2003 EB new head unit working with steering wheel controls

[Kryo-Genik]

I havent seen this posted anywhere on the forum so I figured I'd go ahead and kinda put a little walk through type deal together to show you how to make the steering wheel controls work with a new head unit.

First off you will need an Idatalink Maestro SW unit. You can pick one up from crutchfield, amazon etc etc. Now once you have the unit create an account on the idatalink website and flash your new unit to the latest firmware and setup your buttons. Mine are setup as

The volume up button raises the volume with a press and will answer a phone call if I press and hold.
The volume down will lower the volume with a press and will hang up a call when held down.

The next button down is input change with a press and pick up a phone call when held down

Next button is change song with a press and hang up when held down

Now once you set your buttons for the way you want the things to work go ahead and flash the unit.

Once you're done with the flash it's time to get going.
Now my truck is an "early" model 2003 unit which seems to have some different wiring but this in theory should work for everyone. My truck had the regular cd stereo with the factory DVD player...which I'm working on. Anyways here is the idatalink setup screen for my truck

https://photos.app.goo.gl/svJQYR1H4VuzmYj78

Now the Idatalink I stall guide says i am to use the larger 24 pin connector they labeled "A" and i want pin 18. This is wrong. You wanna use the connector theu have labeled "B".

This is the pin you want...i inserted the pin into the correct plug as you can see here

https://photos.app.goo.gl/fToY5wCavxYdZ6SaA

https://photos.app.goo.gl/M68C9VheutbHvBHz5

https://photos.app.goo.gl/CKwgnxSuxFfoW2K18

Now once I found the correct pin i went ahead and started modding things to make my life easier. I removed the locking plate from the factory plug and pulled out that single pin.
You remove the locking plate with a small flat blade screw driver pushing up on the tabs on each side of the black plug housing, once the pin is out replace the locking plate

https://photos.app.goo.gl/J68qHRZJj8gZ6E2PA

https://photos.app.goo.gl/THqDnJbJ884f5AAKA

Now that the pin is free I decided to make my life easy here. I added that newly removed pin to the other factory plug that your stereo wiring harness plugs into, you will have ONE open port to insert the pin into. Again removing the red locking plate and inserting the pin into the plug. Once inserted replace the res locking plate

https://photos.app.goo.gl/h9t9RUuuyWsvitJb8

https://photos.app.goo.gl/7ygykrG7WzqjoMK18

https://photos.app.goo.gl/XmGKzhcUw2jKzgnM7

https://photos.app.goo.gl/DMFXcHhNtUHxbt2v7

Now that the pin is moved over you will take the stereo wiring adaptor harness that you buy with your head unit and you will see this plug

https://photos.app.goo.gl/geZj2fwzTQR6wqrj8

Well when I bought the stereo i also picked up a second harness kit that I found doesnt work. So i pulled a pinned wire out of it and added it to the wiring harness adapter as seen here it is blue with a white stripe.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/k364pN44emYkjWtA8

https://photos.app.goo.gl/wDjmLEGkp7B8W66v5

Now this pinned wire with a white stripe is soldered to the Idatalink Maestro SW's blue wire with a red stripe as seen here, you can also use a crimp to join these wires

https://photos.app.goo.gl/eDPLqk98XdnF29D86

Now we go ahead and splice the red maestro SWs wire and tie it into the red accessory wire on the adapter harness. And tie the black Maesteo SW wire to the black ground wire on the harness adapter. Sorry I didnt get a pic of this but its straight forward.

Now take the Maestro's blue wire with a yellow stripe and join it to the stereos blue wire with a yellow stripe....or whatever color yours may be.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/arcRFVqMQqDuvSYAA

Now according to Maestro SW install guide all is done and it's time to test. It.

Volume up

https://photos.app.goo.gl/DMEqWwayTmjzfvLKA

Volume down

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Lfn2dw8qjWE2i2VS7

And just because....I removed the cigarette lighter and installed a dual port USB quick charge unit to the factory spot

https://photos.app.goo.gl/bfty7vjUaGeb73kn9



Hope this somehow helps someone out here

 

[Kryo-Genik]

Here are the rest of the picture in order of the guide above

 

[Kryo-Genik]

More pics in order

 

[Kryo-Genik]

Last batch in order

 

[Aspen03]

Nice job, I'm sure it will help someone out w the early wiring. The Maestro SWI is a great and highly customizable model that's near universal and if you ever change vehicles it can likely go with you

I considered changing the lighter as well but didnt only because chargers fail on occasion and I don't want to tear the console back out to swap it so I ran my radio USB outputs into the center console, hides charging cables too. Different use case than the Kenwood 303 you have though which probably isnt as practical since you'll need physical access to the phone for certain things.

I have the same SWI in my 03. Buttons are mapped a little different but its because I'm using android auto and needed one to be the trigger for voice input because if you have the radio turned up a fair amount it doesnt always respond.

 

[Kryo-Genik]

Nice job, I'm sure it will help someone out w the early wiring. The Maestro SWI is a great and highly customizable model that's near universal and if you ever change vehicles it can likely go with you

I considered changing the lighter as well but didnt only because chargers fail on occasion and I don't want to tear the console back out to swap it so I ran my radio USB outputs into the center console, hides charging cables too. Different use case than the Kenwood 303 you have though which probably isnt as practical since you'll need physical access to the phone for certain things.

I have the same SWI in my 03. Buttons are mapped a little different but its because I'm using android auto and needed one to be the trigger for voice input because if you have the radio turned up a fair amount it doesnt always respond.

Oh thus far the maestro is an I interesting little thing so I'll play with it a little more as time goes on. I really did this because the Idatalink install guide is not right and I think it's because folks seem to think that all 03s are wired up the same when they really arent. So I just wanted to help some folks out. I've done a bunch of how tos for the Lightning community and now that I'm in the expy community as well in figure I'd help out too. I'm currently working on getting a how to together on how to wire up the factory DVD player when using a new head unit and retain your rear headphone Jack's which also have a small amplifier for volume control etc etc. So once I figure everything put and trace all of the wires between actually tearing into shit and using the factory ford wiring diagrams I got access to I hope to get other folks some help since I know this is an issue all over.

I changed the lighter out as I wanted a volt meter to monitor my charging system as well as charge my phones and stuff, with the sound system I've got in here I know I can kill things quickly. The unit I used thus far has been great I've got it wired so it runs full time and I can see my batterys level at a glance and it's great. I'm gonna add two more units to the console so those in the rear can charge as well as the passenger because let's face it there are times I've got a phone charging and my GPS going so I need more ports. Thus far I've gone a year with this unit and it's used daily and has been going strong. If it dies...no biggie the way its wired it's a 5 minute job to swap it out.

My Kenwood is a DPX793BH i can run my USBs to the console as well I instead have it in the glove box as I dont keep a ton of stuff in there and it works fine. My phone mounts to my dash surround with a niteize sterile setup....which I really like. So my phone stuff is close at hand, but i dont run android auto so a bunch of stuff I didnt need ha ha.

But I really hope someone who has this setup or a similar setup can now wire up their stuff because idatalinks site isnt right at all for my vehicle and I'm sure I'm not the only one.
However I may be the only one with the pins and stuff swapped around so everything is in one plug/harness instead of two