb drive with music MicroSD card reader, to I can copy stuff off my dash cam Side note about the Nexus 7 and polarized sunglasses. When I first used it with my sunglasses I was confused as why the screen was going completely black. Holding the table in portrait and the problem goes away, hold it landscape and it goes black. A little googling and it turns out the nexus uses a polarized screen. If the polarizing lines up with each other it blocks out the screen entirely. Solution 1 don't use polarized sunglasses. Didn't want to give mine up so, option 2. I saw some evidence that using a matte/anti-glare screen protector cancels out the polarization of the nexus. Sure enough it works perfectly. So that's option 2. There was a good chance an anti-glare screen protector would have made its way onto the tablet anyway but it is a perfect fix for polarized sunglasses. Need to buy most of what I've listed for this install. I do have the nexus though. Suggestions for power, USB hub and backup cam welcome.

Now onto a bit more interesting mods. I'll start with the fogs as they are a little more straight forward then the headlights. The fogs fit into the brackets I made with no modification and mount the same as they would have in the Ford. Only very slight modifications were made to the bumper which have no real effect on anything, you could easily go back to OEM projectors. One relief cut was made on each projector to have it fit really well in the bumper. These actually snap into the OEM tab of the bumper on one side. The bracket is then bolted to the side of the fog light tunnel which required two holes. Fogs are from a ford fusion/focus. Ballast are DDM 35 watt Bulbs are HID H11 3000K. Review of DDM products at the bottom. Now before someone goes on a rampage about HID's in fogs or HID kits in general. Research was done first and first hand experience shows that this combination works well and does not cause any issues to the user or other motorists. I unfortunately don't have any output shots right now but will update this when I do. In the meantime google has more then enough info of others who have put HIDs into these projectors. Also there is another major reason HIDs were used. They are one of the few real ways to get proper yellow light, which is why I used 3000K. I didn't want yellow fogs for looks but for function, yellow light is better in poor weather conditions which is when these are intended to be used. Painted satin black with DDM HID bulbs and ballast Designed and got cut some custom brackets for them I didn't make any major modifications to the fog lights. Just a small clearance cut on both of them. You'll also see that there isn't a right and left projector. Ford just made one so the left and right brackets aren't actually mirrors of each other. Before bracket was bent test fitting Test fitting Mounting the ballasts to the side of the bracket. This is all the modifications that were done to the bumper Mounted and bolted in. Not sure why it looks crooked here, either its not completely mounted or it just looks like it. Both projectors are definitely level because well I used a....level. Covered the holes with clear plexi-glas to protect the lens of the projector (the protective film is still one which is why its blue) Ready to be re-installed I didn't get a shot of them installed from the front yet. I'll have to wait for a nice day when the car is clean. I also have a video of how easy these are to install, for the most part I did it all with one hand, might post that at some point if there is any interest. DDM's are cheap, never used them before and would never use them in my headlights. First set I got and one of the ballast didn't work and looked like it had a obvious physical manufacturing defect. They were a pain to deal with and wouldn't send me a new ballast until I cut the wire of the malfunctioning one and sent them a picture. The ballast did somewhat work, just it would go out and flicker all the time and they were already installed in the car so cutting the wire was annoying and stupid so I sent them a terrible paintshop photo shop of the wire cut. Finally they sent a new ballast but was too late to leave feedback on ebay. Haven't had a chance to put the new ballast in yet. I guess this post also should finish off with the independent fog light mod. Took my inspiration from a couple other threads and I think after I did it this way I saw that another user here did it the same way. Either way here it is. This one does require the parking lights to be on, after thinking about having them 100% independent I realized there wasn't any scenario where I would want them one without the parking lights. Don't remember off hand the pin numbers but it should be pretty self explanatory with reading the wiring diagrams. Cut blue white wire at the relay box beside the fuse box under the dash. Tap into green white. You could actually do it even cleaner and de-pin the green white and tap into the wire closer to the pin so the blue white wire goes into the whole and you wouldn't even see the tap but I cut the blue white a bit short for that. Of course it was warped in electrical tape. Made a jumper that fits in nice and tight, this is up by the turn signal stock. Nice and clean.

Rear sub frame had a bit of surface rust so cleaned it off with a scaler and some acid then painted with POR15 The pictures of the rust is after they had the acid applied which is why it looks yellow and white Before After While I was painting my headlight parts I hit the front grill with some plasti-dip. Did a few light coats, which left just a bit of chrome coming through it. Which makes it look like the same dark grey as the rest of the grill. I was going to paint all the dark parts of the grill along with the center wing so they all matched in black but the screws for the chrome trim were rusted so I decided against it. I'm glad I did, I'm going to go with this for a bit and see how I like it. Just needed to so something to that center wing. Also installed a block heater in my H6, you can just see I painted the coolant cross over pipe also with por15